Luke 2.39-40: And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. (40) And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. (ESV)
And so it was by the decree of the civil government of Rome that Joseph and Mary were compelled to travel to Bethlehem at the time for the birth of Jesus, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Micah 5.2 that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem of Judah. After Jesus had been properly dedicated at the Temple in accordance with the requirements of the Law, his family returned to their hometown of Nazareth in the northern part of Israel. It is written in the Gospel of Matthew 2.23: “And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.”(ESV) So two prophecies regarding the Messiah were fulfilled.
And so for the next twelve years Jesus the child would grow and develop and become strong. The power and favor of God worked in Jesus’ life so that his character would be full of wisdom. These two verses strike me as revealing these truths about Jesus’ development as a child in an understated way. The Gospel of Luke records for us what we need to know and understand, but the reality of Jesus is profound. Jesus is fully God, born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is fully human, born of a woman. And so he will grow and develop physically, mentally, and emotionally as humans do. And even though Jesus is fully God, he willfully submitted himself to the rigors and discipline and growth process that all people experience. He was tested as we all are, and yet he was without sin.