Luke 2:23-24. 23The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.” 24So [Mary and Joseph] offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Do you remember the story of the ten plagues? While the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and the Pharaoh refused to let them go, God used ten plagues to show Pharaoh that he was in charge, not Pharaoh and not Pharaoh’s gods. The last plague was that the firstborn son of everyone on Egypt would die unless the family sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. This was called the Passover.
And ever since that first Passover, God required families to dedicate their firstborn son to God. Of course, God would never require moms and dads to sacrifice their child. Instead God asked them sacrifice an animal in place of their firstborn son. This was God’s way of reminding them that he rescued them from Egypt and that they owed their life to him. The firstborn son represented the whole family, so to dedicate the firstborn was a way of saying this whole family is dedicated to God.
Mary and Joseph were definitely dedicated to God, weren’t they? So far, they have spent their whole lives doing what God wanted. And now, eight days after Jesus was born, they were still obeying God’s law. So they went to the temple to dedicate baby Jesus, their firstborn son, to God. But not with a lamb, with turtledoves or pigeons. Why? Because they were so poor that they couldn’t afford a lamb. All they could buy was turtledoves. And those two doves would be sacrificed in place of baby Jesus.
Turtledoves are a very common bird in Israel and in the Bible. Turtledoves symbolize things like purity and innocence. Jesus told Christians to be “as wise as serpents but innocent as doves.” Noah sent a dove out from the ark, and sacrificing doves goes all the way back to Abraham. Doves were “clean” birds that were allowed to be offered to God. Most importantly, the Holy Spirit himself appeared as a dove when Jesus was baptized.
Matthew 3:16. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.
Turtledoves are a migratory bird (do you know what migratory means?). When you hear the turtledoves cooing you know that spring has returned. In this way they are a sign of new life. When we think about this, it might remind us that Jesus’ birth is also THE sign of new life coming to the world. When you hear a bird or a baby cooing, you are reminded that new life has begun.
You probably won’t hear a turtledove cooing today, but you can hear Jesus. And when you hear him, you can trust him and obey him like Mary and Joseph did. But what if you fail to trust and obey Jesus? That’s OK too because Jesus never failed in trusting and obeying God the Father.
Questions: How important is it to you to hear Jesus and obey him? How can we hear from Jesus in these days?
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