OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH Part 7

The Lord Jesus, continuing with the discourse on the mountainside, taught His followers that even though they had heard it said that they should love their neighbours and hate their enemies, He had a different standard for them to follow.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing The Community Rule begins by saying that members of the community should be taught to seek God and obey Moses and the Prophets so that "they may love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's design, and hate all the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt in God's vengeance." than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father's is perfect.

There is a biblical injunction that instructs us to love our neighbours but there is no injunction to hate our enemies and in this case, Jesus was referencing a cultural truism that had been hidden and only came to light after the Dead Sea scrolls were published and specifically, a document named "The Community Rule"

Douglas Ward, Ph.D., writting at www.JCstudies.com, points out the standard for loving ones' neighbours and hating ones' enemies that was recorded by a Jewish sect at Qumran.

The Community Rule begins by saying that members of the community should be taught to seek God and obey Moses and the Prophets so that "they may love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's design, and hate all the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt in God's vengeance."

The appearance of this document confirmed that there was an understanding in circulation during the time of Jesus that promoted hating ones' enemies.

The Lord, against this cultural backdrop, instructed His people to love their enemies instead of hating them as per such cultural prescriptions.

Being spiritual, praying for those who persecute us makes us children of our Father in heaven where we surrender our protection into His hands when we pray for our enemies and we endevour to love all people as our Father does..

To only love those who love us is easily done by even those who have no allegiance to God.

The standard that Jesus sets for us is that we are to be perfect even as our father is perfect pertaining to a universal and impartial love and goodwill to all people whether friend or foe. 

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH Part 6

Mathew chapter 5 verses 38 - 42 continues with the Lord Jesus discussing the standard that was set for retribution for injuries done to His people;

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 

40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.u

The Lord, in this passage, references the book of Leviticus chapter 24 verses 19 - 20 which stipulates that for any violence that is done to another person that results in bodily harm, the same bodily harm would be done to them.

19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

However, those who would be part of the kingdom of God are held to a higher spiritual standard. The understanding being revealed in this passage is that the material or corporeal realm is temporal and the things of this world are not worth trading for anything in the spirit.

Whereas people living temporal lives may seek retribution for injuries done to their mortal bodies, Jesus counsels His people living in the spirit to forfeight any claims that they may have a right to under the law.

The realm of the spirit is eternal and its rewards are vast and as such, it is counter-productive to entangle ourselves in litigating matters pertaining to the temporal realm.

If there are situations in the physical realm that are injurious to us, even though we could potentially press for our rights, we should instead take steps to short-cirquit our involvement by absorbing any loss or enduring any humiliation or pain because the spiritual advantage gained by doing so will by great measure, outstrip any temporal satisfaction.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH Part 5

The Lord Jesus, continuing with the clarification of the Law of Moses to His disciples, referencing the matter of taking oaths that is mentioned in the book of Numbers chapter 30, addresses the expectation of His kingdom pertaining to the swearing oaths.

In Mathew chapter 5 verses 33 - 37, the Lord takes the injunction to fulfill all oaths that are made and escalates the standard to a spiritual elevation.

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

The practice of swearing oaths is a mechanism by which one person could assure another that a promise would be fulfilled.

The Lord Jesus establishes that His followers should avoid swearing oaths altogether.

Swearing oaths was usually done on a higher authority than the person and ostensibly, this higher authority could be invoked to enforce the oath if the terms were not fulfilled so that the name of the higher authority was not besmirched by the failure to fulfill the oath.

The Lord Jesus specified why these mechanisms of swearing on heaven or on the  earth or even on the city of Jerusalem were inappropriate. He explained that because they belonged to God and to the great king, obligating these places and engendering the risk of sullying their reputations by a failure to fulfill the oath was wrong.

To even swear on one's own head was wrong because one's own head was not under the authority of its owner to the degree that he could not even alter the color of a single hair. The person's head was still under the perview of God and thus wrong to swear upon.

The standard set by Jesus was that no oaths were to be sworn. In the life of the spirit that He was authoring for those who believed in Him, everything we say is under oath anyway. None of our utterances are exempt from obligation and everything we say we will do, we must fulfill. 

To fail to fulfill a promise is, as Jesus said, an artifact of the influence of the evil one.

Mathew chapter 12 verses 36 - 37 says;

36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH Part 4

As the Lord Jesus continued to teach His followers, the subject of divorce and remarriage came to the forefront and Jesus, referencing the protocols written of in Deutronomy chapter 24 verses 1 - 4, tightens down what the allowances for divorce are.

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

In Deutronomy chapter 24, if a husband did not like somethimg about his wife, he could write out a certificate of divorce and she was free to remarry. The only restriction was that if she married another man and that man divorced her or left her widowed, her first husband was not permitted to re-marry her.

The Lord Jesus barred divorce for His followers except in the cases of sexual immorality and barred re-marriage if divorced.

This escalation of the standards takes into consideration that those who followed the Lord Jesus would be living spiritually and because marriage is a joining of two people into one flesh, unentanglement cannot occur on the basis of a certificate written by a person whose life is in the spirit as Mark 10 verses 7 - 9 says, 7 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 

In a believer's marriage, the two persons involved retain separate born-again spirits but their flesh (which is not a reference to their physical bodies but rather to their earth-bound human nature that was corrupted by the fall), is joined and that is why non-believers can be married in exactly the same way believers can be married.

However, whereas a non-regenerated person can (in the flesh) write a certificate of divorce and it would apply to the matters of the flesh, among believers, any proceedings, such as the writing of of a certificate of divorce, would be occuring by the hand of their spirits and so would not be applicable to the matters flesh and thus they would remain joined in the flesh and not free to remarry.

This implies that divorces that occur among non-believers do in fact result in the separation of the flesh while those that occur among believers do not.

As Jesus said in John chapter 3 verse 6; That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH Part 3

Continuing with Mathew chapter 5, let's look at verses 27 - 30 which escalates the sin of adultery from a physical infraction to a spiritual infraction. The Lord Jesus instructs us that the precursors to adultery that begin with the lust of the eye and then forments in the heart, are themselves adultery.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

The counsel of the Lord is to be ruthless in putting to death the works of the flesh that can dissuade us from taking the path of the spirit.

If the desires of the flesh cause us to reject the offer of salvation and the pathway to righteousness, we should discard the inclinations of the flesh so that our whole body does not get discarded for its corruptive influence.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH Part 2

In Mathew chapter 5 verses 25 - 26, the Lord Jesus introduces a new concept into the code of expected behaviour among His people.

When one has an outstanding debt, obligation or liability, the Lord tells us to expedite the resolution of the matter with a view to settling it out of court before it is turned over into the hands of the court. 

25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

What the Lord is describing here applies to both the corporeal and spiritual realms.

In court systems of men and in the court systems of the spirit world, the legalistic mechanisms process cases through like machines and once we get fed into one end as a defendant, we are subject to the nature of the judge's view of our case and we may be found guilty or liable and we may then be handed over to the enforcers who may use imprisonment to extricate from use what is due.

The councel of the Lord is do everything in our power to bring swift resolution to any issue that is being held against us.

In spiritual matters, this means that we must offer resolutions for offences that we have caused as soon as we can and to transact in spiritual terms to atone for or restitute what is required.

If we let cases linger, they can be brought forward for litigation at the most importune times. An example of where the adversary pressed a case at a time that caused maximal damage is when a devastating drought descended on the land Israel while David was king.

Decades before, David's predecessor, king Saul, broke a vow that Israel had with the Gibeonites. 

Even though the vow was centuries old and the infraction the Saul commited against the terms of the vow was decades old, the adversary of Israel pressed the case against Israel by the imposition of a severe drought.

To bring a resolution to the matter during David's time, it cost the lives of seven people from the family of Saul because the Gibeonites demanded the killing of Saul's descedants in order to release Israel from their infraction.

The drought was the prison that Israel was put into and they were not released from the prison until they had paid the last penny.

4

OUR FATHER SENT HIS SON TO DO AND TO TEACH part 1

In Mathew chapter verses 21 - 24, the Lord Jesus escalates the subject of righteouness to illustrate that sin and evil stems from inside us and the attitudes we foster.

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Jesus, in this passage, speaking of the law against murder and the judgement of death that comes from it, tells us that harbouring anger against a brother or sister is subject to judgement. 

Whereas the traditional law held that actual murder was subject to penalty and did not hold anyone to account for their thoughts and words against those around them, the higher standards of Jesus's kingdom holds that cultivating angry thoughts and speaking derogatory words towards one's brothers and sisters can make one subject to judgement in the court of heaven and could, if left to fester indefinitely, potentially lead to  hell.

The life of the kingdom of heaven, which is a spiritual kingdom, enforces a high standard of righteous behaviour that includes the behaviour of the soul and spirit and not just the acts done physically in the body.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS SON THE SCEPTER OF ZION

From Psalm 110;

Your mighty scepter will rule from Zion

By Your great power judge the nations

Arrayed for battle in Holy splendor

Your troops go forth at Your command and conquer   

Your mighty scepter will rule from Zion

By Your great army conquer nations

Arrayed for battle in Holy splendor

Melchizedek(Lord Jesus), You are a priest forever

Psalm 110

1 The Lord says to my lord

Sit at my right hand

    until I make your foes

    a footstool for your feet.

2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,

   "Rule in the midst of your enemies!"

3 Your troops will be willing

    on your day of battle.

Arrayed in holy splendor,

    your young men will come to you

    like dew from the morning's womb. (c. A surprise out of thin air)

4 The Lord has sworn

    and will not change his mind:

"You are a priest forever,

    in the order of Melchizedek."

5 The Lord is at your right hand;

    he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.

6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead

    and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.

7 He will drink from a brook along the way,

    and so he will lift his head high. 

(c. Having drank from the cup of death for the sins of all men,

 He can confidently assert authority over the whole earth)

OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO FULLFIL THE LAW

Proceeding along with the requirements of entering the kingdom of heaven recorded in the book of Mathew chapter 5 verses 17 - 20,  the Lord Jesus taught His followers that the gravity of the Law of Moses intensified with the onset of His  ministry.

Whereas some may have interpreted the ministry of the Christ to be the abolition of the law, Jesus declared that it was, in fact, the oposite. In the way Jesus lived His life, He fulfilled the law at the highest possible standard that exceeded the standards of the pharisees. 

He accomplished each and every nuance of the law with His perfect righteousness and it was with this perfection that He went to the cross to die for the sins of mankind.

Because our own righteouness does not reach that high standard, our only hope of entering the kingdom of heaven is to have the righteousness of Christ accrued to us which in fact it is when we believe in Jesus and are justified and deemed to be perfect as Romans 5 verse 1 says; "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we a have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..." We therefore depend on Jesus' fulfillment of the perfect standard of the law to enter the kingdom of heaven. The scriptures says it this way;

17 Don't think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

In qualifying to enter the kingdom of heaven, we are able to claim that our righteousness exceeds that of the pharisees because, by the mechanism of believing in Jesus, we appropriate His righteousness and are justified.

Once justified, we are privileged to enter the kingdom of heaven and it is while we are ensconced in the kingdom that we get to learn to live in the power of His resurection and find that, while still in the body, we are increasingly able to live righteously and to ultimately attain a degee of righteousness that exceeds that of the pharisees.

It is for this reason that Jesus, in verse 19 of our passage, underscores the neccesity of upholding every point of the law.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO IS GLORIFIED BY THE GOOD WORKS OF HIS CHILDREN

Mathew chapter 4 verses 13 - 16 says this;

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

This passage elucidates the effect that believers are expected to have in the world by comparing us to salt and to light.

Salt, with its distinct flavour, is used as a metaphor for the distinction of righteousness that believers should be exhibiting in their lives before non-believers.

If that distinction is lost, believers will become irrelevant in the world and they will be trampled underfoot by men. 

The problem highlighted by the Lord Jesus is that if believers lose their distinct flavor of righteouness, there is no other substance that can be introduced to re-season them with the flavor of righteousness. The lives of believers need to be perpetually seen as a desirable standard to which unbelievers can compare their own lives and seek the remedy of salvation.

With righteousness enmeshed in their lives, Jesus charges believers to be the light of the world and to let the righteouness of God be seen in their lives the way that a light placed on a lampstand illuminates a house.

The good works like hospitality, generosity, gentleness, forgiveness, mercy and faithfulness are ways that God is glorified because people observe how believers take the responsibility to alleviate the difficulties in other people's lives while restoring and sustaining the dignity and intrinsic worth of those around them.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO SENT A SAVIOUR TO TEACH US PART 4

The Lord Jesus, continuing to teach His disciples in Mathew chapter 4 verses 9 - 12 about the categories of people who would be admitted and set into His kingdom now that it had drawn near, mentioned the peacemakers who would gain the title or position of 'sons of God'.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children ( KJV:  sons ) of God.

Peacemakers are those who seek reconciliation between themselves and other parties or endeavour to establish reconciliation between other parties.

Reconciliation is ending of hostilities and the mending of broken communication lines and finally the re-establishment of normal relations. 

In this verse, the Lord Jesus tells His followers that those who preoccupy themselves with reconciling themselves and others to God will be named sons of God. This means that they would be adopted into the family of God and would no longer be slaves or orphans but rather sons who belong to the household of God and if sons, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

So whereas people could believe in the message of the salvation through Christ and be saved, there is  a process of reconciliation with God that must be pursued and those who do so, will be granted the Spirit of Adoption.

In the next verse, the Lord Jesus, speaks of those who are persecuted because of their stand for righteousness.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Here, to those who suffer persecution, gain the kingdom of heaven that is also conferred upon those mentioned in the first beatitude (those who are poor in spirit). Additionally, there is another group of people who would gain the kingdom of heaven mentioned separately in Mathew chapter 19 verse 14 which says; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

So the poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness and little children are automatically qualified to be part of the kingdom of heaven.

Having explained to His disciples about the conduits through which other people would be drawn into and placed in His kingdom, the Lord redirected His focus on them directly and said to them that they would be blessed when they undertook their roles in process setting up the kingdom of God because they would suffer greatly from denigration, slander, social and political accusation and harassment. Mathew chapter 4 verses 11 - 12 put it this way;

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 

12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Lord encourages his followers to be happy when they are deemed worthy to suffer for His sake because they are assured a great reward in heaven because the suffering they  would endured would be same as the suffering of the historic prophets of God who suffered greatly at the hands of the enemies of God.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO SENT A SAVIOUR TO TEACH US PART 3

We now look at the next set of beatitudes from the fifth to the sixth one.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

This is a principle of reciprocation related to the conduct shown to other people. It is mirrored in the words of the Lord Jesus in Mathew chapter 6 verse 15 which says; But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. In the inverse sense, the showing mercy to others allows for mercy to be shown to us. This conditional axiom adjures believers to follow the Lord's example of being merciful to others. 

Mathew chapter 18 verse 18 says; “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 

For believers, to be merciful towards someone is to loose  them in the spirit and vice versa. Because these types of obligations cross into the spirit realm, to bind someone with fetters into that realm will cause the retention of any fetters that one may themselves be linked to. Similarly, to sever obligations held over other people will generally sever any obligations or debts against ones' own self.

The next beatitude is fearsome because it suggests that there are ways that a believer can behave that would prevent them from seeing God.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The pure in heart are those who are sincere in their disposition towards the Lord. They harbour no concealed agendas and do not present false impressions of themselves to appear pious before men. An example of people who are not pure in heart is mentioned in Mathew 6 verse 6 which says; And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Here, the praying is done in public to enhance their reputations and enhanced reputions will be the full reward for this behaviour while the sincere behaviour is to pray in secret.

The sincerity of private prayer results in intimacy with God and one is brought into the inner circle of the Lord and they will see God.

To try to do spritual practices with motives apart from the pure-hearted love of God will exclude one from direct contact with Him.

Amen.

6

SENT A SAVIOUR WHO TEACHES US Part 2

Continuing with the beatitudes that the Lord Jesus was teaching His disciples, we'll examine the second through to the fourth one out of the total of nine.

Mathew chapter 5 verses 4 - 5;

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

The principle touched on here is that those who acknowledge and regret their rebellious nature and mourn over their sins will be comforted and assured of their redemtion from darkness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness as 1 John 1 verse 9 says.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

This principle points to the humble at heart who seek not to offend anyone and who are not offended by anyone. Those who are humble and contrite are given authority over the realms of the earth and this lines up with Luke 9 verse 49 which in part says; "For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

The people described here are those mired in sin but see the high standard of God and genuinely yearn to be righteous. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied because they are desiring to be aligned to the ways of God and they will be marked for justification just as happened to the sinner who went to the temple in Luke 18 verse 13 and 14;

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The man, a sinner, yearned for righteousness and journeyed to the temple but he could not even go near but stood at a distance. The Lord declared that this man was justified. His hunger and thirst for righteousness was filled.

Amen.

12

OUR FATHER WHO SENT A SAVIOUR WHO TEACHES US Part 1

Beginning the  series of axiomatic principles related to God's kingdom Jesus taught His followers what are known as 'the Beatitudes', Mathew chapter 5 verses 1 - 3 sets the scene of an informal meeting on the side of a mountain where Jesus and His disciples were sitting on the ground and looking out at the crowd of people below them.

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord began the teaching by listing the primary qualifier needed to be part of the kingdom of heaven and that is to be 'poor in spirit'.

To be poor in spirit means to be bereft of any self-significance and to have no spiritual pride and therefore, to begin ones' journey into the kingdom of heaven, one must be fully pursuaded of ones' own bankruptcy and inability to meet any requirements by ones' own merits.

To be in any condition of self-assuredness or self-confidence would exclude a person from being able to be part of the kingdom. 

Of all the people who had gathered below them, Jesus taught His disciples that only the ones who were there because they knew that they had no reserves left and had exhausted all alternate pathways to redemtion by their own efforts would be permitted to even begin their journey into the kingdom of heaven.

Amen.

8

Referenced www.gotquestions.com

OUR FATHER WHO SENT A SAVIOUR WHO HEALED US

After starting to gather disciples who could travel with Him and learn what He was doing, the Lord Jesus began moving around Galilee teaching the good news of the kingdom and he was healing the people of all manner of afflictions and diseases. Mathew chapter 4 verses 23 - 25 describes it this way;

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 

24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

Word about Jesus' ministry spread to the surrounding regions and people with intractable and chronic conditions were brought to Him from all directions and He healed them.

Many began to follow him.

Amen.

4

 OUR FATHER WHO MADE US

From Psalm 100;

Be still and know  the Lord is God

And it is He who made us

We believed and became His people

Everyone in all generations

Worship gladly before Him

Praising Him joyfully

For the Lord is good 

and His love endures

Psalm 100

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2     Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

OUR FATHER WHOSE SON BROUGHT THE MESSAGE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

After moving to Capernaum, the Lord Jesus, being close to Sea of Galilee, came across some of the people of the community who made a living fishing and He called them to follow Him, expressly telling them that He was going to turn them into fishers of men.

Mathew chapter 4 verses 18 - 22 describes how Simon (later named Peter), Andrew, James and John were called out of the fishing industry and reassigned to the netting of men for the kingdom of God.

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Amen

6

 OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO PREACH THE NEWS OF THE KINGDOM

Mathew chapter 4 verse 12 - 17 says this;

12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

    the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,

    Galilee of the Gentiles—

16 the people living in darkness

    have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

A political chill swept across the land when John the Baptist was arrested and imprisoned. 

John, in calling everyone to return to righteousness, told king Herod that it was wrong to marry his brother's ex-wife Herodias and because of this, Herodias took offence and instigated his arrest and imprisonment.

In the tense climate, Jesus moved further north to Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee where the town's larger population could help him be less traceable by the agents of the political powers.

In taking this step, the prophet Isaiah's writings in Chapter 9 verses 1 - 2 were fulfilled because the people in this area around the Sea of Galilee that corresponded to the lands of the tribes of Zebulun and the Naphtali did indeed see a great light.

The Lord Jesus criss-crossed the whole area proclaiming that the time had come for everyone to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER TESTS THOSE WHO SERVE HIM TO ESTABLISH BENCHMARKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

After being baptized, we enter the book of Mathew chapter 4 verses 1 - 11 where the Lord Jesus was taken by the Spirit of God into the wilderness. This was the arena for the  various temptations that were to be the hurdles over which He would have to cross before the onset of His public ministry.

To prepare for the tactics the devil would use to try to induce Him to do what was wrong, Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights at which point he became hungry. This spiritual exercise weakens the power of the body so that it does not harbour notions of self-sufficiency.

At the end of the protracted fasting period, the first temptation brought to Him was designed to use hunger to prompt Jesus to take action that would allieviate His hunger while at the same time demonstrating the validity of His credentials as the Son of God which had been recently publically announced by the Jordan river by the Father.

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus' response was derived exclusively from the scriptures ( Deutronomy 8 verse 3 ) which negated the idea that the promptings of the flesh or the desire to demonstrate our rank and stature were the basis for human beings to take any action. Jesus established that our actions should be prompted only by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 

The next temptation also tested Jesus on the point of His credentials. This time, Jesus was to demonstrate that He was indeed the son of God by throwing Himself off the top of the temple in Jerusalem because the scriptures promised that the Son of God would be protected by angels if such a thing were to happen.

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

    and they will lift you up in their hands,

    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, Jesus used scripture (Deutronomy 6 verse 16) to counter the temptation. Whereas it was true that He would be saved by angels if He were to fall but to deliberately put Himself in danger to prove that He was the Son of God would classify as a test of God which is forbidden.

The next temptation was an offer rather than an invitation to illegitimately prove credentials as the previous two temptations were.

The offer was a trade where the devil would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world with all their splendor in exchange for Jesus bowing to worship him.

In other words, Jesus would be granted the post of Prime Minister in the Devil's empire answering only to the devil in much that same way that Joseph was the Prime Minister of Egypt answering only to Pharaoh.

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Jesus rejected the offer using Deutronomy 6 verse 13 which establishes that the only legitimate worship is the worship of God and that all the service of a person's life should be exclusively rendered to God.

The devil left the arena to plan for another day but in the meantime, the angels of God came to attend to Jesus.

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT A HERALD TO POINT TO THE MESSIAH PART 2

Having introduced John the Baptist and his mission, Mathew, in chapter 3 verses 13 - 17, then describes the momentous convergence of John and the Lord Jesus at the river Jordan.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

John, going about his work baptizing those who responded to his preaching and repented of their sins, suddenly realised that one of the people standing in line to be baptized was the One whose imminent arrival he had been proclaiming.

John immediately felt too inadequate to administer the rite of baptism upon so great a person whom he had already declared as one whose sandals he was unworthy to carry and tried to pursuade the Lord Jesus to baptize him rather than the other way around.

Jesus, in a gentle rebuttal to John's objection, told him that the baptism was nessessary to "fulfill all righteousness" and asked him to set aside the internal conflict he was feeling and baptize him anyway.

John was ultimately pursuaded and he baptized Jesus.

The reality of Jesus' words that the baptism was necessary was, at least in part, made clear when Jesus emerged from the water because that moment was chosen by God to be when the official public pronouncement of the credentials of Jesus was made.

On the banks of the Jordan river, the eternal Holy Spirit, descending like a dove, alighted on Jesus and the heavenly  Father declared audibly that Jesus was His beloved Son and that He was well pleased with Him. 

The Father and the Holy Spirit registered their presence alongside the Son of God to mark this event  as one of the few mentioned in all of scripture where all three members of the Trinity are geograpically together.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT A HERALD TO POINT TO THE MESSIAH PART 1

Mathew chapter 3 verses 1 - 12 tells of ministry of John the Baptist starting with the prophetic reference to him in Isaiah 40 verse 3;

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

    make straight paths for him.’”

4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John, living an austere life in the wilderness wearing camel hair clothing with a diet of locusts and honey, was a compelling voice crying out in the wilderness that drew people from the relative comfort of the cities and towns where they lived out to the inhospitable desert to listen to him. And his voice stirred them to repentance and they confessed their sins and he baptized them in the Jordan river.

To be drawn, to confess sins and to be baptized were the first steps that were required to be inaugurated into the new life that God was sending to the world and so the ministry of John was the dress rehearsal in preparation for the long awaited arrival of the Messiah.

Among the people who came out to hear him were the members of the religious establishment of the time and John, calling them a brood of vipers, warned them that their repentance needed to actually bear the fruit of repentance if they were to be saved. Their main problem was that their corruption was so great that the arrival of the Messiah could not been entrusted into their hands to officiate and thus had to be routed through unofficial channels such as John himself.

He warned them that their claim to having Abraham as their ancestor was not going to exclude them from the judgement to come. Actual righteousness that stemmed from actual repentance was the ingredient that was needed to be spared from the coming wrath and not a pedigree of birth.

John, comparing himself with the one whom he was  heralding, said that the coming Messiah was of such great stature that there was no one worthy to even carry His sandals. John described the ministry of the coming Messiah as one of a blazing unquenchable fire. 

Whereas he (John) baptized with water for repentance, the Annointed One who was to come would baptize people in the Holy Spirit of God and fire and He would be a winnower who would separate the sinners and the righteous and would bring great judgement upon those who had not repented.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Part 4

Having laid low in Egypt with his family for a period of time, Joseph got a notification that it was now safe to return to the land Israel because the threat that had sent them into Egypt had now passed. 

Mathew chapter 2 verses 19 - 23 tells us of the instruction from the angel to return to the land of Israel and where the family ended up.

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Whereas the context of Jesus' birth was Bethlehem and Judea, the angel's instruction was to return to the more general area designated as Israel.

Judea is the province that includes Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the territory down to the border with Egypt.

Israel however, contains Judea but also covers all the way north to the areas around the sea of Galilee and it was to this wider geographical territory that Joseph was to return to.

Upon re-entering Israel, Joseph learned that Herod's son Archelaus had taken over the throne and he reasoned that it was possible that the Herodic dynasty had an ongoing vendetta against the promised king of Israel. This concern was confirmed in a dream and he was guided to take his family far away from the political hotspots and to go northwards to Galilee where he settled in a small town named Nazareth.

Even though selecting Nazareth was seemingly serendipitous, Matthew indicates that it fulfilled a prophecy that said that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

There is no scripture that directly says that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene but there are two indirect references that could be considered to have been fulfilled.

1. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1: A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. This prophecy names the Messiah as the branch and a branch in Hebrew is 'netser' which is closly related to the word Nazareth.                                                          
2. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. This prophecy indicates the rejection and indignities that the Messiah would be subjected to where He would be despised and held in low esteem. In a similar way, the town of Nazareth was held low esteem by the people of the day with even Nathaniel, one of the disciples of Jesus, when learning that Jesus was from Nazareth, asked in John chapter 1 verse 46, "Can anthing good come from Nazareth? To be called a Nazarene was to designated as a low value person who can be dismissed.

(Sourced from www.gotquestions.com)

Of the two propositions for what Mathew was referencing, I favor the latter because of the support it recieves from other scripture such as Psalm 22 verse 6 - 7 (But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.) And the direct denigration of Nazareth in John chapter 1

verse 46.

Having said that, it is possible that the classification of Nazarene is a double-entendre that implicates both the role of 'branch' and the role of the 'rejected one' for the one labled the Nazarene.

Thus we reach the end of Mathew chapter 2 and will next embark on the study of the ministry of John the baptist.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Part 3

In Mathew chapter 2 verses 13 - 18,  we continue on in the story from where the magi from the east had returned home without informing king Herod of the identity of the child who they had come to worship.

Their evasive maneuver as they left Judah heading east had gained the little family some time but the threat against the young Jesus was still present and an angelic intervention was now needed to get the child away from king Herod's cross-hairs.

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Joseph, who only a few months before had been plying his carpentry trade, (correction: Matthew mentions Joseph's vocation in chapter 13 verse 55  “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?" but the place where he originally practiced carpentry is not Nazareth because Mathew indicates that the family settled in Nazareth after they returned from Egypt and so I have scratched out the phrase in the tiny village of Nazareth, ) was now fully immersed in a high-stakes political and spiritual struggle. 

Already, he had saved the unborn child's life when he heeded an angelic dream that instructed him to abandoned his plan to divorce Mary because, had he cut her loose and left her in the wind, she was likely to have lost her life and the life of her child.

Here again, an angelic dream stirred Joseph in his sleep but this time with an urgent warning to get out of town and escape to Egypt to avoid the death squad that king Herod was going to send into Bethlehem.

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 

17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

In a shockingly brutal action, king Herod, being unable to identify the specific child who was potentially his replacement, decided to sweep the entire town of Bethlehem and surrounding areas to find all the boys under two years old and kill them so as to eliminate the threat against himself.

This massacre of young boys was so traumatic that it registered in the prophetic scrolls of Jeremiah where it was foretold that a cry would be heard rising out of Ramah and Rachel would weep for her children and be inconsolable because a generation of her children had been wiped out. Ramah is a small town adjacent to Bethlehem when Rachel, the wife of the patriarch Jacob, was buried centuries before.

It was because of the proximity to the deadly event that the prophet Jeremiah associated the event with Rachel.

Meanwhile, having spirited his family out of Bethlehem under the cover of darkness to avoid giving anyone an idea  of the direction they were heading, Joseph and his young family travelled to Egypt where they lived until Herod died and it was safe to return home.

This fulfilled the words of the prophet Hosea in chapter  11 verse 1 which says;

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

This oblique reference to the events in the Messiah's early life was deliberately made extremely obscure and tucked away towards the end of Hosea's scroll.

Whereas the birthplace of the Messiah was easily known from the prophetic scriptures so that the priests and scolars quickly identified Bethlehem to Herod, the escape route had to be less accessible so that no scolar would have been able to pinpoint Egypt as the land to which the Messiah would escape to as a child.

One can imagine that armed with that information, Herod, while having his soldiers killing the boys in Bethlehem,  could have sent a detachment to put a checkpoint on the road to Egypt.

To conceal this exit route in the scriptures, the Messiah as a child is identified by prophet Hosea by the name Israel and only the return from Egypt is actually mentioned in the scriptures.

Amen.

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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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