Happy New Year, once again, Seventh Grade!
I hope your holiday season was a memorable one! As mentioned in class today, we often ask each other, "What did you GET for Christmas? What did you GET? What gifts did you GET?"
Hmm, I know we GOT a lot of things that made us happy, but what did you DO that made you happier? What could you have done? (These do not need to be answered through the comments. There is no post due for today).
We began the infancy narratives section of the New Testament, beginning right before Jesus' birth. We read about the Annunciation of John's birth to Zechariah.
This first story in Luke is to show how special and significant the birth of John the Baptist is. But it also has lessons for us as Jesus' disciples. Zechariah certainly lives his life to follow the God he loved, but his faith falters. He doubts God. What can we learn from his faith that we can apply to our own faith?
Your responses will not count for a grade, but I welcome them.
P.S.- Here is some interesting information that I came across in regards to the reason Zechariah was "chosen by lot" to burn the incense. It comes from the Jesus Walk website.
At that thime, the priests were divided into 24 groups or divisions (1 Chronicles 10:7-18), of which Zechariah's "division of Abijah" is eighth in the rotation. Priests and their families would live in Jerusalem or in various nearby villages, but when their division was called up for duty for a week, twice each year, the priests would come to Jerusalem to work in the Temple. Each day about 50 priests would have been on duty, with perhaps 300 on duty during a given week.[4]
"This day, Zechariah is "chosen by lot" [meaning they drew numbers, or in our day, picked a name out of a hat] to go inside the temple and burn incense on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. It is considered a great honor [ and a once in a lifetime opportunity]. Since there were a large number of priests, no priest was allowed to serve as the officiating priest more than once in his lifetime.
I hope your holiday season was a memorable one! As mentioned in class today, we often ask each other, "What did you GET for Christmas? What did you GET? What gifts did you GET?"
Hmm, I know we GOT a lot of things that made us happy, but what did you DO that made you happier? What could you have done? (These do not need to be answered through the comments. There is no post due for today).
We began the infancy narratives section of the New Testament, beginning right before Jesus' birth. We read about the Annunciation of John's birth to Zechariah.
This first story in Luke is to show how special and significant the birth of John the Baptist is. But it also has lessons for us as Jesus' disciples. Zechariah certainly lives his life to follow the God he loved, but his faith falters. He doubts God. What can we learn from his faith that we can apply to our own faith?
Your responses will not count for a grade, but I welcome them.
P.S.- Here is some interesting information that I came across in regards to the reason Zechariah was "chosen by lot" to burn the incense. It comes from the Jesus Walk website.
At that thime, the priests were divided into 24 groups or divisions (1 Chronicles 10:7-18), of which Zechariah's "division of Abijah" is eighth in the rotation. Priests and their families would live in Jerusalem or in various nearby villages, but when their division was called up for duty for a week, twice each year, the priests would come to Jerusalem to work in the Temple. Each day about 50 priests would have been on duty, with perhaps 300 on duty during a given week.[4]
"This day, Zechariah is "chosen by lot" [meaning they drew numbers, or in our day, picked a name out of a hat] to go inside the temple and burn incense on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. It is considered a great honor [ and a once in a lifetime opportunity]. Since there were a large number of priests, no priest was allowed to serve as the officiating priest more than once in his lifetime.
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