These daily Advent studies are provided for your personal devotionals or for your daily family Advent devotionals during the evening meal. They are an excellent way to introduce daily Bible readings and discussions at the evening meal. Once begun during the Advent season the tradition can become a lifelong practice of your family. They seek to challenge both you and your children beyond the simplicity and often erroneous information provided in so called Advent calendars and children’s Christmas books. May you find it a blessing and may they be a starting point for your family in daily readings, discussions and meditations on the holy, eternal, inerrant written Word of God.
(T = True; F = False) According to the Bible... 37_____ In accordance with the scriptural account, “the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes…”, the baby Jesus did not cry, as many babies do, and as a result began to manifest His deity on the very first night of His birth.
38_____ At the time of Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph were married.
Answer Key
37. F – Luke 2:51 & 52; 19:41; John 11:35 (In accordance with the scriptural account, “the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes…”, the baby Jesus did not cry, as many babies do, and as a result began to manifest His deity on the very first night of His birth.) The phrase “the little Lord Jesus no crying He makes...” does not come from the Word of God but rather from Lit¬tle Child¬ren’s Book for Schools and Fam¬i¬lies, by J. C. File (Phil¬a¬del¬phia, Penn-syl¬van¬ia: Evan¬gel¬ic¬al Lu¬ther¬an Church in North Amer¬i¬ca, 1885). The author of this song is unknown. John T. Mcfarland later added a third verse, but the author who penned the memorable, yet erroneous phrase, “no crying He makes” is unknown.
Except for two events, the Bible is completely silent about the specifics of Jesus’ life from the period birth to the beginning of His earthly ministry as an adult. The two exceptions are, First: His dedication at the Temple (Luke 2:1 – 39) and later the incident at the temple when He was 12. (Luke 2:41 – 52). Beyond these two events, all that God the Holy Spirit reveals to us about Jesus is given in broad generalities. We know that... He lived in subjection to His parents and grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man. (Luke 2:51 & 52) He experienced all the temptations of childhood, yet lived a sinless life. (Hebrews 2:14 – 18; 4:15) As God incarnate He did not become God by not sinning but rather did not sin because He was God. We also know that in His adult life He cried on more than one occasion (Luke 19:41 & John 11:35) and there is no reason to believe He did not cry as a baby. There is no Biblical teaching that it is sin for babies to cry. We do know that Christ was sinless (Hebrews 4:15) and as a result, since Jesus did cry and yet did not sin, crying can take place without there being sin. From these passages we may affirm that any crying Jesus did as a baby would be communication or sorrow, but never temper tantrums, sinful anger or selfishness.
All mythological stories concerning Jesus’ childhood and mythical miracles associated with Jesus, Joseph or Mary during his childhood years should be categorically rejected. In His adult ministry Jesus condemned, in Mark 7:8, those who were overly fond of myths and apocryphal sayings with His rebuke “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." Again God the Holy Spirit warns us in I Timothy 4:7 “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. ...” We should be careful not to be found in this class of people – those who stray from the exacting Word of God and into myths and fables. Where the Bible is silent, we too should be silent (Deuteronomy 29:29) and reject all myths and traditions as handed down by man and not God.
38. F - Luke 2:4 & 5; Matthew 1:18 & 25 (At the time of Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph were married.) At the time of Mary’s Immaculate Conception Joseph and Mary were engaged, or betrothed to one another. Matthew 1:18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” Although stronger and more binding than the engagements of our culture, never-the-less it was not marriage. Joseph had not yet finalized the engagement or betrothal. (Matthew 1:20 “But when he had considered this, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”) As such, in terms of marriage, both in the eyes of the law and of the Jews, Mary was a single mother.
It must be emphasized, though, that she was not an unwed mother. She was a virgin mother, which is completely different from an unwed mother. A virgin mother is a state of special grace, while an unwed mother carries the stigma of the sin. In the of adultery or fornication both the mother and the father carry this stigma. In the case of rape, the mother is free from any guilt or stigma, yet sin is still present - though not associated with the mother but rather the male rapist. No sin was involved in Mary’s pregnancy, neither on the part of Mary nor on the part of Joseph, nor on the part of any other male. - Matthew 1:18 states clearly that Mary became pregnant during the betrothal period, e.g., their engagement before any sexual activity had taken place between Joseph and Mary. - Luke 2:4 & 5 states that at the time that Joseph and Mary went to be registered they were still engaged. - Matthew 1:24 & 25 clearly states that Joseph took Mary as his wife. This reading does not necessitate that the wedding was immediately after he arose. Rather, he made his intentions clear to all and did indeed follow through and at some point married Mary. She was to be made his wife and Joseph did fulfill his word and take her as his wife. He may have wakened the family and made his honorable intentions immediately known but the actual wedding did not take place till after the birth of Jesus. - Luke 2:4 & 5 places the date of the official marriage after the birth. (Luke 2:4-6 “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register, along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.”) - It is important that Mary was a virgin at the birth of Jesus and not just His conception because of prophetic Scripture. Isaiah 7:14 clearly states, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” - Joseph did indeed marry Mary at some point for in the lineage of Matthew 1:16 he is referred to as “Joseph the husband of Mary” but he kept Mary as a virgin until after the birth of Christ and then at some point after the birth of Jesus they were married.
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