Matthew 5 - Picking up where we left off in the Beatitudes....

Our last post covered the first three "blessed" groups that Jesus defines in His Sermon on the Mount. They were the poor in spirit, those who mourn and those who are gentle.  If you didn't get a chance to read the last blog covering those groups, you might want to go back and do that now.  Let me know what you think...Jesus changes our perspective on the categories of people that we usually do not view as blessed in this world.   But then again, Jesus is teaching us to look at things differently, eternally vs. temporal.  Looking through "born again" eyes is the only way that we can start to see the Kingdom of God.  (John 3:3)

Now we move to the next groups of blessed people that Jesus points to.

First group today is those "who hunger and thirst after righteousness" with their blessing proclaimed as "they will be filled."  Who falls into this category of blessing?  Do I? Do you?  Shouldn't we want to?  The word used for "hunger" in this passage carries with it the metaphorical meaning of craving ardently, or seeking with eager desire.  "Thirst" here also has a more intense meaning..."painfully feel the want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened."  So we get the idea, this group is not those who casually want a righteous life; this group is comprised of those who desperately, intensely seek righteousness in their life.  So then we get to asking, "and what IS righteousness?"  Righteousness, in its purest form, is being in a condition that is acceptable and pleasing to God.  That is what we are to hunger and thirst after.  We should so desperately want to please our Father that it becomes our driving force.  As we progress through the Gospels and through the other books in the New Testament we will find that Jesus IS our righteousness, that only through Him can we attain perfect acceptance by God.  But that should not keep us from desiring a life that comes as close as possible to God's good pleasure.  Because the promise that comes to people who fall into this category is to be filled....to have their desperate, intense longing for righteousness satisfied:  they will no longer be hungry or thirsty, they will attain the righteousness that they have longed for...they will live in the perfect acceptance of God Almighty, and they will know that Jesus is the One who brought complete righteousness to them.

Next group is those who are merciful.  Mercy!  Don't we all want it?  I tend to equate mercy with grace...but they are different.  I have heard it said that grace is giving you something that you don't deserve, while mercy is not giving you what you do deserve!  The word that is used for "merciful" here is only used one other time in the New Testament and that is in Hebrews when the writer describes Jesus as "a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."  Jesus was merciful to us.  He looked down on us in our pitiful state and said, "I don't want them to get what they deserve...I will take their punishment for them."  The promise to the merciful is that they will obtain mercy.  I certainly cling to the mercy that Jesus has provided for me...am I willing to look at people who I might consider "unworthy" and let them break my heart in the same compassion that Jesus had for mankind?  And what is the most merciful thing I can do for others?  To share the wonderful news that Jesus' mercy extends to everyone who accepts Him as their wonderful, merciful, Savior!

We will pick up next time with the final groups of Jesus' blessings.  I hope you are seeing, as I am, that what Jesus is proclaiming is that we are to be people who desire different things than the world would tell us should be our goals.  We are to be people who exhibit His attitudes and His love.  Let us pray for a more intense desire to become more like Him!

Matthew 5:1-26 - The Beatitudes and more....

Today we are in the first half of the fifth chapter of Matthew.  It's the chapter that is commonly referred to as "The Sermon on the Mount" and which begins with the Beatitudes...or as many have come to refer to them as the BE-attitudes, for Jesus sits down on the top of the mountain, and begins to teach His disciples what they are to BE like to receive the blessings of God.

If there had been any doubt in anyone's mind up to this point that Jesus was a different kind of teacher, a different kind of leader, a different kind of man, than all those doubts should have been dispelled with this lecture series that we call the Sermon on the Mount.  For everything that Jesus describes as "blessed" are things that the world does not hold up in value.  Let's see...

• Poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• Gentleness
• Those who hunger and thirst after what is right in God's sight
• Merciful
• Pure in heart
• Peacemakers
• Persecuted for righteousness
• Those who receive insults, persecution, and false accusations because of Jesus

 Do these things sound like attributes of people that the world admires?   Let's look at these attributes individually:

Poor in spirit - who do you think Jesus is referring to as those that are "poor in spirit"?  We need to know for they will partake in the kingdom of heaven.  If I haven't wanted to be poor in spirit before, I should want to when I read that reward.  The word Jesus uses for "poor" is not just poor, it is "destitute, reduced to beggary, helpless, powerless to accomplish an end"...do you get the picture?  Totally void of anything...and these people, who are "poor in spirit" are the first group that Jesus says are blessed!  WHY?  I believe that that is the spot we have to recognize ourselves in so that when Jesus reaches out to us we will take His hand and we are open to His further teaching.  We have to be humbled to the position of realizing that we have NOTHING within us to help ourselves, that we are absolutely destitute of personal ability and power to bring about our salvation.  That without HIM, we are hopeless.  Until we are broken, until we come to an understanding of how absolutely poor we are, we will not allow Jesus to rule in our lives...and THAT is the Kingdom of Heaven: Jesus as our Supreme King and eternal Authority.

Those who mourn - oh we all want to join that group, don't we?  Jesus is not using worldly marketing skills in this presentation!  For anyone who has gone through a season of intense mourning, you know that it is not a place that you would choose or want to revisit.  But in reality, we will all mourn on this earth.  We will all mourn the loss of something, of someone.  What is Jesus' promise to this group?  They will be comforted.  But the word Jesus uses for comfort isn't exactly what we would think of.  When I think of comfort, I think of someone "making it better" by telling me nice things, holding my hand, and letting me know I am loved.  The word Jesus uses here, parakaleo, includes that thought, but more.  It is a calling to, a beseeching, of someone.  That in the midst of mourning, Jesus is telling them that He will be calling us to come to Him.  Isn't that a beautiful thought?  I have often felt that God uses our saddest times to speak the loudest to us...this seems to be what Jesus is saying.  So even though Jesus is turning eyes toward eternity, where we will never mourn, I believe He is also saying that He is our comfort right now, if we will hear and respond to His voice as He summons us out of our dark nights.

The gentle - we might as well look right now at the meaning of the word, praus, before going any further, because we probably all have different ideas in our minds as to the attribute of gentleness. Praus (the Greek word used here that is translated as gentle, or meek in some translations) is defined as "mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness."  But in Strong's Bible Dictionary, it amplifies that definition by adding, "Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice." If we are to blessed for being gentle, then we are to be people who rely on God to defend us.  We will not be rabble-rousers (I love that descriptive name!) or people looking for a fight.  We will allow God to use what we sometimes do not understand in this world to accomplish His good and eternal plan.  And what is the reward?  These people will "inherit the earth" ---- do you think this means that those who do not fight for the right to rule will eventually be given that very responsibility?

I do believe that when God tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, that He will return the earth to it's perfect state and there will be things to be done on this new earth.  Could it be that the gentle, the meek, they will be the kind of people who will be leaders in this new earth...doesn't that make sense?  When everything is perfect, isn't that really the kind of leader you would want?  Or could it be that all who are given new, eternal life, have learned, in this life, to accept God as supreme, without any dispute or resistance in our hearts?  To have become truly "gentle" in our disposition of spirit?

What are your thoughts?  One thing I know, everything that Jesus describes in these verses that we are studying, He is asking us to look at with totally different eyes than we were given at birth...He asks us to look through reborn eyes...eyes that see His Kingdom!

I'm stopping for now....this is a lot to review in one sitting!  I would love to hear your comments, your thoughts!  For these are just my contemplations on God's Holy Word.  Let His Spirit dwell in your hearts as you read His Word, and then talk about it with someone!

Matthew Chapter Four and Intro to Chapter Five

I've gotten a little off schedule due to traveling and fighting a sinus infection.  The traveling part is wonderful...going to see children and grandchildren...special times!  The sinus infection, not so much!  But when I wake up, even with a thick head and puffy eyes, and see a beautiful morning of light rain, green grass, flowers blooming, I am reminded that God is a good, good Father who has provided so many gifts for us to enjoy.  Each day we are given let us give thanks to Him...He has blessed us enormously with the visible, and even more so with the invisible gifts...our Savior Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, forgiveness, and eternal life.  Thank You Lord Jesus for coming for me!

Chapter 4 of Matthew is an incredible message and one that we should think about often as we are no strangers to temptation and the schemes of Satan.  If Satan was brazen enough to tempt Jesus, knowing who He was, are we to think that he will not attempt to pull us away from God's path for our life?  I'm sure he realizes that we will most likely be much easier to sway than Jesus was...Jesus held firm, and we can too through the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we think we can forego Satan and his devices on our own, we will fail, if not immediately, eventually.  But when we rely on God's Spirit living within us, and ask Him to make us strong, and speak Scripture back to Satan just as Jesus did, then we can start being victorious over our enemy, no matter what tricks he may use against us.

Satan knows our vulnerabilities.  He knew that Jesus had just gone 40 days without food and that to tempt Him to turn stones into bread would be...well, tempting!  Satan knows my vulnerabilities as well.  He knows them from looking at my past and where I have previously failed.  He knows them from the small missteps I may make that show my hand...where I am not following God as closely as I should be.  And then he makes his move.  We must be aware, we must be alert, and we must pray for deliverance from temptation and his plans of evil.  Jesus is our example...look to how he handled Satan's attack.  The same attack, by the way, that he had used in the Garden of Eden 4,000 years before---questioning the relationship and the identity of those he was working on.  To Adam and Eve he made them doubt the goodness of God as their Father; to Jesus he boldly confronts with the question, "If you are the Son of God..."  He does the same thing with us..."Are you really a child of God?"  "Is God really looking out for your good?"  "Did God really say this is wrong?  After all, you want it so badly and it seems so right? Surely God would not withhold this from you if He loves you?"  If we are not grounded in God's Word, we will fall to the questions that Satan plants in our minds.  We cannot recall Scripture at the time of need if we have not securely hidden it in our hearts prior to that time.  Jesus KNEW the Word of God---He would not be a victim to Satan's lies.

Verses 12-17 of Chapter 4 launch Christ's preaching ministry to the world.  He hears that John the Baptist has been imprisoned and what does He do?  Does He go to see John? Does He free him...the faithful forerunner?  No - "He withdrew into Galilee.  He left Nazareth behind and went to live in Capernaum by the sea..."  Is this what we would expect Jesus, the Son of God, the bearer of all justice to do?  For He had to know the reasons for John's imprisonment, and they were far from just.  We ask the same question today when good, faithful Christians are imprisoned, mistreated, and executed.  Why doesn't God come to their rescue?  Why didn't Jesus?  Jesus allowed John to be beheaded at the hands of a tyrant....why??

Could it be that this was one of the first "sermons" Jesus preached?  Just as He would tell Nicodemus, "You must be born again", Jesus came to preach to us that we must look at life entirely differently than we ever have. We must shift our focus from temporal to eternal.  Jesus DID come to John's rescue...He did that on the cross.  He rescued John, and all of us, from an eternal imprisonment, an eternal death.  He had started that rescue mission, and He wouldn't be deterred.  Whatever our fate on this earth, we must remember...we have been rescued!

Verses 18-22 convey to us Christ's selection of His first disciples...Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, James and his brother John.  The things that jump out at me in this section are that they were all fishermen, and that when they heard Jesus say, "Follow Me", they immediately left their livelihood and family and followed Him.  Jesus calls the same words to us...what is our response?  And when we hear Jesus say, "Follow"...do we end up trying to lead?  Instead of waiting for Jesus to show us what/where He wants us to do/go, do we head down the road and ask Him to come with us?  FOLLOW...He is the leader.  We try to assume a role that we were never intended for and we end up in a place we should have never been!

The chapter closes by telling us that Jesus went all over Galille, teaching and preaching the "good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people."  Jesus was showing the people of the world what God looks like....He cares.  Just as the prophet Isaiah had said and who Matthew had quoted in v.15-16, Light had come into a dark world, and people were drawn to that Light.

Christ's Mission revealed in Chapter 4?  This is what I see:
1. To show His superiority and victory over Satan
2. To be the Light to a dark world
3. To bring the truth of God to the world
4. To bring people to repentance
5. To establish disciples who would continue bringing light into the world
6. To show God as a God of compassion and tenderness

Chapter 5 will cover the Sermon on the Mount - it is a long chapter and we'll divide into two sections - Verses 1-26, and Verses 27-48.  Out of the first section, the verse I'm choosing to remember is verse 16:  "In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

It's all about bringing glory to God...to HIM be the glory!!

Matthew Chapter Three and Intro to Chapter Four

From the close of Chapter Two to the beginning of Chapter Three we skip several years.  We go from the return of Jesus' family from Egypt to Nazareth to the beginning of Jesus' ministry as marked by His baptism by John the Baptist.  We're never told much about Jesus' boyhood, other than the story in Luke 2 about His journey to Jerusalem with His parents for Passover when He was 12.  There are things we can surmise (that most likely Joseph passed away before Jesus began His ministry as He was never mentioned in that time frame), but otherwise we are left to know that He grew up as many other Jewish boys of his time in the small village of Nazareth.  Did He perform miracles along the way?  We are never told that.  Could He have?  If God had directed Him to.  But it seems to me that Jesus' ministry was ordained to start here... in this chapter.

John the Baptist was the herald of our Lord and Savior...he came as a prophet, much like the Old Testament prophets, I think for the Jewish people to recognize him as such.  Someone as of old, like Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah and Isaiah.  He told the people to repent, and as they did they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the Jordan River.  It's interesting in the prophecy by Isaiah, "Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight", on first reading you would think this would mean to physically prepare for Jesus, as a King, to show Him honor, and prepare the roadways for Him to come through as royalty.  But reading in the context of John's cry to the people to repent in their preparation for the coming One, it is a call to get rid of all of the obstacles in our hearts, all of the sin and double-mindedness that will keep us from recognizing and accepting the truth of Jesus.  We should hear the same call:  REPENT!  Clear our hearts and prepare the path for Jesus to come to us unhindered.

John the Baptist had no patience with those who were coming for any other motive than for that preparation.  He called out the Pharisees and the Saducees who came to see what was going on with these masses of people coming out to the River for baptism by this desert monger.  He called them out for what they were, a brood of vipers.  Those are strong words---they indicate wickedness and maliciousness.  John knew that these "highest of the high" in the Jewish religious world claimed their righteousness due to their lineage from Abraham.  But in one of the first proclamations of Jesus' role as an international Savior, John tells them that God can raise up children from Abraham even from the stones.  The proof of truly being in the family of God comes from "producing fruit consistent with repentance" (v.8)  If we are proclaimed believers in Christ's redemptive work on our behalf, understanding the love that drove God's plan of salvation, and if we have repented of our sins, are we now living lives consistent with that repentance?  Are we producing fruit that is consistent with the thankfulness that we should constantly show for what has been done for us?  Let us be good fruit bearers for the Kingdom!

John goes on to pronounce that the One coming is more powerful than he and will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire...and that He will sift the righteous (wheat) from the unrighteous (chaff).  What do you believe the baptism that John referred to as coming from Jesus is?  
Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator from the 1800s, states this:
"They who are baptized with the Holy Ghost are baptized as with fire; the seven spirits of God appear as seven lamps of fire, Rev. 4:5 . Is fire enlightening? So the Spirit is a Spirit of illumination. Is it warming? And do not their hearts burn within them? Is it consuming? And does not the Spirit of judgment, as a Spirit of burning, consume the dross of their corruptions? Does fire make all it seizes like itself? And does it move upwards? So does the Spirit make the soul holy like itself, and its tendency is heaven-ward. Christ says I am come to send fire, Lu. 12:49"

So Matthew Henry would say that Christ's baptism with fire would illuminate us, would make our hearts burn for Him, would become our all-consuming passion. The Spirit of fire would burn up our sinfulness and make us like itself, holy and with a heaven-mindedness.  I want that fire in me...please Holy Spirit, burn strong within my heart and make me more and more like You!

And then we have the glorious picture of Christ's baptism, the act He submitted to in order to "fulfill all righteousness."  What was Jesus saying?  Righteousness is the state of being acceptable to God...was Jesus saying, "We're doing this because God wants us to"?  Jesus says in John 14 that everything He does, He does at the direction of His Father.  His baptism was no exception.  God directed Him to John, John baptized Jesus in obedience.  Also, I think it shows us the first picture of Jesus taking on the sins of the world, for while He was sinless, He repented of the world's sins that would be placed upon Him.  One last thought on Jesus coming for baptism, it is in direct contrast to the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees and Saducees.  Jesus comes in humble submission, with no pretense of being anyone greater than those surrounding Him in the Jordan.

But greater He is!  For when Jesus came up out of the water (a very strong indicator of baptism by submersion), the heavens broke open for Him, and out of the heavens the Spirit of God descended in the form of a dove  and came down on Him, and voice broke out of the heavens declaring, "This is My beloved Son, I take delight in Him!"

What do you think prompted the Father's words of pleasure in His Son?  We are not told, but they are spoken at Christ's initial act of bringing His ministry to the earth.  They are spoken at Christ's initial act of submission and obedience on a path of which both He and the Father knew the end...not the end that we think of in Christ's painful death on the cross, the end that they both see---Christ's victorious reign over eternity, with all those who have followed His example of humble submission to the Father's will.  Here was the beginning of the revelation of God to man...His Son was about to embark on three years of ministry of which the earth had never seen, and which would change the world forever.  Here was the beginning of what Father and Son had discussed in the heavens---the time that would forever crush Satan and bring the Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of men.

Hallelujah!  Father, Son and Holy Spirit celebrating in the commencement of Jesus' ministry!

Jesus' mission in Chapter 3?  Here's what I saw:
1.  Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth (v. 2)
2.  Bringing a baptism of the Holy Spirit (v. 11)
3.  Separating righteous (wheat) from unrighteous (chaff) (v. 12)
4.  Fulfilling all terms of righteousness (v. 15)
5.  Testifying to the Trinity (vs. 16-17)

And directly following celebration?  Temptation.  Chapter 4 will lead off with the account of Jesus' temptation in the desert and follow with the selection of the first disciples.  My verse from Chapter 4 to memorize? Verse 16:  "The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the shadowland of death, light has dawned."  Isn't that a beautiful picture of all of living on this earth without the light of Jesus?  But Light has dawned...Jesus has come.  We no longer are destined to live in darkness.  And those of us who have seen the Light are compelled to share that Light with others, driven out of the great kindness that has been shown to us.  

Matthew Chapter Two and Intro to Chapter Three

The second chapter of Matthew covers two important events:  the visit of the wise men from the east and the escape into Egypt by Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.

When we think of the visit of the Magi, we often think back to some of our earliest lessons of the birth of Christ.  How many of us played with the three wise men figurines in nativity sets when we were young, positioning them approaching the stable with their camels?  We are very familiar with these men...but have we looked at their story closely?

We read that they arrived in Jerusalem "unexpectedly" as my HCSB version states.  In other versions, the word "behold" may be included.  And they came asking a very unexpected question, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?"  Why was this unexpected and disturbing?  Because the Jews already had a King on their throne, King Herod.  And Herod was very disturbed.  Herod was never secure in his position, after all he was not a true Jew and much more loyal to Rome than to the Jewish people.  Herod would stop at nothing to protect his throne, including killing his own family members...his father-in-law, several of his ten wives, and two of his sons.  Brutal and ruthless are adjectives describing the King that the Magi approached with their question.

We find that the Magi had studied the star extensively and were able to tell Herod the exact time that the star had first appeared.  This gave Herod his timeline for when this child had been born that he would use in his subsequent killing rampage.  Herod told them that the child would be found in   Bethlehem, according to the words of the prophets.  And the Magi went on their way, happily, thinking that Herod was just as anxious as they were to find this child of promise!

They again saw the star in the east and it led them each step of the way until it stopped above the place where Jesus, sweet baby Jesus, was.  And then we come to the verse that I selected, "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees they worshiped Him."  True worship!  Finding the goal of their journey, knowing they had arrived at their destination, and being convinced that this child, this small child, was someone so very special that they could not stand in His presence.  They fell to their knees because of who Jesus is.

We are told that they were warned, supernaturally, in a dream to not return to Herod, but they returned a different way to go back to their own country.  Have you ever thought...the wise men were the first missionaries!  These men who had seen something so extraordinary, so very holy went back to their country and you can't tell me that they didn't tell everyone what they had seen and experienced!  They had been overjoyed beyond measure and they had fallen on their knees...these are words that describe an event unlike any other in their lives.  God's eternal plan is at work.  People of all nations are already starting to hear of His Son's arrival to this earth.  I think that's amazing.

Speaking of dreams, Matthew conveys in just the first two chapters of his gospel five instances of God-sent dreams.  This was an important thing for Matthew to let his Jewish audience be aware of, for they knew that in the Old Testament, God had often used dreams to convey His direction, and now He was using dreams again to direct the people surrounding the birth of Jesus.  This again confirmed the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus.

In reading of Herod's massacre of the babies of Bethlehem and the flight of Jesus and his family to Egypt, it occurred to me that this is the first instance of Christian persecution.  Hatred fueled the murder of these children and forced Mary, Joseph and Jesus to become refugees to a foreign land. The arrival of Jesus brought with it the division of those who will honor Him (the wise men) and those who will despise Him (Herod).  This division has never left the earth...we see it 2,000 years later in just as horrific ways.  And we see it 2,000 years later in much more subtle ways as well.

But the encouraging thing that we also see is that God's plans will never be diverted by Satan's promptings of evil.  God protects Jesus and His family, and allows them to return to Judea at just the right time to just the right place.  Jesus will grow up in Nazareth in relative obscurity, allowing Him to thrive and grow and "become strong, filled with wisdom, and God's grace was on Him." (Luke 2:40)  "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people." (Luke 2:52.

So what did I discover about Jesus' mission in this chapter of Matthew's gospel:
1.  Through the prophecy quoted in v. 6, Jesus came to be the shepherd of the people of Israel.  He truly is the King of the Jews, and is the promised Messiah spoken of to Abraham and David and by the prophets.  Matthew was presenting Jesus to his Jewish brothers and sisters, and many of them came to faith.
2.  Again, we see that fulfillment of prophecy was part of Jesus' mission.  (Verses 6, 18, and 23)
3.  That Jesus brings with Him a choice to everyone...will we honor Him, or will we reject Him?  Will He bring joy to our life as we fall on our knees before Him, or will He be a stumbling block to our own personal agenda?

Are Matthew's words coming alive to you?  They are full of life to us who believe.  Every word of Scripture is.  Now we move to Chapter 3.  Which verse(s) are you selecting to store in your heart? I am choosing v. 16-17, "After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water.  The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him.  And there came a voice from heaven:  'This is My beloved Son, I take delight in Him.' "

These verses are foundational to the evidence of the Holy Trinity---Father, Son and Holy Spirit all present at the same moment.  And because of what Jesus has done on my behalf, I can hear the Father's words spoken over me as well.  Not because of who I am, but because of what He's done; not because of what I've done, but because of who He is.  Thank You Jesus for coming for me!

Matthew Chapter One Recap and Intro to Chapter Two

Have you let Matthew 1 sink into your heart this week?

We start off with the genealogy...not the most exciting reading, BUT it is included in God's Holy Word for purpose.  What do you think God's purpose was for Matthew to include this listing?  Remember what I put in the comment I added to last week's post, that Matthew was writing to a primarily Jewish audience that had converted to Christianity, or were considering that conversion.  Why would it have been important for them to read this detailed genealogy?  Because they needed to see, in detail, the fact that Jesus came from the line of promise, going back to their father Abraham.  Abraham had received the promise long ago that his offspring would bring blessing to all people  (Genesis 12:3 and 22:18).  And they also knew the promise given to King David, that his descendent would establish a forever kingdom (2 Samuel 7:11-13).  So while this reading may seem unimportant to us, for a first century Jew to even consider that Jesus was the promised Messiah, it was absolutely necessary to see His lineage.  I also think it's important for us to see that the promises God makes are being worked out over periods of time---they may not happen in our lifetime, just as they did not for Abraham or David.  But God was working through every conception, every life, throughout all these generations to fulfill His divine promise.  And then at just the right time, it happened!

Now my question about the "fourteen generations" --- I read several commentaries regarding this notation of Matthew, and the one that I settled on was this:  the three fourteen generation segments represent six "sevens", thus making the arrival of the Messiah the seventh seven.  A Jewish religious scholar understood the significance of the number seven --- it represented completion and perfection.  A seventh seven would be the epitome of that representation.  That answer satisfies me, although it may not be all that Matthew intended.  What do you think?


And then Jesus' birth...what beautiful characters we are introduced to! Mary, the young mother who suddenly finds herself pregnant.  And Joseph, who had thought he had been engaged to a sweet, innocent, Jewish girl now suddenly faced with a situation he was caught totally off guard with, but still showing such sweetness of heart that he did not want to put Mary in a place of disgrace.  How many men would probably have drug her into the public square for a, then deserved by Jewish law, stoning!

Another note of importance for Matthew's readers would be the explanation of how Mary became pregnant, by the Holy Spirit.  They knew the prophecy contained in Isaiah 7:14, that a virgin would conceive and bring Immanuel, "God is with us."  Matthew quotes the prophecy to reinforce to his audience that Jesus is the One Isaiah spoke of.

So, I had stated that one of my goals in studying Matthew was to focus on the "Mission of Jesus", statements that tell us why Jesus came to earth for us.  This is what I saw in the first chapter of Matthew---
1. To save us from our sins (v. 21)
2. To fulfill what was spoken of by God through Old Testament prophets (vs. 22)
3. To bring God to us so we could truly know Him (v. 23)
4. To prove that God's Word is trustworthy - what He says He will do, He will do - even if it takes 42 generations! (v. 2-16)

Now on to Chapter 2...I'm picking two verses to memorize, vs. 10-11.  I'm picking these verses because they exhibit the emotion that I think we should have when we worship our Lord,
"When they saw the star they were overjoyed beyond measure.  Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him."

Overjoyed beyond measure...falling to their knees...they worshiped Him!  They had found their sought-after treasure and they were exuberant and humble at the same time.  Let that be me!

Starting something new!

Years ago I did Bible studies on the Gospels.  I'm finding myself drawn again to studying these books of Jesus' life on earth, so I'm starting with, can you guess?  The book of Matthew.  I plan on taking a chapter a week, studying and pondering on what is conveyed to me through the words as penned through this disciple.  Since there are 28 chapters in this very first Gospel, it will take until almost the end of 2016 to cover going at the rate of a chapter a week.

Specifically, I am focusing on the "Mission of Jesus"...what each chapter tells us about why Jesus came.  I think that's very important for us, as Christians, to understand because we are more and more being challenged as to the uniqueness of Jesus in His role in history.  We need to know why Jesus was sent to fully understand the difference between Him and every other earthly religious figure.

Also, each week, I'm going to pick my verse in that chapter to commit to memory.  You can pick your own or use mine.  But I want a verse to tuck back in my head to bring that chapter to life for me.  The verse from Chapter 1 that I've selected is vs. 21 - "She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from theirs sins."

So - for the next 28 weeks, I will post once a week with what I have seen in God's Word in the chapter covered that week.  I earnestly invite you to join with me...read God's Word...and please offer your comments as to what God has shown you as well.

So let's read Matthew 1 every day this week...when you have time dig a little deeper and really study the verses that you have questions about.  I have a question right now that I need to look deeper into, "What is the signficance of the 14 generations mentioned in v.17?"  That intrigues me.

Feel free to post comments through the week, and then next week I'll summarize what I have seen in this first chapter of the first of the four Gospels of our Lord and Savior, JESUS!