A Christmas Study-Day 3

Today I am reading Luke 3. The main focus of the chapter is John the Baptist, who is Jesus' cousin and the "voice in the wilderness" before the coming of the Lord. There was a lot here, but what I want to focus on are two things: that the One who was to come would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire; and Jesus' genealogy.

John continually focused his followers on Jesus, who was to come after him, and tailored his message to prepare the hearts of the Jews and Gentiles for repentance. The passage talks about John being asked a question by some soldiers, and we don't know if these were Roman soldiers (Gentiles) or Jewish soldiers, possibly of Herod. In any case, John is clearly emphasizing that his role is only that of a messenger, and he points to the coming Messiah as the One who can work real change and clean up everything.

Of course when Jesus is baptized, it is very clear that he is anointed by God. I would think that the sight of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending from heaven and alighting on Jesus would have been pretty spectacular for those watching, and that's not even mentioning the voice from heaven saying Jesus was His Son in whom He was well pleased!

I'm sure you're wondering why I am interested in Jesus' genealogy. Well, it's important because there are so many prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament, and they were very specific as to whose line he would be descended from. The text makes a point of saying that Jesus was supposed (i.e. assumed) to be Joseph's son, when in fact we know that he was not Joseph's biological son. However, as the firstborn, Jesus held all the rights of inheritance and such from Joseph, and also was legally viewed to be his offspring. Thus, legally, he was descended from Joseph's line. Therefore it was very important that Luke verified Jesus' lineage, to show that he did rightfully lay claim to being the "Lion of Judah" and "from the line of David".

We're coming up on Jesus' start to his ministry--stay tuned!