The Rest of the Old, Old Story

Through the Bible in a Year: Matthew 13 to 17

Posted on 01/18/2012 by Paul Pavao

This is another long commentary. I hated not giving you the information because I know there are those who will really benefit from it. So today, I have introduced a new convention. Some of the sections are marked "(Advanced)." Children and beginners can deal with these sections at some other time, or maybe in another read through next year. Or they could be set aside for leisure study.

Matthew 13:3-15: The Parables

I mentioned yesterday that you would see a change in the way Jesus taught the people after the Pharisees blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Now, everything is in parables.

The reason that Jesus gives is interesting, and it could be frightening if we don’t keep it in context. Does God really want people to have hardened hearts and not hear the Word of God?

The answer is yes, but it is not random people. We saw yesterday that it is the "wise and prudent" from whom he hides the word (Matt. 11:25, NASB). These are those that are wise and prudent in their own estimation rather than having a true wisdom in humility before God. God speaks of them often (e.g., Jer. 9:23-24; 1 Cor. 1:27).

Thus, the point of parables is that when Jesus speaks to a crowd, he lets the Father choose who will hear and who will not hear. Parables come, and if the person "has ears to hear," then the Father will let him understand the parables. If not, then the Word of God has not been thrown to pigs and dogs (Matt. 7:6).

Matthew 13:16-23: Those Who Have Ears To Hear

In private, among those who have ears to hear, Jesus spoke more plainly, being willing to explain each parable carefully even when he seemed a little frustrated with their lack of understanding (Matt. 15:15-16).

Matthew 13:18-23: The Word

In modern times, when we say "The Word," we usually mean the Bible. That is far too small a way to use "The Word."

Jesus himself is called the Word of God (Jn. 1:1-3). Every time God speaks, in any way, it is the Word of God. Even further, though, the Word of God can be like a seed that is planted in our heart that actually grows (Acts 6:7; Jam. 1:18,21-22; 1 Pet. 1:23).

On a practical basis, we need to understand that we have the Word of God living in us, growing in us … if we are Christians. Just as we must not underestimate the supernatural power of being a Spirit-filled human being (as a result of entering the new covenant with God through Christ), so we must not underestimate the power of the Word of God within us.

It is because of the Word of God that "you may all prophesy, one by one" (1 Cor. 14:31).

We need to get out of our religious boxes and not confine the idea of prophecy to standing up in church and shouting, "Thus saith the Lord!" In a church of three or four hundred people, you may not all prophesy one by one in that manner. It would be disorderly (1 Cor. 14:31-33).

Instead, the apostles lived as people in whom the Word of God lived. They spoke what the Holy Spirit gave them to say. How many times did Peter pass the crippled man at the Gate Beautiful before the day that he fixed his eyes on him, pulled him to his feet, and healed him in Jesus’ name? (Acts 3:2-11). Would the crippled man listening to Paul have been healed had Paul not known that the Word of God comes in more forms than the Scriptures? (Acts 14:8-10).

Matthew 13:18-23: The Hearers (Advanced)

It will help us to remember that not everyone is meant to hear. We can wear ourselves out hoping to reach people that God has no intention of reaching because they are among the wise and prudent from whom God is purposely hiding the Word.

There are those that will not hear. We can speak the Word, but we cannot open spiritually deaf ears on our own. God must do that. Just as Jesus began to speak in parables and to leave the sorting of men to his Father, so we must leave the sorting of men to our Father. We must simply be faithful to let the Word of God grow within us through fellowship with God by his Spirit, through the study of the Scriptures, and through following the Spirit and the Word of God as they move inside of us—all balanced by the wise input of spiritual brothers and sisters who are with us in the church and without whom we are always in danger of deception (Heb. 3:13; Eph. 4:11-16).

Matthew 13:24-30: Tares Among the Wheat (Advanced)

This is an important parable to remember. We must be careful of our judgment, and we must be careful that in driving out those that we think are not qualified to be in the church, that we are not plucking one of our Father’s plants.

On the other hand, this parable is often taken too far today and used to justify the fact that we never put anyone out of the church, nor do we make much effort to know the lives of the flock well enough to know if anyone needs to be put out of the church.

The church must be protected. The apostle Paul is very clear about this (1 Cor. 5), and we must find the balance between the mercy and patience of the parable of the tares and dealing with things that must be dealt with inside the church of 1 Corinthians 5.

Matthew 13:33-35: The Leaven

Some parables are not explained by Jesus, and they’re subject to a lot of interpretations by Christians. It’s not my place to interpret parables for you, as you should be able to tell from the context of our reading today.

I do want to point out, though, that these are parables. Every tiny detail does not need to work out. It’s enough to get the main points.

Also, we have to be careful to question our assumptions. "Leaven" is often used negatively in the Bible, especially in the apostles’ writings. That may mean that in this parable leaven is something bad, and it’s talking about how the church will be corrupted. It is also possible, however, that we must question our assumption and look at leaven not as something bad, but simply as something that tends to permeate everything it becomes a part of.

Matthew 13:47-52: End Times (Advanced)

Jesus says some things about the end times in the parable of the fishing net and in the parable of the wheat and tares that are interesting.

Anyone who has been a Christian for very long is familiar with the term "rapture." Rapture is a reference to the return of Jesus, where he raises up all the dead in Christ, and then living Christians immediately follow. At that point, Paul says, we will be "with the Lord forever" (1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Jesus’ parables, however, don’t paint exactly the same picture. In the parables, there is the return of Christ with his angels, and then his angels gather the wicked out of the kingdom.

It’s sort of backwards from the rapture idea. One has the saints pulled out; the other has the wicked pulled out.

What I think is important to remember is that there are two types of prophecies (and maybe more). There are warning prophecies, clear and straightforward, telling you how to prepare for some upcoming event or warning you that you’ll be punished if you don’t repent. Those are straightforward and easy to interpret.

Then there are prophecies which are sent for the future as landmarks and proofs that large, important events are on the right path.

No one has ever been able to figure out the second type of prophecy in advance. No one—not anyone—sorted out the prophecies of Christ before his first coming. There were numerous theories about the Messiah, but not a one of them was correct until Jesus showed up and explained the Scriptures and then fulfilled them.

We should be very careful about having confidence in any theories we have about the second coming of King Jesus.

Matthew 13:58: Not Many Miracles

The Bible tells us that Jesus didn’t do many miracles in his hometown because of their unbelief. I have to wonder how many miracles we miss out on because of the unbelief of America and most of the western world.

Don’t be surprised if you hear many more miracle reports from the front lines of missions in third world countries, where the people are still "ignorant" and "superstitious." Sometimes those are code words for "believing" and "in touch with spiritual things."

God has always hidden things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. It is not our brilliant scientific insights that are "exposing" miracles and thus preventing them from happening. No, they happen all the time.

The fact that I’m sitting here typing this commentary on my last day of chemo after two weeks of radiation prior is a testimony to the miracle of prayer. Those things happen on a daily basis if you’re watching.

There’s an interesting blog by a Christian living in the Middle East who ministers to Muslims. You may be interested in his quite honest stories about praying for healing for Muslims.

Matthew 15:1-14: The Traditions of Men

Nothing on Matthew 14. I felt it could speak for itself.

You should notice the little regard—in fact, the distaste—that Jesus had for adding man’s traditions to the Word of God.

Tradition is not a bad word in and of itself. The traditions of the apostles are the Word of God (1 Cor. 14:37; 2 Thess. 2:15). It is to the apostles that God commissioned the bringing of the Gospel to the world (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; John 14:26; 16:13; 17:8, 18-20).

The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Clement, 1 Clement 42, A.D. 96)

The Church, though dispersed through the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith … (Irenaeus, Against Heresies I:10:1, c. A.D. 185)

I could produce dozens of quotes like that. Just as Moses brought the Law to Israel, and it was inappropriate for the elders to add traditions to the Law later, so the apostles bring the Gospel to the church, and it is inappropriate to add traditions to the traditions of the apostles (Jude 3).

Matthew 15:21-28: The Syrophoenician Woman

I mentioned yesterday that Jesus was hard on Gentiles because he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Nonetheless, when they stood in faith, he gave them what they wished and often remarked upon the greatness of their faith.

In this case, it’s the Syrophoenician woman, and her persistence is phenomenal.

Whenever we run across such examples of faith, it is good to look at the reading and consider what really marked her as a woman of faith. Her persistence, clearly knowing that Jesus could do what she was asking him to do, was the hallmark I see. You may see something more. The point in either case is to learn to imitate her.

Matthew 16:1-12: The Frustration of Jesus

In chapter 15 we read that Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. He fed more than 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few fish. He healed whole crowds of people, who were left marveling.

Immediately, thereafter, we read at the start of chapter 16 that the Pharisees asked him for a sign.

Is it any wonder that he told them forget it?

Worse, his disciples immediately follow by worrying about whether they had remembered to buy bread for a man who can feed thousands of people with a few loaves! Is it any wonder he said, "How can you not understand?" (v. 11).

Matthew 16:13-20: Peter the Rock (Advanced)

This passage of Scripture has been a hotbed of contention between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants ever since the Reformation. To any serious student of history, however, it cannot be.

Jesus calls Peter the Rock in this verse, and says that he will build the church on Peter. The Roman Catholic Church has historically interpreted this to mean that because Peter lived in Rome and appointed the first church leaders in Rome, that everything Jesus says here applies to the leaders at Rome, in particular their bishop, who is now known as "the pope."

Since Protestants don’t agree with this, they have attempted to use the Greek word for Peter (petros) and the Greek word for rock (petra) to distinguish between Peter and the Rock. They have also tried to deny that Peter ever really went to Rome.

Historically, none of these arguments work. The reason that the name Peter is petros and rock is petra has to do with the way names work in Greek. Peter, being a man, needs a name ending in -os. You don’t name guys Petra, not in ancient Greece. It messes up the language.

On top of that, if you’ll excuse my flippancy here, any 1st grader can tell that Jesus is calling Peter the rock from the context. You will rarely go right when you pick at words to make a sentence say something drastically different than what it seems to say. (The exception is if you can prove a translation error, in which case there are plenty of good translations out today. You should be able to get at least one or two of those to back your new wording.)

Peter, obviously, is not the main rock of the Church. Jesus is. Jesus is called the chief cornerstone repeatedly (Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:5-7). Together, all of us are being built up into a spiritual habitation for the Lord, and we are all stones in this building (1 Pet. 2:4-10). This does not change the fact that Jesus said what he said to Peter, the very first rock added to Jesus in the building.

Secondly, there is abundant historical evidence that Peter was in Rome. It is the consistent testimony of the early Christians, and even Protestant scholars admit that Babylon was almost certainly a code name for Rome in 1 Peter 5:13, indicating Peter wrote that letter from Rome and even describes himself as an elder there (5:1).

However, there is no historical evidence that any early Christians tried to transfer Peter’s authority to the church at Rome. Roman Catholic apologists have made diligent, and disappointingly dishonest, attempts to establish that they did, but those don’t hold up. The first Roman bishop to claim that he had primacy over all churches—or perhaps only over Roman and north African churches—was Stephen, and that wasn’t until over 200 years after Christ. His claims were rejected by everyone.

The full historic arguments are covered at Is the Roman Catholic Church the One True Church as briefly as possible. The arguments are far too long to address here, but I am confident, after numerous debates with Roman Catholic apologists, that the arguments are not doubtful.

Matthew 16:13-20: Can the Church Fall? (Advanced)

Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not be able to stand against the church which will be built upon Peter (as well as the other apostles—Eph. 2:20).

Does this mean the church can never fall, as some major ancient churches claim in defense of themselves?

If it does, then Jesus’ prophecy failed because overall, the "church" suffered a terrible fall in the fourth century. It merged with the government, allowed the government to control many of its leaders, and became filled with people who never would have been allowed into the church before that time. The result was violence, bloodshed, intrigue, and political involvement that makes the church after the fourth century incomparable with the church before it. (See Fall of the Church for more information.)

So what does Jesus mean?

Notice that it is the "gates" of Hell that will not stand before the church. Gates are not offensive weapons against which the church must defend. Gates are defensive weapons, and rescuing people from Hades is what the church is all about!

When the church stands and obeys Christ, the gates of Hades will be completely ineffective at stopping it.

When it marries the world, loses holiness, enters into fellowship with the unrighteousness (2 Cor. 6:14-18), and puts its cares in the things of the world, then the gates of Hell will still not prevail. They will simply stand, unassailed by a worldly, counterfeit church.

Matthew 16:21-23: Peter Rebukes Jesus!

You know things are wrong when the disciple is rebuking the Master!

We must all be aware that just because we have recently come from the height of our spirituality, we are not immune to being influenced by earthly, self-confident thinking. In fact, perhaps we are more prone to thinking wrongly because our spiritual high may have made us overconfident!

Peter’s great pronouncement, which led to Jesus’ calling him "Rock," was followed immediately by rebuking him and even calling him "satan," or "the adversary," as satan can be translated.

Matthew 16:28 – 17:8: The Kingdom of God with Power

Each time we read in the Gospels that some of the apostles will soon see the kingdom of God coming with power, the statement is followed by the story of the mount of transfiguration. This was the preview that the most central apostles received of the the kingdom of God with power.

Matthew 17:9-13: Elijah

Once again we have a taste of a prophecy (Mal. 4:5) that everyone thought they understood in the time of Jesus, and Jesus gives a completely different twist to it. The coming of Elijah was fulfilled by John the Baptist!

This wasn’t because God couldn’t actually send Elijah. Several apostles had just seen Elijah talking with Jesus. God could have sent him, but he chose instead to send John the Baptist in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Despite the fact that all Christians know this, many still await a coming of Elijah as though they’ve forgotten Jesus’ interpretation!

Perhaps there is a literal coming of Elijah before the last day, but it would be good if we held all our thoughts about end time prophecy very lightly, knowing that God is not in the habit of revealing the whole story in advance, but just giving enough to bolster our faith and provide a roadmap as the events happen.

Matthew 17:14-21: The Demoniac (Advanced)

When Jesus and the apostles returned from the mount of transfiguration, they discovered that the other apostles had been unable to cast the demon out of a boy.

Jesus casts the demon out, and when the apostles ask why they could not, Jesus tells them it’s because they don’t have enough faith. If you have a King James Version or New King James Version, you’ll find your Bible adding that this kind of demon only comes out by prayer and fasting.

It’s not in the more modern translations because our study of the texts of the apostles writings that have been saved makes us think that Matthew did not originally write the statement about prayer and fasting.

I believe I have already mentioned to you that historically, God has not gone out of his way to preserve exact sentences and words for us. No inspired texts have come down to us without some confusion in tiny specifics. For example, some texts of Matthew have that sentence, but most don’t.

In this case, Matthew may not have written the part about prayer and fasting, but Mark did (9:29).

There’s something to learn from that. It’s not necessarily true that such power was only possible if prayer and fasting happened first. The apostles themselves, lacking in faith at that time, would have needed prayer and fasting to build their faith. It’s not that prayer and fasting, necessarily, were required for the demon to leave. In the end, the problem was their lack of faith, not their lack of prayer and fasting, but prayer and fasting can be a route to greater faith.

Posted in Church, Roman Catholic & Orthodox, Through the Bible | Tagged apostles, casting out demons, demons, matthew, parables, peter in rome, peter the rock, roman catholic church, through the bible | Leave a comment

Through the Bible in a Year: Matthew 8 to 12

Posted on 01/17/2012 by Paul Pavao

When Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount, it appeared he was with his disciples, getting away from the crowd. By the end, however, it says that the crowds were amazed at his teaching (7:28). Our reading today begins with him being followed down from the Mount by large crowds.

Chapter 8 introduces us to some specific healings, though many healings were mentioned in general back in chapter 4. Matthew says this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 53:4 that he took our infirmities and carried away our diseases (NASB).

The Tanakh and the Apostles’ Writings

Can you tell that I try to go out of my way not to refer to the Tanakh and the apostles’ writings as "the Old Testament" and "the New Testament"?

The old covenant is a covenant. It is not a set of writings. There is a real sense in which the Torah, or the Law, the first five books of the Tanakh, is the old covenant written out. The rest of the writings of the Tanakh, however, are simply histories, poetry, and prophecy that came about while the old covenant was in force.

Nothing in the writings of the apostles, however, constitutes the new covenant in written form. The new covenant is not written on paper, it is written on the hearts and spirits of people (2 Cor. 3:6-8).

The apostles writings are inspired; they are important; they set a standard so that we will not waver to the right or left, deceived by our own will. But they are not the new covenant.

So I like to call the "Old Testament" the "Tanakh," like Jews do. It is short for the Jewish words meaning Law, Prophets, and Writings. And I like to the call the "New Testament" the apostles’ writings.

When Apostles Quote the Tanakh

What brought that issue up is the quote of Isaiah 53:4. If you try and follow Matthew’s quotes from the Tanakh, you will find that they are not always very accurate when compared with what you have in your Bible.

There are several reasons for that.

Matthew didn’t have a Christian bookstore to buy a Bible
The scrolls of the Tanakh were not compiled into one book
Without our modern lightweight paper, Matthew’s compiled Tanakh would have weighed at least 30 pounds anyway.
Thus, Matthew and all the other apostles did a lot of quoting from memory.

Finally, though, there is one more reason. The apostles were writing in Greek, and in many cases, they were quoting the Greek translation of the Tanakh known as the Septuagint (or the LXX).

The Septuagint (Advanced)

Here’s a little story for you. The early Christians believed that Ptolemy, Pharaoh of Egypt, wanted a Greek translation for the libraries at Alexandria. He hired 70 Jewish scholars, put them in separate rooms, and had them translate the entire Tanakh. (Exactly which books were included in that first translation would have been subject to debate.)

According to their legend, all 70 scholars produced the exact same translation, word for word, of every book!

Thus, the early Christians tended to have the same sort of mindset that "King James Version only" Christians have today. There’s one "inspired" version, even though it’s a translation, and none other will do.

Of course, there’s a couple problems. Research makes it clear that the early Christian legend can’t be true. Ptolemy may have hired scholars, but it’s likely that only the Torah was originally translated, and the rest of the Tanakh was translated over a couple centuries following. The whole idea of word for word accuracy from 70 scholars rings of myth, and there’s just no precedent for it in history. God just hasn’t ever gone out of his way to preserve exact wording in the Scriptures. Never.

That’s part of the reason we have such arguments over versions of the Bible today, and it’s the main reason for the King James version controversy.

Our Bible vs. the Septuagint (Advanced)

Okay, here’s the harder part to follow. Modern scholars wisely prefer to translate directly from the Hebrew and Aramaic originals of the Tanakh. However, the originals we use today are only trustworthy back to about A.D. 500 or so. We don’t have Hebrew originals from before about the ninth century.

Because of the early Christian and apostolic use of the Septuagint, we can practically reconstruct the Septuagint back to the second century, and we have entire manuscripts from the 4th century. Thus, while the Septuagint (or LXX) is a translation, it is a translation from an older, more reliable text than our current Hebrew originals.

Anyway, those are the reasons that sometimes you can go back and look at a passage in the Tanakh that an apostle is quoting, and your Tanakh won’t read like the apostle’s quote.

Matthew can be especially difficult. He either quoted a lot from memory, and only so well, or it’s possible that what the early Christians say about Matthew’s Gospel is true, which is that it was originally written in Hebrew. In that case, we may have a Greek translation of Matthew, and that may be part of the reason for the low quality of the citations.

Other than early Christian testimony, which is pretty consistent, there has been no evidence of a Hebrew manuscript of Matthew’s Gospel.

Back to the Text: Matthew 8:5-13

You’ll find a number of stories like this in the Gospels, where Jesus is impressed by a Gentile’s faith. A Gentile is a non-Jew. The word "Gentiles" just means "nations." So a Gentile is a person from another nation.

Jesus came just for the Israelites. Remember, the plan has always been, from the beginning, to make a nation from one man, and then to bless the word through that nation. While Jesus was on earth, that was still the plan.

When the Jews rejected their Messiah, that plan changed. Matthew 21:33-43 is a parable, but it makes it clear that the kingdom of God was taken away from the Jews when they put the Son of God to death.

This wasn’t a bad thing. It was the plan of God, and it is meant to lead Jews and Gentiles alike into one kingdom of God where there are no Jews or Gentiles, no slaves or freemen, but we are all one (Gal. 3:28-29; Eph. 2:14-15; 3:5-6).

This new spiritual kingdom and nation, composed of people from all nations, is still meant to bless the world with the Gospel, with kindness, and with good works (Matt. 5:13-16; Jn. 3:17).

Because Jesus was still sent primarily to Israel, he didn’t make it easy on Gentiles who came to him, as you shall see as you progress through the Gospels. Nonetheless, when they showed great faith, he rewarded and praised them and was always careful to point out that those with faith would enter the kingdom of heaven before those who had the physical inheritance. It is faith that matters, not physical descent.

Matthew 8:18-22: Jesus’ Hard Sayings

Don’t miss Jesus’ hard sayings. They are part of the Gospel. Following Jesus may mean that you won’t know where you’re going to lay your head next, and it may leave your family clamoring after you and accusing you of being hateful and careless.

Unless you love Jesus more than your family, you aren’t worthy of him (Matt. 10:37).

Matthew 8:23-34: Demons in Pigs (Advanced)

The story of the demoniacs in 8:28-34 is one of the odder stories in the Bible.

One of the more common beliefs among the early Christians, which comes from the Book of Enoch, which we mentioned when we discussed the Nephilim in Genesis 6, is that the demons are the spirits of the Nephilim. God put them to death, and he judged their spirits, consigning them to wander the earth.

For that reason, they are looking for bodies in which to dwell, and sometimes they are attached to a particular country.

I’m not sure what to say about that belief. Maybe it’s true. Jude’s letter, and both of Peter’s as well, make use of 1 Enoch’s description of the Nephilim and their angel fathers (1 Pet. 3:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:4-5; Jude 6). Jude actually quotes 1 Enoch directly at one point (Jude 14-15).

It would help explain the demons wanting to go into the pigs. I can only assume, however, that it wasn’t really the demons’ plan to simply run them off the cliff and kill them. Maybe the pigs panicked because they’re not used to being demon-possessed!

Odd story, truly.

Matthew 9:2-8: Healing the Paralytic

I love the story of the paralytic. I love the way Jesus set up the self-righteous by beginning with the forgiveness of sins, then put a divine stamp of approval on his right to forgive by healing the paralytic.

This is the same person that Mark says was let down through the roof because it was impossible to get him to Jesus otherwise (Mark 2:2-12).

Self-righteousness is okay if you’re able to repent of it. I have always believed that any truly committed believer is going to have to fall into self-righteousness at some point, thinking that he is standing up for God. There is nothing wrong with that, and it may be necessary for the deep disciple, as long as you are able to repent when God says to you, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." Jesus said exactly that to those who wanted to condemn him for eating with "tax collectors and sinners" (9:10-13).

It’s probably worth knowing that tax collectors were looked down upon by Jews because they were helping the Romans keep the Jews in subjection. In a sense, they were traitors. Worse, they made their living by collecting something more than what the Romans required in taxes. How much more varied depending on the skill of the tax collectors. This made them thieves as well as traitors in Jewish eyes.

It doesn’t get much worse than that.

Matthew 9:14-17: Unshrunk Garments and New Wineskins

This is one of the most important parables. It covers the very point of the new covenant.

The old covenant was dismissed because man couldn’t keep it. God promised a new covenant instead, in which his laws would be written on our hearts, in which we would all know God, and which would thus be kept (Jer. 31:31-34).

Jesus is speaking of this in the parable of the garment and the wineskin. The new covenant is new wine. It is new cloth. You can’t just patch up an old garment with new cloth. You can’t put new wine in old wineskins. You must have a new wineskin, or an old one made new with oil. You must have a new garment.

In other words, the new covenant is not for a natural man. It is for a spiritual man. This is another way of saying what Jesus says in John 3:3, "You must be born again."

Matthew 10

Jesus sends the twelve out. In Luke 10, it says he chose 70 others as well. Perhaps he sent them twice, or perhaps Matthew just doesn’t mention the others. We don’t know.

Either way, the point is that Jesus didn’t leave discipleship to just teaching. He included doing.

Notice, too, that the disciples’ ministry is supernatural. They begin with a requirement to trust God for their needs. Their ministry includes praying for people and getting results.

Some of that may be special to the apostles and to the beginning of the new covenant. It cannot all be, though. Let us never forget that our faith is a real and supernatural faith. That can be hard in the western world, where we love what we can see, touch, taste, and hear. It requires faith to please God.

Our faith is not a blind faith. God calls us and gives us plenty of reasons to believe, but once we are believers, we must believe everything God tells us. Hopefully, we have learned that lesson from our reading of the lives of Abraham and Joseph! Their great hallmark was that the both of them took God at his Word!

Matthew 10:24-39

Once again, pay attention to the hard things. These sayings of discipleship are what God is asking of you! Jesus told the apostles to teach us the very same things that they were taught (Matt. 28:19-20).

Matthew 10:40-42 (Advanced)

Today we tend to divorce the message from the messenger. We want to receive the Gospel, but we don’t always want to be in fellowship with those who have given us the Gospel.

According to Jesus, you can’t reject the messenger but accept his message. If you reject the messenger, at least in the case of the apostles, you have rejected Jesus, just as if you reject Jesus, you have rejected God.

The very idea of the message of Jesus Christ is to bring us into fellowship with one another (Jn. 13:34-35; 17:20-23). We preach not just Christ, but what Christ has done in us, "so that you may have fellowship with us because our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 Jn. 1:1-4).

Matthew 11:1-6

This passage ought to encourage us a bit. Even John the Baptist, with all his revelation from God and with all he had seen, doubted. Jesus, his cousin (Luke 1-2, esp. 1:36), just wasn’t exactly what he expected.

Jesus answered him with a Scripture from Isaiah.

A quick lesson here. Jesus, the Son of God, didn’t always bother with complete explanations and justifications. In fact, he rarely did. He always left room for his Father to either reveal or not reveal the truth to those who heard him.

God doesn’t want everyone to know! He hides things from the proud and wise on purpose (11:25).

We’ll talk more about that in tomorrow’s reading.

Matthew 11:7-19

Jesus gives a tribute to John. It’s awesome that he did that for a truly great man.

What I want us to catch, however, is his statement that the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. This is not because of ourselves! This is because we are part of a greater covenant! (2 Cor. 3:6-18; Heb. 8:6).

That verse is not talking about when we die and go off to the by and by. Jesus follows his statement by telling us that from the time of John the Baptist, the one who was preparing the way for Jesus, the kingdom of God has suffered violence, and violent men are taking it by force.

That’s another odd statement, difficult for us to comprehend, but every early Christian writer I’ve ever read has taken it positively. You don’t enter the kingdom of God casually. You must go after it. You must plan, think about it, and know that you want to pay the price (Luke 14:26-35). That is taking the kingdom of heaven by force, and it is a good thing.

When you enter that kingdom, though, you enter a kingdom that can put you ahead of John the Baptist, greatest of all men born until Jesus’ time.

The new covenant is truly a great covenant. Never underestimate it, or what you miss out on can be unimaginable.

Matthew 11:28-29

You should memorize these verses. If you are a disciple, there will be many times in your life where you will wonder if these verses are true.

They are.

Our wondering is a sign that we are seeking the wrong things. We miss the mark when we seek obedience itself. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). Our job is to seek Christ, to fellowship with him, and to be filled with the Spirit (Col. 3:1-4; Gal. 5:16-18; Rom. 8:5-13; Heb. 12:1-2; etc.). Much work can be done in the direction of pursuing God himself, and you will always rest and never tire (Is. 40:27-31).

All other work must proceed from the overflow of the Spirit that results.

Miss that, and you will no longer believe Matthew 11:28-29. Do that, and you will enter into the blessedness of the true Sabbath of God (Heb. 4).

Matthew 12:1-7 (Advanced)

Don’t miss the fact that the Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

By the way, the whole issue of the Sabbath and the role of the Law in the Christian’s life are addressed at my Christian History for Everyman site.

If you are beginning in the Scriptures, you’re not going to have any problems with these issues. As we read through the Scriptures together, you will find the the old covenant flowing smoothly into the new, and you will have an easy time seeing the new covenant as the fullness of the old. With that, the role of the Law falls simply and obviously into the covenants of God.

If you are not beginning, but have been a Christian, then you are surely terribly infected with the disconnect between the covenants. It is very likely you have probably never heard anything like the formerly well-known truth that the new covenant is the old brought to life for spiritual men. Reading the pages I just linked will help you a lot.

The Maccabees, Pharisees, and Zealots (Advanced)

Have you ever heard of the Maccabees?

You will find 1 and 2 Maccabees in a Catholic Bible or a copy of The Apocrypha. Some Orthodox Bibles will have 1, 2, 3, and 4 Maccabees.

The Maccabees were a family that led Israel in an overthrow of Greek generals around the 3rd century B.C. The story is heartbreaking. There was one battle after another battle after another with long periods of no rest.

A lot of those battles are prophesied in Daniel chapter 11, so accurately that a lot of secular scholars believe that Daniel wasn’t written until after the events in Maccabbees.

Anyway, the Maccabees brought the Israelites out of idolatry so that God would bless them and drive out the foreign invaders. God was with the Maccabees, and they are a great family of heroes.

From the Maccabees and their zeal for God came two groups of Jews we encounter in the Gospels: the Pharisees and the zealots.

The Pharisees (Advanced)

The Pharisees simply took the Maccabees radical stance against idolatry and law-breaking to an extreme. In the process, they passed more and more laws—"traditions of the elders" they called them—that ended up carrying more weight than the commands of God. Jesus was constantly opposing their traditions and their attitudes because they had become self-righteous and greedy (for power and money both).

The Zealots (Advanced)

I mentioned that the zealots came from the Maccabees, too. The zeal of the Maccabees was proven with violence against the foreign invaders. The zealots had the same attitude. Where possible, they advocated violent overthrow of the Romans.

We have a different zeal as Christians, but we shouldn’t miss Paul’s use of the word zeal concerning himself prior to being a Christian. When he mentions his former credentials as a Pharisee—which, of course, he was repenting of—he says, "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church." The word "zeal" carried a connotation of violence in 1st century Judaism.

The Unpardonable Sin

Much has been said about the unpardonable sin. What seems clear to me is that the Pharisees were rejecting Jesus, accusing him of using a demon’s power rather than the Holy Spirit’s power, and they were doing so to keep their political power, not out of any real belief that he was evil.

Does this mean that those Pharisees can’t repent any more? Possibly, I’ll let you decide.

What I do want you to catch is that Jesus’ method of speaking publicly changes immediately after this event, which you will see in chapter 13 tomorrow.

Posted in Through the Bible | Tagged faith, gentiles, lxx, maccabees, matthew, Pharisees, septuagint, through the bible, unpardonable sin, zealots | 4 Comments

Through the Bible in a Year: Matthew 1 to 7

Posted on 01/16/2012 by Paul Pavao

I wrote an introduction to this week’s readings. It gives the day by day readings and a way to deal with the extra length of this week’s commentary. It also has a prayer request!

In today’s case, you will find that the extra length is because there are basically two thousand word sections. The first is a (very) short introduction to the apostles writings, and the second is my commentary on today’s readings.

The Writings of the New Covenant

I admit I have always found the new covenant writings more fun than the Tanakh. Sometimes, though, when I’m seeing the application of some prophet to modern times, I’m awed and captivated by the Tanakh. At such times, I can get sucked in for hours.

You need a foundation and some teaching before that starts happening. Hopefully, this year will lay a very good foundation.

The Apostles’ Writings: A Short Introduction to the New Testament

Today’s commentary is exceptionally long. You may want to use this introductory parts here as a lesson later if you are short on time. There’s a section below titled "Today’s Reading" that starts the commentary on Matthew 1 through 7.

The writings of the New Testament are the apostles’ writings. It may not seem like that because two of the Gospels are not written by apostles, and no one knows who wrote Hebrews. Nonetheless, except possibly the Book of Revelation, all 27 new covenant writings are in your Bible because some church believed an apostle wrote it or approved it.

The earliest Christians believed that Mark wrote his Gospel based on what he heard from Peter while he was a companion of Peter in Rome (e.g., "Mark, the interpreter and follower of Peter, commences his Gospel message in this way … " — Irenaeus, Against Heresies III:10:5, c. A.D. 185). Luke, of course, is said in Acts to have been Paul’s companion. He begins his Gospel by telling us that he did much research to write it, and thus Irenaeus, in the same link I just gave you, is called "the follower and disciple of the apostles."

Justin Martyr, the first to say there are four Gospels (around A.D. 155), tended to refer to them as "the memoirs of the apostles."

So as way of introduction, it is good to understand that the churches started by the apostles had been taught to follow the apostles, not just their writings. They had a foundation of interpretation from the apostles that they called The Rule of Faith, the Rule of Truth, or just the Rule. The Nicene Creed, which is still recited in many churches every week, is the product of the rule of faith of the church in Caesarea that the council adapted a bit to combat the Arian heresy.

The book of Hebrews, by the way, has an unknown author, but it "made it" into our Bible because African churches thought it was written by Barnabas, Paul’s companion. Other churches thought it was written by the apostle Paul.

Putting the Bible Together

Eusebius’ Pamphilius (of Caesarea) wrote a history of the church in A.D. 323. In the third book of that history, chapters 23 through 25, he discussed what books were accepted by the churches. It is clear in what he writes that while most of the books that we call the New Testament were agreed upon, several were not. Eighty years later, about 350 years after the time of the apostles, the famous St. Augustine also mentioned that not all books of the New Testament were agreed upon by all the churches (On Christian Doctrine II:8:12).

There have been lists of new testament writings put together since A.D. 161, just 100 years after the apostles. Those lists are in agreement on most books, and they agree on all of the Gospels and Paul’s writings except 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. 1 John and 1 Peter would also be writings accepted by all early churches.

So who decided which books should be in the New Testament?

It’s funny, but no one did.

For the Roman Catholics, the first council that had any authority which established a definite list of books (or "canon") of the New Testament, was the Council of Trent, which convened in 1546. Many earlier councils decreed a list, but they had no authority to enforce their list.

What happened is that St. Jerome, in the early fifth century, made a translation of the Bible into Latin, called the Vulgate. That Bible became the standard in western Christianity for the next 1,000 years, and it’s never been called into question.

Interesting, isn’t it?

The Gospel of Matthew and Today’s Reading

Matthew’s gospel begins with a genealogy. The genealogy skips some generations (compared to what we read in the Tanakh), and I’m not sure why. I suppose it’s possible that he was making sure the totals were 14 generations each, but that doesn’t make much sense to me.

Sorry, I don’t have the answer on that one.

The story of Jesus speaks for itself. We won’t need to comment on that much, but I do want to point out the prophecy that Matthew uses concerning the virgin birth. That Jesus was born of a virgin we believe because of the eyewitness testimony of Joseph, Mary, and the apostles. The prophecy simply tells us that God planned it in advance.

Dual Prophecy

If you go read the prophecy that Matthew quotes (1:23), which comes from Isaiah 7:14, you will see that it had a much different meaning in Isaiah’s time. Such dual prophecy is not unusual. In fact, it’s common. When you are God, it’s very easy for you to speak of something happening in the present while also leaving a prophecy for future generations in the very same words.

A Benefit of Preparation in the Law, Prophets, and Writings

In 2:18 we read that it is Rachel who is weeping when the children are slaughtered by Herod in Bethlehem. Having read Genesis, we know why! That is where Rachel was buried (Gen. 35:19; 45:7).

The New Covenant and the Holy Spirit

I mentioned already, when we talked about Joseph, that receiving the Holy Spirit is central to the New Covenant (cf. Acts 2:16-18; Rom. 8:5-8; Gal. 3:2-3; 5:16-18). We find this again in Matthew 3:11. The Messiah Jesus, the provider of the New Covenant, comes to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

The Temptation of the Devil and the Bible

We see at the start of chapter 4 that the devil tempts Jesus. He even quotes Scripture to him!

It is not enough to memorize Scriptures. You must know the Gospel, and you must know the general will of the Father. Jesus knew that his Father did not want him to put his Father to the test. He knew that he should worship no one except the Father, and he never considered doing anything but the Father’s will.

We will find that temptation will flee from us, too, if we learn to delight in the Father’s will. That strength comes from fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit and prayer and the reading of Scripture (cf. Ps. 119:9-11).

Calling Jesus’ Disciples

In northern Galilee in the first century, Scripture was held in great honor, and so were the rabbis who read and taught the Scriptures to the people. Only a few would be found worthy to follow a rabbi, be trained by him, and become a rabbi after him.

It might seem surprising that Jesus could simply walk by a boat and call a fisherman to quit his fishing and follow him. However, there is more than Jesus’ divine presence and power working here. It was a great honor to be called to follow a rabbi, and most Jewish young men, at least those on the north shores of the Sea of Galilee, would do anything to be chosen as a disciple. (This information came from the excellent and interesting, if slightly expensive, DVD that I show to the right.)

Notice, though, that Jesus did not call students from schools. He called the ones that had not made it through the rabbinical schools. He called ordinary people.

Which brings us to …

The Sermon on the Mount

Jesus didn’t choose disciples like other rabbis. He didn’t pull them from the best students of Bible school. He pulled them off their fishing boats, and he had them watch and learn.

Jesus didn’t teach like other rabbis, either. I read some of the Talmud online recently, and I was astounded at the difference between Jesus’ teachings and the teachings of the rabbis of his time. While the other rabbis nitpicked over things like how thoroughly a house had to be searched for unleavened bread before the Feast of Unleavened Bread and whether handing an item into a house constituted work that should be avoided on the Sabbath, Jesus was teaching the sorts of things we read in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus had been teaching in various cities and synagogues (end of chapter 4), but when crowds accumulated, Jesus didn’t stay with them. He took his disciples to a mountain, and he began to give them instructions.

These teachings were not picky. They didn’t address whether you could take 52 steps or 152 steps on the Sabbath day. They addressed what was important to God, the heart of the Law of God, that we love God and love one another, avoiding selfishness and overcoming our desire to please ourselves.

You can read through the entire Sermon on the Mount and be confused by almost nothing even though you are reading it 2,000 years later and 5,000 miles away in a completely different culture and language. Jesus’ message, as Justin Martyr put it, was like this:

Brief and concise utterances fell from him, for he was no philosopher, but his Word was the power of God. (First Apology 14)

The Power of the Sermon on the Mount

Please do not miss the promise at the end of today’s reading. Jesus says that if we will do—not just memorize, but do—the things taught in the Sermon on the Mount, we will never fall! That’s what Jesus’ himself said! Do these things, and you will be like a wise man who built his house on a solid foundation so that it would stand through wind and rain and wave.

Don’t do them, however, and you are like a foolish person.

2 Peter 1:5-11 and James 1:21-27 say similar things about the importance of being doers of God’s message. One of the things in the Sermon on the Mount stands out as well:

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven. (7:21)

Judging by Fruit

Let me indulge your time for one more comment.

Jesus said we are to judge a prophet—and thus any teacher or church—by their fruit. Jesus knew that humans are never going to resolve what’s true by arguing (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5-7; 6:3-6). If we want to know how to follow God, then it is good for us to look and be taught by those whose lives we want to imitate (cf. Rom. 14:17-19).

Modern Christians have far too much trust in their ability to interpret the Bible. However, if your interpretations of the Bible result in a "psychotic obsessions with disputes" (1 Tim. 6:4) and division from people who "name the name of Christ and depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19), then your interpretations of the Bible are bearing bad fruit. If that’s so, make the tree bad, too. Admit there’s something wrong and stop interpreting the Bible the way you do!

It is fine to wind up divided, as far as the church goes, from people who do not avoid the sorts of things mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount. Paul says so, and gives some examples, in 1 Cor. 5. He says it is important to separate from those called Christians who live in open sin.

However, if we are dividing from obedient Christians over our interpretation of the Bible, we are missing it, and we are destroying the testimony of God (Jn. 13:34-35; 17:20-23).

Let us learn to judge by fruit and not by our confident interpretations of Scripture. Scripture is given to equip us for every good work, not to equip us for arguing with one another! (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Posted in Bible, Through the Bible | Tagged apostles, apostles writings, Bible, canon, Division, Holiness, matthew, new testament, through the bible, Unity | Leave a comment

Through the Bible in a Year: This Week’s Readings

Posted on 01/16/2012 by Paul Pavao

We will go through Matthew this week, and I have divided it up in this way:

Monday, January 16: Matthew 1 to 7
Tuesday, January 17: Matthew 8 to 12
Wednesday, January 18: Matthew 13 to 17
Thursday, January 19: Matthew 18 to 23
Friday, January 20: Matthew 24 to 28

Matthew drew a lot more comments from me than Genesis did! So during this week’s writings I began carefully dividing up the sections I’m commenting on. On Wednesday (perhaps I’ll go back and do this for Tuesday’s before you get there, but I can’t promise yet) I added "(Advanced)" to some of the sections so that you could know the sections that are best to skip if you need or want to.

The goal, remember, is to get you reading the Scripture. I want my commentary to make Scripture easy for you to understand, not to replace it!

Prayer Request

Please pray for me this week. I’d really appreciate it. As I write this, I’m done with Wednesday’s commentary. I have just finished large doses of radiation and a final chemotherapy in preparation for a bone marrow transplant on Tuesday (tomorrow) to cure my acute leukemia.

Thanks to so many prayers already, I am doing well and am able to keep writing these Through-the-Bible commentaries. It’s really miraculous. I’m trying to get ahead to cover the times that I may not be able to keep up. Trips to ICU are not uncommon for people going through my treatment, and "neutropenic fevers" are very common. Mouth sores and stomach and intestinal pains that force patients onto morphine or even stronger pain relievers are expected.

"Pain medication will be your friend," I was told.

I don’t want to do that.

If all goes well, the mouth and stomach pain danger should go away in about two weeks, though healing could take much longer, and the danger of the fevers and ICU should go away in about 6 weeks.

Again, people’s prayers have been so effective already that it’s miraculous. I’d like to keep serving you this way, though, and I feel like God led me to do this despite the severe treatment I’m going through. Thank you very much for your labors for me in prayer.

Posted in prayer, Through the Bible | Tagged bone marrow transplant, leukemia, through the bible | 2 Comments

Through the Bible in a Year: Genesis 46 to 50

Posted on 01/13/2012 by Paul Pavao

Israel and his family arrive in Egypt, escaping the prophesied famine that reached from Egypt to Canaan.

What a picture! This is a beautiful, if inauspicious, beginning to a nation that would endure to this day, surviving and occasionally thriving through some of the worst troubles that any nation has ever endured. The land of Canaan, which they were now leaving, would be given to them as a home 400 years later. Closer to our time, the Jews would endure a dispersion of over 1,800 years before Canaan was restored to them, less than 70 years ago.

All that started with 70 people fleeing for their lives under one of the most unlikely rulers in all of history. A foreign shepherd, former slave, and former prisoner was ruler over the greatest nation of his time.

God will get his way. Joseph is an example, but so are his children. Once again, God ignores convention and blesses the younger son over his older brother. If there is anything consistent in Scripture, it is that God does not feel restrained by convention or tradition, and that he violates them often.

Next week, when you read the entire Gospel of Matthew, keep that in mind and note Jesus’ utter disregard and occasional contempt for any tradition that does not serve people positively or which does not send a message he does not want sent.

Jacob’s Blessing

Just as Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, so Jacob blesses his children in chapter 49. It is clear that he expects all these things to come to pass.

God has always had his prophets, but we are all prophets in some small way. In ancient times, men blessed their children in hope. In the Christian church, we are told, "You may all prophesy one by one" (1 Cor. 14:31). The very foundation of the New Testament is that "On my servants and handmaidens I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:18).

Prophecy, Prayer, and You

Prophecy, however, does not always look like we think it does.

Sometimes it looks like a man blessing his children at the end of his life.

Don’t read about men of God and come to believe that they are not like you! We each have our gift(s) and calling from God. Some are prominent and in the public eye, and others are not. Nonetheless, as James, our Lord Jesus’ brother, reminds us, "Elijah was a man with passions like ours" (Jam. 5:17). Elijah, prayed, he tells us, and got remarkable answers, but he reminds us as well that the "fervent, energetic prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much."

That applies to all of us.

We must follow in the footsteps of these men of God, not merely read about them with unbelieving eyes.

Jacob’s Blessing/Prophecies

Let’s look specifically at one of Jacob’s blessings. He tells Judah that "he washes his clothes in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes" (49:11).

Who washes their clothes in wine and grape juice???

That blessing was given somewhere around 1,500 years before Jesus was born. Nonetheless, it survived 1,500 years of history to be available in writing at the time of Jesus’ birth. That blessing would stand as a testimony that God had been whispering in history all along that some day the blood of a descendant of Judah, the nation that was merely a twelfth of a family at the time, would cleanse the world of sin.

How Did Jacob Do This?

How did Jacob prophesy these things? What would prompt him to mention the blood of grapes, or to tell Judah that the scepter would never depart from him? Why Judah?

In fact, what prompted Jacob to choose Ephraim for the greater blessing over Manasseh? How did he know?

Jacob simply spoke what was on his heart. All of us have a logical side and an intuitive side. It’s the way humans are made. (It is well worth the time to learn about our logic and intuition and the limits and purposes of each. It will help you make effective decisions.)

Jacob did not lean on only what his eyes could see and his ears could hear. He paid attention to what his intuition pushed up into his conscious mind.

God uses circumstances and clear messages that can be processed by our logical side. He also uses our intuition—knowledge we have that we perhaps cannot even explain. Intuition is not always spiritual. Intuition is a natural, explicable and important part of our thinking process, but in cases like Jacob’s blessing, God can use it as well. At such times, it is very spiritual.

A non-intuitive Christian is walking with one leg. If he fails to study and learn spiritual principles, he’s spiritually paraplegic. We need both.

The Rest of Jacob’s Blessings

I will leave the rest of Jacob’s blessings for you to study, but know that some of them simply refer to the history of that particular tribe. They won’t mean much to us, though we may find some of them interesting as we read more of Israel’s history.

Never forget, though, that God’s words are living. They can find application at the most unexpected time, and the Holy Spirit is able to pull them up from your memory … if you have put them in your memory by reading and studying.

Joseph’s Blessing

Joseph’s blessing is not really a blessing. I called it that because it is a blessing to all of us:

You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. (Gen. 50:20, NASB)

Let us all learn Joseph’s lesson. God is watching, and in the end, God means our present circumstances for good. (As I write this, three days before you will be able to read it, I start six days of intense radiation and chemotherapy for acute leukemia. I mention this in hope it will add some weight to my words of faith. God works all things for good if you will turn your life over to him.)

Posted in Through the Bible | Tagged genesis, israel, through the bible, tradition | Leave a comment

Through the Bible in a Year: Genesis 41 to 45

Posted on 01/12/2012 by Paul Pavao

Today, my commentary will focus on three things:

Men "in whom is a divine spirit"
Joseph’s extraordinary grace to obey God
Dreams and prophecy

"In Whom is a Divine Spirit"

Genesis 41:38 says:

Then Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?" (NASB)

Similar things to this were said about the prophet Daniel, and he, too, was elevated to power.

We have grown far too used to Christianity. For Pharaoh, to find a man in whom the Divine Spirit dwelt was cause to make that man king of all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself! For us, to our embarrassment, to claim that we have the Spirit of God means little, if anything at all.

When no one could interpret the dream of the king’s cupbearer, Joseph asked, "Do not interpretations belong to God?" (40:8, NASB).

When Pharaoh called him to interpret a dream that no one else could interpret, Joseph said, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer" (41:16, NASB).

What makes Joseph different from us is not a special gift to interpret dreams. What makes Joseph different from us is that he was a real believer in God.

Today, far too often, our "belief" is merely a schoolboy-style agreement that, historically speaking, Jesus died for our sins, we get a free ticket to heaven, and we like the idea of a free ticket. We can’t do what Joseph did because we don’t believe like Joseph did.

Joseph became convinced that God was God. He was convinced that what God was really in control of everything. He was convinced that God could change anything.

Further he was convinced that …

God was on his side
God talks to us

If you want to be like Joseph, you are going to have to believe like Joseph. Joseph did not only believe that interpretations of dreams belong to God. He also believed that God could tell him what the interpretation was!

We claim to believe that the Spirit of God dwells in us. It would do us well to read the biographies of Joseph and Daniel so we know what that means!!!

And keep in mind, those of you that are reading this for home school, both Joseph and Daniel were teenagers when God began to do mighty things in their lives.

Joseph’s Extraordinary Grace

We have already discussed the source of Joseph’s extraordinary grace.

Grace is what the Bible names that power that delivers us from sin (Rom. 6:14), empowers us to serve God supernaturally (1 Pet. 4:10-11), and provides whatever else we need from God (Heb. 4:16).

Joseph had the Divine Spirit, and Joseph believed. That was the source of his power.

To My Daughter Janelle

You want to skip this next paragraph. I have you extra long margins so it’s easy.

I’m going to dare to use myself as an example here. As I write this, in two days I will begin to receive total body irradiation to treat the acute leukemia I was diagnosed with six months ago. That will be followed by chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, and the most health and life-threatening experience of my life. Doctors say the treatment, not the disease, has a 20 to 30% chance of killing me over the next three months.

Yet because I believe God told me to, I have begun a "through the Bible in a year" reading program with all of you.

Yesterday I was asked how I maintain joy throughout all of this treatment (three chemotherapy treatments, nausea, uncontrolled muscle cramps, a low-blood induced heart attack, neutropenic fevers—all in 6 months).

I attribute it to simple, but real, faith; the kind Joseph had. I have asked myself for almost 30 years whether I really believe the things I say. I have lived as though I had every bit of power that Joseph and Daniel had.

And God has proven every bit as reliable for me as he has for Joseph and Daniel.

Among those who are born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; nonetheless, the least one in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him. (Matt. 11:11)

If you are in Christ, then your God, and your Divine Spirit, is exactly the same one as the one in Joseph, Daniel, and John. But you belong to ultimate covenant, the fullness of all previous covenants, given to us in King Jesus. Thus, your power ought to be greater, not lesser, than theirs.

I am not a great Christian; probably not even a good one. I’m an American, and I have therefore lived in flabby comfort for far too many of my days to be a really powerful Christian. But I am a Christian, and this means that I talk to God, God talks to me, and "all things work together for good" for me (Rom. 8:28).

Am I bragging? I had better not be! You had better be in exactly the same place I am. Come now! If you are going to be a Christian and study the Bible, then let’s believe it!

Dreams and Prophecy

This is the spot where we talk about God talking to me … and more importantly, to you.

A friend once told me that a good father takes responsibility for his children. It is the father’s job to make sure that the children hear what the father wants. It is not the job of the children to guess the father’s will.

The Bible agrees:

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4)

That verse is in the present tense. We do not only live by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. We live also by the words that are still proceeding.

We have the same Spirit Joseph had!

Joseph did not offer to interpret dreams because he believed he had the gift of dream interpretation or prophecy. He offered to interpret dreams because interpretations belong to God, and Joseph had an ongoing friendship with God.

God speaks in many ways, and those ways can differ from person to person. If you have an ear to hear, then God will find a way to get his message across to you.

To have an ear you must have two things, and you should already, right now, decide within yourself whether you will offer these two things to God …

You must be listening. "Seek, and you shall find" (Matt. 7:7).
You must be willing to obey. This will be harder than you think. Look at how Joseph had to obey!

Joseph’s Story

We did not cover any of Joseph’s story today. His story speaks for itself. It is interesting! I believe that the lessons on this post were important for this section of Scripture. Never let us read about great men of God without finding their secret and seeking to emulate them.

Posted in Through the Bible | Tagged faith, genesis, hearing god, joseph, obedience, spirit of god, through the bible | 4 Comments

Through the Bible in a Year: Genesis 35 to 40

Posted on 01/11/2012 by Paul Pavao

Today’s commentary is over 1,000 words. I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep these under 1,000 words, but I will be as short as possible. Even today’s is only about 1,100 words without the warnings.

To be honest, though, I wasn’t short on the genealogy section. I thought it was important to take a shot at making genealogies somewhat interesting for you.

Our reading today begins with Jacob being sent back to Bethel, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. Let’s not forget that there’s good reason for this. His sons, especially Simeon and Levi, had killed all the men of Shechem because it’s rulers son had raped their sister.

Jacob needed to get out of that area, and God got him out.

Genealogies

The rest of chapter 35 and all of chapter 36 are devoted to genealogies. These are not just genealogies, however. These lists are to give the origins of the nations of Israel and Edom, the descendants of the Isaac’s twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Later, after the captivity in Egypt, which we will read about soon enough, Edom will be treated as a brother nation to Israel, as will Moab and Ammon (sons of Lot and thus cousins of Jacob), and receive more kindly dealings than the other nations of the Land of Canaan and the lands west of Canaan.

Few of us really want to pay attention to genealogies. I personally don’t object to people who skip genealogies, but …

One way to remember and make use of genealogies—and to make them more interesting!—is to write them down. Actually chart them. In the case of this passage, you could make a list of Esau’s son and grandsons, seeing who belongs to whom. (Yes, I actually do things like this.)

To what purpose?

In chapter 37 Joseph goes looking for his brothers near Shechem. If we’re paying attention to city names, or maybe even charting them on a map, we’ll see that his brothers were pasturing the flocks near their old home, where they’re probably hated. When Joseph gets there, however, they’ve moved on to a place called Dothan. That’s one of the sheiks of the land of Edom that we read about in chapter 36. Even if the specific town is unknown today, we can follow their journey because we know where the land of Edom was.

In fact, perhaps we can add a little drama to Joseph’s trip. He was asking about his brothers near a town in which they had killed all the men. How dangerous was it for Joseph even to ask? Did he purposely avoid the names of Simeon and Levi? Did he have to avoid mentioning that he was Jacob’s son?

Is it possible that the very reason that the brothers left is because they were chased off or were nervous that they would be?

Further, in 37:2, the Law takes the time to point out that Joseph "told" on his brothers, but only on the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. There the Scripture calls them Jacob’s wives, but if you’ve been following the genealogies, then you know that those were his concubines. They had only two children each. Those were Dan, Naphatali, Gad, and Asher.

Did the bad report Joseph gave have anything to do with their being the sons of concubines? Did those four brothers hate him more than the others? Reuben, after all, the son of Leah, tried to rescue him from his brothers.

Similarly, to whom was Joseph sold? Both Ishmaelites and Midianites are mentioned. Who are they?

You probably remember that the Ishmaelites are descendants of Abraham through Sarai’s maid, Hagar. You may not remember that Abraham remarried after Sarah’s death and had Midian as a child of Keturah (Gen. 25:1-2).

Joseph

In chapter 37 we are introduced to Joseph, one of the finest examples of a God-follower in all of Scripture. May we all learn to be like him.

Joseph’s worst fault was his indiscretion as a youth. His brothers hated him because he was Jacob’s favorite, and he didn’t do anything to make it better. He almost seemed to revel in it.

On Jacob’s side, all fathers should know the dangers of picking a favorite among their children and then displaying that favoritism to the other children! Very foolish! And in Jacob’s case, it came back to bite him in an awful way. His other children wound up in gross sin—they were going to murder their brother until Reuben saved them from their own hatred—and he went for years believing Joseph was dead.

God worked it all for good in the end, but that doesn’t justify the sin that makes it bad in the beginning.

In the midst of Joseph’s indiscretions, however, it is good to notice the difference between the way Joseph’s brothers reacted to his dreams and the way Israel reacted. Joseph’s brothers hated him even more and gave no thought to the dream. Israel was angry, but he "kept the saying in mind" (37:11, NASB).

We would do well to learn from this. It is not unusual for God to send us a prophecy—or, even more likely, a warning—from a source that we do not want to hear from. If we can’t swallow our anger or pride to acknowledge the truth of what we’ve heard, we may find ourselves acknowledging the truth in a much more awkward situation. We’ll see that’s exactly what happened to Joseph’s brothers, but not to Israel, as we proceed in Genesis.

Along the way, though, Joseph is incredible humbled by his circumstances. He appears to take it with a remarkable grace, trusting God all along the way, and taking revenge on no one, even if he does turn out to have a little fun with his brothers.

We’ll discuss the grace bestowed upon Joseph tomorrow when he arises from the ashes of slavery and prison to become the king of Egypt! We’ll also discuss dreams and prophecy then as well.

Judah and Tamar

Warning! The following is for mature audiences!

The story of Judah and Tamar is horrifying. I’ll not retell it here. A couple comments, though.

Widows were unlikely to be able to support themselves in those times (and in most third-world countries in our times). That a brother would marry a widow is an act of kindness, though it is odd in our society.

The end of that story, resulting in Judah fathering his own grandson, is an example of something we had better all beware of: humans are prone to hypocrisy. Judah was going to put Tamar to death for an act that he participated in!

Hopefully, you have been raised better than to consort with prostitutes, but do not think that if you become a condemning person, that you will also find the ability to avoid becoming a hypocrite. God gives grace to the humble, but he finds a way for the proud to fall (Prov. 3:34; 1 Pet. 5:5).

A final word on this story. We do not know how Er and Onan died. What I can tell you is that the statement that the LORD killed them does not imply any specific way of dying. When people live evil, and something bad befalls them, or they die young, people attribute it (often rightly) to God.

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Through the Bible in a Year: Genesis 29 to 34

Posted on 01/10/2012 by Paul Pavao

Today, we will just hit a few subjects. The story speaks for itself and is easy, though sad, to follow.

Genesis 29:31: The LORD is compassionate and tends to be for the underdog.
Rachel gives her maid to Jacob just as Sarai had given her maid to Abram. This didn’t work out so well for Sarai, though it provides a picture for us of the two covenants. In Rachel’s case, it caused no problems.
Mandrake (30:14ff), a powerful herb, was considered to produce fertility.

The Work of God in an Age Without Law

In Genesis 30, we find Jacob oddly putting striped sticks in front of the animals while they were eating in order for them to produce striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. He attributes the effectiveness of this procedure to God in Genesis 31:9.

Today much of life seems defined. We know what is Christian and unchristian. There are things we consider evil, and we all know they are evil.

In Jacob’s day, not much was defined. God was to him still "the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow" (31:13).

Thus, the idea of using something we might fear is witchcraft today—putting striped rods in front of sheep to produce certain offspring—was simply something for him to try in his time.

In fact, you can see the lack of understanding of "the God of Bethel" in Rachel, who stole her father’s idols (statues of false gods) when they fled from him. There is no record that she was ever rebuked for this polytheistic behavior. The Law, which declared that only the LORD God was to be served, was still four hundred years away.

The Blessing of God

It is clear from the story of leaving Laban’s land that Jacob was still in the habit of deception. Nonetheless, God remained with him. He did not let Laban find the idols that Rachel had stolen, and he even warned Laban in a dream to be careful about opposing Jacob.

Later, Jacob prayed a prayer of faith, declaring his own unworthiness and reminding God of his promise (32:9-12). It is this sort of faith, not because it expects things for oneself, but because it believes what God has said, no matter what he said, that causes God to look upon those like Jacob with such favor. It’s not that he prayed for favor, it’s that he treated God as trustworthy.

As a result, and because God had a purpose in raising up a people for himself, God was with Jacob everywhere. He sent him angels along the journey (32:1), and he appeared to him to wrestle with him and give him a new name (discussed below). Finally, he gave him favor in the sight of his brother Esau, who had previously hated him.

Sacrifices … Again

In Genesis 31:54 we read that Jacob "offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to the meal" (NASB). Sacrifices were rarely a way to simply kill animals to appease God (or the gods). Sacrifices were a meal. The innards, fat, and skin were burned, but the meat was eaten by those who offered or by the priests.

Locations

Haran was located on a tributary of the Euphrates River. Nahor (Abram’s brother) and his descendants continued to leave there after Abram left for the land of Canaan. Abraham’s servant went back to Nahor to find Rebekah, Nahor’s granddaughter, as a wife for Isaac. Jacob went back to Nahor to find wives for himself, both of whom were Rebekah’s nieces (and thus Jacob’s first cousins).

Now Jacob returned again to the land of Canaan, modern Palestine, where both Abraham and Isaac had lived.

Jacob’s New Name

We cannot fail to discuss Jacob’s wrestling with God (32:24-32), though thousands of words could and have been written about it.

Jacob was forced to overcome and to hold onto God for a blessing. This is a picture of how we must wrestle in prayer with God. Our answers do not always come easy.

Also, note the way Jacob’s new name is granted. First, the Angel gives Jacob a new name, Israel. Then, when Jacob asks the Angel’s name, the Angel tells him, "Why do you ask?" Hidden in this exchange and this wording is the fact that the Angel is telling Jacob that he already knows his name … or at least one of his names. The name that was given to Jacob, Israel, is one of the Angel’s names.

This was well known to the early Christians, though we have forgotten much of the prophecy they knew. The Angel, like all other appearances of God in old covenant times, was the Son of God come to earth. No one has ever seen the Father (Jn. 1:18). When we get to Isaiah, we shall see the importance of knowing that Israel was not only the name of the nation descended from Jacob, but it was first one of the names that belongs to the Son of God. It was a gift to Jacob at Penuel.

Finally, Jacob was given a limp at Penuel. Such a limp is not to be despised. May we all be touched by God so that we learn to walk with a spiritual limp, broken of trust in our own power, and required to lean upon the power of God.

Thus, in Genesis 34 we see that Jacob did not try to avenge the rape of his daughter Dinah. Surely, with all that he had seen God do, he could trust God to avenge if he wanted to. Jacob’s sons, on the other hand, young and ready to do battle, destroyed the entire city of Shechem because of it, an act that Jacob could never honor.

A Comment on Dinah

Whether we like it or not (and we do not), in those days the most common answer to a rape was to have the man marry the woman he raped. This is what is prescribed in the Law as well (Deut. 22:28-29). Punishment or revenge seems justifiable (for an Israelite, not a Christian! A Christian must let God judge—and he will [Rom. 12:19-20]). Revenge upon Shechem himself may well have been passed over in Scripture in silence … but the destruction of an entire city?

Posted in Through the Bible | Tagged dinah, genesis, jacob, laban, leah, rachel, through the bible | 6 Comments

Through the Bible in a Year: Genesis 25:11 to 28

Posted on 01/09/2012 by Paul Pavao

At the start of today’s reading, we see Ishmael’s descendants covered quickly. As I pointed out yesterday, Ishmael is the father of the Arab nations.

You will notice that Ishmael had twelve children, which correspond to twelve tribes. You may already know that the nation of Israel had twelve tribes as well. We shall see in future readings that these are the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob (Isaac’s son) whose name was changed to Israel later in life.

Ishmael is covered only briefly because the Bible is not a history of the world, but a history of the people of God. The chosen men of God descend through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so these are the men on which Scripture focuses. It is through the people of God that God has always intended to bless the world.

Isaac’s Sons

In Romans 9, Paul uses Esau and Jacob as an example of God’s sovereign choice. God chose to pass the lineage on through Jacob even before he and his older twin brother were born.

This proved to be a wise choice. I’m sure that all God’s choices are based on foreknowledge, so it is no surprise (Acts 2:23; Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:2). For all of the deception Jacob practiced in his life, he always stood by God. Esau, on the other hand, threw away his inheritance for a bowl of soup because he was hungry. He has since been used as an example by Scripture of one who "despised his birthright" (Gen. 25:34; Heb. 12:16).

Esau’s birthright was the right as the firstborn to inherit his father’s land and possessions. His younger brother would have to make his way in the world, but Esau had a first right to everything his father possessed.

So we have been granted a birthright as the younger brothers and sisters of Jesus, the Firstborn (Rom. 8:29). It is clear that God expects us to honor and guard that birthright. We must not throw it away or risk it for our own desires (Heb. 12:15-16).

Isaac Doesn’t Go to Egypt

The beginning of chapter 26 may seem like a small matter, but it is not. Egypt represents human strength in Scripture versus relying on God’s strength (Is. 30:2-3; 31:1-3). Here we have our first example of someone being told not to go to Egypt for safety.

Sometimes it is okay to use the help of men. Even Jesus went to Egypt for safety from Herod (Matt. 2:13). It is important, however, that we seek God before making decisions to rely on the strength of men (2 Chr. 16:7,12).

Woe to the rebellious children … who proceed to Egypt without consulting me. (Is. 30:1-2, NASB)

Miscellaneous Genesis 26 Items

You will notice in 26:6-11 that Isaac follows in his father Abraham’s footsteps and puts his wife at risk to save his neck. Once again, the mercy of God intervenes, and Isaac’s wife is returned to him.
In chapter 26, there is much discussion about wells. It is likely that the origins of names of places in Canaan land are being given.
After Abimelech, in fear, drives Isaac away, he comes back to him. Why? It is because Abimelech sees the blessing of God upon Isaac. Proverbs 16:7 says, "When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
I left LORD capitalized in the Prov. 16:7 quote because I don’t want you to forget the meaning of a capitalized LORD or GOD in the old covenant writings (end of Gen. 16-20 commentary.

Genesis 27: Blessings and Curses

Genesis 27 is where God brings his prophecy concerning Jacob to pass. What Jacob does is deceptive, but God used it to accomplish his will.

What is of primary note in this chapter is the matter of blessings and curses. It is impossible to miss how real these were to Isaac and his family.

They are real to God as well, who teaches us that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). Many "word of faith" teachers have taken this to a foolish extreme, but we must not throw out the baby with the bathwater. It would be good for us to learn how to bless.

Genesis 28

Esau may have hated his brother Jacob (not without reason), but he was nonetheless moved by Jacob’s righteousness in the matter of his wives. In the same way our lives will influence even those who hate us if we will choose the ways of God.

The story of Jacob’s dream, of the pillow of stone that he named Bethel, and the oil that he poured upon it are so rich in allegorical meaning that we cannot cover it here. It is well worth further study. "Bethel" means "house of God," and it applies both to the church and to Christ himself (Jn. 1:51). Oil, in Scripture, always represents the Holy Spirit.

In Genesis 19, we saw that Abraham gave a tenth of his riches to Melchizedek. Here, in Genesis 28, Jacob promises to give a tenth of all God provides back to God. Have you ever considered how Jacob would do that? Where would Jacob bestow a tithe?

I don’t have a certain answer, but Proverbs 19:17 says that those who have pity on the poor lend to the Lord.

It is good to ask that question today, when rich men running extravagant organizations ask for money to be given to the Lord. Why would giving to the Lord have anything to do with giving to those rich ministries? It is the poor whom the Lord has concern over.

Please don’t misunderstand. Giving to churches can be a good thing if the money is spent wisely, if the needy are helped, and if the Gospel is preached as a result. Nonetheless, Christianity in America hardly needs one more building and one more set of professional ministers (cf. Acts 20:33-35).

Finally, despite how many professionals disagree with me, tithing is not a new covenant principle. This should not be taken to mean that we cannot have full-time shepherds and teachers (1 Cor. 9).

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Through the Bible in a Year: Week 2 Readings

Posted on 01/08/2012 by Paul Pavao

Monday, January 9: Genesis 25:11 to 28
Tuesday, January 10: Genesis 29 to 34
Wednesday, January 11: Genesis 35 to 40
Thursday, January 12: Genesis 41 to 45
Friday, January 13: Genesis 46 to 50

And so we will have studied Genesis! In two weeks!

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