Matthew’s Use of the Old Testament - Part 5As It Is Written in the ProphetsMatthew 23:1-12; Deuteronomy 17:8-13; Amos 4:4-6; Jeremiah 8:8-9, Hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees (02/04/19)One time I was talking to former OT Professor Nancy Bowen, and I started, "Anyone who thinks the God of the Old Testament is all about wrath and judgment and the God of the New Testament is all about sweetness and light ..." and we finished in absolute synchrony, "... hasn't read either the Old Testament or the New Testament!" Nowhere is that more obvious than in the passages we are going to read this week. Keep your eyes open for wrath in the New Testament and love in the Old Testament. Also watch for references to bad news for preachers and teachers who lead God's people astray; this is why I always tell you not to take my word for anything! And by the way, Amos 4:4-5 is sarcasm, not serious instruction.
Response: HAHahahaha! And one of my very favorite verses is 5:11, “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” You think? Matthew 23:13-22; Isaiah 5:8-13, 20-24, Indictments and woes (02/05/19) It appears to me that Jesus and Isaiah agree exactly about whom they are pronouncing woe on: religious leaders and teachers who lead the people of God astray. They also are similar in that both seem to be angry at those leaders and teachers. Try reading our scriptures for today aloud in a calm, reasoned voice. It's difficult to do, and if you succeed, you'll notice that your tone of voice has nothing to do with the content of what you are reading. But don't take my word for it; read the Bible for yourself! Matthew 23:23-39; Deuteronomy 14:22-27; Ezekiel 45:13-17, Indictments and woes (02/06/19) Jesus continues his denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees with some direct references to the Law. Notice that he does not criticize them for tithing mint and dill and cumin, but he says this is only one small obligation, to which they must add obedience to the whole of the Law. He doesn't criticize them for keeping their utensils clean, but cleanliness of utensils is less important than cleanliness of the person using them. He's not against outward beauty, as long as it doesn't conceal inward filthiness. God is concerned with what you are through and through, not just on the surface. Amos 5:15, 21-24; Micah 6:6-8; Ezekiel 45:9; Hosea 12:6; Daniel 4:27; Zechariah 7:8-10, God's preferences (02/07/19) When Jesus denounces the scribes and Pharisees for following the minutia of the Law while neglecting "the weightier matters ... justice, mercy, and faith," Matthew does not say, "as it is written in the prophets." Matthew probably figured that justice, mercy, and faith are so vital to the prophetic message that we wouldn't need to be reminded. Matthew 24:1-14, Beginning of the discourse on end times (02/08/19) The disciples ask Jesus two questions, not one. First, when is the temple going to be destroyed? Second, what will be the signs of his coming and the end of the age? Now, it very well could be that the disciples thought of these two events as occurring at the same time because they couldn't imagine a world without the temple. Jesus, however, answers the questions separately, even though the two answers are interwoven. Matthew 24:4-14 definitely talk about the second coming and the end of the age. (My own feeling is that each of us ought to be a lot more worried about the end of our own personal age than about the end of The Age. Be ready.) Matthew 24:15-22; Daniel 11:21-26, 31-35, 12:1, 12:11; Ezekiel 7:15-17, Discourse on end times, continued (02/11/19) Remember that the disciples asked two questions back in Matthew 24:3. In the verses we read today, Jesus is addressing their question about the destruction of the Temple. The Temple had been desecrated, and even razed, before, and in vss. 15-16 Jesus refers specifically to the previous events and to the prophecy of Daniel. Wesley says that Jesus is now prophesying about the coming of the Roman legions to Jerusalem with idols and flags to plant in the city and the entire nation, as happened in the year 70. The parenthetical remark from Matthew, "let the reader understand," means that if you want to understand what Jesus is saying, you have to read the prophet Daniel. This is the clearest indication we find that Matthew expects you to know and study the prophets! Matthew 24:23-36; Isaiah 13:9-10, 29:6, 30:30; Zechariah 9:14; Psalms 97:3-4; Amos 8:9; Daniel 7:13-15, Discourse on end times, continued (02/12/19) Jesus returns to the question of when the end times, also known as the Day of the LORD, will come. He makes three points, in agreement with the prophets.
Now, in my opinion, Jesus' teaching was usually a lot more organized than what we've seen in Matthew 24. My suspicion is that the disciples were a lot like me. When they are really confused about the question, they are also confused about the answer, even when the answer is clear. Then when they try to repeat the answer, it gets a little mixed up in their minds, leading to the mixing of the answers about the Temple and the end times that we see in this chapter. But that's just my opinion, so if you don't agree with it, that's okay. Matthew 24:37-44; Genesis 6:5-17, 7:17-23, Be ready. (02/13/19) If somebody only knows one Bible story, it is probably the story of Noah's Ark. Now, the version that "everybody knows" emphasizes the animals coming two by two. Jesus says the more important part of the story is about what didn't happen, namely, that except for Noah and his family and the animals he rescued, nobody else survived. Noah was ready, and they weren't. Be ready. Then Jesus tells a little parable about another kind of disaster: thieves who break in and steal your stuff. Be ready. Both these stories support Jesus' earlier point, that nobody except God the Father knows when the end is coming. Matthew 24:45 – 25:13; Proverbs 14:35, Be ready. (02/14/19) I once made up a character for something I was writing, and I called him "Paulinus." I thought this name was original with me, but recently I learned that there was a 7th-century English monk named Paulinus. Sometimes when you see the same idea in two places in the Bible, you can't be sure that the second one was a deliberate reference to the first one. Jesus might have been thinking about Proverbs 14:35 when he told the Parable of the Wicked Servant, but he might just have been thinking about lazy workers and irate bosses in general. Either way, the point of these two parables is clear: be ready! Matthew 25:14-30; Genesis 41:25-41, Parable of the Talents (02/15/19) I did some digging around about the modern value of a talent, and the answer seems to be that it depends. Gold talent or silver talent? Greek (Homeric or Attic), Sumerian, or Hebrew talent? Whichever one you choose the talent was a LOT of money! Probably the first servant in the parable was given roughly a lifetime's wages to administer. That makes the final statement really interesting: "You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much." In the story of Joseph, what does Joseph do? He interprets a dream. For this he is set over the entire nation of Egypt. Most parables have a single theological point, and I hasten to say that the main point of the Parable of the Talents is this: be productive! Nevertheless, a second important point is that God's rewards will be unimaginably great. Matthew 25:31-46; Isaiah 58:6-8; Job 22:6-7, 31:15-23; Proverbs 19:17; Daniel 12:1-3, Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (02/18/19) Now, to me the most interesting part of this reading is Matthew 25:41, but I'm going to come back to that verse in April, in the next study, so never mind. What's pertinent to this study is that Jesus' Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is the most vivid, succinct, and memorable version of what the prophets had already been saying for a couple thousand years. Matthew 26:1-16; Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Exodus 21:32, Betrayal (02/19/19) Was Jesus quoting or paraphrasing Moses in saying that the poor will always be with us? Probably. Notice, however, that Moses also says that the LORD expects us to do something about it, which Jesus has also said on numerous occasions. Thirty silver shekels was the price of a slave in ancient times; Matthew was apparently struck by the coincidence, because he is the only one of the Gospel writers to give the exact amount that Judas was paid for his treachery. By this time, we are never surprised when Matthew makes a specific tie to the Old Testament. Matthew 26:17-35; Exodus 24:1-8; Zechariah 13:7, The Last Supper and the Old and New Covenants (02/20/19) God has made a number of covenants with his people; most of them we have broken, but God never gives up on us. We'll be reading about several of these covenants for the rest of the week. Jesus talks about the "blood of the new covenant," which leads us to wonder, "What was the old covenant?" The old covenant Jesus was talking at the Last Supper about was almost certainly the one that God made with his people in the desert, under the leadership of Moses (vs. 24:8). Jesus also refers the prophet Zechariah a few minutes later. Genesis 9:9-16, Genesis 15:1-18a, The Last Supper and the Old and New Covenants (02/21/19) God made a covenant with Noah never again to destroy every living thing by flood (note: no promises about fire, ice, or global warming). The rainbow is the sign of that covenant. God made a covenant with Abraham that he would have innumerable offspring and land. The animals split in half, the fire pot, and the flaming torch were the signs of that covenant, but notice there is no mention of blood. So far it looks like the Mosaic Covenant is our best bet for what Jesus was alluding to when he established a "new covenant." 2 Samuel 7:1-16, 23:3-5, The Last Supper and the Old and New Covenants (02/22/19) God made a covenant with David that applied both to the physical kingdom of Judah, which was inherited by a succession of earthly kings descended from David, and to the spiritual kingdom of God, which was inherited by Jesus, the Son of David (see, e.g., Matthew 1:1, 9:27, 15:22, 20:30, 21:9). There was no blood in this covenant except blood descent. Isaiah 53:3-5, 53:11-12, 59:20-21, 61:5-8; Hosea 2:18-23, Covenants, continued (02/25/19) The idea of a "new covenant" apparently did not come as a surprise to Jesus' disciples. As we have seen, God had already made covenants with Noah, Abraham, the children of Israel at the time of Moses, and David, among others. Through the prophets, God also promised to make at least one further covenant. Because the disciples accepted Jesus as the Messiah, it would have seemed natural to them that he was the agent of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-40; Ezekiel 16:59-63, 34:23-31, 37:24-28, Covenants, continued (02/26/19) The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel tell us more about the nature of the new covenant. It will be an everlasting covenant (e.g., Jeremiah 31:37; Ezekiel 16:60, 37:26). It will be a covenant both with the children of Israel as a whole (Jeremiah 31:31; Ezekiel 24:30-31) and with us as individuals (Jeremiah 31:33-34). The instrument of this covenant will be "my servant David," whom the rabbis, as well as Christians, take to be the Messiah, the offspring of King David, and not David personally. The good news about this everlasting covenant is that we human beings can't break it, because it depends only on the eternal God (e.g., Jeremiah 31:35-37); the bad news is that God has to do it this way because we can't be trusted to keep our part of a covenant (Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 16:59). Matthew 26:36-56; Proverbs 27:6, Gethsemane (02/27/19) I once read a commentary that pointed out that Jesus couldn't have been the tall, striking, ethereal figure we so often see in paintings, because if he had been, the soldiers would have recognized him on their own. Instead, Judas had to arranged a sign for them as to which one of the ordinary-looking guys in the garden was Jesus. Isn't it amazing that the Son of God chose to look just like you or me? Matthew 26:57-68; Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:2-7, 19:15-20; Daniel 7:13; Leviticus 24:16, A trial with false witnesses and illegal judgment. (02/28/19) A lot was going on during the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and most of it was illegal. First, they had quite a bit of trouble getting two witnesses to agree on a charge, as required by the Law. Second, even though two witnesses finally did agree, I can't find anywhere in the Law that says threatening to destroy the Temple is against the Law (even if Jesus had said that). Third, according to Samuel J. Levine, writing in the Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review, "The rule concerning self-incrimination in Jewish law may be summarized quite succinctly: an individual may not be punished on the basis of self-incriminatory statements." To be fair, this rule seems to have been formalized later than the first century, but it was apparently (according to Levine) based on the scriptures from Numbers and Deuteronomy that we read today, all of which require more than one witness. However, Jesus' silence in response to the charge suggests (it doesn't prove) that at least by custom the rule was already in effect. Finally, when the high priest can't get a response from Jesus about the charge, he asks a question that Jesus answers with "You said." I've never been able to tell from context here or elsewhere whether this means, "You said it, and you're right," or "You said it, not me." Jesus then quotes or paraphrases Daniel, without applying it directly to himself. The high priest immediately changes the charge to blasphemy. The Sanhedrin made up the judges; they were there to investigate charges, but they end up acting as witnesses – where are the judges to hear their testimony? Matthew 26:69-75; Judges 11:1-10, 12:1-7, Everybody's got an accent. (03/01/19) We're all familiar with the sad and disappointing story of Peter's denial of Jesus, so instead of talking about that, I want to talk about accents. Now, I speak a pretty standard American West Coast, which is what you hear on television and in the movies most of the time. I've been told that I don't have an accent. HAHAHAHahaha! Everybody has an accent unless they speak a language shared by a only thousand or so other people all living in the same community. My native language, English, has so many accents and dialects that I have to work hard to understand some of them. Chinese has so many dialects that people from some areas have to write down what they are saying to be understood by people from some other areas. Peter had a Galilean accent. He spoke the same language, Aramaic, as the folks in Judah, but they could tell where he was from. (He most likely also spoke fluent Greek, in my opinion, because Galilee was much more cosmopolitan in character than Judah and had a heavy Roman presence.) This north/south change in pronunciation was hundreds of years old, as we see from the experience of the Ephraimites when they were trying to escape back home after a battle in the time of the Judges. Matthew 27:1-14; Zechariah 11:4-13; Isaiah 53:6-9, Blood money (03/04/19) Matthew connects the price of Judas's betrayal directly with the 30 pieces of silver paid to the prophet Zechariah for tending the "flock doomed to be slaughtered" and which he, like Judas, threw into the Temple. The two events are also connected by the word "potter." I'm struck by Zechariah's scornful remark about the price: "the lordly price at which I was priced by them." Jesus and Zechariah were assigned the value of a slave (Exodus 21:32). Matthew 27:15-38; Isaiah 52:14-15, 50:6-7, 53:9, 12, Trial before Pilate and crucifixion (03/05/19) We saw the other day that the charge against Jesus kept changing. First, he was charged with threatening to destroy the Temple (not even a crime, as far as I can tell), and then he was charged with blasphemy (illegally). When the Sanhedrin takes him to Pilate, however, they suspect that the Roman governor will not be interested in these religious charges, so they change the charge again. Matthew doesn't tell us this, except indirectly in vss. 28-30 and 37-38, where Jesus is addressed as "King of the Jews." When we look at the accounts in Luke 23:2-5 and John 19:12, it's clear that the Sanhedrin has accused Jesus of insurrection and sedition, saying that Jesus is trying to set himself up as king in place of Caesar. This charge and the threat of a riot lead the weak-willed Pilate to order Jesus' crucifixion. Matthew 27:39-50; Lamentations 2:15; Proverbs 31:6-7; Psalms 22:1-8, 16-21, 27-31, Trial before Pilate and crucifixion (03/06/19) When Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he is quoting the opening words of Psalm 22, either in Hebrew or Aramaic (you'll find firm opinions on both sides). "My God" in either language is "Eli," which is why the bystanders thought Jesus was calling on Elijah. You'll also find firm opinions that either
Matthew 27:51-66; Exodus 26:31-35; Leviticus 16:2-6, 12-17, Resurrection (03/07/19) The innermost part of the tent of the tabernacle, and later of the temple in Jerusalem, was called (depending on your translation) the "most holy place" or the "holy of holies." A heavy curtain, or veil, separated the most holy place from the holy place. The ark of the covenant and a couple of other sacred objects were kept in the most holy place, and even the high priest could only enter once a year to make atonement for the nation. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report that as Jesus died, the curtain was torn in two, laying open the holy of holies. No longer is access to God restricted to one person, once a year. Jesus makes it possible for any person to approach God at any time. Matthew 28:1-20; Isaiah 66:18-21, Resurrection (03/08/19) This is the end of our study of how Matthew uses the Old Testament, which as you know was the only scripture the very early Christians had. We've seen that sometimes Matthew tells you that he's about to quote from the prophets, often using the formula "this happened to fulfill...." Sometimes Jesus quotes from the prophets, often using the formula, "it is written...." Other times, Matthew or Jesus just refers to the Old Testament and expects you to recognize the appropriate scripture on your own (which is why we need Bibles with cross reference). Finally, sometimes it's hard to say whether Matthew or Jesus was referring to a particular scripture, even if what they say reminds us of that scripture. Most of the books of the New Testament, like Matthew, refer frequently to the Old Testament, either by telling us they are quoting or by expecting us to recognize the reference on our own. One of the last things Jesus says to his disciples is that they should take the gospel to all nations. The ultimate salvation of all nations through the history of God's chosen people, the Jews, and through the work of his son, Jesus Christ, has been God's plan from the beginning, as it is written by the prophet Isaiah. More of As It Is Written in the Prophets Introduction; Matthew Chs. 1-4 First and Second Discourses, Narratives, Matthew Chs. 1-11 Third and Fourth Discourses, Narratives, Matthew Chs. 12-18 Narrative, Matthew Chs. 19-22 Fifth and Final Discourse, Narrative, Matthew Chs. 23-28 Copyright 2018, 2019 and 2021 by Regina L. Hunter. All rights reserved. This page has been prepared for the web site by RPB. Opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the author, Regina Hunter, and may or may not be shared by the sponsors or the Bible-study participants. Thanks to the Holy Spirit for any useful ideas presented here, and thanks to all the readers for their support and enthusiasm. All errors are, of course, the sole responsibility of the author. Our Sponsors: St. John's United Methodist Church, "Transforming Lives Through Christ." 2626 Arizona NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110 St. John's Music Ministries now has a YouTube channel, bringing you free concerts and choral music. Check it out! Traditional worship services are held Sundays at 8:15 and 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary. Casual worship services are held Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in the Family Life Center. Jazz Vespers are held monthly on the second Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in the sanctuary. St. John's feels especially called to the worship of God and to the service of our neighbors through our music program. Storm Dragon SoftwareTM Ducks in a Row, Inc. This website is supported in part by the generosity of Mrs. J. Jordan. |
