Subject: The Book Of Urantia. Part 4 of 4.
April 29, 2008.
This talks about the flight of Joseph, Mary and the
child into Eqypt.
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"9. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE"
Moses had taught the J-ws that every first-born son
belonged to the L-rd, and that, in lieu of his
sacrifice as was the custom among the heathen nations,
such a son might live provided his parents would redeem
him by the payment of five shekels to any authorized
priest. There was also a Mosaic ordinance which
directed that a mother, after the passing of a certain
period of time, should present herself (or have someone
make the proper sacrifice for her) at the temple for
purification. It was customary to perform both of these
ceremonies at the same time. Accordingly, Joseph and
Mary went up to the temple at Jerusalem in person to
present Jesus to the priests and effect his redemption
and also to make the proper sacrifice to insure Mary's
ceremonial purification from the alleged uncleanness of
childbirth.
Page 1353
There lingered constantly about the courts of the
temple two remarkable characters, Simeon a singer and
Anna a poetess. Simeon was a Judean, but Anna was a
Galilean. This couple were frequently in each other's
company, and both were intimates of the priest
Zacharias, who had confided the s-cret of John and
J--us to them. Both Simeon and Anna longed for the
coming of the M-ssiah, and their confidence in
Zacharias led them to believe that Je--s was the
expected deliverer of the J-wish people.
Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary were expected
to appear at the temple with Jes--, and he had
prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the
salute of his upraised hand, which one in the
procession of first-born children was --sus.
For this occasion Anna had written a poem which
Simeon proceeded to sing, much to the astonishment of
Joseph, Mary, and all who were assembled in the temple
courts. And this was their hymn of the redemption of
the first-born son:
Blessed be the L-rd, the G-d of Israel, For he has
visited us and wrought redemption for his people;
He has raised up a horn of salvation for all of us
In the house of his servant David.
Even as he spoke by the mouth of his h-ly prophets
Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who
hate us;
To show mercy to our fathers, and remember his holy
covenant
The oath which he swore to Abraham our father,
To grant us that we, being delivered out of the hand of
our enemies,
Should serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Yes, and you, child of promise, shall be called the
prophet of the Most High;
For you shall go before the face of the Lo-d to
establish his kingdom;
To give knowledge of s-lvation to his people
In the remission of their s-ns.
Rejoice in the tender mercy of our Go- because the
dayspring from on high has low visited us
To ****ne upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow
of d-ath;
To guide our feet into ways of peace.
And now let your servant depart in peace, O Lord,
according to your word,
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
A light for even the unveiling of the gentiles
And the glory of your people Israel.
On the way back to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary were
silent confused and overawed. Mary was much disturbed
by the farewell salutation of Anna, the aged poetess,
and Joseph was not in harmony with this premature
effort to make J--us out to be the expected Me-siah of
the J-wish people.
"10. HEROD ACTS"
But the watchers for Herod were not inactive. When
they re****ted to him the visit of the priests of Ur to
Bethlehem, Herod summoned these Chaldeans to appear
Page 1354
before him. He inquired diligently of these wise men
about the new "king of the -ews," but they gave him
little satisfaction, explaining that the babe had been
born of a woman who had come down to Bethlehem with her
husband for the census enrollment. Herod, not being
satisfied with this answer, sent them forth with a
purse and directed that they should find the child so
that he too might come and w-r****p him, since they had
declared that his kingdom was to be sp-ritual, not
tem****al. But when the wise men did not return, Herod
grew suspicious. As he turned these things over in his
mind, his informers returned and made full re****t of
the recent occurrences in the temple, bringing him a
copy of parts of the Simeon song which had been sung at
the redemption ceremonies of Je--s. But they had failed
to follow Joseph and Mary, and Herod was very angry
with them when they could not tell him whither the pair
had taken the babe. He then dispatched searchers to
locate Joseph and Mary. Knowing Herod pursued the
Nazareth family, Zacharias and Elizabeth remained away
from Bethlehem. The boy baby was se-reted with Joseph's
relatives.
Joseph was afraid to seek work, and their small
savings were rapidly disappearing. Even at the time of
the purification ceremonies at the temple, Joseph
deemed himself sufficiently poor to warrant his
offering for Mary two young pigeons as Moses had
directed for the purification of mothers among the
poor.
When, after more than a year of searching, Herod's
spies had not located Jes--, and because of the
suspicion that the babe was still concealed in
Bethlehem, he prepared an order directing that a
systematic search be made of every house in Bethlehem,
and that all boy babies under two years of age should
be k-lled. In this manner Herod hoped to make sure
that this child who was to become "king of the Je-s"
would be destroyed. And thus perished in one day
sixteen boy babies in Bethlehem of Judea. But intrigue
and m-rder, even in his own immediate family, were
common occurrences at the court of Herod.
The massacre of these infants took place about the
middle of October, 6 B.C., when --sus was a little over
one year of age. But there were believers in the coming
Mes-iah even among Herod's court attachés, and one of
these, learning of the order to s-aughter the Bethlehem
boy babies, communicated with Zacharias, who in turn
dispatched a messenger to Joseph; and the night before
the massacre Joseph and Mary departed from Bethlehem
with the babe for Alexandria in Egypt. In order to
avoid attracting attention, they journeyed alone to
Egypt with Je--s. They went to Alexandria on funds
provided by Zacharias, and there Joseph worked at his
trade while Mary and Je--s lodged with well-to-do
relatives of Joseph's family. They sojourned in
Alexandria two full years, not returning to Bethlehem
until after the de-th of Herod.
Part 4 of 4.
John Winston. johnfw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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