Births
As I begin my chronological journey through the New Testament I am quickly greeted by the foretelling and births of John the Baptist and Jesus (found in the first two chapters of Luke). Two things stick out for me:
- Both were named not at birth, but on the eighth day when each was circumcised. Of course, both names were foretold by an angel prior to conception (and neighbors and family members even assumed John would be called Zechariah after his father), but neither name was officially assigned by the parents until the eighth day. What significance does this have? Especially in a time when the meaning of a name was of a great deal more importance than it is today. What if we took this opportunity today? What if we gave ourselves a week and a day to get to know our newborn – to find a fitting and truly meaningful name?
- It was also the tradition of the Jews to set aside the firstborn son as holy to the Lord. We see this in the case of Jesus, and I would assume is the same for John (unless being a Levite altered this – but I’m not readily finding anything supporting such an alteration). What does it mean to be set aside “holy to the Lord”? This must differ in some way from the Levites being set aside for service to the Lord. So what does this look like? And how does it play out today? As the firstborn male in my family, how is my roll (in relation to God) different from that of my siblings?
Two interesting topics that stuck out for me. Any insight?
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