NATIVITY By Mike Herron

Chapter 14: SIMEON AND ANNA - Luke 2:21-39 (December 27 th )

xcept for the circumcision event, this story takes place in the public courts of the Temple in Jerusalem into which the women were allowed to enter. Jesus, the ‘person’ of God’s presence, was replacing the Temple, the Old Testament ‘place’ of God’s presence. A relationship with the 'Holy Spirit’ was replacing the observance of the law in the coming age of grace. 21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. During the rite of circumcision, Joseph and Mary officially declared the baby's name to be 'Jesus.' ‘If a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days…On the eighth day the boy’s foreskin must be circumcised.’ (Lev 12:2,3 NLT) This happened to Jesus ‘not as one who needed that sign for himself, but as the one who would fulfill’ 1 the demands of the law and make it unnecessary. 22 When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Joseph and Mary were fulfilling two laws at once; the purification of the mother and the dedication of a 1 st born son. ‘ After waiting thirty-three days, she will be purified from the bleeding of childbirth...’ (Lev 12:4) 40 days after the baby's birth and 33 days after his circumcision, the parents were required to offer a lamb as a burnt offering. Being too poor to purchase a lamb, Joseph