One of the joys and hazards of hearing Pastor Sam preach is that he has this habit of saying something profound; something you've heard or read before, but somehow you never realized the implications- that is, until you've heard him say it from the pulpit. Somehow the Spirit of God enlightens our understanding and we are astounded.
This past Sunday's sermon contained a few of those "aha" moments. One of those moments revolved around Leviticus 12:1-3. In his reflection on the process of birth and baby dedications in the culture of ancient Israel, Pastor Sam mentioned in passing a couple of numbers inherent in the birth of a male child: 7 days of being ceremonially unclean, and an additional 33 days for purification.
Let's see... yes, that would be forty days. And it was at this point in the sermon that I had to reach for my virtual oxygen tank, because our senior pastor had gone to the bottom of the ocean. I mean, deep.
Who knew? I mean, we all know about the 40 days and nights of rain in Noah's time... the 40 years of ancient Israel's wandering in the desert... the 40 days that Elijah fasted (apparently on two occasions, but we'll deal with that theory some other time)... and all along, right in front of us but somehow unseen, we have Jesus. Not the adult Jesus fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, but the infant Jesus in a 40-day waiting period, because his mother could not enter the temple courts until she had observed the 40 day waiting period required under Jewish law.
And as some of us know, interesting things happen when we have been waiting on something for 40 days. Mary and Joseph got a taste of the incredible when, after the forty days were finished, they went to the temple and met two senior citizens- one man and one woman who waxed prophetic and who said some amazing things about the son who was their Lord. We'll take a look at them tomorrow.
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