Wist Ye Not

"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2.40, KJV) says Christ to his parents after they were searching for him during three long days in Jerusalem. It is an extraordinary statement and one that confounds his parents. Indeed, they do not understand what he meant for a very long time, although they do remember the encounter.

We don't know exactly what Christ knew at the age of twelve—everything, some things? We do understand from this incident that he knew enough to confound the intellectuals with his questions, and to know that God was his father and that he must be at his father's business. Deep waters here.

NAC: "After over a decade of normalcy the supernatural nature of their son and his destiny broke in on them again."

The Purpose of Ezra

Thinking about Ezra 1.1, this morning. Ezra is quite clear about what his purpose is in the book that bears his name. He is not setting out to just recount historical events surrounding the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, as if, were he not to do so, they would be lost to history. He is writing about God moving, about God fulfilling his promise. Cyrus moved that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. This is the key point in the book of Ezra (it seems to me), against which we must set every event. Ezra's purpose is to describe how God fulfilled the prophecy that he had made through Jeremiah. Consequently, this is not a historical book per se, it is a book of promise fulfillment.