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From Heaven With Love
rites of the paschal service. Day by day He saw their meaning more
clearly. Every act seemed bound up with His own life. New impulses
were awakening within Him. Silent and absorbed, He seemed to
be studying out a great problem. The mystery of His mission was
opening to the Saviour.
Rapt in contemplation of these scenes, when the paschal services
ended, He lingered in the temple courts, and when the worshipers
departed from Jerusalem, He was left behind.
In this visit the parents of Jesus wished to bring Him in connec-
tion with the great teachers in Israel. They hoped He might be led
to reverence the learned rabbis, and give more heed to their require-
ments. But Jesus in the temple had been taught by God. That which
He had received, He began at once to impart.
An apartment connected with the temple was devoted to a sacred
school. Here the child Jesus came, seating Himself at the feet of
the learned rabbis. As one seeking for wisdom, He questioned these
teachers in regard to the prophecies and to events then taking place
that pointed to the advent of the Messiah.
His questions suggested deep truths, long obscured, which were
vital to salvation. While showing how narrow and superficial was the
wisdom of the wise men, every question placed truth in a new aspect.
The rabbis spoke of the wonderful elevation which the Messiah’s
coming would bring to the Jews; but Jesus presented the prophecy
of Isaiah and asked the meaning of those scriptures that point to the
suffering and death of the Lamb of God. See
Isaiah 53
.
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The doctors turned on Him with questions and were amazed at
His answers. With the humility of a child He gave the words of
Scripture a depth of meaning that the wise men had not conceived
of. If followed, the lines of truth He pointed out would have worked
a reformation in the religion of the day; and when Jesus began His
ministry, many would have been prepared to receive Him.
In this thoughtful Galilean boy the rabbis discerned great
promise. They wanted to have charge of His education; a mind
so original must be brought under their molding.
The words of Jesus moved their hearts as they had never be-
fore been moved by words from human lips. God was seeking to
give light to those leaders. If Jesus had appeared to be trying to
teach them, they would have disdained to listen. But they flattered