Jesus’ Early Years

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Feb 17, 2016 1677

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord told Joseph to take Mary and the child, Jesus, back to the land of Israel, but on the way they were warned not to go to Judea because Herod’s evil and ruthless son, Archelaus, was reigning there in his father’s place. Archelaus’s mother, Malthace, a Samaritan, like her husband, had no sympathy for Jews. At that point Joseph decided to take his family back to his home town, Nazareth (Matthew 2:19-23).

Jesus spent his formative years in both Egypt and Nazareth, growing up under the love and guidance of his godly parents.

While the common culture does have an influence upon our children, the prevailing influence in their lives is the nurture and care we give them in their formative years. Joseph and Mary provide us with a good example of the way we should raise our own children. While we cannot guarantee that our children will grow up into the kind of people we desire them to be, it is our responsibility to provide them with the tools they need to make something worthwhile of themselves.

Like Joseph and Mary we must never allow herodian barriers to keep us from our God-given task of ministering God’s love, grace and values to our children and to all we associate with. That is a task given us by the Lord; that is our commission.