Triplets in Scripture reflect God’s Triune nature, as we
have seen in earlier posts. In the Old Testament, God prescribed feasts and other
patterns of worship to reflect His Trinity. Thousands of years later, New Testament worship continued to honor God’s Triune nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Worship of God the Son began when Jesus was in Mary’s womb and continued through
His infancy and early childhood.
Patterns of three continued to be evident in this early worship, in the announcements
of this amazing news, and in the circumstances
surrounding Christ’s birth.
When Jesus Christ left His heavenly throne, He wrapped Himself in flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14) so that we
could behold His glory. As foretold in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 9 23-24), man was not to
glory in his own wisdom, power, or wealth, but in God’s love,
judgment, and righteousness. In the person of Jesus Christ, and in Him alone,
were these three sources of glory fulfilled.
Before Jesus was born, three persons (Zacharias, Mary, and Joseph) crucial to His earthly life
were visited by an angel who revealed their special roles in the birth of the
Messiah. The angel Gabriel appeared to the old priest Zacharias to tell him that Elizabeth,
his barren and aged wife, would give birth to John the Baptist, who would prepare the way for the chosen Messiah
(Luke 1:7-19).
Then Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary to tell her that God had chosen her to give birth to the Savior foretold by the prophets, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:26-35). The angel of the
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him that Mary had conceived the Messiah by the Holy Spirit, and that he should marry her as planned, for Jesus would save His people from their
sins (Matthew 1:20-21).
Even before Jesus was born, the first worship service of
three congregants (Mary, Elizabeth, and John) honoring Him took place! Jesus later said that wherever two
or three were gathered in His name, God was in their midst (Matthew 18:20), and this was
literally the case on this occasion!
This happy meeting occurred when Mary arrived at the home
of her cousin Elizabeth, and the Holy Spirit allowed both women and the unborn
John the Baptist to recognize the unborn Jesus as their Lord and Savior. John
was filled with the Holy Ghost while still in Elizabeth’s womb (Luke 1:15), and when Mary entered
the room, John leaped for joy to be in the presence of Jesus! (Luke 1:41-45). At the same
moment, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she proclaimed aloud that
Mary and her unborn Babe – her Lord -- were blessed indeed.
Mary responded with a hymn of praise (known as the
Magnificat) inspired by the Holy Spirit, exalting God and His Son, the Messiah
Who would deliver them (Luke 1:46-55),
The Bible does not say that Mary sang this hymn, but because of its poetic
format, I believe it is reasonable to assume that she sang it, just as the
Psalms were sung to praise God. This first praise and worship service honoring
Jesus therefore incorporated three expressions of praise: dance, spoken praise (prayer),
and song!
At and shortly after Jesus’ birth, He was worshipped by
three groups of beings: the angels,
the shepherds, and the wise men. The glory of God lit up the heavens, the angel of the Lord announced His birth, and a multitude of angels offered sweet anthems of praise and adoration
(Luke 2:8-14).
The glory of God described here may have been one of three
reappearances of the Shekinah Glory (the glory of God that filled the Old
Testament tabernacle; Exodus 40:34-38)
surrounding the birth of Jesus. At the time of His birth, the brilliance of
God’s glory shone in the heavens
surrounding the angel of the Lord (Luke
2:9), in the star of Bethlehem
(Matthew 2:1-12) and in the person of Jesus Himself (John 1:14).
When the apostle John refers to man beholding the glory of
God dwelling among us (John 1:14),
the word for “dwell” is similar to the word in Exodus 40 referring to the tabernacle, thus strengthening
the reference to the Shekinah Glory filling
the Old Testament tabernacle and then tabernacling among us as the fully divine Man. That prophecy was foretold by Isaiah 9:2 and revealed more
completely in the Transfiguration of
Jesus (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark
9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36; 1 Peter 16:18).
The shepherds, who in that culture were considered to be
vagabonds of ill-repute, represent saved sinners who repented (abandoned what they were doing and changed their
priorities once they heard the Good News), ran
to worship Him, and witnessed to
others of what they had seen (Luke
2:15-17-18).
The wise men (Matthew
2:1-12), who were the most learned scholars of their day in the fields
of astronomy, science, and philosophy,
sought and found Truth not in their parchments
and scrolls, but in a young Child Who knew all things.
The three gifts brought by the wise men to worship and
honor Jesus were gold, frankincense, and myrrh, representing His three roles in our salvation. Gold is the
most precious metal, fit for the King of
Kings (Revelation 17:14; 19:16);
frankincense the most costly spice, suited to burn in worship of the great High Priest after the order of Melchisidec
(Hebrews 5:6, 10); and myrrh
is used to anoint the dead (John 19:39),
representing that He came to die as the perfect, sinless Sacrifice (Hebrews
10:12-14) to pay our sin debt.
Included in the wise people who worshipped the young child
Jesus were not only these kingly
scholars, but also Simeon (Luke 2: 25-35) and Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36-38), as these faithful
Jews recognized Him as the promised Messiah Who would deliver their people. May
we too have their wisdom to seek God,
find Him, and give our lives to Him!
© 2012 Laurie Collett
Reposted from the archives
