4-Life of Christ: His Early Years, pt1

In DAYS OF HIS FLESH, David Smith speaks of the early years of Jesus of Nazareth, Him who grew up as a normal boy, yet without sin. We don't know much about these silent years. Yet, "For 18 years He toiled with hammer and saw, knowing all the while who He was and wherefore He had come, yet hiding the wondrous secret in His breast and never, until His hour arrived, revealing it by word or sign. Nor were those silent years lost. They served in the providence of God as a preparation for the work which had been given Him to do. All the while He would be brooding over those sacred Scriptures which spake of Him, foretelling His advent and prefiguring His redemption. And He would be looking abroad, with keen eye and sympathetic heart, upon the world which He had come to save. To the unwitting fold of Nazareth, He seemed as one of themselves, but to Him they were His Father's lost children; and, as He mingled with them He would take earnest notice of them, entering into their thoughts considering their temptations, and sharing their sorrows, that, when the time should come, He might speak to them as One who knew their hearts and had understanding of their needs. Our midweek Bible study Wednesday will be part 4 in our study of "The Life of Christ" as we look at "His Early Years."