Chapter 7: As a Child

Chapter 7: As a Child

Wonderful in its significance is the brief record of His early life: "The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him." In the sunlight of His Father's countenance, Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Luke 2:52.
--Yet His character was beautiful in its symmetry.
--The powers of mind and body developed gradually, in keeping with the laws of childhood.
*True education would lead the youth to "seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him." Acts 17:27.
--The question asked during the Savior's ministry, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" (John 7:15) does not indicate that Jesus was unable to read, but merely that He had not received a rabbinical education.
--From His earliest years He was possessed of one purpose; He lived to bless others.
--Continually He was seeking to draw from things seen illustrations by which to present the living oracles of God.

--Yet He was not exempt from temptation. The inhabitants of Nazareth were proverbial for their wickedness. The low estimate in which they were generally held is shown by Nathanael's question, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" John 1:46.

 --Jesus was placed where His character would be tested.-- 

Christ was the only sinless one who ever dwelt on earth; yet for nearly thirty years He lived among the wicked inhabitants of Nazareth.
--He learned a trade, and with His own hands worked in the

carpenter's shop with Joseph. By His own example He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be performed with exactness and thoroughness, and that such labor is honorable.
--Jesus is our example. During all the years of His stay in Nazareth, He made no exhibition of His miraculous power. He sought no high position and assumed no titles. His quiet and simple life, and even the silence of the Scriptures concerning His early years, teach an important lesson. The more quiet and simple the life of the child,—the more free from artificial excitement, and the more in harmony with nature,—the more favorable is it to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength.
--And every youth who follows Christ's example of faithfulness and obedience in His lowly home may claim those words spoken of Him by the Father through the Holy Spirit, 

"Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; 

Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth." 

Isaiah 42:1.