The Message of the Messiah (Matt. 5:1-16)

Introducing the Sermon on the Mount

Now in Matthew 5-7 we come to the material usually called “The Sermon on the Mount.”  There is a parallel account in Lk 6:17-23.  Pulling some details from both accounts, it appears that Jesus left Capernaum and ascended a mountain in the area with some followers where He prayed all night.  He then chose twelve of them whom Luke calls “apostles.”  Together they then descended to a level place still in the mountains nearby where he taught the crowds who had followed them.  The best candidate for this place seems to be the Horns of Hattim (about 14 miles south from Capernaum or halfway between Nazareth and Capernaum) which overlooks the Sea of Galilee and was the later scene of the medieval battle where Saladin defeated the Crusaders.

The record of His teaching that day concerned the good news about the kingdom of heaven.  (We have already briefly discussed this theme and its relationship to the special promises God had given to Israel through His prophets). God had slowly revealed Himself in the Old Testament.  Now in the New Testament gospels, especially in Matthew, we see Jesus slowly revealing Himself to the descendants of Jacob, now known collectively as Jews.  How can we gain entrance into the Kingdom?  Who is the King?  The Jews already knew that they needed to be righteous to enter in.  Oh how blessed that would be!  That’s why the teachings of the Pharisees were so important to them.  So, Jesus started by talking about what true blessedness looked like.  The blessed kingdom is inhabited by blessed people.  Who are they?  Matthew shows us that the answer to that question was upside down from what they had understood from their teachers, the Pharisees. 

The Beatitudes

The traditional name for the first section of this sermon is usually “The Beatitudes” which doesn’t really communicate to us.  Perhaps a better title might be “True Blessedness.”  Jesus gave eight descriptions of what the truly blessed person who enters the kingdom of heaven is like.  “Blessed” is sometimes translated “happy” but remember it is in the context of the joy of being counted righteous enough to enter the Kingdom of God.  As you read these descriptions, they sound like the kind of people we want to live next door to.  But would we even qualify to be their neighbors in the kingdom of heaven?  Here are the eight descriptions:

1)      “Poor in spirit” or “spiritually impoverished.”  This is quite unexpected that those who are NOT self-sufficient and rely on Another for spiritual needs are actually spiritually fortunate!  Theirs IS the kingdom of heaven!  This is where your spiritual journey must begin!  You must recognize your spiritual need!

2)      “Mourn” or experience loss and grieve.  You must recognize your lostness!

3)      “Meek” (not weak) but patiently rely on God’s strength.  Meekness is humble reliance on the strength of another—God!

4)      “Hunger and thirst” for righteousness. (Not satisfied with their own self-righteousness, they seek for true righteousness that comes from God alone.

5)      “Merciful” because only those who show mercy receive mercy—it is proof that they acknowledge the depths of loss that they have been delivered from—as in the parable of the unmerciful debtor (Matthew 18).

6)      “Pure in heart” remembering David could cry to God to “create in me a clean heart” (Ps. 51) and recognizing that external actions are born first in the heart.

7)      “Peacemaker” knowing that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood”—our battle is spiritual not zealotry (Eph 6) and not against people.

8)      (Some might split this into two items). “Persecuted for the sake of righteousness and for Jesus’ sake” because the righteousness you exhibit will magnify their lack of it and they will hate you for it just like they hated Jesus and His prophets. 

These eight characteristics of blessedness were upside down from the teaching of the Pharisees.  Blessed people, they taught, were wealthy, happy, loud, feasting, demanding “justice” while majoring on external behavior and ignoring heart issues, stirring up hatred against “sinners” and “publicans” and “tax collectors,” etc., But they persecuted Jesus for revealing them to be lawbreakers in their hearts.

The Purpose of Blessedness

Jesus uses two analogies to explain how “blessed people’s” good works affect the people around them.  The good works do not MAKE them blessed but they do good works by design because they ARE blessed.  They reflect God’s character.  They point to God not to themselves.  Those around them are attracted to God because of the goodness of God displayed by His “Blessed Ones.”

1)      Analogy 1: “Salt of the earth” because the taste of salt pervades the whole dish and enhances the flavor.  But if it doesn’t do anything it is of no value and might as well be tossed out into the street.  “Blessed people” enhance the world around them.

2)      Analogy 2: “Light of the world/city on a hill/lamp on a table” because your blessed behavior makes everyone notice you just as everyone can see the city on the hill—especially when it gets dark.

By the way, “glory” and “glorify” are words Jesus uses often as He does here in verse 16.  Our modern English usage referring to “making someone look good” is a rather poor definition.  These biblical words always refer to the true character and nature of God.  To glorify God is to reflect His character – what He is like – in our words and actions. So, Jesus is telling us that His “blessed ones” don’t try to hide their godly lifestyle.  Neither do they take credit for what they are but clearly reflect the character of God in their actions.  This is an important distinction because the Pharisees want everyone to see how “righteous” they are, as we shall see, and Jesus would have none of it.  You let “your light” shine AND “glorify your Father in heaven.”  So, when you “shine your light,” who is getting the glory?

© 2018 Eric Thimell

Ministry of the Messiah Begins (Matt. 4:12-25)

Matthew’s next narrative concerning the life and ministry of Jesus picks up some time after His ordeal in the wilderness with the devil.  We know from other gospel writers about some other places Jesus went before this time, but Matthew chooses to elaborate on Jesus' primary headquarters for ministry in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee.  Matthew connects Jesus' change of locale from Judea to Galilee with the arrest of John the Baptist who had also ministered in Judea.  He says Jesus “withdrew” (ESV) or “departed.”  Jesus’ response to John’s arrest is to leave the area.  He would continue to visit Jerusalem for the annual feasts and so also passed through parts of Judea and Samaria on the way.  We know He also spent some time initially in Decapolis where John the Baptist had also ministered.  But now He went back to Nazareth—perhaps to pay His family a brief visit—and then moved to the resort town of Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. 

This new location for Jesus the Messiah seems to be rather unexpected.  Jerusalem in Judea was the center of religious life.  Galilee was way out on the fringe.  This territory had been colonized by both Jews and Gentiles.  Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth was in the shadow of the great pagan Roman city of Sephoris.  The huge Roman beach resort of Tiberius was also on the Sea of Galilee and as a result it later became known as the Sea of Tiberius.  But Matthew points out that Galilee was located at the ancient boundary between Zebulon and Naphtali.  This was another “fulfillment” or linkage to the prophet Isaiah.  So, he quotes from Isaiah 9 which describes the Messiah bringing spiritual enlightenment to a sin-darkened place in “Zebulon and Naphtali” and the “Galilee of the Gentiles.” 

So, Jesus is not running from danger, though it is dangerous in Judea and “it is not His time.”  He is fulfilling the will of His Father prophesied in the Word of God.  This is the specific area that he is to minister and shine “a great light.”  So, it is here that Matthew points us to the place where He began to preach saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven” is within reach. This is the same message that John the Baptist had preached.   And, yes, Isaiah and Jeremiah were commissioned to preach repentance as well (Isa. 6) but were told that they would be largely ignored. 

But now, Jesus’ preaching, like that of John the Baptist, drew large crowds, as we shall see.  Jesus frequently went where people were responding—the fringe.  Many Judeans felt that being children of Abraham was enough.  They had no need to repent or change.  The leaders who lived there would become both fearful and hateful toward Him because he did not accept them in their self-righteousness.  Jesus did not come to call ‘good’ people but ‘sinners.’  It was the ‘sick’ who needed a physician, not those who said they were ok. 

While many in Galilee responded to this message many more did not.  In the process and because of His location in an area with many Gentiles, a number of Gentiles and Samaritans also responded to His message of getting right with God.  As He told the woman at the well in Samaria (this happened during one of his earlier trips between Jerusalem and Galilee), ‘God is seeking worshippers.’  And He offered her ‘living water’ – eternal life.

Notice that Jesus did not locate in His old hometown in Galilee – Nazareth.    Elsewhere we learn that it was hard for people who had known Him growing up and knew His family to believe that He was actually the Messiah.  This also proves Jesus had not been doing “magic” tricks as a child.  There had been His miraculous birth (in Bethlehem) and the amazing visit of the Magi (also in Bethlehem) and His unexpected facility with the Scriptures demonstrated at His Bar Mitzvah exam in Jerusalem, but in Nazareth He was known as the son of the building contractor—that’s what the word often translated “carpenter” means.  So, to Capernaum (the well of Nahum), He went.

It is here, while walking along the shore, that He called the first four disciples who were all fishermen by trade: the brothers Peter and Andrew and the brothers James and John.  They all “left their nets” and their families and followed Him.  Jesus words to them were: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  In John’s gospel we learn that He had actually encountered some of these men earlier across Jordan where John was baptizing.  Later, Jesus specifically added eight more to their number but these four were called ‘fishers of men.’  It would be a mistake to assume that only the Twelve were to minister because later He specifically sent out a group called the Seventy.  Even though He did not have a huge organization of vocationally dedicated workers he still expected everyone who claimed to follow Him to live according to His teachings.

Jesus’ ministry in Galilee exploded with activity according to the last few verses in Matthew 4.  He was healing, teaching and preaching the good news of the Kingdom— all signs of the Messiah—and He became well-known all over the province of Syria (which Galilee was a part of) and He had crowds of followers from all over the Jewish homelands—even Judea and Jerusalem.  The Messiah had come—with a message—"Repent.  The kingdom of heaven is within reach."

© Eric Thimell 2018

The Messiah: Led by the Spirit and Tempted by the Devil (Matthew 4:1-11)

Matthew has described Jesus’ introduction to Israel at His baptism by John.  He is momentarily placed in the spotlight as the Messiah of Israel so all can see Him.  Jesus’ only recorded words are given to John to baptize Him to “fulfill all righteousness” which we explained referred to the righteousness that God required for entry into the kingdom of heaven and that Jesus had come to provide.  Jesus was identifying with John’s message that entry into the kingdom was within reach but it required righteousness.  So now in chapter 4, Matthew presents another obstacle to the plan of God—the devil.  The devil has a plan--but so does the Father.

But even as the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep to oversee the plan of God in creation, He also hovers over Jesus from His baptism on—to oversee the plan of God in restoration.  Matthew causes us to gasp in shock to see the Spirit of God leading Jesus into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil.”  The description of the setting in the wilderness and the forty days and nights without food and resulting hunger serve to remind us of Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness always complaining about a lack of food even in the presence of God hovering above them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.  Why would God put Jesus through that?  In fact, we will later look at the “Lord’s prayer” which includes the request: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  What is God doing?

How is this even compatible—being led by the Spirit and being tempted by the devil?  It is crucial that we understand that Jesus is demonstrating that overcoming temptation is possible—not just because He is God.  Jesus meets the devil as a Man Who is hungry, Who is on a mission to restore fallen humanity, and Who longs to return to His glory with the Father and the devil knows this.  He presents Jesus with illegitimate, evil “shortcuts” to relieve his hunger, to force God to mount a rescue mission, and to receive the worship of the world.  But Jesus successfully counters these three temptations with His ironclad trust in the Word of God.

The question is often posed, ‘If Jesus was truly tempted “in all points” like us (Heb. 4:15) wouldn’t that mean it was possible for Jesus to fail this test and sin?’  But understand that God cannot do something outside His character.  God has limits on His own power—and that is His self-imposed glory and character.  So, no, Jesus could not have sinned.  But that is not the purpose of a test from God.  God’s purpose is not to get us to fail; it is to prove what and who we are.  The devil’s purpose may have been to get Jesus to fail, but not the Spirit’s.  So how does that encourage us who can— and do—fail all the time?  Because in this test, Jesus had some self-imposed limitations and He still overcame.  1) He was hungry to demonstrate that physical pressure does not have to overpower spiritual requirements.  2)  He did not want to die for the sins of the world (we will examine His prayer in the garden later) but that did not prevent Him from submitting to the will of His Father.  3)  He wanted to restore all mankind to the worship of God but that could not be done by submitting to the devil.

Notice also that it is only in trials that our true character is brought out.  Jesus character did not need refining but it did need to be demonstrated.  So, Jesus is “fulfilling” another Old Testament theme which Jesus explains more fully in the next chapter.  He came to “fulfill” the Law that Israel failed to follow.  In this temptation, he demonstrated that fulfillment.

We notice one more principle regarding temptation.  Jesus was never faced with choosing the “lesser of two evils.”  Jesus always turns the question to “What does God want me to do.”  God never wants us to do evil.

Although the temptation began in the wilderness where Jesus had fasted, notice that it also took place partly in public— “on the pinnacle of the temple.”  Jesus character was noticed. While Jesus did many miracles, there were times he pointed out that “this was not His time.”  He only said and did what His Father asked Him to do.  So, here He did not jump.

By the way, when does temptation become sinful lust?  When we begin to fantasize about the sin and return to the pleasure of the thought even though we never commit the act physically.  It is not evil to be tempted, but lust, even in the mind, is still sin.  More on this in our next section.

Jesus successfully overcame the temptation of the devil who then left Him and Matthew tells us that the angels who were supposed to rescue Him now do so. They came to minister to His needs.  God is always on time with what we truly need.

© Eric Thimell 2018

Introducing Israel to their Redeemer (Matthew 3:1-12)

In chapter 3, Matthew jumps ahead in his narrative concerning Jesus Christ from His childhood home in Nazareth to the beginning of His adult ministry at about age 30.  He first comes to public attention at His baptism by John the Baptist.  Matthew begins by pointing to some rather striking highlights of John’s ministry.

 First, his message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is within reach!”  Matthew links John and his ministry with another prophecy of Isaiah (Isa. 40:3).  He says John was the one spoken of when the prophet wrote: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD, Make His paths straight.”  The way of Almighty God needed to be prepared not because God needed help but because the people needed to be ready for Him.  They need to pay attention to God’s messenger.

 

Matthew notes that John was indeed preaching in the wilderness of Judea—the desert area to the west of the Dead Sea.  And his mission was to prepare the way for the Messiah.  His food, appearance, and message of repentance in light of an imminent appearance of the kingdom of heaven echoed that of the Old Testament prophets.  And Matthew notes that John’s ministry sparked a revival on a national level.  Crowds came from all around the region to be baptized as a sign of repentance from their sins to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

 But some came as opportunists—to take advantage of the spiritual climate, including the larger religious sects called Pharisees and Sadducees.  The former were quite conservative in their message and the latter quite liberal but both of them equated righteousness with externals alone.  And John gave them a public tongue lashing as they also lined up to be baptized.

 He called them “offspring of serpents” and asked them derisively, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  The Sadducees didn’t believe in any such thing and the Pharisees thought they were immune from it.

John called them to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”  Not that they could save themselves by good works—quite the opposite.  Nor could they trust in their Abrahamic blood to save them.  Yes, God promised to bless the heirs of Abraham but many of his descendants perished in their sins.  And even if every single descendant failed to trust in God and perished, still God was able to raise up descendants from “these stones.”

  Many of these same themes, Jesus would later amplify in his own debates with these same leaders.  John’s message would become Jesus’ message.  Matthew only introduces these themes here.  He does not amplify them beyond pointing out the root of dissension that would grow to eventually kill both John and Jesus.

 These leaders disbelieved or ignored the two possible futures looming before all mankind:  the kingdom of heaven and the wrath of God.  They spoke of the “kingdom of heaven” but only saw it in terms of their own leadership in it. 

 What then is this “fruit” that is connected to fleeing the wrath of God?  John called it fruit “worthy of repentance.”  Somehow repentance was seen as fleeing the wrath of God to enter the kingdom.  Those who enter the kingdom are somehow “worthy.”  So, a change from unworthy to worthy was necessary.  Matthew does not settle this enigma yet.  He is tantalizing his readers.  All we know at this point is that they were to prepare for the kingdom by recognizing that they are not worthy and thus need a Redeemer.  So here repentance was a recognition of this need because of their sin that made them unworthy of the kingdom of heaven.  The religious leaders denied their need of a redeemer.

 Their lives showed that they still trusted in their own righteousness assumed to be inherited from Abraham.  They didn’t really believe they were sinners in need of salvation.  God knows those who are trusting in Him alone and those who are trusting in their own efforts.  Your trust must be in God who is calling for obedience in the heart as well as the body. 

 Repentance would also be a prominent part of Jesus’ own proclamation of the gospel to Israel.  We will examine it further at that point.  For now, notice that repentance does not make them worthy of the kingdom but rather their actions demonstrate that they acknowledge their need for change and for forgiveness.  These will be two major obstacles to entering the kingdom that must be removed before they can enter.  In this way, John prepares the way of the Lord.

 John’s baptism, then, had no meaning apart from an inner heart change.  It was a sign of identification with a message that the kingdom of heaven was within reach and only those whose trust was in God to rescue them from the wrath to come could expect to enter the kingdom.

 John, in all humility, also preached about the Messiah who would come after him to bring this kingdom.  John emphasized the deity of this One when he stated he wasn’t even worthy of being the Messiah’s house servant in charge of taking off His shoes.  This Messiah, would do much more than John who preached and baptized with water. 

 The Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.  He would bring about the spiritual reality of Spirit baptism that corresponded to the symbol of water baptism.  The fire Matthew mentions could refer to the tongues of fire that accompanied the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) but since that seems to be a one-time experience, it more likely ought to be seen in contrast to the baptism of the Spirit and here refers to the dual role of the Messiah: to judge the world and to restore the remnant.  He is Isaiah’s sanctuary and also the stone of stumbling (Isa. 8).  So, John visualizes the Messiah as a farmer in his dual role of threshing the harvest with a winnowing implement which separates the kernels of grain from the remaining husks.  The illustration comes to a shocking finale as the grain is placed in the barn but the chaff is burned up “with unquenchable fire.”

 It is at this point that Matthew has Jesus re-enter the narrative.  He had been in Galilee where His hometown was located but had now come to be baptized by John in the Jordan River.  Matthew lets us know that it is not because Jesus was a sinner and needed to repent that He came.  John was very pointed in his initial refusal.  “I need to be baptized by you.  Why are you coming to me?” 

 Apparently, John already knew that Jesus was the Messiah.  According to Luke, their mothers were related to one another so they may have already met at family gatherings.  The miraculous nature of both of their births had likely been rehearsed for them over and over again.  But here Matthew focuses on the pronouncement of this nationally prominent prophet who declares that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

 Jesus, in turn, acknowledged that John was right on that score but it needed to be done to “fulfill all righteousness.”  As we have seen, Matthew uses the word “fulfill” as a way of linking the message of the Old Testament prophets with the events of Jesus life.  Jesus’ actions reflected and gave full expression to Old Testament themes and expectations and here the theme that must be fulfilled was that none were righteous but the Messiah like an innocent lamb had all of our iniquity placed on Him that He might suffer in our place and heal us of all our unrighteousness (Isa. 53).  Jesus, too, was trusting God as He faced the task of redeeming the unrighteous.  All those being baptized here clung to this confident expectation that God Himself would provide righteousness and worthiness.

 As Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended on Him in the form of a dove and a voice from heaven was heard declaring, “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”  This is a reflection from Isaiah 42:1 where the Lord describes the Messiah: “Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold, My Chosen, in Whom My soul delights: I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

 So, Jesus is announced to Israel as the Messiah by the testimony of the Scripture, of John the Baptist, and finally by the Father’s voice from heaven accompanied by the appearance of the Spirit.  The kingdom of heaven is within reach.

 © Eric Thimell 2018

The Newborn Messiah: Unexpected Obstacles and Adoration (Matthew 2:1-25)

We come now to Matthew 2 and once again we take especial notice of some unexpected details.  Chapter 1 concluded with Joseph and Mary ending their betrothal period and beginning life together to prevent gossip as Mary’s pregnancy became apparent.  But there is no record of the birth itself, or the travel to Bethlehem and the adoration of the shepherds as Luke so vividly recounts in his gospel.  Instead, the narrative picks up after the birth of Jesus to further opposition to the Child.  Matthew notes in verse 11 that they now are living in a house.  They are not still in the stable behind the inn that Luke talks about.  In verse 16 we also note that it has been as much as two years but probably somewhat less since Jesus’ birth.

Wise Foreigners Seek the Redeemer

Matthew introduces us to “wise men from the east” who have come to worship the king of the Jews as they had seen declared in the heavens.  Matthew does not tell us who these wise men are, how many of them there are, how they knew about the Messiah’s birth (other than a star sign in the sky), or precisely where they are from.  But the word Matthew uses to describe them (magoi) is the same word the Greek translation of the scriptures used to describe the clan of wise men in Persia that the prophet Daniel once headed up.  Persia was indeed located to the east and the magoi were renowned for their knowledge and observations of the heavenly bodies.  These foreigners traveled 600 miles to worship another king and they naturally sought him in the capital city, Jerusalem.

Notice that not only the current king of the Jews, Herod the Great, was upset but all Jerusalem with him.  Herod had killed many supposed usurpers – even his wife and some of his sons.   The city worried that someone else would die and Herod worried for his throne. 

Matthew points out that Herod had his own wise men – the religious experts –  brought in for help?  He either believed the Bible might be correct or, more likely, he surmised that the people would believe and rally around a usurper as they had done before.  The experts pointed to the prophet Micah and his prediction that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem.  Micah wrote about the same time as Isaiah whose sign to King Ahaz serves as the background for the virgin birth of the Messiah.  Micah addressed the same coming judgment upon Israel and Judah but also a coming deliverance by a divine Ruler who had always been around but would be born in Bethlehem.  He would set up a worldwide kingdom.

Why didn’t Herod and his wise men go to Bethlehem six miles down the road right then and there?  He probably didn’t want to advertise the message of the wise men nor did he want to worship this child as would be expected of him should they find Him. His scribes and chief priests were not seeking the true Messiah, either, for they did not offer to go to Bethlehem, either.

But Herod did want to know how to find this child—should he exist. So, he secretly solicited from the wise men the time the star first appeared and directed them to return and give him the exact location.

The star had initially led the wise men to Israel where they sought more specific help in Jerusalem, the capital city.  But after getting further directions from the Bible scholars in Jerusalem and setting out for Bethlehem (six miles away), the star reappeared and this time led them to a specific place and house.   This was obviously no ordinary star.  No object beyond our atmosphere could serve.  This was supernatural. 

Their reaction upon seeing Jesus filled them with great joy and they worshipped Him.   They gave him gifts befitting a king. In the ancient world, emissaries from subservient kingdoms sent rich gifts to a new king to demonstrate their fealty.   

Wise, indeed, were these magoi who knew how to discern wisdom not only from a sign in the sky, then from the words of the prophet Micah, and now from a God-given dream warning them to go home a different way.

 

A Foreign Land Shelters the Redeemer from the Massacre in Bethlehem

Joseph now has his second dream from the Angel of the Lord.  To protect Jesus from the wrath of Herod he is told to flee to Egypt. We can also see that those expensive gifts would be needed for the trip to and from Egypt.  At this point, Matthew quotes from the prophet Hosea who also wrote at the same time as Isaiah and Micah and spoke of Israel returning to Egypt in a reverse exodus to protect themselves.  But God would bring them back and Matthew sees the Messiah also seeking temporary protection in Egypt and then returning.

While Jesus was gone, and since the wise men had not reported back, Herod ordered the murder of all the baby boys near Bethlehem who were two and under.  Herod calculated this age from the date the wise men had first seen the star.  So, he reasoned that Jesus was likely less than two years of age.  This murder would likely have removed most if not all infant male descendants of David whose families were required to move to their own ancestral towns to assess the tax value of their lands (as Luke reports).

Moses, also, had escaped such a massacre at his birth.  Matthew does not mention this but instead recalls Jeremiah’s lament over the metaphorical wailing of Rachel (Jacob’s long-dead wife who was buried near Bethlehem) over her children as they were killed or marched off to slavery in Babylon.  Nearly six hundred years before, Ramah was the collection point for the exiled Jewish slaves as they set off in the long sorrowful caravans of tears for Babylon.

The Redeemer is Called a Nazarene

Matthew now recalls Joseph’s third dream from the Angel of the Lord telling him to return to Israel because Herod is dead. Herod died in 4 BC so Jesus was probably born between 6 and 7 BC!  As they made their way back, Joseph has a fourth dream telling him not to return to Bethlehem (which was in Judea ruled by Herod’s son Archelaus).  So, he went to the town where Mary and he had lived before they got married (according to Luke) which was Nazareth.  This was in Galilee which was ruled over by another son of Herod called Antipas.

Matthew now alludes to other Old Testament prophets saying, “He would be called a Nazarene.”  What is he talking about?  Many Old Testament prophets allude to the fact that the Messiah will not be highly esteemed.  Even Nathaniel quotes a saying based on this idea: “Can any good come out of Nazareth?”  Galilee was considered the spiritual opposite of the holy city of Jerusalem.  Even today the Arabs call Christians ‘Nazarenes’ as a pejorative term.   How will the Messiah bring in His kingdom by starting in the spiritual backwater of the nation?

© 2018 Eric Thimell

God Intervenes in the Birth of Y’shua the Messiah (Matthew 1:18-25)

The Scandal of Redemption

Following on the mention of Mary in the family tree for Jesus, in Matthew 1:18-25, we have Matthew’s record of Jesus’ birth.  But Matthew is not merely giving us a conventional birth announcement.  There is an astounding transparency of inconvenient details that surely must be true.  What publicity minded church would publish this sort of scandalous information about the purported Redeemer of Israel?

The normal procedure at this time and place was such that following the arrangement of the betrothal (engagement), a couple was considered legally married but the bride normally continued to live with her parents for a year while the husband prepared a home.  They did not have intimacy during that time and the lack of pregnancy at the end of this time demonstrated her chastity.  If a scandal did occur, the match would be called off via a legal divorce although there was the potential for deadly legal penalties.

This is just the scandalous situation that Joseph and Mary are caught up in.  But Matthew tells us that God had intervened.  Mary was pregnant “through the Holy Spirit.”  Joseph apparently believed something very wrong ad taken place but notice that he did not want her to be publicly shamed so he planned to “quietly” divorce her.  Now for a second time in Matthew’s record, the Lord intervened and an “angel of the Lord” explained to Joseph in a dream before he could follow through on divorce.

Apparently, no outsider was privy to the situation so it could be kept in the immediate family at that time, yet it did add to the tension in what could have been a very dangerous and scandalous situation concerning the birth of the redeemer of Israel.

The Prophecy of Redemption

Matthew signifies this scandal as a sign given to Israel once before.  The traditional treatment is that this is the ‘fulfillment’ of Isaiah’s prophecy—meaning that Isaiah predicted the virgin birth.  But it is much deeper than that.

In Isaiah 7 and 8, Uzziah’s grandson Ahaz was on the throne of Judah and Pekah the wicked king of Israel had made an alliance with Syria to attack Judah.  And the Lord promised that Assyria would carry both Israel and Syria away into captivity.  It would also nearly prove the undoing of Judah as well.  Isaiah gave a sign from the Lord in Isaiah 7:14 that speaks of a maiden giving birth to a son who would be called “Emmanuel” and would be eating curds and honey before he was old enough to know right and wrong.  (Curds and honey would mean the land had been abandoned and no longer cultivated but only grazed on by cattle.)  This was to be God’s sign to Ahaz that He would be “with” Israel even though disaster lay ahead and their cousins in Israel would be carried off into exile. 

So now Jesus is the same kind of sign.  Disaster is coming for Israel but God is in it and will be with “us.”  The sign in Isaiah’s day was the birth and life of Emmanuel.  And now in Matthew’s day it is the virgin birth that proves that God is with us even in the coming disaster.

It is interesting that the Greek translation of Isaiah specifies that the maiden was not just a young maiden of marriageable age (almah) as the Hebrew text affirms but was specifically a virgin (parthenos).  This seems to be the translation that Matthew refers to here.  A detail that may have been obscure to Isaiah is clarified by the Greek translation – the Bible that everyone used at that time.

While Emmanuel of Isaiah’s day was apparently only a sign, this Emmanuel would also save His people from their sins.  They cannot save themselves as was also true of the people of Isaiah’s day and now the new Emmanuel Himself would not only be with them as God, He would also be the means of their salvation from sins.  This will not take place without tremendous opposition.

© 2018 Eric Thimell

Introduction to Our Study of Matthew

Note:  This should have been posted at the start of our Matthew Studies Series. 

This study was conducted over the course of two years and these notes are a compilation of the handouts prepared for the Friday Night Bible Study of the En Gedi Hospitality House in Mountain Home, Idaho.  It is an ongoing ministry of Cadence International to the military community at Mountain Home Air Force Base so it is to these young men and women who patiently shared in the fruits of this study week after week that they are gratefully dedicated.

In preparation for this study, I used only a Bible – mainly the English Standard Version—but I compared the text to many other translations as well as to the Greek text and when I was finished with a passage, I sometimes consulted a few commentaries or reference books to compare certain points of interpretation.  But the finished product was my own. 

My method of study involved reading and re-reading the text according to the Bible study method I learned from Dr. Howard Hendricks being careful to “bombard the text” with questions as Prof would say and then consider answers that came to mind or I had heard before in my seminary classes and books I had read.  But I also began to utilize a method proposed by Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla as a basis for sound homiletics.  In this method, we try to discern “what the author is doing with what he is saying.”  In other words, seeking clues in the text itself that speak to the lesson that the author considered to be of primary importance in his recording the sacred words imparted to Him by the Holy Spirit.

There have been those scholars over the years who have scorned the idea that we moderns can “psychoanalyze” or in any way truly discern the “intention of the author.”  But eventually this idea of intentionality became an important piece in what became known as the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy.  And more recently, Dr. Kuruvilla has refined this idea as a crucial part of his method of preaching the Word of God.  I have taken his ideas and methods and applied them to teaching as well as preaching.

I recognize that there are truly wonderful intertextual studies that go beyond the purposes of a single biblical author but for teaching through the Bible book by book, this new method has been the most satisfying tool I have found.  I still ask questions that consider the observations made by other Biblical authors that may affect my understanding of a passage but in the end, I seek to understand why Matthew presents his material in the way that he does it albeit somewhat differently from the other gospel authors.  This will not offer a complete picture of everything we wish to know or even everything that is revealed in the Bible.  I have attempted to address some theological (as well as gospel harmonization) issues as they surface in a more intertextual manner but for the most part I have confined myself to Matthew’s pedagogical outline.

This study does not primarily make an appeal to the scholarship of great teachers of the past or even more current notions although at times I interact with these ideas (often without naming the scholar) because it is the teaching and interpretation we wish to apprehend—not personalities and human authorities to which we too often cling to more tenaciously than the Word itself.  For the purposes of this study, it is usually enough to simply discuss an idea that is “out there” and attempt to see if this is a good fit for what Matthew is talking about.  This will limit the use of this book by students who are trying to glean bibliographic information.  Hopefully, it will more than make up for that shortcoming by shining a light on the “message of the book” according to Matthew.

© 2018 Eric Thimell