December 22
“The priest went through the ceremony of his official work. He took the child in his arms, and held it up before the altar. After handing it back to its mother, he inscribed the name "Jesus" on the roll of the first-born. Little did he think, as the babe lay in his arms, that it was the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory. The priest did not think that this babe was the One of whom Moses had written, "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you." Acts 3:22. He did not think that this babe was He whose glory Moses had asked to see. But One greater than Moses lay in the priest's arms; and when he enrolled the child's name, he was enrolling the name of One who was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. That name was to be its death warrant; for the system of sacrifices and offerings was waxing old; the type had almost reached its antitype, the shadow its substance.”
Desire of Ages, page 52 from the chapter, 'The Dedication'
You might want me to look at the ending of the Jewish economy and the end of the system of sacrifices. Not today, we look at a very simple word that is used in our passage. The word is ‘think’.
It is important to realise that words can have their meaning altered very easily. I’m going to be very selective here as I look at what ‘think’ means. Here is a very simple definition of the word; ‘to employ one's mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with a given situation. An example is: Think carefully before you begin.’ You can check up some more meanings here, but for the sake of ease please stick with my suggested meaning.
The priest who named Jesus, and took his parent’s money did not employ his mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with him being employed as a priest. He did his work, but he didn’t think about his work.
My friend Robin had a tough life. He was working as a shelf stacker for a major supermarket chain. He liked the job. What he couldn’t understand were his workmates. They never thought. They went to work, they did their jobs. They went home, slept and then came back to work in the morning. At the weekends they changed their routine. They got drunk. Robin could never understand that people could live their life without thinking.
Robin’s assessment of these people was that they made no impact on society, in fact, they might as well not exist. I can see Robin’s point. A famous philosopher wrote, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’.
The priest who took Jesus in his arms did not think, he just did his job. You might imagine that he made no impact on society.
The word ‘think’ in the passage is used in two ways. The priest did not think is one use. There is a second use. ‘Little did the priest think’.
In the previous reading I asked you to learn a text from Colossians – verses 4:1-5 and suggested you talk about the meaning with your prayer partner. Can I suggest you do something else with Colossians 4:1-5?
Think about the text. Use the definition I offered earlier, ‘employ your mind rationally and objectively evaluating the meaning of Colossians 4:1-5.
Should you and your prayer partner do that then, in theory, you will make a positive spiritual impact on the world around you – certainly more than the priest, who was remarkable because he did not think, all he did was do his job.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
