`Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in

continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them' (Psa. 139:16).

It will be seen from these references that the promised overshadowing of the Holy Ghost was to protect Mary's

unborn Son from attack as `in the day of battle'. We can have no hesitation as to where the attack would come from,

but `that holy thing' was preserved that He might one day `destroy (undo) the works of the Devil' (1 John 3:8).

While tradition has been busy with apocryphal miracles and precociousness, the Scriptural record of the Saviour's

infant years is simple and sane. The parallels between the account of the growth of John the Baptist and the Saviour,

as recorded in Luke chapters 1 and 2, are intentional.

JOHN THE BAPTIST

`And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel'

(Luke 1:80).

THE SON OF GOD

`And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him' (Luke

At the age of twelve a Jewish boy became `a son of the law', and when the Saviour was that age, He was found

in the temple `sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions' (Luke 2:42-49).

Joseph was the legal father of Christ, but when Mary said to Him `Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing' He

replied `Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business', showing that He realized, at that age, His Divine

Sonship; nevertheless as Philippians tells us, `He humbled Himself', so Luke adds:

He went down to Nazareth, and

Was subject unto them (Luke 2:51).

While we read that Mary and Joseph `understood not' these wonderful things, it is added `But His mother kept

all these sayings in her heart' (Luke 2:50,51). Nothing more is revealed of these early years, but that:

`Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man' (Luke 2:52).

We can well understand His favour `with God', but how spotless holiness could at the same time be in favour

`with man' should at least make us hesitate to prescribe what true sanctification comprises and what it avoids.

Certainly there was no false piety shown by the Son of God in lowly Nazareth. Eighteen years are passed over in

silence, and the story is resumed in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar when the Saviour entered into His public

ministry. The Holy Spirit is associated with three important moments in the initial phases of that service:

(1) His attesting. (2) His testing. (3) His ordination.

HIS ATTESTING

This took place at His baptism in Jordan, when the heaven opened, and the Holy Ghost descended on Him in a

bodily shape like a dove, and a Voice from heaven attested:

`Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased' (Luke 3:22).

This, we are told by John in his gospel, was also a witness to John the Baptist himself:

`And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him.

And I knew Him not ... Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He

which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God' (John 1:32-34).

Later, the Saviour appealed to this attestation, saying:

`Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth ... Ye have neither heard His VOICE at any time, nor seen

His SHAPE' (John 5:32-38).

The `voice' and the `shape'! Following this attestation from heaven, we come to the testing in the wilderness: