OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Part 2

Mathew chapter 2 verses 1 - 12 picks up the narrative after the birth of Jesus.

Giving us the geographic and chronological context, we learn that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea and that He was born during the rule of King Herod. We are then introduced to the magi.

The magi were a class of spiritual surveyors who likely arose in the same royal courts that Daniel the prophet had served  (centuries earlier) and were students of his writtings. They arrived in Jerusalem inquiring about the divine king of the Jews whom they had spiritually detected and for whom they had traveled to pay homage and  worship. 

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The arrival of the Magi caused a firestorm in the political circles of Jerusalem. 

The magi had presumed that the Jews would know that their own eternal king had arrived but the ruling classes were clearly caught by surprise triggering a frenzy of consultations with the priests and the legal scholars of the land.

When asked, the religious leaders replied immediately that Bethlehem was the location that the king of Israel was to be born. They knew from the scriptures which town the Messiah would arrive in but they had not been alert enough to detect the time of the Lord's visitation.

King Herod felt politically threatened by the developing events and began to plot a way to snuff out the possible emergence of a rival. 

After learning that Bethlehem was the place of birth, Herod discreetly pressed the Magi to give him the exact date that they had detected the Messiah's star so that he could zero in on the most likely candidate.

He asked the Magi to find the one they had come to worship and then to return to him with the  details of his identity so that he could go to worship him as well.

The magi then journeyed to Bethlehem and to their elation, the star they had seen and followed led them directly to where the young child Jesus was.

They worshipped Him and gave Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh;

• Gold represented His kingly office
• Frankincese represented His priestly office
• Myrrh represented His sacrifice of His life

Whereas they had been instructed by Herod to return to Jerusalem to provide him with intelligence on the child, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report to Herod and so they bypassed Jerusalem returning to their homeland.

The story of the Magi gives us a glimpse into the legacy of the prophets who left writtings about the future they had seen and these writtings remained potent through the centuries.

The Jewish diaspora in Babylon had clung to the prophet Daniel's work and on the day of God's visitation, those who traversed the spiritual landscapes were alert and picked up the most significant event to ever occur up to that time.

The great God who made us  and everything that exists, touched down on earth as a human child and the salvation of mankind was now in its final and most critical stage.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Part 1

Proceeding to Mathew chapter 1 verses 18 - 25, we learn of how Joseph found himself in a  conundrum pertaining to the surprise pregnancy of his fiance and how an existential crisis was averted.

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 

19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 

23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 

25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

In this passage following the genealogy, we are immediately plunged into the phychological and social pressure cooker that engulfed Joseph, the fiance of Mary.

Having secured an agreement to be married to Mary, he was confronted with the news that Mary was pregnant.

Joseph, dealing with his own disappointment and sense of betrayal, thought through a plan that would legally un-entangle himself from Mary while at the same time, shielding her from the harshness of social recriminations.

This explosive circumstance was the milieu in which the saviour of the world was gestating. 

Here, a man and a woman, about to be married, are suddenly interupted in their plans and pulled into a highly sensitive political and spiritual intrigue. 

Because the Messiah's mission of conquering of the kingdom of darkness had long been prophesied, His arrival was being carefully watched for by the agents of darkness in order to prevent the predicted Messiah from establishing a foothold on the earth. 

The saviour of the world had to be discreetly smuggled into the human timeline and as such, everyone on the ground had to be on a need-to-know status.

As hazardous as the scandalous situation that embroiled Joseph and Mary was, it successfully threw searchers off the scent and only after the  reputations of the participants were sullied, was Joseph let in on the secret.

As Joseph was finalizing his plan to divorce Mary, an angel intruded into his dream and revealed to him the plan of salvation that was foretold in the scriptures by the prophets and explained to him  that the fulfilment of these texts was already underway and that he had a part to play.

These are the tasks that Joseph was given to do;

• Believe that Mary did not violate her vows
• Take Mary to his home as his wife
• Give the name of Jesus to the arriving son 

In vulnerability, Joseph and Mary were thrust into the epicenter of God's plan for the redemtion of mankind and with supernatural guidance, they navigated the storm to complete the roles they had been chosen for.

Amen.

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 OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US HIS ONLY SON AS A REDEEMER AND FULFILLED HIS PROMISE TO ABRAHAM AND TO DAVID Part 3

Proceeding to Mathew chapter 1 verses 12 - 17, we see the last 14 generations from the Babylonian exile up to the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ during the Roman occupation of the land of Israel;

12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor,

14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud,

15 Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband (father?) of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Seeing that Jeconiah is included in the previous segment, we count starting from Shealtiel and we end up with 13 generations.

Mathew, however, in verse 17, says that there are 14 generations between the exile and the arrival of Jesus the Messiah.

This question has perplexed scholars but I believe that the miscount is caused by a mis-translation of verse 16 that changed "Joseph, the father of Mary" to "Joseph, the husband of Mary".

It is very commonly known that Joseph was Mary's husband and it is likely that a scribe believed he was correcting an error in the geneological text by changing Joseph's relation to Mary from 'father' to 'husband'.

These are the reasons I believe this;

• Mathew, within the very text he was referencing, is not likely to have miscounted the generations from the exile to the Messiah. His list would have contained 14 generations and an external event would have altered it to 13.
• There are some Aramaic texts that list Joseph as Mary's father rather than her husband.
• Joseph, a common name, is one that could easily be had by both a woman's father and her husband.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US HIS ONLY SON AS A REDEEMER AND FULFILLED HIS PROMISE TO ABRAHAM AND TO DAVID Part 2

Continuing with the genealogy of Jesus, we now look at Mathew chapter 1 verses 6.5 - 11 which lists the next 14 generations after king David;

6.5 David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa,

8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,

11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

In the period of the kingdom of Israel from the time of David until Jeconiah was exiled to Babylon, 14 generations had passed.

The political and social upheavals and tumult during that time culminated in the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and a large number of the people of Israel were taken to Babylon.

The exile, though potentially an existential threat to Israel, did not result in the dissolution of the children of Israel.

The fabric of the Israelite society remained intact  complete with the observance (where possible) of the laws of Moses and the emergence of prophetic voices like that of prophet Ezekiel.

In the Babylonian milieu, the continuation of the tracing of the Israelite family trees continued through to the return from Babylon which we shall look at next.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US HIS ONLY SON AS A REDEEMER AND FULFILLED HIS PROMISE TO ABRAHAM AND TO DAVID Part 1

Starting a survey of the new testament, we look at the book of Mathew  chapter 1 verse 1 - 6 which presents the first third of the  genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 

3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 

4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,

5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,

6 and Jesse the father of King David.

This passage begins with an introduction to the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah as the son of David and the son of Abraham.

David, as king of Israel, was promised by God that his throne would be inherited by an eternal descendant who, from that throne, would rule over the whole of creation.

Isaiah chapter 9 verses 6 - 7 

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

This prophecy recorded by the prophet Isaiah, confirms that the Son who was going to be given for our redemption would reign on king David's throne forever.

Abraham, having demonstrated that he was obedient to God to the point of sacrificing his son, was given a promise by God that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 

18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Thus, the Lord Jesus was a fulfilment of the promises to these two people and this first third of the genealogy shows the descendancy of 14 generations from Abraham down to king David.

This portion of the geneology includes three women two of whom came into Israel from foreign people.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE UNDERSTANDING IS BEYOND GRASP

The book of Isaiah chapter 40 verse 13 says this;

NIV : Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?

NKJV : Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has taught Him?

Continuing from our look at chapter 40 verse 12 which identified four zones of the earth  that had to be carefully engineered to create a stable platform to serve as a habitation for all the life on earth.

In this context, as we continue to verse 13, we see the conundrum of trying to comprehend the nature and scope of the Being who created the earth's zones in their complexity. How vast and unsearchable would such a Being have to be?

On the other hand, if the creator did not Himself eternally possess all the understanding and prowess needed to created the realm able to sustain biological life, where is the being who would have this capability so as to inform the Creator of the earth on how to do so?

This question is answered in verse 28 where the Lord is declared to be eternal and the singular  creator of the earth. He is eternally rejuvinated and His personally-held understanding is beyond grasp.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

Amen.

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 OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS US IN EVERY DETAIL

Psalm 10 verse 11 says this;

He says to himself, “God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees.”

This verse speaks of the strong delusion that envelopes us when we are un-regenerated.

We persuade ourselves that our thoughts, words and actions escape the notice the Lord and that He concerns himself with other things and pays no attention to us.

In reality however, nothing escapes the Lord's attention.

The scriptures say that every hair on our heads is numbered and also, in the psalm, that the Lord thinks many thoughts about us.

Every detail about us is known from before were were formed in our mother's womb.

Amen.

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