Hey there everybody, here we are again.
This is going to be our Christmas episode.
I'm Scott Durfey, I've got Uncle David here as always.
This has just been a wonderful experience, Dave, as we've gone through the last several
months.
We're doing this endeavor, this project at Easter, and here it is Christmas.
There seems to be some appropriateness there.
We started it on Easter, maybe we should end it on Christmas, huh?
Yeah, I think in the end.
The beginning and the end.
Make the beginning the end that way though.
The book ends.
But anyway, Scott, it's such a great time of the year and to have the Christmas songs
we sing.
I wish there was a little more Christ-centered songs on some of the television shows I'm
watching.
It just seems to me, and I may be totally wrong about this, but it just seems to me that some
of the Christmas shows I watch, which I love to watch.
I love the Christmas music and the festivity and the celebration of this amazing season.
But it just seems like to me, for whatever reason, there's less and less old holy nights
and silent nights and Christmas songs that are celebrating Jesus Christ on some of the
shows that I'm watching and some of the, anyway, some of the stuff that I hear.
But I just hope that we, all of us, you and me and all of our listeners, that we can celebrate
Christmas with Christ as the center of everything that we do, every symbol we look at, which
we discussed last week.
And as we really contemplate, you know, I used to, when I was a young dad, we kind of
started a tradition at my family that I would get all, I'd wake up the kids and they'd
want to know, of course, if Santa Claus came, that'd be the first thing.
And I would say, you got to go in, you got to go in, mom and dad, and sit on the bed.
And even when they were little, they would have to go sit on the bed and I'd have to
read them some scriptures.
On Christmas morning.
Before we could, we'd have to read the scriptures and say a family prayer before we went down
to check on Santa Claus.
And it used to be kind of, it was sweet, but it was kind of funny to me, because they were
so anxious and I understood all that.
But it was just, I thought it was important that we started Christmas morning out, you
know, just, just contemplating for, if just a short time, a few moments, you know, what
it was all about.
And it's just so easy to, to skip that.
And it takes such little effort really to remember it, but it, it has to be kind of
planned and it has, you have to be kind of focused on it.
But if, if we are, there's, I don't know, just a powerful spirit that we can feel, not
just in the joy, in the peace, and the reason of the season, but literally spirit, Holy
Ghost bearing witness that these events occurred, that this is actually, these are historical,
factual events.
And those are some of the things I'd like to discuss today.
Yeah, that's gonna, and it'll be great to do that.
Last week we did talk about the symbols of Christmas.
Encourage you, if you haven't already, to go back and listen to that one as well.
We had a lot of fun, I think.
I was listening to it yesterday before we published it this morning.
And I just, that was a, for me, a fun episode where we could talk about things that were
really important.
Today we're gonna do kind of the same thing.
You talked about having your kids come in and sit on the bed before they get to go.
I wonder how many of them were like, oh my gosh, let's just get into Santa Claus.
Oh, they were for sure.
But you know, I could see it in their faces.
You know, they're going, oh no, come on, man.
Yeah, exactly.
I just got back from Orlando where I was working this week.
And while I was there, I was talking to somebody, and I just wish I could remember who and all
the details.
It was such a crazy week, but they were telling a similar story, but in their family, rather
than read a scripture and all that, I don't even know if these people, in fact, I know
they're not LBS, but it was a husband and wife, and they were telling, actually, and
they were telling me that one of the things that they do for Christmas is that they open
their gifts.
And then at the end of that period, which seemed foreign to me, when I was growing up,
Santa Claus didn't wrap the presents in my home.
They were just out.
And then when I got married to Deb, man, that changed, you know?
Santa Claus wraps everything now.
And I think that's how it was in this family so they go around, they open all their gifts
and so on.
And then when they were done, they get to go around and each person talks about what
gift they're giving to Jesus this year.
And I said, well, give me some examples of what some of those gifts might be.
And they said, it's everything from the silly for the little ones to the sublime for those
that are more thoughtful.
And the dad said, I remember one year when their son, I think he said he was just a young
teenager, I would guess 13 or 14, said, I'm going to give Jesus the gift of love this
year.
And the dad said, well, what do you mean by that?
And he says, I'm going to just be kinder.
For this year, I'm going to be kinder.
I'm going to show more love to the people I'm around.
Apparently, this kid was kind of popular and an athlete and stuff like that.
And he says, I'm going to be kinder to the kid, get to the people at school and those
kinds of things.
So I think that, you know, that gave me, I was thinking about that all morning long.
Very early, I got on an airplane at 3 AM Utah time to come home in time for church Sunday.
And I thought about that the whole time.
What gift?
I think that's kind of how we ended.
Our last podcast was to invite everybody to consider a gift or a sacrifice that we can
make or give to Jesus this year.
And, you know, I think we suggested, I love whenever I think about what can I give Jesus.
I think what sins can I give Jesus.
Me too.
I haven't always.
Being a nice father.
I will give away all my sins to know the, and again, what's strange about that to me
is to give him sin.
Yeah.
I see you.
To give, to give Jesus the sinless one, our sins.
There's so much irony in that.
And yet that's, I think that's maybe one of the most special, precious, desired gifts he
wants from us.
If we would give him nothing more than that, nothing would make him happier.
Then his suffering would not be in vain.
There you go.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
True.
Well, let's talk about the first Christmas, shall we?
Yeah.
Yeah, let's jump in, Scott.
So before we talk about the events of that, of that special time, it's, it's awesome to
just contemplate all of the prophecies that were made by Old Testament prophets, Book
of Mormon prophets, and prophets that maybe we don't even have a written record of, that
everything looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the anointed one, and that all
the prophets knew of it.
Even Adam, even Adam, it was, even in the Garden of Eden, when Elohim says, you know,
to Satan, that you'll have power to bruise his heel, but he will have power to crush
thy head is a something of a prophecy that it would be Jesus, the coming of Jesus, and
the atonement of Jesus that would put down death and sin and Satan.
So even from Adam, even before he left the Garden of Eden, to the time that Jesus was
born, all prophets testified and all scriptures pointed towards the birth of Jesus.
Now I think a few of my favorite, besides of course Isaiah 9 and others, you know, were
the, the, whenever I think about that, I think of Handel's Messiah.
By the way, it was so cool.
I love that story about the writing.
I don't know if you know about it, Scott, but the miracle really that the writing of
Handel was that they did that in such, he did that in such a short time, like weeks,
that he puts together this whole opera of, of the Messiah.
And when I was in London, the one thing I wanted to see, you know, when I, when I went
to London and I went to the Westminster Abbey was, I knew the Handel was buried there and
I wanted to see Handel's grave and memorial and, and much of his, that oratorium comes
from, of course, Isaiah and the prophecies of Isaiah.
But I love the Book of Mormon prophecies of the birth and I think this is maybe the Scripture
I read to my kids most of, most of the years when they would go get on the bed before we
went downstairs to see if Santa Claus came.
It was, it's in Alma chapter seven and Alma is prophesying of the coming of Jesus in the
first Christmas and I love this verse, verse seven, Alma seven, seven, for behold, I say
unto you, there be many things to come.
You know, this is what a hundred and something BC, many things to come and behold, there
is one thing which is of more importance than they all.
For behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people.
Well, of all the things Alma says, of all the things that are to come, the thing that
is of most importance is the coming of the Redeemer.
And of course, he would have not only been thinking of his birth, but his life, his sinless
life and, and his atonement.
And then down in verse 10, the prophecy continues and gets pretty specific and it's amazing
to think of, of how specific these prophets, the knowledge that they received concerning
the birth and the events.
In verse 10, it says, and behold, he shall be born of Mary.
So Alma, hundreds of years before knew that Mary would be the mother of Jesus, Mary at
Jerusalem, which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen
vessel who shall be overshadowed and conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost and bring forth
the Son, yea, even the Son of God.
Little more, just another witness and more evidence of how maybe Mary conceived by the
power of the Holy Ghost.
That's one of my favorite prophecies.
So I also love Nephi, 600, almost 600 BC.
Even before they arrived in the Promised Land, Nephi has this vision.
I think Lehi probably had it as well.
And he sees the condescension of God, an angel walks him through it.
This is in 1 Nephi chapter 11.
And he sees Nazareth and verse 13, well, let's start with maybe verse 12.
And it came to pass that he said unto me, Look, and I looked as if to look upon him, and I
saw him not, for he had gone before my presence.
That's the Holy Ghost that is speaking to him.
And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem and also other
cities.
And I beheld the city of Nazareth, and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and
she was exceedingly fair and white.
And it came to pass I saw the heavens open, and an angel came down and stood before me,
and he said unto me, Nephi, what beholdest thou?
And I said unto him a virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.
And he said unto me, Knowest thou the condescension of God?
And that's when we get this great verse in verse 17.
And Nephi answers to the question, Do you know the condescension of God, that God came
down to be man?
And Nephi says, I said unto him, I know that he loved with his children.
Nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things.
We quote that scripture so much, and this is the context of it, is the angel asking
him, Do you know what the condescension of God and the birth of Jesus is really all about?
And Nephi humbly answers, Well, I don't know everything, but I know God loves me.
And he said unto me, Behold the virgin whom thou seest, is the mother of the Son of God,
after the manner of the flesh.
And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit.
And after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time, the angel
said unto me, Look, and I looked.
And beheld the virgin, again bearing a child in her arms, verse 21, last verse, and the
angel said unto me, Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father,
exclamation mark, knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?
So that's an amazing, amazing prophecy, and we also have the prophecy of Abinadi, in the
Book of Mormon of the birth, and we have the prophecy of Samuel the lame and I, we have
the prophecy of King Benjamin, King Benjamin has an angel walk him through that.
So we have so many, many witnesses, even before Jesus was born, Scott.
Yeah, a different level of faith.
We talked about that a couple episodes ago, that you know, that's just a different level
of faith that they had, you know.
We can look back and there's some historical record, right?
And nonetheless, we need faith, but that's a different level of faith that they had,
and I love those.
But they could see it with an eye of faith.
And that gave them hope, and that helped establish the church there based on that same faith
that we have in Jesus Christ.
And wouldn't it be powerful, in fact, I give patriarchal blessings Sunday, and Scott, the
second coming comes up, you know, frequently, not always, but frequently, giving patriarchal
blessings to the youth in this time that we live.
And honestly, when that does come up, it's like I can see it happen.
You know, this individual will introduce his family to the Savior, and a few weeks ago,
I gave a blessing that this girl would feel the Prince.
And it's kind of like when I pronounce those blessings upon these youth.
It's like I can see it.
And I wonder if all of us could maybe receive that gift and that vision, something of a vision,
to be able with an eye of faith to see the second coming of Jesus Christ, which is Scott
even more prophesied in the scriptures than the first coming or the birth of Jesus, many
times as the birth is prophesied of.
The second coming is the most prophesied event in all the standard works.
And we need to look forward with faith, as these prophets who prophesied of Christmas,
the birth of Jesus, we need to look forward with faith, the same level of faith they had
towards the second coming of Jesus.
So before I forget to say that, as we talk about the first Christmas and the faith these
people had, we need to exercise and increase our faith to be prepared for the second coming
as well.
Well, and they provide a pattern for us on how to do that.
Yeah.
The prophet is there and the prophets providing the prophecy.
And those who are members, covenant members and others are those who are exercising faith
in the name of Jesus Christ that these things will indeed come to pass.
And that pattern stands for us today.
We enter into covenants, we receive the prophecies and the direction at conference and at other
times from our apostles and prophets and very much the same.
But the patterns there and if we do what they did, then we will have potentially the same
experience that they have had.
True.
Well, as we begin the events of the first Christmas, Scott, there's many things about
this story that are not essential to our salvation and that people can have their own opinion
about in regards to how some of these things went down.
You can kind of have your own little idea or perspective and we don't have to be totally
unified on that.
And I'll share a few, maybe that individuals haven't heard of before today.
But there are a few that are absolutely essential to our salvation.
And those have to be rock solid on, I think, at least two things.
Number one, this was a virgin birth that somehow being overshadowed, Mary conceived by the
power of the Holy Ghost.
I don't know what that means.
Frankly, we don't need to know what that means.
Heavenly Father is never going to tell us how that happened.
It's just too sacred.
That's what we know about it.
And it's really important we understand this, that Jesus is, this is the second thing, the
literal son of the Father, Elohim, that he is the Son of God.
We cannot compromise or really doubt that in order to obtain salvation, to have the
faith in Jesus that we need to have to be redeemed.
So as we talk about some of the events, a lot of these things are a little bit, we know
something but we don't know everything.
And so as we kind of walk through this, I'll share different ideas about it.
But just again, the testimony that Jesus was born of a virgin and that his Father was
God, our Heavenly Father.
So with that, let's begin.
One of the things that we don't know about, you can have your own opinion about first
off is when was Jesus born?
And we celebrated the 25th of December and there are many who speculate, who say that
that began in the fourth century, that the date was somehow changed in the 300s AD and
that may be true, that may not be true.
Jeff Chadwick wrote an amazing article, BYU studies years ago, about, he believes and
has evidence that December 25th was probably really close to when Jesus was born and that
may be true.
But I mean myself, I will never forget Elder Bednar in April of 2014 made this statement,
may each of us do and become better through the Savior's Atonement than he says in his
conference address.
Today is April 6th.
We know by revelation that today is the actual and accurate date of the Savior's birth.
April 6th also is the day on which the Church of Jesus Christ, Fla.
St.
St..
St.
Dr.
A.
D.
St.
R.
and Gordon B. Hinckley as also saying that,
that they believed that.
Well, I'm going to just say that's good enough for me.
Yeah, me too.
I don't know when he was born.
Yeah.
Some people think that he was born
during the Feast of the Trumpets,
which would put it in October.
You can have your three opinions.
Do you believe he was born in April?
Do you believe he was born in October
during the Feast of the Trumpets,
or do you believe he was born during,
in December, end of the year, Christmas?
I'm fine with any of those,
but because of this statement by a prophet,
and other statements by prophets,
I'm going to go with this.
So if we begin with the idea
that Jesus was born on April 6th,
then the story of the first Christmas
really begins in February,
the year before Jesus was born.
When Zacharias, the husband of Elizabeth,
the father of John the Baptist,
goes to the temple early in the morning.
Lots have been drawn,
and there are thousands and thousands of priests
at the temple during this time of Jerusalem.
You're lucky if you get to draw a lot,
participate in these ordinances.
And Zacharias draws the lot
that he gets to light the incense and burn the incense.
And the tradition was that every morning
and every evening,
according to as they were commanded in Exodus,
at one of the tabernacles,
they would go in every morning, every evening,
three of the priests would go in,
priests of Aaron, and they would go in
and they would prepare the inside of the temple,
and they would light the candle,
and they'd clean the altar,
and they had some duties to do.
And so these three priests went in,
Zacharias, one of the three,
and he had the most special sacred responsibility,
which was to light the incense,
which was the essence of worship to these Israelites,
that burning incense was the smoke,
the sweet savor, rising up to God.
People can't see my hand gestures right now,
on the path, but yes.
Like a cloud, like a cloud, the holy cloud,
rising up to God.
Yeah, carrying their devotion,
carrying their commitment,
and their prayers,
and their prayers, that's right.
And their prayers to God.
That was the essence of burning the incense.
And the priests that did that
would pray.
And so Zacharias was praying for all of Israel this morning,
that he was there.
And I think he would have prayed, of course,
for the coming of the Messiah.
And he would have prayed, perhaps, a personal prayer,
even though they were in their old age.
I think he still was hoping,
for it may be Elizabeth's sake alone,
that they would have a son.
And when he prays this prayer,
an angel appears, identifying himself as Gabriel.
So this is the first appearance of Gabriel in the story.
And Gabriel tells him who he is, identifies himself,
and tells him that he and Elizabeth will have a son.
And so they're in their 80s, yeah?
We don't know how old.
We don't know.
Exactly, but they're old.
Yeah, okay.
Okay, they're old.
So that could be really the life expectancy
at this time in Jerusalem is only like in the 40s.
Oh, okay.
So I think they're like in their 30s or 40s.
Gotcha, okay.
But that's old.
She's barren and they're getting old.
And maybe they're older, maybe they're 50, 60, 70s,
who knows.
And so Gabriel appears and was filled with the Holy Ghost
when this happens and it takes a little longer
and people are getting a little anxious on the outside
because the Israelites, good Jewish people
who go to the temple every morning and every evening,
face the temple and they pray
and they're out there kneeling down praying
and it's taking them to Zacharias a little longer to come.
And after Zacharias has this experience,
he has a little conversation with Gabriel and he says,
how shall I know that these things will come to pass?
He has some doubts about this a little bit.
And he says, how shall I know?
And Zacharias says, cause you'll be dumb,
you can't speak, you won't be able to speak.
And he loses his ability to speak.
And he can't speak until after John is born and is named,
then he gets his speech back nine months later
or nine months in a few days or weeks.
But after he has that conversation,
which takes a little time, he goes out
and they're all kind of anxious.
And he's supposed to recite a prayer
from the book of numbers and he can't recite it.
And so he, I don't know what would have happened there.
We don't have a record, but I think he probably
looked at one of the other priests to recite the prayer
for the Israelites to end this kind of morning worship service.
And he goes home and he tells, somehow communicates,
doesn't tell her, but he communicates to her writing
her other means.
Hey, Elizabeth, you're gonna have a child.
And Elizabeth conceives and she's going to have a baby
and the scriptures record that she leaves for five months.
She goes to just kind of be alone and to ponder.
And then she comes back, you know, six months later.
And about that same time, there's a sweet young woman
engaged in betrothed.
Cousin.
Cousin, which the Greek word for cousin means relative,
really.
So we don't know really how they were related.
Could have been a cousin, probably was a cousin,
could have been an aunt.
I kind of think that maybe she was an aunt to Mary
because we don't have any record of Mary's mother.
And a lot of biblical scholars believe that the Mary's
mother's probably passed on, that she's died.
I mean, just culturally think about this for a minute.
They didn't have any medicine.
They had bad water, dirty water.
They didn't have clean water, clean food, no doctors,
or medicines like we do.
I mean, really, there were a lot of people who died early.
And if you made it past 40, you were old.
So I don't know.
That could be true that Mary's mother has passed.
And maybe Elizabeth is a sister to Mary's mother
or some relative of Mary, maybe cousin.
But Mary is a teenager, Scott, when this happens.
Betrothed to Joseph, they would have, who knows,
but there's kind of three parts of a Jewish marriage.
The arrangement of the fathers who arranged the marriage
that my son will marry your daughter
and they discuss the exchange of what that will be like
and dowry's and all of that.
And that's the engagement.
And that can happen when they're kids,
when they're young kids, elementary age.
Years in advance, right?
We don't know.
Yeah, but that's when they become engaged.
And there's something of a contract with that.
And then they become betrothed.
Within about a year of marriageable age,
they become betrothed.
And we believe that Mary and Joseph were betrothed
that they had actually met together under the canopy,
the marriage canopy.
And it's like a marriage, except they're not living together
where they meet under the marriage canopy
and they make promises to each other,
the contractual covenant promises.
And we believe that's where they were at
in their relationship.
So they're in the second stage.
And then after about a year after the betrothal,
after the man has, the young man,
both probably teenagers, by the way,
after he has made arrangements for a home,
place to live and she's made arrangements,
got all that she needs to prepare
for a marriage and a family,
then he'll show up one day,
like kind of in the parable of the 10 virgins,
he'll show up, there'll be a wedding party
and he'll pick her up in his arms
and carry her back to their home.
There'll be this huge party
and final consummation of the marriage.
Well, she's betrothed and probably,
I think of her as being 15 years old or thereabouts.
And Gabriel appears to her and he identifies himself
and he says, I'd just like to read it, I think.
In fact, what, do you have it, Scott?
In Luke chapter one, beginning with about,
start with verse 26.
Then it starts out in the sixth month,
meaning the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
So Elizabeth is pregnant with John
and has been pregnant for six months.
That's where we begin, verse 26.
Luke one, 26.
And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent
from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph
of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in under her and said,
thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee,
blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying
and cashed in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be.
And the angel said under her fear not, Mary,
for thou hast found favor with God.
Maybe just pause for a minute there.
So this second time Gabriel has appeared.
The first thing he tells Zacharias in the temple
is fear not.
The first thing that he says to Mary is fear not.
And the first thing the angel will say to Joseph
is fear not.
And the first thing that the angel say to the shepherds
is be not afraid.
So four times, I think that's an important lesson
that we can all apply in our lives
is the command to fear not or to be not afraid.
And he addresses Mary for thou hast found favor with God.
Well, Mary itself, the name means the exalted one
or the favored one.
And no doubt Mary who has found favor with God.
We think of her really Scott as the most elect of all women.
Eve would come second to that, but of all women
who've ever been born on this earth is Mary
who would have been an extremely elect spirit
in the premoral existence who was chosen and fordained
in the premoral existence to be the mother of Jesus.
And so this is how the angel Gabriel addresses her
and how he knows who she is and how God feels about her.
So do you wanna start that again, verse 30?
And the angel said unto her,
fear not Mary for thou hast found favor with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb
and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
And he shall be great and shall be called
the son of the highest.
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne
of his father David.
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever.
And of his kingdom there shall be no one.
Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be?
Seeing I know no man and the angel answered
and said unto her, the holy ghost shall come upon thee.
And the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the son of God.
I'm not powerful, keep going Scott.
Yeah.
Through 38, read through 38.
Okay, this is where we get into the visit with Elizabeth.
Because Gabriel is still speaking here
and Gabriel commands Mary to go see Elizabeth.
Okay.
And behold thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age.
And this is the sixth month with her who was called Baron.
For with God nothing shall be impossible in there.
End of Gabriel, that's how he ends.
It's so interesting this angel ends his statement,
his introduction and statement, pronouncement to Mary.
He ends it with this verse in 37.
For with God, Mary, nothing shall be impossible.
He reminds her of that.
And then Mary's response in verse 38 is so powerful.
And Mary said, behold the handmade of the Lord,
be it unto me according to thy word,
and the angel departed from her.
Wow.
What do we learn about Mary there, Scott?
Just an absolute incredible supplication
to the Lord's will here, right?
Be it unto the handmade of the Lord,
be it unto me according to thy word.
I think, you know, Dave, there's a great lesson
in that for all of us.
So, you know, we see these things
and so often we become so accustomed to what they say
and what we read that every once in a while,
just a little thing will pop out.
Something will just pop out.
And I think that for me and maybe for many of us,
we have an opportunity here to, you know,
be it unto me according to thy word,
and the angel departed from her,
and Mary arose in those days and went forth
in the hill country with haste into the city of Judas.
So she went with haste after these things were given to her.
The Holy Ghost had come upon her.
We talk about the Holy Ghost come upon us,
and that's how the administration of the Atonement
of Jesus Christ, whom is being announced here,
is brought forth unto us.
And so Mary is experiencing the Godhead
in all of its members firsthand.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Anyway, the submissiveness, the meekness,
the humility of this young woman.
Yeah.
Behold the handmade of the Lord,
be it unto me according to thy word.
Wow.
This is where Jesus learned from his mother.
This, I really believe this, Scott.
He learned from his mother this deep humility,
thy will, not mine be done.
He learned that from Mary first,
before he ever went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
We should consider what may have been going
through Mary's mind at this time.
Well, think about that.
Right.
This is a time in a culture when, you know,
we learn later that as Joseph finds out about this,
he could have put her away.
Yeah, we're gonna talk about that.
And so imagine the fear that must be coming upon her.
She's just a young lady.
She's now going to be pregnant.
And when you're pregnant, it becomes obvious
after a few months and the persecution
and the trouble and trial that could have been
something that may have arisen all kinds of fear
in her at this time.
Terrible to think about what could have happened.
So another.
The shunning and even the stoning.
Yeah, I got it.
The shunning and stoning that could have taken place
in her life.
Yeah, just an unmatched measure of faith.
Yeah.
Well, so she goes.
Now that would have been, if again, if Christmas is April 6th,
if I mean, if that's the birth of Jesus,
then all of this would have taken place probably
in July, August, thereabouts.
And Mary immediately in haste goes down to Jerusalem
to be with Elizabeth, makes that journey.
If she doesn't go through Samaria,
it's probably about 100 miles, 90 miles down from Nazareth
around the Jordan River down to Jerusalem.
Going down to Jericho and then up from Jericho,
kind of on the mountain where Jerusalem's located.
Anyway, it's not an easy trap.
It's probably, I think, some say if you're really moving,
I mean, how long did it take you to go 90 miles
from Salt Lake City down to Nephi or Scipio?
It would be more than a day.
To walk and to go with the caravan.
It would take you almost a week.
And she goes down there, she sees Elizabeth.
And John, six months, you know, along in Elizabeth, leaps.
Leaps for joy, because somehow this John knows.
The forerunner of Christ.
That he's in the presence of the Messiah.
Right.
So anyway, she knows, Elizabeth knows.
Being filled with the Holy Ghost, it says.
That Mary is an elect woman and will be the mother of God,
the son of God, the Messiah.
We know that she went down there to probably be comforted,
to probably get some counsel, to probably get out of town.
I believe, now this is, again, there's many,
you're entitled to your own opinions about this, everybody.
But I really believe this strongly.
And I know others do too.
That Mary, knowing the contractual covenant agreement
she made with Joseph, being the good Jewish girl
that she is God, true to the law,
I believe she immediately, after she had conceived Jesus,
immediately went to Joseph and said, I'm pregnant.
And you need to know what happened.
An angel appeared to me.
I think she told Joseph the whole story.
I believe this, that he would have had time to think
while she was in Jerusalem, away from him,
in Jerusalem with Elizabeth.
Joseph was trying to figure it out.
And Mary told him, I'm gonna go down and see Elizabeth
and I'll be back in a few months.
And you can tell me what you've decided to do.
But I'm pregnant and it's not any man's baby.
I am not committed fornication
or it would have been adultery because they were betrothed.
I am not an adulteress.
I was told that I would be the mother of God.
You can think what you're gonna do about that.
Can you imagine?
No.
And again, that gets into the faith
that both Mary and Joseph have.
Yeah, so we're gonna talk about Joseph here now.
And his reaction to that.
So Mary goes down to Jerusalem and then a few months later,
maybe as many as three months later.
But we don't know if she's there
when Elizabeth gives birth to John or not.
I think she probably came back a little before that.
But nevertheless, she comes back
and let's turn to Matthew chapter one
where we read the account of Joseph.
By the way, Scott, Luke,
most of the Christmas story is in Luke chapter one and two,
right?
And Luke was a Gentile
and wouldn't have joined the church until after Jesus
had was dead and resurrected years after.
Paul probably converted Luke.
Luke was a Gentile.
He was Paul's personal physician.
He wanted to make a record from a Gentile perspective.
He really writes to the Gentiles,
the Gospel of Luke or the book of Luke
and the book of Acts, which he wrote,
is directed towards the Gentiles.
And he talks about, I wanna give you some eyewitnesses.
I wanna give you a record of Jesus
from the account of eyewitnesses.
All scholars believe that Luke would have interviewed Mary
and that the Luke account written by Luke, St. Luke,
who I believe became an apostle,
would have been from Mary's viewpoint,
from Mary's own experience.
So as we think about that, keep that in mind
because when we go back and read Luke two,
you can just think Mary is telling Luke this story
when we read it.
But in Matthew, who's trying to make the argument,
he writes to the Jews,
Matthew's trying to convince the Jews
of the prophecies of Jesus
and gives a genealogy here in Matthew one
to show that Joseph is a direct lineage
back to Abraham really, back to David.
Anyway, he gives us this account in verse starting
with verse 18.
Do you wanna start to read their scale?
Yeah, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise
when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph
before they came together.
She was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not-
Let me pause you there, being a just man.
I remember years ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
in an old library, finding a Jewish commentary
and reading about how Jews see this event.
And the term just man, Scott,
this description of Joseph given to us by Matthew
means he was strict in the law.
Joseph was strict in living the law.
And if he would have really believed,
this is from a rabbi giving a Jewish commentary
of the New Testament and the birth of Jesus
that I'm reading.
And the rabbi says, if he would have believed
that Jesus had been conceived by God,
he definitely would not have stoned her.
If he would have believed that Jesus was fathered
by someone else that Mary had committed adultery,
he definitely would have.
He definitely would have had her stoned.
So, keep that in mind as we read this,
Joseph being a just man or a man of the law.
Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man
and not willing to make her a public example
was minded to put her away privily.
That says a lot about Joseph too.
Right?
Yeah.
Now, why would he want to put her away privily?
Well, first let's describe what that means
for those that may struggle with exactly
what does it mean to put her away privily?
What does that mean, Dave?
So, what it means is we're just gonna be really quiet
about this.
Make it go away.
We're gonna have a quick little divorcement.
We're not gonna make it public.
We have to have a divorcement,
because there'll be truth.
We're gonna make a little divorcement
and I'm just gonna keep this all private
and we're just gonna try to keep this on the sly
and not try to ruin her or me.
I believe, I believe this strongly, Scott,
that Joseph believed Mary.
I think he trusted her.
He knew of her integrity.
And when she told him before she went to Elizabeth
that I am the mother of the Messiah,
Joseph thought, okay, I believe her,
but I am not worthy to be his dad.
I don't wanna have anything to do with this.
I can't do this.
It's not that he didn't want to do it,
but I believe Joseph's thought to himself,
I can't do this.
I'm just gonna put her away privily.
I'm just gonna try to sweep this under the rug
and I'm just gonna try to move on with my life
and let her move on with hers
and be the mother of God.
I think that's how he originally thought of it, Scott.
Very well may have been.
And as he was having that,
and if that was indeed his wrestle,
verse 20 kind of adds to that,
but while he thought on these things,
in other words, while he wrestled,
while he was struggling,
while he was in his own wilderness,
his own sacred grove,
in his own attempts to gain access to the revelation here.
Yes, yes.
I think he was wrestling not so much
with what Mary had told him, but.
With his own worthiness.
What was his responsibility in all of this?
But while he thought on these things,
behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream,
saying Joseph, thou son of David, fear not.
There it is again.
Right.
And that may have been a reminder
because they knew that the Messiah
would come through that lineage.
Definitely.
Yeah, so Gabriel's reminded him,
hey Joseph, son of David, remember,
fear not to take unto thee, Mary, thy wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
Now let me read that and emphasize it differently.
For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
You're right, Joseph.
She is the mother of God.
The angel is confirming what Mary has told Joseph
and confirming what Joseph already knows.
She is the mother of God.
She has conceived by the Holy Ghost.
That's not, I don't think that's a new idea for Joseph
because he's believed Mary's story
and the angel is just confirming it.
Now again, people are entitled their own opinion,
but that's how I see it based upon a Jewish commentary
of how they saw Joseph as being a just man of the law.
Verse 21,
And she shall bring forth a son
and thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins.
Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying,
Behold a virgin shall be with child
and shall bring forth a son
and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us.
That's the great prophecy of Isaiah from Isaiah chapter seven.
Then Joseph being raised from sleep,
did as the angel of the Lord had bitten him
and took unto him his wife.
And he knew her not until she had brought forth
her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus.
Very few men with that kind of humility
and connection with Heavenly Father
probably have ever existed.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I just, a great man who is absolutely doing
what he can to align his will with his Heavenly Father's will
and taken direction from an angel and the Holy Ghost
and putting aside his own selfishness,
his own desires at this point.
His own passions.
And again, he's so quick in haste.
He went married her as soon as I think she gets back,
he says, okay, we gotta do this now.
Before you're showing this pregnancy,
we have to do this now.
And so he quickly married her.
I think he would have maybe waited more like a year
before he married her,
but he wanted to marry her now, does so.
And then they never consummate the marriage
until after Jesus is born.
We do not believe, we reject what Catholics believe
about the relationship of Joseph and Mary.
We do not accept the immaculate conception.
The immaculate conception is not about Jesus,
it's really about Mary.
And the Catholics believe that Mary never sinned,
that she was conceived also in a miraculous way
and that she did not have the seed of sin in her
and that she never sinned in her life.
We don't believe that about Mary.
We don't have the same worshipful attitude
that maybe Catholics have about the immaculate conception.
We believe that Mary did have the seed of sin in her
and that being fallen, totally fallen,
that Jesus was fully mortal because of Mary
and Mary being his mother,
but fully immortal because of God being his father.
And that was the state and the condition
which Jesus was born into.
Mary immortal, she would have had all the mortal experiences
and temptations and no doubt that needed Jesus
as her savior because she had sinned.
So we reject that.
And we also reject the idea that Joseph was older
and that he already had children
and that Mary married an older man named Joseph
who already had kids.
We don't believe that.
The reason they believe that is because they don't believe
that Mary, Virgin Mary, ever has any sexual relations
with anybody, including Joseph.
And yet the scriptures record
that Jesus had brothers and sisters.
So where did they come from?
Well, they couldn't have come from Mary
according to the Catholic church and their belief.
They had to come from Joseph's previous marriage
and that Mary married an old man who already had children.
We don't believe that.
We believe that Jesus's half brothers and sisters
were the children of Mary and Joseph.
That Joseph waited a year to consummate the marriage
and that Mary and Joseph together did conceive other children
and that that was the family that Jesus grew up in.
So just a little clarification on what we believe
versus what the Catholic church and other.
But I think the church of England and a few others
maybe have some of those beliefs as well.
Well, so Joseph decides to marry her, they marry
and that leads us to the great story of Christmas
in Luke chapter two.
So maybe let's turn to Luke chapter two
and review some of these events.
And I know we're probably going a little over here, Scott.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, we're going to go long today,
but I think that we need to.
We need to be too long here.
We need to include a lot of what we've planned to include
and we'd be remiss if we did not.
So well, let's just, let's just, it's always better
when you can to read the sacred record.
I hope all of all of our listeners with their families
with their loved ones can read Luke chapter two this year
as we celebrate Christmas.
Our family did it Sunday night for part of our family night.
We reenacted the nativity scene
and we read Luke chapter two together.
But let's just read it, Scott, if you don't mind
and all the interruptions we go through it.
And it came to pass in those days
that there went out at Cree from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be taxed.
And this taxing was first made
when Cyreneus, the governor of Syria.
Now the point is Luke's trying to make a point here.
And the point is this is an actual factual event.
There's a historical setting and this is the timing of it.
And this actually happened.
I mean, he's trying to give us some historical facts here.
Caesar Augustus was really Octavian
who was adopted son of Julius Caesar.
Rome was in its greatest, flourishing largest empire
of the world in its history.
And he wants all the world to be taxed
and he knows the Jewish importance of family and ancestors.
And so he's going to tell them,
I want you to go back to your ancestral home,
which for Mary and Joseph being of David
would be Bethlehem.
And that's known as the city of David.
Bethlehem was crowned king.
Now Bethlehem means the house of bread,
which is interesting when you think about Jesus.
The bread of life.
The bread of life and the sacrament
that we take and all of that.
So as we read these events, the historical context
is important and Luke is trying to nail that home for us
by those first few verses.
In verse three,
and all went to be taxed everyone to his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee
out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea,
unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and lineage of David
to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife,
being great with child.
So Mary didn't have to go.
You know, most males would have gone and taken the census.
The whole family didn't have to go.
And Joseph didn't have to take Mary.
But this was a perfect arrangement for a couple of reasons,
because not only was she expecting
and it would be good for her to get away
and not to have to deliver the child
and have all the townspeople in a very small town,
in Nazareth, a very small town, have all these people
start counting.
Let's see, when did they get married?
Let's see, boom, boom, it hasn't been enough months.
Wow, and the rumors and the gossip
that may have been started in Nazareth
if she would have given birth to Jesus in Nazareth.
And the second thing is that she knew the scriptures,
her and Joseph, she knew that there was a prophecy
that this child had to be born in Bethlehem.
She knew that Micah had prophesied of that,
testified of that.
She had to get to Bethlehem.
And this was a perfect opportunity for her.
Little did Caesar Augustus know
that he was fulfilling prophecy here
by getting this holy family down to Bethlehem,
where they could fulfill the command of the Caesar Augustus
to fill out a census and to be taxed.
So again, some historical background.
And so it was that while they were there,
the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes
and laid him in a manger
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now it's interesting that this verse,
some just one little tweak in the Joseph Smith translation,
he adds an S to the word in.
There's no room in the ins, plural.
The Greek word for in is katalama.
Katalama is a guest chamber.
It really means guest chamber.
They didn't have holiday or Hampton ins in Jerusalem
in those days, Scott.
They didn't have motels or hotels.
They had these caravanaries.
They call them the cons where traveling caravans could stay.
And they would have these rooms
or these guest chamber places where people could stay
and they could keep their animals on a lower level.
And the families would stay in kind of a second story,
higher level above the animals.
And there was no room in any of these cons or these ins.
There's no room in any of the guest chamber rooms.
Some of the cons, and it's of course the tradition is
really that he was born in a cave, the church of nativity.
It was such an amazing experience to go to the church
in the nativity when I was in the Holy Land many years ago.
And to go to the church of nativity
is like the oldest church in Catholicism.
It was built back in the 300s
by people who believed, I mean from really
in the second century, people still believed
that Jesus was born in a cave.
Justice Martyr and others had identified that.
They thought that they even knew the cave.
And in the fourth century, in the 300 ADs,
they built this church over the cave.
And there are other small caves there,
these limestone caves, which would be a natural place
for animals to be kept.
Now again, I don't know, President Nelson gave
an amazing talk on the first Christmas.
I think it's been 20 years ago.
I think it was in December of 2002
that President Nelson as the apostle gave this amazing talk
in BYU speeches and it might be an interesting thing
for people, our listeners to go read.
Look up BYU speeches, let's Google BYU speeches
and read President Nelson's talk, December 2002.
He talks about these cons and a little bit
about the history of this verse.
But I was there, I went to the church nativity,
they're burning incense in the upper level
and you go down into this lower level
and you see the cave where the Catholics
and others believe is the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
And then our guide said, who was LDS,
said now I would like to show you a cave
where when President McKay, David O. McKay,
did his world tour and he came to the Holy Land,
he came here and as he wandered through this lower level,
he identified this cave as being the birthplace of Jesus.
Scott, I have no primary sources for that
or any great sources to confirm that.
That's just what our guide told us.
I don't know if that's true or not true,
but President McKay did that.
I believed him at the time
and I had a really sweet experience down there
contemplating that.
I think there's a good chance to provide the privacy.
Maybe it would be even more demeaning to be able
for Mary to go through this birth in a public place
such as a con and a kind of a barnyard area,
which is possible, but maybe it'd be a little more private,
a little more holy if she gave birth to Jesus in a cave
with animals, that's where they would have kept her animals,
no doubt, all kinds of animals.
And I don't know, I like to think that maybe Jesus
was born in a cave, that's my opinion.
But one thing's for sure,
he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, this is a fact,
and he was laid in a manger.
And Luke makes that point, and again,
this is Mary's account, right?
Mary gave this account to Luke,
and she makes that point, I think like three times,
retelling this to Luke.
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Swaddling, the Greek word for swaddling
means really torn strips of rags.
These are, you know, these are rags.
Now, some people believe, and President Elton talks
about this in his talk as well, if you go check it out,
that there would have maybe been some family markings
on these rags, or whatever they were.
And maybe there were family markings,
like he's of the house of David.
But I think of them as being torn, poor,
discolored, maybe even, rags,
that Mary, she swaddles him.
They believe that their babies should be tightly
contained, and so that they, you know,
they would feel the comfort, and also for other
physiological reasons, they would swaddle their babies.
And laid him in a manger, which would have been
not made of wood.
Mangers in those days, Scott, were made of stone.
Limestone specifically. Limestone troughs.
Right.
That's what the animals ate out of.
There's many pictures of them that date back
to the time of Jesus.
And I think that's really significant,
that they laid him on a stone.
In an animal's trough, nothing could be more poorer,
more demeaning, than to lay him in an animal's trough.
But I like to think beyond that, it was a stone,
it was a rock, it was symbolic of Jesus being the rock
of our salvation, the stone of Israel.
This is where Jesus was laid.
And there were, this is verse eight,
and there were in the same country shepherds
abiding their field, keeping watch over their flocks
by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.
And they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, fear not.
There it is again.
For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David,
a savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you.
He shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes
lying in a manger.
There it is again.
And suddenly there was with the angel,
a multitude of heavenly host, praising God and saying,
glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men.
And it came to pass as the angels were gone away
from them into heaven, the shepherds said,
want to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem
and see this thing which has come to pass,
which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph
and the babe lying in the manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad,
saying, which was told them concerning this child.
Okay, let's just talk briefly about the shepherds
before we go to the wise men.
The shepherds were probably in the Bethlehem area.
These are probably holy men, even though they're very poor
men, somewhat outcast shepherds in that culture
at that time.
But these could have been the shepherds
over the pascal lambs that would have been being prepared
for Passover.
This is probably shepherds who are watching
over the temple flock of sheep.
These are holy men.
They are poor men, very poor.
It's interesting, President Oakes,
in his devotional address just a few Sundays ago,
identified that we have these,
the poor, the shepherds.
Then we have the witnesses of the holy Anna and Simeon
when Jesus was presented at the temple
after 40 days after his birth.
And then we have a third witness of the wise men,
the poor, the holy, and the wise.
And these are poor men, but amazing, humble men
who immediately believe, and again,
the word haste is used here, they go in haste
and they find the babe lying in a manger.
Well, I was in Shepherds' Field.
Wow, that was one of the highlights
of my entire experience in the Holy Land was in July,
being in Shepherds' Field, contemplating these events.
And while we were there and we were singing Christmas carols
up over the hill of Shepherds' Fields,
there comes this young boy with his sheep.
I could just see it, Scott.
I could see these young, some old,
I think many people see the shepherds being old.
I think of them, there must have been really young men.
Shepherds, oh, anyway, it was an amazing experience
for me to sing Christmas songs
and to feel the Holy Ghost in Shepherds' Fields,
looking over at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
That's one of the highlights of my life
that I'll never forget.
So we have these witnesses, these shepherds,
who then go and tell it abroad.
Bear their testimony, being filled with the Holy Ghost.
I love this next verse.
Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
That's tender to me.
That's precious, that's tender.
I get emotional almost thinking about that.
Moms in general, that's just a wonderful tender
in all the right circumstances,
just a wonderful tender experience.
And we all get to, occasionally, we've been privy
to those experiences, but nothing quite like this one.
Here's Mary, the mother of the Son of God,
and she hears the shepherds,
and then she keeps these things and ponders them in her heart.
And the shepherds return, glorifying and praising God
for all the things which they had heard and seen
as it was told unto them.
Yeah, well, that's the first set of witnesses.
Then Mary and Joseph, after eight days, sorry,
after eight days, they go through a Jewish ritual
of purification, and 40 days after that,
they present Jesus at the temple.
This is Alvin Luke chapter two,
which I encourage our readers to read.
And there they meet Simeon and Anna
as they present Jesus in the house of the Lord.
And it's interesting, they should offer lamb as a sacrifice.
Mary and Joseph are so poor,
I think it says there, Scott, if you have it,
that they present two turtledoves.
Two turtledoves or two young pigeons.
So that kind of puts, we think of turtledoves,
and in our culture, we think of turtledoves,
and there's a certain amount of romance and beauty
attached to that.
We think of pigeons, maybe not some much.
Yeah, these are poor people.
These are pigeons.
And that's all they can come up with to sacrifice,
which is, according to the law, if you were really,
really, really poor, you could sacrifice pigeons
instead of a lamb.
That's all they could afford.
And it's interesting, they didn't ask the shepherds
for a lamb or however that could have worked,
but they offer these pigeons.
And they meet Simeon.
I remember a book many years ago I read
by a sister and Osborn Pullman called The Simeon Solution.
And she made a wonderful analogy of Simeon
who had waited so many years to see the Messiah
and all those years and all those prayers,
maybe thousands of prayers that he wanted to see the Messiah
and he becomes one of the first witnesses
of Jesus in the temple and cries out.
But it says in verse 20, 25,
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
And the same man was just in devout
waiting for the consolation of Israel.
I think that's such a great title for Jesus.
Again, the Messiah, the consolation of Israel.
I love that title.
And the Holy Ghost was upon him, upon Simeon.
And it was revealed unto Simeon, by the Holy Ghost,
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit,
three times the spirits mentioned in the story,
into the temple when the parents brought in the child Jesus,
then took he up into his arms.
Can you imagine this?
And blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thou,
thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
And he says some more things and even warns Mary
that this is gonna be hard, Mary,
and the sword is gonna be thrust in him
and thrust into your heart as well.
I'm not prophesying what Mary would feel at the crucifixion
of Jesus.
I love what Simeon called him in verse 30.
He said, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Yeah, I love that too, Scott.
Salvation.
Yeah, redemption.
And then Anna, Anna, a prophetess.
We don't know what term that really means, prophetess.
But this is a woman that's over 100 years old, Scott.
We talked about the life expectancy being like in the 40s.
She's lived to be over 100 years old.
And she has waited and wanted to see the Savior.
And she becomes one of the first witnesses
of this virgin birth.
So I love that whole story in Luke.
No doubt told to Luke by Mary and all of the witnesses
and the tender feelings that Mary expresses.
I love the description in verse 38 of Anna's experience.
And she coming in, in that instant gave thanks
likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all them
that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
So that they stay in Jerusalem.
They don't go to Nazareth right away in the Luke account.
They go to Nazareth soon after this.
And Luke doesn't tell us about the wise men.
The wise, the account of the wise men is back in Matthew
in Matthew chapter two.
So we have to go back to Matthew chapter two.
Mary and Joseph would have stayed in Jerusalem
for some time.
Maybe Jesus was a year, up to a year,
maybe even two years old into a second year
before the wise men come.
We would just want to spend a moment
at thinking about this third group of witnesses here.
So in Matthew chapter two, Scott,
if you'll begin to read the verse one.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of Herod the king,
behold their king wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east
and are come to worship him.
So this verse, there's a very important change
made in the Joseph Smith translation.
And if we read this based on that change,
it should have read thus,
saying three, the wise men,
we don't know if there were three or 12 or 100.
We don't know how many there were,
but the wise men said,
where is the child that is born the Messiah of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east
and are come to worship him.
So what do these wise men know?
They know he's the Messiah.
They know he's the Messiah, savior, redeemer of the world.
Scott, you can't know that Jesus is the Christ
except by the Holy Ghost.
You have to have a spiritual witness.
And they have had a spiritual witness
long before they come or make their trek to Jerusalem.
I don't think that these are wizards or astrologers
or all those descriptions, maybe they could be,
but the one thing that we know, these are holy men
who have had a witness of the gift,
I believe the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And they must have known about the gospel.
And I think they could have been prophets.
In fact, Elder McConkey says,
we don't know if there were three, maybe there were 12.
Maybe it was a whole quorum who came.
Maybe there was an establishment of the gospel
somewhere else in the east
that we don't really have any record of yet.
And maybe they knew, I mean, Samuel knew,
I think the whole world if they were holy.
And there would have been holy men
in other parts of the world.
We know there were here in America
and Samuel prophesies of the day and the night
and the day as if it were one day.
And I think that's because of the star.
We don't really, he doesn't talk about the star,
but I think that was because of the brightness of this star.
And that this was, this star would have been a world event
in the Eastern and Western hemispheres.
And it was the incredible sign
that the Messiah, Savior, Redeemer had been born.
So these men make the track bringing gifts,
I think inspired by the Holy Ghost,
bring the gifts they brought.
And let's just skip down
and just read a few more verses before we conclude this.
Let's start with, so they go to Herod
and they say, where is he?
There's born king of the Jews.
Well, this puts of course the fear of God into Herod.
And it even says that Herod believed them.
And that Herod believed them so much
that he creates this idea
that he has to slaughter all the babies
that are in the Bethlehem and outskirts of Jerusalem area.
Let's point out too, that's all babies.
That's not just the young boys, that's all babies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So anyway, there's this great slaughter.
John the Baptist is miraculously saved
because Elizabeth escapes with him.
And we learn from the teaching of the prophet Joseph Smith
that Zacharias was approached by soldiers
to know the whereabouts of John the Baptist.
And he won't tell them.
And this slaughter of the babies causes Zacharias.
His life.
How we started this story, it costs his life
because the Roman soldiers killed Zacharias.
Well, let's skip over to verse 10
and read verses 10 through 13.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were 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 unto him gifts, gold,
and frankincense and myrrh.
So that's why people think of three wise men
is because there are three gifts mentioned,
but maybe there were 12
and they all brought some myrrh
and they all brought some frankincense
and they all brought some gold.
We don't know.
But those three gifts are symbolic and they're important.
You know, myrrh is an ointment for those who have died.
Myrrh would have maybe been used as something of an ointment
put on the death of Jesus,
prefiguring the death and sacrifice
and atonement of Jesus Christ.
Frankincense, of course, used in the whole ointment of incense
in the temple and other places where they burned incense,
symbolic of the worship of Christ and our prayers
being answered and being carried into the ears of God.
And then gold, gold was, of course, to, I believe,
help Mary and Joseph to escape and to survive
and to be able to go to Egypt and live in Egypt
for who knows how long, months or years.
I know there are some historical facts
associated with this too, Scott,
that Herod the Great didn't live very long
after the slaughter of the babies
and they would have come back probably
as soon as they heard that Herod the Great had died
and that could have been just a few months
or it could have been maybe a year or two.
But they had this gold on which they could survive
as the holy family to live in Egypt
and then to make their way back into Jerusalem
and then going back to Nazareth where Jesus was raised
as a child.
But verses 12 and 13 just talk about
how the angel again appears to Joseph and Mary
and warns them and they escape the slaughter of the babies.
I don't know, as awful as that is, Scott,
you can't think about the slaughter of these babies
without thinking that our precious restored doctrine
that all children are not just saved
but are exalted when they die
before the age of accountability
and that this baby who escaped Jesus, the baby child,
would have been the one who would have made that possible
for all these babies who were slaughtered.
Again, it's important, I didn't point out in verse 10,
the wise men, however many there were,
they came to a house.
Joseph and Mary had left them the manger scene
long before the wise men ever were able to make it there.
I think Jesus would have been in actually,
I think he was over a one year old,
that's just my opinion,
because Herod, just to make sure,
has everybody to and under, has them slaughtered.
But the wise men become the final group
of this first Christmas of the birth,
the virgin birth, the miraculous conception and birth
and the fulfillment of all prophecies
Scott up until this time of the birth of Jesus.
And I just wanna, I guess, conclude by testifying
that I know that these events are true, actual factual.
We don't know all the details as we will someday,
but we know enough that this happened
and there are so many lessons that we can take from this.
I love Delder Anderson's devotional talk
in which he talked over and over again
and retelling the first Christmas,
that those go through persecution and trials
and difficulties and challenges in life,
if they are patient and if they are righteous, all is well.
For all of those who prophesied for thousands of years
before Jesus was born, for all of those involved
in this Christmas story,
Simi and Anana, the wise men, Mary and Joseph,
all of those who had looked for a Messiah all these years
to deliver them, the Jews primarily believed
from the bondage of the Roman Empire,
but we know that he would deliver us
from the spiritual woes and sins of all the world
that these events took place and all is well.
My favorite Christmas song I like to hear now
is Carrie Underwood and Michael Smith singing All Is Well,
All Is Well.
I testify that I know that because of Jesus' birth
and his sinless life, his teachings,
his atoning sacrifice, his resurrection,
that all is well.
And pray that all of you will have a Merry Christmas,
that you'll experience the joy and peace
and the sacred reason for the season
and Merry Christmas to all who are listening
and happy new year.
This past weekend, our ward had our Christmas gathering
celebration and they decided on a theme
of why's men still seek him?
When we read this Christmas story
and as we've had the opportunity to go through it today
and we've brought to life, hopefully,
maybe some of the shepherds and even Joseph and Mary
and Zacharias and Elizabeth and even John the Baptist
before he came and all of these things, the wise men,
I invite us and I'm accepting this invitation
because I've already been participating
in it over the last several days is where am I
and how do I relate to each of them?
Am I that wise man that would be in tune enough
through the Spirit to recognize the star for what it is?
Would I be the shepherd who though I was sore afraid
would fight through my fears being encouraged
by the Holy Ghost to do it and to go to where he is even
in the most humble of circumstances?
Would I without reservation or without expectation
go to a manger to worship a newborn king?
Wondering how could a king be born in such humble
and poor circumstances?
Would you go to the temple day after day after day
for years and years and years offering prayers,
thousands of prayers over and over and over again
and this day is for sure.
Only to culminate that experience by holding the King of Kings
and saying, okay, Heavenly Father, I'm ready now.
Recognizing the Holy Ghost to go on that day,
make sure you go today.
On that same.
The Simeon solution for all of us
is to continue to act in faith and in patience
and endurance.
What a sacred time of year.
And as we began this podcast season
on another sacred time of year, we will culminate there,
but we begin here.
We begin here as the Savior enters into the world,
as the foretelling, as the prophesying,
as all of those things have happened,
He now comes, He is now born.
He has all that He has in front of Him to accomplish.
I hope that me, Scott Durfey and my family this year,
as we invited us all last week
to see Jesus Christ in the symbols,
I hope that now we will embrace Jesus Christ,
not just in the symbols, but in the actual reality
of Christmas and all that it is meant to be.
I testify too that the birth of Jesus Christ is real.
And that event, at that up until that point,
the most important event that could have ever taken place.
And I know that if we focus on that
and invite the Spirit in our lives this Christmas season,
that regardless of our station, regardless of our conditions,
whether they be great or not so great,
we have the ability and the opportunity
to invite His Spirit and to fill His peace
in our lives as we do that.
As we look for the second coming.
With faith as they looked.
And patience and endurance.
With faith and patience and endurance.
Thanks for being with us.
We look forward to being with you again.
We do have a great episode coming next week
between Christmas and New Year's.
We'll be sharing a wonderful interview
that we have done with a great lady.
Look forward to that as well.
And we'll begin anew in January.
We have some great plans for a season two.
We plan to kick those off in January
and hope you'll all be joining us.
May you have a wonderful Christmas season.
May God bless you.
May you fill His Spirit upon you
and upon all that you love.
And above all, may you remember
that you have been redeemed through His blood.
Thanks for being with us.
Have a great week, everybody.
Seth is in bed, does Phillip even know
you