FOR EIGHTEEN years after the visit to the Temple, Jesus was living in
Nazareth, growing up from a boy to a young man. A Jewish boy generally
left his school at about thirteen years of age, and began working at
some trade or business. Jesus went into Joseph's shop and helped in the
work, making plows and ax-handles and rakes and the plain furniture for
the houses. Whatever Jesus did was done well, and we cannot doubt that
in his trade he soon became a skilful worker. His ax-handles and plows
were as good as the best; and if he made a bushel measure, it was a true
one, for Jesus was a boy that could be trusted.
As a boy, he was like other boys, playing happily in play-time and
working heartily in work-time. Some boys like to be alone, reading and
thinking and dreaming; but Jesus was not one of that kind. All through
his life he liked to have people around him, and as a boy we may be sure
he had many friends among other boys. He was strong, in good health,
could run and jump and climb trees. With his boy friends he wandered
among the mountains and upon the great plain just over the hills from
his town. The Sea of Galilee was only twenty miles away, and we do not
doubt that Jesus with his friends went fishing in its blue waters and
brought home to his mother the fish which he had caught.
[Illustration: Jesus went into Joseph's shop and helped in the work,
making plows and ax-handles and the plain furniture for the houses.]
After a time, Joseph, the husband of Mary, died, and Jesus was left to
care for his mother and her large family of children. It is no light
load for one just coming out of boyhood and just beginning to be a
man, to have laid upon him the earning of enough money to buy food for
a mother and at least six younger brothers and sisters; and this was the
load which the young Jesus took up. But although Joseph who had been a
father to him was gone, Jesus knew that his heavenly Father was still
with him, and he could call upon him for help in every need.
Jesus worked hard all the long days, but when the Sabbath day came,
which among the Jews was Saturday, his shop was shut up and he sat on
the floor of the village church, listening to the reading of the Old
Testament and joining in the songs of praise. He took his turn as the
reader at the desk, and as he read the lesson in Isaiah or Micah or
Hosea, he saw meanings in the verses that others could not see, for in
the long hours of the workshop he was thinking and praying and listening
to the voice of God.
[Illustration: Tools of an oriental carpenter. 1, 3, 4. Drills. 2.
Chisel. 5. Handle of a drill. 6. Nut held in the hand while the drill
revolves. 7. Saw. 8. Punch. 9. Horn of oil. 10. Mallet. 11. Bag for
nails. 11. Basket to hold tools.]
While Jesus was living this quiet life in the home and the shop some
changes were going on in the land. The ruler in Galilee was Herod
Antipas, the son of that wicked Herod who killed all the babies in
Bethlehem; and he was very little better than his father. In Judea, the
part of the land around Jerusalem, Archelaus, another son of Herod,
ruled so badly that all the people sent to the Emperor Tiberius at Rome
asking to have him taken away. The Jews hoped that they might then have
rulers of their own people; but the Emperor sent them a Roman governor,
whom they did not like but dared not make angry. In many places through
the land, especially in Galilee, where Jesus was living, some of the
people refused to pay their taxes to the Roman empire, and began
fighting against the rulers. They could not battle with the Roman
armies, and hid in the woods and caves and mountains, but came out in
bands and robbed the people on the roads. All through the land, north
and south, were fear and trouble. The people were not contented with
their rulers, and all hoped that the time was near when the Kingdom of
God would come and their Roman officers and tax-gatherers would be
driven away. They looked for a kingdom like the one over which David
reigned a thousand years before, a kingdom with armies and victories
over its enemies and a palace for the king.
But they did not know that in that little one-room house on the hillside
of Nazareth, the King was waiting for his call to go forth and bring in
the true Kingdom of God.
The Voice by the River