January 22

Genesis 23; Matthew 22

Genesis 23

Ready:
Moses writes now following his description of the near sacrifice of Isaac which was counter to logic and turned out to be a huge foreshadowing of the work God would do in substituting Christ as a sacrifice to redeem us and to give us new life.  He picks up after Abraham and Isaac, uninjured, return to camp and are informed of some births that Abraham had been unaware of.

Reading thoughts:
So Sarah was 90 when God promised to return in about a year and find her with Son so I take it that Isaac was about 36 years old here when Sarah died.  I notice that Abraham is highly respected by the Hittites in the land and this is one of the people groups who God says will turn over their land to Abraham’s offspring.  There is an extended dialogue between Abraham and this council of some sort that seems to be meeting.  It sounds like he went to this meeting of the people of the Hittites and sole before them.  He showed them respect and asked for the right to purchase a place to bury his wife outside of his camp that was now at Beersheba where he has a covenant with King Abimelech to dwell.

Key Verses:

“4 “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.”” (Genesis 23:4–6, ESV)

I see the theme as- Abraham’s sadness at the passing of Sarah and the first establishment of Jewish land rights in Canaan.

Rumination thoughts:
    My only thoughts in this chapter really are that Abraham acts in faith to establish a land holding in Canaan at the passing of his wife the mother of Isaac through whom this entire land will come to belong.  I see that he has a good standing with the people there and that he offers them respect.  It turns out that Abraham himself and others after him will also be buried in this location.

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
    1.  Abraham trusts God for the future but knows that the time is not now to take the entire land of Canaan.  The implication is that there is an example of trusting God by investing effort and resources into what I believe to be his plan for me according to his purposes and how I understand the scripture.  I do not take anything in this example to be negative (since I know I need to understand narrative as descriptive and not necessarily prescriptive).  The significance for me is that I should invest in what I know to be God’s will and I should put forward my effort to do his work with patience and with trust that in his time he will bless me.  Certainly this can be harder for me because God did not come to me and tell me his plan…but none the less I know where I can invest in myself and in the world vs in God and his likely intentions for me in this life.

Response:
“Private”

Reaction:
“Private”

Matthew 22

Ready:
We saw Jesus enter Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week that culminates with his resurrection.  Jesus has cleansed the temple and established his Messianic authority and set the Pharisees back as being opposed to the kingdom of God.

Reading thoughts:
I see Matthew narrating how Jesus concludes his denunciation of the Pharisees and then faces a few challenges by them perhaps as a backlash to his affront.  In answer to their challenges, Jesus teaches on owing allegiance and devotion to the one whose image we bear.  Jesus then confronts a heretical teaching that there is no resurrection by appealing to the fact that God describes himself as the God of the patriarchs and the implied fact is that they (the patriarchs) are alive and not dead even centuries after their death.  The greatest commandment comes in as the central theme to unite this chapter and lead into the identity of Christ so that the Pharisees might know that to not love him is to fail at the greatest commandment.

Key Verses:

“2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.” (Matthew 22:2–3, ESV)

“8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’” (Matthew 22:8–9, ESV)

“21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”” (Matthew 22:21, ESV)

“30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”” (Matthew 22:30–32, ESV)

“36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:36–39, ESV)

“45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” (Matthew 22:45–46, ESV)

I see the theme as- Recognize your bridegroom and love him above all, coming prepared to the wedding celebration dressed in his own righteousness having loved God and loved others well and having paid appropriate devotion in this life to each (God and others) according to the authority established by God.

Rumination thoughts:
    v1-10.  Jesus again gives an example of the kingdom to teach us the revelation of God.  He uses a theoretical wedding that is not necessarily tie to the wedding supper of the lamb mentioned in Revelation 19:6-10 although correlations can be found.  There is certainly a general sense of the marriage between the Lord and his people.  Although Jesus has been denouncing the Pharisees and any who are not recognizing his coming as the Messiah the fact is that Israel is the bride of Christ in the New Jerusalem (heaven) and the nations are welcomed in to join her company through the gates that are open only to those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life and are therefore clean and true, purchased by the blood of the Lamb as an inheritance of sheep that were not of the sheepfold of Abraham by the flesh (Rev 21:9-27, John 10:14-16, Psalm 74:2, 1 Cor 6:19-20).  This parable is acknowledged by many to be difficult and is taken in a few ways.  Most simply it is clear that there is a marriage and there is an original group that ignores the invitation followed by another group who mostly accepts the invitation but some do not come prepared as thought they misunderstand what it is they are invited to.  There is a judgement upon those who ignore the invitation and it is clear that although both good and bad are invited (compared horizontally against one another) once they come in they are dressed appropriately (righteousness of Christ).  It seems that perhaps the guest who is rejected may represent the group that Jesus rejects saying that he never knew them (Matt 7:21-23).  It could be that these presume that they are belonging there but yet do not come prepared in any sense and bear only their own works and their own righteousness.  This can be compared to the pilgrim who comes to the gate of the Celestial City in Pilgrim’s Progress having not entered by the gate and having not received a letter of admittance.  This one is likewise bound and carried off to hell rather than being granted admittance.  I would not take this wedding to be heaven itself and it is probably too much to try to place this theoretical wedding party into some exact representation of an actual place or time in the future.
    v11-14.  Now that the room is prepared and the guests are present and all should be right and ready the king enters for what seems to be an inspection.  His attention is quickly upon a man who has not come in prepared for the event and is unclean.  Without having any answer for himself and having no perception of how one becomes worthy of presence at this wedding (by the free gift of grace trusting in the person and work of Christ as my justification with God and acting in the obedience of faith by devoting my life to him, enjoying the process of sanctification by his Spirit whereby I am molded into the likeness of Christ day by day until the future bodily redemption when I am presented to Christ complete and glorified).  This reminds me of Romans 10:1-4 where Paul says that the Jews are zealous for God but not according to knowledge and that they yet need salvation that is found only in Christ because he is the very righteousness of God to be had by all who trust in him and not in their own efforts.  SPOILER ALERT- Included here is the concept of election that we will not all agree on but I suggest it is pervasive in the Bible (However, I don’t look down upon other views that are Biblically grounded).  For this reason, or others, some will take verses 11-14 to be a completely separate parable.  None the less, here is presented a distinction between what some call (and others reject) the "general call” (gospel message given to the ends of the earth) and the "effective call” (internal call of Christ upon a soul that unstoppably turns the heart to see the beauty of Christ) by the terms “called” versus “chosen” in verse 14.  It seems that the guest in verses 11-13 was not chosen to be there (effective call) despite his decision to come along in response to the general call (zeal for God without knowledge…a knowledge that comes only by the Spirit of God shining into my heart).  Don’t take this passage or me as saying that God turns away any that truly call upon him... for this guest clearly did not know the truth.  A "call upon God" without a trust founded upon the person of Christ (true identity as the Son of God come in human flesh) and work (subsitutionary atonement- died in my place to make mercy and reconciliation a just action for God- and then rose bodily from the dead to give me new life and to be my sole mediator and advocate in heaven) apart from any of my own merit (works) is not saving faith.  This is also not to say that a perfect knowledge of how salvation works (or big vocabulary) is required but clearly the hope needs to be rightly placed or as Paul indicates, it does not save.
    v15-22.  Here the Pharisees and Herodians seek to trap Jesus and they talk him up as being a great truth speaking teacher who is not swayed by opinions of men and so they will now try to force him to give an answer that will upset the crowd (opinions of men) by telling them that they must pay the outrageous taxes of the emperor or alternatively the Pharisees could show Jesus to be leading an insurrection against the emperor.  Seem pretty witty and indeed is likely the best they can do.  But the truth is that all governing authorities are instituted by God (Rom 13) and we are to subject ourselves to them and yet it is God to whom we owe our ultimate devotion as we are his creatures.  Jesus masterfully answers with the truth (go figure).  He uses a coin to teach them that there is some authority here given to the emperor to which we are called to submit but that there is a greater authority from heaven to which we owe not only a tax, but our entire being.  We are made in the likeness of God and as the coin is thus the property of the emperor so our soul is the property of God.  Give God your supreme devotion and love and give Caesar his coin, Jesus says.  Completely stumped and in disbelief that they were just so thoroughly routed, they leave defeated yet again.
    v23-33.  Now a second class of Jews come and give a go at trapping Jesus.  These now try to show that the concept of a resurrection from the dead is absurd because of the moral dilemma created by the very law of God that says a man is to marry the widow of his brother.  Jesus dismantles the argument first by explaining a yet unknown reality that in heaven there will be no marriage as we know it but we will be like the angels who do not marry.  The idea here matches with the concept that human marriage exists as a shadow of our marriage to Christ and it serves a purpose therein that is lost when we are joined to Christ as the bride in heaven.  The real substance supersedes the usefulness of the shadow and makes it void (Eph 5:31-32, Hos 2:19-20).
    v34-40.  The law of God is here summed up after the pattern of the two tables (responsibility toward God / responsibility toward man).  The collective group of Jews wanted to get Jesus to speak against the law since they perceived he was coming with salvation by a different way than following the law.  But his answer gets to the spirit of the law as opposed to the letter of the law as they knew it.  This is a huge teaching and relates to the law being spiritual (Rom 7:14) and true circumcision being of the heart, by the Spirit of God (Rom 2:28-29) and how God is looking upon our heart and not merely our actions.  Since the person and work of Jesus are a complete fulfillment of the law and the prophets (Rom 8:4, 10:4) he does not have any message against the law.  He merely came to do what the law was powerless to do (Rom 8:3-4).
    v41-46.  Matthew concludes with the account of Jesus then turning the tables and asking them a question.  Truth itself looks them in the face and gives them a shattering reality check.  Jesus refers to a passage of the Old Testament that would be very familiar to the Jews as speaking about the Messiah in Psalm 110.  It is rather plain here and in Isaiah that the Messiah is himself divine and not just a human to come and “save” Israel.  But the big thing is how Jesus makes it clear to them that King David call the Messiah Lord.  The Hebrew word used is a term divine in nature and so this human Messiah they were expecting is here shown to be greater than David and before David and divine.  They also know Jesus has been claiming to be this Messiah.  Having known this Psalm and never likely drawn that correct conclusion they had no answer and concluded that there was simply no way to out think Jesus.  I take this as a wrap on the chapter (though he keeps teaching by addressing the crowd next in chapter 23) and buttoning up to whom the devotion is owed and who is the bridegroom and to whom is the real marriage and by whom is the resurrection power of God to rest upon.

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
Quickly- I owe the complete devotion of my life to Christ (the Son of God who died in my place), to whom I am truly betrothed, and I am to trust in him alone to give me new life now (Rom 8:11, 6:4) and in a resurrection of my body (Rom 8:23).

Response:
“Private”

Reaction:
“Private”

Soli Deo Gloria!