Blogging the Bible

Day 150: Matthew 23-25

Chapter 23 is one of the most controversial moments in the life and ministry of Jesus. He have been talking about love, and teaching his disciples about the better way to deal with neighbors and enemies, but in this chapter, he does not look so friendly for many people. The way he is talking with the religious leaders sounds like very harsh, but when you understand that this was more an institutional denunciation rather than a personal confrontation, it really makes sense.

The religious Jews system had been corrupted, and the people were very frustrated because instead of finding God, they were in a maze of rules and statutes that did not provide a way to God. Jesus was that way, but the religious leaders did not want either to allow the people to come to him the real way to God.

Chapter 24 is the scatology view of the events that will prepare the second coming of Christ. Jesus is trying to make sure, that his disciple could understand, that this world and its future were in God’s hand, and that everything will finally make sense in God’s plan.

In Chapter 25 the Lord is trying to encourage his disciples to be faithful, he presents it with three different examples in which is expected something from the participants. In the ten virgins parable they suppose to be ready for the wedding, in the talents parable they suppose to use and invest correctly what was given to them, and in the final account they suppose to take care of the needy as well as they would do with the Lord himself.

In others words, what you do with your life is directly related with God and your neighbors, and God is expecting for us to use our opportunity to be in this word, to be a blessing for others as well as to bring glory to his holly name. 

Day 151: Matthew 26-28

These last chapters talks about the final hours of Jesus. He has done everything that he supposed to do, now a wonderful woman anointed him with a very expensive perfume when he was getting ready for the meal (26:6-13).he used this occasion to prepare his disciples for his final hours, he explained them that what she did was more than beautiful, was the preparation for his burial.

 The other thing, which Jesus did, was to establish the communion or Lord’s Supper as testimony of his future death and resurrection. (26:20-29) Also, he prophesied the betrayal of Judas, and the denial of his disciples in the beginning of his darkest hours.

From 26:55-75 and 27: 1-66 are recorded the entire trial and judgment of the Lord, in which we continue to see the amazing character of Jesus. He could do anything in order to avoid this shame and injustice, but he decided to obey God and fulfill his destiny, which was the redemption of the world.

Chapter 28 is the decisive point of the writing. When you reach this point, my impression is that the writer is telling us, now you have to choose, or you believe that Jesus was a great myth and you forget about him or you believe that he is The Lord and you will follow and obey him.Jesus is not raised to be admired; he is raised to be obeyed. You can believe the religious leader report that “his disciples stole the body away” or you can believe that he is raised and come before him with worship and obedience.

What will you choose?

There are many wonderful teachings that Jesus is trying to deliver on his way, but one thing that greatly called my attention was  the episode when the little children were brought to him for prayer(19:13-15) and the two blind men who were calling for his mercy (20:29-34). In both cases, his followers thought that it was unnecessary or waste of time, but The Lord did not agree with them, he took time and blessed them and healed them.

The message is that his favor is for everybody including those, which the society might reject or disregard. On between of these stories are two more that I think were intended for letting us know that even though you can be in a position of relevance or influence as the rich operate (19: 16-30).  The mother of James and John (20:20-28) you do not have more rights or possibilities before God than others, you will get only what God really want you to have and if you have something is for serving others not for ruling over them. (20:24-28)

Is not interesting that sometimes we forget why we are called servants of God? The new kingdom that Jesus brought is different from the regular human kingdom, in the human kingdom the power is to exalt yourself; in the kingdom of God, the power is to serve those who are unable to reach God’s blessings.

The presence of Jesus was extraordinary, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the people received him as real hero and they were paying him a wonderful respect and honor. (21:1-11) Even though Jesus really enjoyed this great moment of his life, he would demonstrate once again that his priority was the glory of his Father, because the first thing that he did was to clean the temple of God (21:12-17). The Pharisees and the rest of the religious leaders on the contrary were worry only for their own authority and influence among the people of God.

As you can see every single parable that Jesus was telling them in chapter 21-22 was meant to demonstrate that the kingdom of God did not belongs to a particular special group or elite, but to those who can open their hearts and believe what the Son of God came to say.

This Song of God is so much great and wonderful that even King David was to pay respect and honor to him(22:41-46) It is clear that the writer had reached a point where his readers will have to make a decision about Jesus, they would believe in Jesus or they will reject him as many religious leaders were doing.

It is the same about us, we believe in his words or we reject him.

Matthew definitely is trying to present Jesus as a truly Rabi, one who has the ability to teach about God in a way that can be meaningful for the people who is learning from him. The Lord would use many parables to deliver his teachings; those were use for other Rabies as well, but Jesus was using it with a new meaning, the meaning of kingdom of God that he brought.

 From the beginning, he laid out the foundation of our relationship with God and his kingdom, by saying that the reality of this kingdom in our lives will pretty much depends of our understanding of his words. He said “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understand it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case of hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (13:23)

Everything that is written about Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew is meant to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Jews.  Only somebody like the Messiah could miraculously fed the hungry, walk on the waters, heal the sick and bring new hope and faith to his people. Matthew also presents a unique moment in the life of Jesus when “he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” (17:2) and not by chance Jesus is presented with Moses and Elijah, the most influential men in the Old Testament, and a voice from heaven saying “This is my Son, my beloved with him I am pleased; listen to him” (17:5)

The message was obvious, the time to hear Jesus had come, Moses and Elijah did their part, and they fulfilled their calling, but the Messiah is bigger and greater than they are, he is the fulfillment of everything that the Jews people have been longing for.

When you read this gospel, keep in mind that everything written here is to demonstrate the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ and his ability to transform anybody that sincerely is looking for his help, including the gentiles who at that time were still rejected by the Jews.

One powerful example could be the passage where Jesus healed the Canaanite’s daughter, just because she was brave enough to believe that this Jew’s Messiah could bless her (17:21-28) and what about the Israelites to whom he was sent to? Would they be brave enough to believe in their Messiah? In addition, what about ourselves, will we be brave enough to believe in him? You cannot read this Gospel without asking yourself those and other questions, especially when you know that this was written to help us to understand whom Jesus is and what is he expecting from us.

Keep reading, and open your heart to hear what God is telling you!

Last question in the last blog was what do you see in Jesus? Today question is what are you learning from Jesus? From chapter 5-7 the Lord is talking in a very new level of relationship between God and us and between our neighbors and us, before everything was about fulfilling the law now is living the law from inside out.

Jesus  now is telling his followers that before they were doing things in order to please people, but now whatever they do they have to do it in order to please God. Before maybe, you could pretend that you were doing well, now you really have to do well because “your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (6:4) so from now on you really have to pay attention and do what really pleases the Lord and is the best for your neighbors. There is no space for pretending, he says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock” (7:24-25)

 Chapters 8-12 are a wonderful description of the mercy of the Lord over the people who were around him. There are several records of healings and powerful signs among the people, but also when you read carefully, you can see that Matthew chose to put his own conversion as another healing or powerful sign because at that time nobody believes that a tax collector could be transformed into a good man because they had a very bad reputation. That is why, Matthew made sure that his readers know that Jesus also can change even a tax collector like him; his love could change or heal anybody.

Jesus’ uniqueness was so powerful that as I said before the religious leaders would try to deny it by any means, even by comparing him with Beelzebul (Satan, Matthew 12:22-31) But the Lord was full of God’s wisdom and he always would have the right word of God for every given situation. He told them “If Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?” (12:26)

We have too much to learn from this wonderful Son of God!

First reaction that somebody might have when we are about to start reading Matthew could be “O no, more names?” We have been dealing with a lot of names, numbers and details in the Old Testament, but now this names will make sense for us because after all if you read carefully those names represents the lineage from where the Christ came (Matthew 1: 1-17)

Matthew is a prophetic oriented book, the regular expression in this book is: “All this took place to fulfill what have been spoken by the Lord through the prophet.” (1:22) Matthew made his best effort to demonstrate that Jesus is not only a good man or a great teacher, but the fulfillment of what the Lord had promised in the Old testament to the people of Israel.

The Messiah is not longer a great hope, but an undeniable reality that already came, something that even very distinguished gentiles were able to seek and receive without any hesitation. The wise men were asking for the place where they can find the Messiah, not asking if in reality he was born (2: 1-2) from the beginning Matthew is telling to his readers that Jesus is not something that has to be proven, but something that has to be accepted.

The other thing that Matthew is going to be saying is that there are some people, specially people of influence like King Herod or the religious leaders of the Jews who will try to destroy or deny the veracity of the coming of the Christ. (2: 16-18; 28:11-15) However, in the other hand he will present God as the great originator of all this new reality.

 In chapter 3 we can see that even John the Baptist proclaim the superiority of Jesus, by saying “I baptize with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.” (3:11) Also in chapter 4, we can see how the writer tells us about the temptation of Jesus in a way that will demonstrate the superiority of Jesus even over Satan.

Finally, the greatness of Jesus is so wonderful that even men like Peter and Andrew will follow him without hesitation. What did they see in him? I think that they saw something in him that attracted them, but also they saw something thru him that moved them.

What do you see in Jesus?

After so much struggle and challenges Mordecai got his reward, his enemy Haman had planned to kill him, but instead of that, Haman was forced to honor Mordecai. Everything began with the king’s insomnia after Haman had planned to have Mordecai hanged (5:9-14)

Do you believe that it was just a coincidence? On the other hand, was it the powerful hand of God working behind scenes? The interesting thing was that when Mordecai denounced the plot to kill the king in chapter 2, he did not get any reward right away, but I think providentially was written in the royal books for this particular occasion, when the king was unable to sleep and Mordecai was facing his biggest challenge. We are very much ready to complain because we are not given what we think is fair in the present moment, but are we willing to trust in God’s providence for the right time and the right occasion?

Mordecai not only saw his life spared, but the life of every Jew living in the Persian Empire. His cousin Esther was willing to risk her life and security in order to preserve her people life and the writer tells us “for the Jews there were light and gladness, joy and honor. In every province and in every city, where the king’s command and edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews a festival and a holiday” (8: 16-17)

 In the most obscure time of the Jew people, there were two wonderful persons   Mordecai and Esther who were willing to bring the light of God among his people.

There is another thing that we should mention and that is that the celebration of the new feast of Purim carries a new meaning within, on the first time Haman casted Pur or “the lot” to find the right day to destroy the Jews (3: 7-15). On the second time when Mordecai uses is to show that there is something more powerful that the human intentions and the human understanding of lot. That is why he says that these days should be remembered as: “the days in which the Jews gained relief from their enemies and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into holiday” (9:20-22)

I do not know what your challenges are right now, but one thing is for sure the same God who was taking care of the Jews  at Mordecai and Esther’s time is the same one who is taking care of today.

Let the powerful light of God shine upon us!

The book of Esther could easily be called “The God who works behind scenes”because when you read it carefully you won’t find any direct mention of God or God‘s name, but like somebody else said “the finger of God is everywhere” yes is true because only God could make happen what is written in this book.

Is very interesting how the whole narration of this book is written in a way that will conquer the attention of the reader from the beginning to the end. In chapter one we read about how King Ahasuerus deposes Queen Vasthi, something that in other moment could have been just another incident in the Persian Empire became the great opportunity for the Jews people.

How that happened? Well there was a man named Mordecai who was very aware of his people and who by faith introduced his cousin Esther as one of the candidates for the “contest” that the Persian kingdom initiated in order to replace Queen Vasthi. When I say by faith is because how in the world could this man be sure that his cousin will win? No way to know it, but he enrolled her even though it represented a huge risk given the fact that if the candidate do not win, anyway would be put in the King’s harem for the rest of her life.

Esther blessing began when the writer says: “Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. The girl pleased him and won his favor and he quickly provided for her…” (2:8-9) that would be her life, she always would find favor, and because of that she became a salvation for her people.

It is very interesting that all this things happened just before Haman the big enemy of the Jews decided to exterminate them (chapter 3) that is why Mordecai told Esther “perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” (4:14) In others word you are not in that position for your own sake of pleasure, but because you were put there for a greater purpose.

Esther decided to sacrifice her personal life in order to bless her people, and in chapter five, you will see that she risked her life by faith, knowing that if the King does not want to receive her, she would die. Again, we found “As soon as the king saw her standing in the court, she won his favor” (5:2) and was granted more than expected.

Are you aware that many things in this life are not possible without faith? There are many possibilities awaiting us, but we need to take steps of faith in order to acquire it. Mordecai and Esther are powerful examples of what living by faith means, they gave what they could not keep in order to get what nobody could take them.

Under Nehemiah’s ministry, the Jews were leaving a great time of reformation and national reorganization. They committed themselves to read, understand and practice the law of God again. The reality that they were living would require a lot of changes and adjustment in order to fully obey the commandments of the law of the Lord.

The priest Ezra led them into a powerful confession of sins in which he admitted that the reason for their disgrace was that they disobeyed the Lord since they were delivered from Egypt (9:16) but also recognized that God’s faithfulness was always there with them trying to bring them back to his love.

He says, “Many years you were patient with them, and warned them by your spirit through your prophets; yet they would not listen. Therefore, you handed them over to the people of the land. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God” (9:30-31)

Radical decisions were made in order to maintain the new order and new transformation that were taking place among them, like enrolling people by their genealogy, expulsing the foreigners from the descendents of Ammon or Moab that did not belong to their lineage and separating mixed marriage. The major reason to do that was that those people normally will influence them to worship false gods and will press them to do their unacceptable practices.

Like I said before this kind of decisions, specially the one that forced the Israelites to separate themselves from their wives and children would be unacceptable for us in this time, but according to their understanding, this was the only way to keep the purity of their devotion to God.

We have to be very careful with our Bible reading because, there are particular times when the only way out was the contrary, a Jew was led by God to marry a non Jew person such was the case of Boaz the ancestor of David ( Ruth 4: 13-18) or Esther  who is our next Bible story.

Hostile plots were made against Nehemiah and his people while they were rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, but repeatedly their first answer was pray. Obviously, they established strategies to protect themselves, however it seems that every strategy was successful because they understood that God was who protected and helped them.

Nehemiah said to them, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your kin” (4:14) but also he said, “Our God will fight for us” (4: 20) the result was that their enemies were not able to defeat them.

Nehemiah had some inside the wall troubles too. His own people were abusing and oppressing the more vulnerable of Jerusalem and he also was very determined to change that reality, with God’s help he led them to see that the only way to stand together was by helping and cooperating one to another. Nehemiah himself was doing what he was asking to do, he was leading by the example (5: 14-19)

Chapter 6 shows more opposition, but this time was exclusively against Nehemiah, again Nehemiah was relying in God, he prayed “But now, O God strengthen my hands” (6: 9) and by the grace of God he and his people finished the entire wall even though the powerful opposition from their enemies.

I think that verse 6: 16 express  clearly what was happening in Jerusalem “ And When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid  and fell greatly in their own esteem; for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of God”

Do not be afraid; take courage because the Lord is with us in everything that we are doing for him.

This book begins with a simple conversation that will change the entire reality of a man and a nation. When Nehemiah asked about the condition of the Jews and Jerusalem, the report was so shocking that the only option he had was “wept, fast and pray” (1:1-4) while he was doing that God asked him to do something about it, to change this reality for a better one.

I like the fact that Nehemiah was a man of prayer, a man who understood that you could not do anything without God’s guidance. In addition, because of that he took time to have a better relationship with the Lord before doing anything for him. Nehemiah knew that humanly talking this task was almost impossible and will require from him to do a lot planning and a lot faith, but also a lot of support from the king and from the Jews people in Jerusalem.

His prayer before talking to the king is a wonderful expression in how he understood Divine intervention in human affairs, he said, “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man” (1:11)

Note that the end of verse 11 says that he was “the cupbearer of the king” a person of a lot influence in the presence of the king, but still he was not trusting in his position or personal influence, he was trusting in God’s grace. Chapter 2 shows us that Nehemiah was ready for his petition, when the king asked him “what do you request” (2:4) he prayed again and requested permission to rebuilt
Jerusalem. The opportunity will come, are you ready to say exactly what you need or are you going to be guessing about? Nehemiah was not guessing he had a time and a plan for his task, and the result was that the king sent him to do God’s will.

It seems that if we want to guess less and be more assertive in our lives and ministries for the Lord we need to pray more and built a better relationship with God. Chapter 3 is the amazing record of how God stirred up the Jews heart in order for them to join Nehemiah in the extraordinary call of rebuilding Jerusalem.