Reflective Bible Study

As I have read from the gospel of Matthew, it seems as though Matthew, while he was a tax collector, may have had a childhood goal of being a Rabbi or religious expert. When reading his gospel, time and time again, he draws our attention to how an act or event in Jesus’ life fulfills one or more prophecies.

Reading this gospel helps draw our attention onto just how many prophecies about the Messiah there were, and Matthew helps us discover prophecies that we might not have thought of as being prophetic of the Messiah’s ministry.

Perhaps you have noticed this in Matthew, but if not, a couple of episodes ago, we focused in on some of Matthew’s prophecies surrounding Jesus’ birth, and in this episode, Matthew brings out another prophecy that is fulfilled when Jesus begins His ministry.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 13, Matthew tells us that:

¹³ Jesus left Nazareth and went to live in the city of Capernaum. It was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. ¹⁴ In that way, what the prophet Isaiah had said came true. He had said,

¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali!
    Galilee, where Gentiles live!
    Land along the Mediterranean Sea! Territory east of the Jordan River!
¹⁶ The people who are now living in darkness
    have seen a great light.
They are now living in a very dark land.
    But a light has shined on them.”

In these few short verses, Matthew brings our attention to where Jesus would begin His ministry, and he shows us specifically how this act was in direct fulfillment of prophecy. Whether Jesus chose this location because of the prophecy, or because God directed Him there because it was the home of a number of His first disciples, we don’t really know for sure, but regardless of the reason, this act sheds light on the focus of Jesus’ ministry.

Capernaum was a fishing hub on the Sea of Galilee and while it was part of Israel, it held a greater number of Gentiles in it than many other parts of the country. This is interesting, because while we might think Jesus began or centered His ministry in an area where there was a high percentage of Jews, this is not the case, because even the prophecy states that Galilee was the part of Israel where Gentiles lived. Gentile is simply a broad term for anyone who is not Jewish.

This was likely one of the first counter-messianic things that Jesus did in His ministry that didn’t line up with the traditional view of the coming Messiah. The popular thought among the Jews at that time was that the Messiah would come, rally the Jews together, throw off Roman oppression, and reestablish the nation of Israel as a permanent country that would never again be overtaken.

If Jesus would have been this type of Messiah, then centering the beginning of His ministry in an area that doesn’t have as many Jews in it does not make sense. For this military-messiah model to work, Jesus should have centered His ministry in the southern portions of Israel, where there was a greater concentration of Jews – as well as Jerusalem and all the Jewish leaders.

However, Jesus came as a Messiah for humanity, not just as a Messiah for only the Jews. It seems as though Jesus intentionally chose Capernaum because of its higher concentration of Gentiles. Perhaps there were more Gentiles in the city than Jews, or maybe it was a 50-50 split at the time Jesus was there. In the little research I did, I could not find an answer to this question.

However, what I do find interesting about this event is that by choosing Capernaum, Jesus is intentionally saying that He has come to reach not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. In this act, it is like Jesus is saying publicly that He values both the Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus valued the Jews because Capernaum was located in Israel and Jesus valued the Gentiles because Capernaum may have been one of the more Gentile-filled areas of the nation.

After Jesus moved and began His ministry, what did He do first?

Our passage continues and concludes with a summary verse that described how Jesus began His ministry. In verse 17, we read, “From that time on Jesus began to preach. ‘Turn away from your sins!’ he said. ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

Jesus’ first big message echoes John the Baptizer’s ministry. Repent and pay attention, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

This last verse points out something very interesting and important in my mind: In order to come to Jesus, we must turn away from our sins and recognize that He wants to “come near” to us. Moving towards Jesus will never move you towards sin, and moving towards sin will never move you towards Jesus.

In our own lives, God wants to be close to each of us, and He wants to have a growing, personal relationship with us because He sees each of us as special in His eyes. However, He also cannot stand sin, and because of this, He will prompt us to get rid of the sin in our lives so that He can move closer. If we are stubborn and don’t give up sin, then unfortunately for us, He does not move as close. By choosing a sin over a closer relationship with God, we are placing God in second or third place, and making that sin a “god” in our lives – which breaks the first of the Ten Commandments.

God loves us and He forgives us, but His forgiveness is when we have repented and turned away from our sin. I am unaware of a place where the Bible says that God forgives those who are actively sinning. God has chosen to delay punishment, and He chose to come into a world full of sinners to let us know how much He loves each of us, but in order for our relationship with Him to grow, we must be moving away from sin and into a closer relationship with Him.

With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you to do, intentionally place God first in your life and choose to move towards Him and away from sin. Moving towards God is never the wrong choice from the perspective of eternity and while it might be a challenge to do in your life today, looking back on your decision from heaven will remind you that it was the best decision you could make.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying, reading, and studying the Bible personally so you are able to get a clearer picture of God. While other people would want you to adopt their opinions about God, choose to base your opinion about God on what the Bible teaches and on what the Bible reveals to us about Him. While the Bible has challenging passages, the more we study out passages we don’t understand, the better able we will be to understand what God is really like.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or turn away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As I read the gospels, and the different events in Jesus’ life, one theme that runs through many different stories is how Jesus took a different perspective on life than the people living within the first century, and His attitude was different. However, if you have ever wondered if Jesus got angry, you need to look no further than our passage for this episode. While Jesus was often kind while also confident, we rarely ever get a glimpse of Him losing His temper so to speak. Usually, Jesus is the calm collected one – that is until this passage comes around.

In our passage for this episode, Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem and He sees it turned into a marketplace. Let’s read about what happen. Our passage can be found in the gospel of John, chapter 2, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 13, John tells us that:

¹³ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. So Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courtyard he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves. Others were sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So Jesus made a whip out of ropes. He chased all the sheep and cattle from the temple courtyard. He scattered the coins of the people exchanging money. And he turned over their tables. ¹⁶ He told those who were selling doves, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered what had been written. It says, “My great love for your house will destroy me.”

¹⁸ Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “When you destroy this temple, I will raise it up again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken 46 years to build this temple. Are you going to raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But the temple Jesus had spoken about was his body. ²² His disciples later remembered what he had said. That was after he had been raised from the dead. Then they believed the Scripture. They also believed the words that Jesus had spoken.

We’ll pause reading at this point because I want to draw our attention to something. So far in this passage, we see Jesus getting angry, a prophecy being fulfilled, a demand, an intentional misunderstanding, a prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and confirmation of a future point of where individuals believe in the scriptures and in the words of Jesus.

When Jesus became upset and He chased the moneychangers away, whether He planned for it in the moment or not, He was fulfilling a prophecy about His love for His Father’s house.

When the Jewish leaders demanded a sign to prove Jesus’ authority, it is amazing that Jesus actually responded to them with an answer. In most other places in the gospels that are similar to this, Jesus sidesteps the issue or turns the tables around. Perhaps He answers because He is extra emotional at the moment, or perhaps He is simply being a little respectful of the religious authority.

Either way, Jesus purposely responds in a way that creates a misunderstanding among the leaders and Him, and in a way that will be understood more fully later. Had Jesus said that He meant His body, the Jewish leaders probably would have happily taken Him up on the challenge right there. If Jesus wanted to prove His authority by dying, they would be happy to help – as they were probably just as irritated at Jesus as He was at the scene in the temple.

However, Jesus predicts His death and resurrection in these verses, and it is only after the events happen several years later that those present understood the message Jesus was communicating. John writing these words many years or decades after the resurrection draws our attention to how Jesus’ statement is fulfilled, and how this prediction prompted many people to believe in the following years.

In the last part of this passage, I was surprised to find another place where it says that Jesus didn’t trust people. In John 5, we read a similar idea that Jesus pushes back at the Pharisees who dislike the miracle He performed on the Sabbath, and here in our passage for this episode within John, chapter 2, we see another place where John gives us a clue into Jesus’ attitude and focus. Picking up reading in verse 23, John continues by saying, “Meanwhile, he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. Many people saw the signs he was doing. And they believed in his name. But Jesus did not fully trust them. He knew what people are like. He didn’t need anyone to tell him what people are like. He already knew why people do what they do.”

In this transition set of verses within John’s gospel, he shares a little bit more about Jesus, and how Jesus interacted with others. John shares that Jesus did not fully trust others, because He knew what people were like in their hearts. Perhaps this guarded living was noticeable to others, or maybe it was only visible to the closest disciples, or maybe Jesus simply shared it with John. Whatever the case, this information is significant because we can better understand who Jesus was when we have it.

If Jesus began to trust people as they trusted Him, then there would be the strong temptation for Jesus to be caught up in the popular, military Messiah belief that was believed at the time. If Jesus was as trusting towards others as they were to Him, He may have been swept up and carried forward on the path that people believed He should take instead of the one He knew God had planned for Him instead.

Instead, Jesus was extra intentional about where He placed His focus, and that included being more guarded towards people since almost no one living in the first century understood the full extent of His mission. Even though Jesus predicts His death and resurrection, and as He shares more clearly and plainly as He gets closer to the cross, it is really only after the events actually happen that the disciples actually understand what was predicted would happen. Before this, Jesus must remain guarded because the popular beliefs about Him were too entrenched in people’s minds.

Also included in this event is another demonstration of Jesus shifting focus. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to do something to prove Himself, or another way of saying this would be to draw attention to Himself, but Jesus was more interested in pointing the attention elsewhere. When the leaders demand a sign, Jesus draws their attention to the temple, and while He figuratively means His body, the words He used also directed focus onto God’s house.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to align your life and your will with God’s plan. Like Jesus did, intentionally keep your focus on God’s plan and avoid being swept up with what the world would rather we focus in on.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn who Jesus really is instead of taking someone else’s word for it. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even podcasters can give you ideas to think about, choose to take everything you read, see, and hear and test it against the truth God has revealed in the Bible. Use the big themes of the Bible as a guide for your life and as a test for whether today’s ideas are worth paying attention to.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

One of the events in Jesus’ life that I find incredibly interesting is found in this episode’s passage. Unlike many other passages in the gospels, it would seem that the passages that cover Jesus being tempted in the wilderness have many more layers of depth and insights than other parts of Jesus’ life. This seems to also confirm the idea that you can tell more about someone’s focus and character when they face adversity than when they are successful.

This event immediately follows Jesus’ baptism, and it can be found in both the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke. For our episode today, we will be reading Matthew’s version, which is found in Matthew, chapter 4, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us:

¹ Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. ² After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry. ³ Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”

⁴ But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”

⁵ Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, ⁶ and said to him, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,

‘God will give orders to his angels about you;
    they will hold you up with their hands,
    so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.’”

⁷ Jesus answered, “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

¹¹ Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.

Almost every time I read this passage, something new stands out to me. While on the surface, these temptations seem simple to read and understand, the temptations Satan brings Jesus are incredibly nuanced and multi-layered.

With that said, let’s dive into some of the less obvious themes and details within these temptations and see what we will discover, while also uncovering a big theme we all can learn from how Jesus successfully resisted Satan’s temptations.

The first thing I notice is that these temptations cover three different themes or areas of our lives.

The first temptation, which is turning stones into bread, is to satisfy a physical need. Satan is tempting and challenging Jesus on whether He will use His power to help His “physical self”.

The second temptation, which is jumping from the temple, is to satisfy a social or relational need. By placing Himself in a situation where He should have died, not only is Jesus putting God’s protection on the spot, He is also making the bold statement for people to place their focus on Him. When the Jewish leaders see this, they would take note and they may have even drawn the same conclusion that Satan had quoted from Psalms.

The third temptation, which is worshiping Satan, is to shortcut Jesus’ spiritual mission, which is to give the glory to God. Everything Jesus did, from healing, teaching, and assembling a group of disciples all the way to the big mission of the cross was to give God the Father glory. Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to this mission, which Jesus declined.

In these three temptations, we have the three main areas of life present.

The next thing I notice about these three temptations is that they all hinge on the word “if”. The first two hinge on the challenge of whether Jesus is God’s Son, and the third hinges on the idea of worship – and whether it is important or not.

For many of us, worshiping the wrong thing, then repenting and asking for forgiveness is commonplace. However, for Jesus, if He was to be the perfect sacrifice, and a true substitute for our sins, then He must not have any sins of His own. That would mean living a life that there is nothing to repent of and nothing to ask forgiveness for. While we are already sin-stained, Jesus needed to live a life that kept Him from becoming sin-stained in the first place, in order to effectively take our stains onto Himself.

Another thing I notice in these three temptations relates to how Jesus responds to each of the temptations. Not only does Jesus push back at the devil’s challenge, He also quotes a piece of scripture that supports His position. It might be easy for us to think prayer is the answer for temptation, but if we look at Jesus’ temptations, prayer was not the weapon He used. Instead, Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures, and while we also have the New Testament to lean on, if the Old Testament was good enough for Jesus to use when facing temptation, then it should easily be good enough for you and I to use when facing temptations in our own lives.

In all the temptations Jesus faced, the root temptation was to use His own power and position to benefit Himself, and in every case, Jesus resisted the devil. Jesus did not come to strengthen His position in the universe; He came to show us what God the Father is like, and to give His life as a substitute for ours.

Before wrapping this episode up, I also want to point out one more interesting idea within this event. After Satan had tempted Jesus the third time, Jesus tells Satan to go away. The simple detail that Satan obeyed Jesus’ command is evidence that Jesus is stronger than Satan, and that Jesus would ultimately win the cosmic battle against sin.

While I’m sure that we could discover even more themes and layers in this event, this seems like a great place to conclude.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and if you are facing temptation today, choose to fight back with a passage or promise from the Bible. If you are unsure of what verses to use, be sure pray and ask God for help with finding verses and promises to use.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. When looking for promises and what God has done, take notes of good verses to combat challenges you are currently facing in life. Also, take note of verses that could be good verses for others to use as well. You never know when a verse you saw might be able to benefit someone else, and I am positive God will lead you to the verses He wants you to use, learn, and grow from when faced with challenges and temptations within your life.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As I read Jesus’ birth story from the gospel of Matthew, I am continually amazed at just how foreshadowed this event was. There was so much foreshadowed about it, that it is really surprising to me how the priests and religious leaders missed it.

First off, to set our passage up, there was a cosmic event of some kind. Some say that there was a specific shift in the constellations that the wise men saw that prompted them to begin their journey, while others say that angels shone in the night sky like stars, and it caught the wise men’s attention.

Either way, it is likely that the star and/or angels would have been visible to everyone who was paying attention, though it would seem as though the only ones paying attention were far away from the event. This is the first sign that should have been seen by the religious leaders – especially as this was just a few months after John the Baptist’s miraculous birth that we looked at in the previous episode.

When we then turn our eyes onto the passage for this episode, we see four places where Matthew directly states that an event happened to fulfill prophecy. While I might normally read the full passage, pausing periodically to insert comments, for this episode, we’ll just focus on the four specific places Matthew tells us prophecy was fulfilled.

The first prophecy in our passage to be fulfilled is found in Matthew, chapter 2, verses 5 and 6. Reading from the Contemporary English Version, Matthew tells us:

“They [the religious leaders] told him [Herod], ‘He will be born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet wrote,

 “Bethlehem in the land
    of Judea,
you are very important
    among the towns of Judea.
From your town
    will come a leader,
who will be like a shepherd
    for my people Israel.”’”

The Jewish leaders knew exactly where the Messiah would be born. It’s difficult to say if they were reluctant to share this knowledge with Herod, or if they freely shared the details when asked. Either way, they should have taken note of Herod’s question and perhaps paid a little closer attention to what was happening around them.

The next prophecy to be fulfilled is just a few verses later in verse 15, where we read, “So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, ‘I called my son out of Egypt.’”

It is interesting that Joseph, Mary, and their family would flee to Egypt. This event happening makes the beginning of Jesus’ life a prophetic representation of the children of Israel, who began in the promised land, before moving to Egypt during the great famine we read about in the last chapters of Genesis.

God then called the Israelites out of Egypt, and this prophecy echoes this event by saying that God will also call His Son out of Egypt as well. I’m not sure if any other aspects of Jesus’ life were representative of the nation of Israel, but there is a very clear prophetic parallel within this event at the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth.

The third prophecy that is fulfilled in Jesus’ birth event happens back in Judea. Matthew draws our attention to it when he quotes it in verses 17 and 18 by saying:

“So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,

‘In Ramah a voice was heard
    crying and weeping loudly.
Rachel was mourning
    for her children,
and she refused
to be comforted,
    because they were dead.’”

The Jewish leaders may have given up looking for the promised Messiah after Herod went and slaughtered all the baby boys that were 2 years or younger there. Perhaps Jesus was only months old when this happened, but Herod was the sort of person to be extra thorough in his methods. 

However, if the religious leaders stopped looking for the Messiah because of Herod’s mass killing here, then it shows how little faith they had in God – specifically in God’s ability to protect the Messiah that He promised to send. This event may have shifted the focus of some of the Jewish leaders at the time.

The last prophecy that Matthew points out to be fulfilled in our passage for this episode comes right at the end, at the close of verse 23, where it says, “So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’”

When the leaders push back at a Messiah coming from Nazareth, I wonder where this prophecy was in their minds. Matthew draws our attention to the significance of where Joseph and Mary return to when they move back to the area, but it would seem as though there was a prophecy in place that the leaders either were not aware of, or one they discounted or dismissed. In a quick search of the Old Testament, I see no mention of the word Nazareth or Nazarene anywhere in it, so this makes me wonder what prophet Matthew is referring to.

Perhaps this was a prophecy that John the Baptist shared that is not included in the Bible, or maybe it is something included in one of the other ancient writings that was not included in the Bible. What we do know is that while Matthew draws our attention to this prophecy fulfilled, it is likely that the validity of the prophet or prophecy itself was debated at the time of Jesus.

All this comes together to point us to a significant truth that we might easily miss:

Knowledge is a poor substitute for attention, and if we are not paying attention, no amount of knowledge will keep us from drifting away from God.

Both nature and history pointed the Jewish leaders to pay attention to Jesus’ birth, but if they were not interested or looking for the Messiah to arrive, then there was no way for them to see it coming. Herod, who is known for being a little paranoid about people challenging his rule, clearly saw the sign of the wise men, and in this regard, he was more observant than the religious leaders.

Like Matthew did when writing his gospel, it is much easier to see how God has moved when looking back on the events that happened. Seeing the outcomes make it easier to see how God has moved and directed. This truth then leads us to a challenge when living our lives over 2,000 years later: Will we take our past and the evidence God has moved within it and use it as evidence to trust Him with the challenges we face in the present?

Today will become the past tomorrow, and while we might not clearly see God working in today’s challenges, that doesn’t mean He is absent. It may simply mean that we are looking from the wrong perspective.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life and push yourself to look for God moving in your present circumstances. If you doubt God, look for evidence of His love, protection, and guidance from your past and use that to stand on to face your present challenges.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, so you will better be able to recognize God in the present. While other people have ideas about God, look to the Bible to discover what God is really like, so you can recognize Him more clearly when He is moving in the present.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!