I’m visiting Israel at the end of October 2022 with a church tour group. I am meditating on the cities we’re going to so I can grasp something of the history of the place. We are starting at Joppa, next to Tel Aviv, and making a circuit counterclockwise around the land, ending at Jerusalem. Here is one meditation.
NAZARETH was the obscure hometown of Mary the mother of Jesus, and Joseph’s city (Luke 2:39). Jesus grew up there (Luke 4:16). Though far out in the boondocks, it was not hidden from God. To this small town came an angel to young Mary to bring unusual tidings of a virgin birth (Matthew 1, Luke 1).
Though the town was last on the list of the Jews’ 50 Best Places to Visit, yet it was a town of momentous milestones. It was the place where God chose to break His 400 years of silence to a Jewish nation. To a Nazarene woman was given the news that a child would be born, unto her a Son would be given, that she would bear in her womb none other than the Son of God, the Messiah and Savior of the world. All delivered in dramatic fashion by an angel of God. This was just the beginning of several movements of God to shepherd the baby through His early years.
Nathaniel asked if anything good can come out of Nazareth (John 1:46), so it’s probably a town people avoided. That may be why Joseph took his family there instead of Bethlehem when they were told it was safe to return from Egypt where they had fled (Matthew 2:20). A wicked ruler was governing the lower part of the country (Matthew 2:22-23), so the upper country was safer, in a town off the beaten path. Nobody would look there.
Chances are, nobody would look at Mary either. Yet based on her spoken response to the angel’s message and the words of her Magnificat with Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-55), Mary had used her time wisely where she was to absorb the things of God and walk before Him as His holy child.
We can do the same. In Revelation 2-3, Christ challenges the Christians to overcome while in the midst of a problematic community, to remain unspotted by the community’s stains. The promises for the overcomers were extravagant, but all in keeping with the God grace.
Quite a few small, isolated towns are dying due to an exodus of the younger generation. But while Jesus remained in poor Nazareth, He grew in wisdom and stature with God and man. Wherever one’s heart is open for the Lord to mold and shape, there is great opportunity for growth in the ways that really matter.
