Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (2) looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
In everything we do we should always look at our Lord Jesus as our ultimate example that we should follow. The Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that we should look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In other words Jesus is our example, and we should live our lives as He did when He was on the earth, which would include the area of prosperity. We have already established that it is the will of God our Father that we walk in prosperity. And so if Jesus walked in God’s perfect will, then He must have experienced God’s prosperity being made manifest in and through His life. Therefore in this section we want to look at accounts in scripture that will reveal to us just how Jesus walked in this area.
Matthew 2:1-11 “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, (2) saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." … (11) And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
Many, who teach the “prosperity gospel” to the extreme, quote the above passage of scripture to prove that Jesus was born into a wealthy home. They do so by claiming that the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that were brought by the wise men from the east was God’s supernatural provision for His Son, which amounted to a substantial sum of money. I have heard one very well-known preacher on TV estimating the value of gifts given, at being equal to the staggering amount of forty million dollars, because the wise men apparently arrived with a camel train load of gifts for the Lord. Clearly the imagination of the carnal mind knows no limits when it comes to the desire for riches.
Luke 2:21-24 “And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. (22) Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (23) (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), (24) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
So what does the bible actually teach us regarding this incident? The wise men from the east had come to see our Lord Jesus while He was still in the town of Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary remained in Bethlehem after Jesus was born while they waited for the days of Mary’s purification according to the Law of Moses to be completed, which was a period of forty days. After those days were fulfilled Joseph and Mary then took our Lord Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him to God the Father. At the same time Mary was required to offer a cleansing sacrifice for herself in the temple, which was the sacrifice referred to in the above quoted passage of scripture. It is this sacrifice that gives us insight into the financial status of Joseph and Mary at the time, for this was after they had received the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the wise men. The Holy Spirit in this passage of scripture, records that they offered a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
Leviticus 12:1-7 “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, (2) "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. (3) And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. (4) She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. … (6) 'When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. (7) Then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.”
The above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that the offering that God required from Mary, was that she was to bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering. And yet we have seen in the account in Luke’s gospel that Mary and Joseph offered a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. So why did they not offer the sacrifice that God required? The answer to that question lies in the following passage of scripture.
Leviticus 12:8 “'And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons--one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So, the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'”
And so we can see that in the Law of Moses, for those who could not afford to offer a lamb (Leviticus 14:21-22), God had made provision for them to offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons instead, and that offering would be acceptable to the Lord. Joseph and Mary obviously could not afford to offer a lamb to the Lord, and so they presented the offering that they could afford, which clearly reveals to us that Joseph and Mary were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, and that the gifts that the wise men brought would have been only token in nature. And so we can see from scripture that our Lord Jesus was not born into a wealthy home as some would have us to believe.
Mark 6:3 “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" So, they were offended at Him.”
Before the baptism of John, the scriptures are silent on most of Jesus life on the earth. We have the account of our Lord’s birth and the incident that occurred when He was twelve years old, but other than that we are not told very much else. Nevertheless there is some information that the Holy Spirit imparts to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, which gives us a bit of insight into our Lord’s life before He began His public ministry. The context of this passage is that Jesus had gone back to His hometown of Nazareth where He had grown up, and He preached in the local synagogue for the first time. From this passage we see that Jesus grew up in a relatively large home, for He had seven siblings. But we also see that Jesus had worked with his father Joseph in the family’s carpentry business. We know that Jesus would have excelled in that trade, for the scripture tells us that Jesus did all things well (Mark 7:37). And so there is no reason to believe that the family business would not have been blessed by the Lord and prosperous. But even though the family business must have prospered, Nazareth was not a very large town and so the business would have only generated sufficient revenue for the Lord’s family to live a relatively comfortable lifestyle, nothing more. And this agrees with what God had promised to provide for the children of Israel.
Michael E.B. Maher
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