Reflective Bible Study

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!

As I read the opening of Jesus’ story from the gospel of Luke, I am amazed at a number of things he includes. In this episode’s passage specifically, several key parts stood out as I read it in preparation for this episode.

This passage is one of the few that come before Jesus was alive, and it focuses in on Jesus’ relatives and the birth of John the Baptizer. As the passage opens, John has just turned eight days old, and he is taken to be circumcised and named. Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 59, Luke tells us that:

⁵⁹ On the eighth day, they came to have the child circumcised. They were going to name him Zechariah, like his father. ⁶⁰ But his mother spoke up. “No!” she said. “He must be called John.”

⁶¹ They said to her, “No one among your relatives has that name.”

⁶² Then they motioned to his father. They wanted to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³ He asked for something to write on. Then he wrote, “His name is John.” Everyone was amazed. ⁶⁴ Right away Zechariah could speak again. Right away he praised God. ⁶⁵ All his neighbors were filled with fear and wonder. Throughout Judea’s hill country, people were talking about all these things. ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard this wondered about it. And because the Lord was with John, they asked, “What is this child going to be?”

Prior to this passage, some pretty miraculous things had already happened. When the angel came to Zechariah, he took the elderly priest’s voice away because Zechariah did not have faith in God’s promise.

This begins a string of extra-ordinary events that lead up to John’s birth. For somewhere between 9 and 12 months, depending on how quickly Elizabeth became pregnant, we have a mute priest, and this in itself draws attention to John the Baptizer and who he would become.

The first thing that really jumps out at me is how the relatives were pushing to name the child Zechariah, after his father. This speaks to how the relatives felt about Zechariah, and specifically that they wanted to honor him. By proposing the name Zechariah, it is like these relatives wanted to remember the father when looking at the son.

However, what happens next is also interesting. Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth spoke up and she told the relatives the name that Zechariah had shared with her. Not only is this an example of a woman speaking up for God’s plan in the Bible, it is also an example of good communication between spouses in the Bible as well – especially in a situation where communication would be a little more challenging.

Zechariah would have had to have written out what happened, and write out that the angel wanted the child’s name to be John. It may have been a very challenging time in their marriage, but coming out on the other side, after John’s birth shows us that Zechariah and his wife were united. In this event, they are among the first to have a firsthand look at God stepping back into the forefront of “His-Story”. We tend to think of wise men or shepherds being the first to know, but aside from Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth knew that Mary’s baby would be special even earlier.

To bring even more confirmation to John’s extra-ordinary entrance into the world, immediately after he was named by his father in writing, note the legal tone in this event, his voice was immediately restored, and the first thing he did was praise God. Zechariah lost his voice questioning God, and he praises God when his voice is restored. All this drew attention onto John the Baptizer, and what his life would become.

And this leads us to a statement in this passage that inspires me.

In the middle of verse 66, we read the phrase, “The Lord was with John”. This phrase inspires and challenges me because it prompts me to ask myself, “What would I do if I knew that God was with me?”

If I knew 100% that God was with me, would that change any of my actions or my current direction?

Because of the events that surround this phrase about God being with John, I wonder if the silence and muteness of Zechariah could be compared with how God is often times by our side.

It is not as if Zechariah could not communicate. He could — it was just through nontraditional means. Zechariah likely had to write everything out that He wanted to share with others.

In a similar way, rarely does God verbally communicate with us. Instead, there are things that He inspires people to write down, and events where we can look and see His leading and direction in. God seems to communicate more through us looking at the evidence than He does directly, verbally, and/or visually.

Everyone in Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story were forced to look at the evidence. While Zechariah received the angel’s visit and message, everyone else was forced to simply view the evidence of his muteness and let it give weight and authenticity to his story. The evidence drew attention to the event, and it makes me wonder if Zechariah had not questioned, and not been struck mute, if people would have paid more or less attention to this extra-ordinary birth.

All this is to help us understand that sometimes God chooses to communicate silently, through the evidence that we can see if we pay attention, instead of visibly and audibly stepping into view. Perhaps He knows that most people are not ready to see Him, and that is why He is more “subtle” in His methods.

As we come to the end of this 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 keep your eyes open to looking for evidence of God’s communication. He wants us to find Him, and that will only happen if we are actively looking.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn more of what God is like and how He has revealed Himself in the past.

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 get distracted away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we begin our second chronological year moving through the gospels, I thought it may be good to tackle something interesting that I found in what many people might call the “most boring part of the four gospels”. This part is not boring because it is confusing. Instead, many people think it is boring because they simply don’t see it as being all that relevant to us today.

The supposedly boring passages we will tackle as this year beings have to do with the two places in the gospels where Jesus’ genealogy is listed. Matthew opens his gospel by sharing how Jesus’ family tree traces its roots all the way back to Abraham, while Luke waits until after Jesus’ birth story to share how Jesus’ family tree traces its roots back to God. Since there are differences in each of the two genealogies, scholars have debated and discussed why this might be. The most likely consensus is that Matthew abbreviated his genealogy to get three sets of 14 names, while Luke shares every single detail and name. Another possibility is that one of the gospels covers Joseph’s family tree, while the other links to Mary, Jesus’ mother, but this is harder to see on the surface.

I might agree that this part of the gospels is the most boring if it were not for one little detail that Luke includes at the end of his gospel’s genealogy. The New American Standard Bible translations tells us that Luke ends his genealogy in chapter 3, verse 38 by saying, “the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

This is just a snippet of how Luke shares his genealogy, and while it might be boring to some, what I find fascinating is that Luke does not end by simply saying that Jesus was “Adam’s Son”. Instead, he takes it a step further by pointing out that Adam, the first human, was God’s Son. Regardless of whether you feel the creation story in Genesis is literal or figurative, Luke shares that the first human, Adam, can be known as God’s Son.

There are two angles on this idea that I find interesting.

Firstly, since Jesus came into the world supernaturally and God the Father was Jesus’ true Father, while Joseph took more of an adoptive parent type role, it could be said that Jesus was simply God’s Son in a first generation, direct-descendant sort of way. However, while this is what most Christians believe, Luke extends this idea even further by pointing out that Adam, the first human, was also God’s Son. In this way, Jesus and Adam are like brothers, who have the same Father. This is also why sometimes people will call Jesus the “Second Adam”. This echoes what Luke describes in how he opens his genealogy. He begins in verse 23 by saying, “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli,” and then it continues on from there sharing names all the way back to Adam, the son of God. Even if you doubt the virgin birth as evidence to Jesus being God’s Son, Luke challenges you to still look at Jesus’ life as though He was God’s Son through a genealogy that takes you back to creation, where God created Adam.

This leads us to another angle on this passage and idea that I find fascinating: If Adam was God’s son, than that makes all of us as descendants of Adam, also descendants of God – the first Father. This is why in some other places in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as our Brother, and we are all His brothers and sisters. This can only be the case if God is our Father, since Mary is not our universal mother.

However, have you ever really thought of yourself as God’s son or daughter? Christianity uses the phrase “child of God” to describe each of us, but this is too often minimized into being a close-to-meaningless cliché. Instead, what if we grabbed a hold of the idea that we are God’s son or daughter?

If we looked to God as being our True Parent, would that change how we live and/or act?

If we believed that our actions reflect on God like they do onto our parents, would that change how we live each day?

When we look at a young child and how they act and behave, we can definitely understand that some of what we are seeing is the child making a choice. However, we also get to see the results of how the parent has raised the child. We instinctively understand that both nature and nurture go into how a child develops. If we see ourselves as being sons and daughters of God and that He is our Father, then would we think differently?

Like our human parents helped direct the nurture side of our lives, perhaps God could be thought of as directing the nature side of our development. We probably should be cautious as we follow this train of thought because just as our human parents cannot control all of our nurturing as we develop, God probably limits what He ultimately chooses to control on the nature side of our development as well. Both God and our human parents can make choices that relate to our development, but as we grow, we become more independent and make choices on our own. The choices we make can have a positive impact on both our nature, which would be one way to say our biology or our body, and our nurture, which we could describe as our environment.

There is definitely crossover between God the Parent impacting our nature, and our human parents impacting our nurture. Our parents can help or hurt us based upon what they do while we are growing in the womb, and what they feed us when we are young. This is one way that our parents impact our nature, biology side. On the other hand, God chose what parents to bring your way, and he often directs and protects in broader ways than even our human parents can, which definitely impacts the environment, nurture side of our development.

As a parent, I would do well to see myself as a partner with God in my child’s developing, or growing up, years. If both my wife and I see ourselves as being partners with God, then this is the best way to help our children grow into being the adults God created each of them to be.

But this can really only happen if we choose to see ourselves as being parented by God, and as being children of God. This pushes us look at ourselves differently, and it helps us see God more personally than being simply a distant supernatural deity.

As we come to the close of our first podcast episode this year, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Intentionally learn to see God the Father as your personal Father, who worked alongside your human parents helping you to become the person you were created to be.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, and keep your mind open to finding ways God the Father reveals Himself as a parent in the passages you read.

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!

Last week we began our annual two-part finale by focusing on insights from the first half of this year podcasting through our first chronological year looking at Jesus’ life and ministry. In our last episode, we finished off by looking at insights from episode 25, which focused in on Jesus redeeming a woman caught in adultery. For this episode, we’ll pick up where we left off and continue forward moving up to and through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

However, before we dive into these insights, if you are a new listener, or have recently found these podcasts, let me share briefly about where we are on this journey we are on in these podcasts. A little over a year ago, as we were wrapping up a powerful year of podcasting through Jesus’ miracles, I thought it would be neat to take four years and look at Jesus’ life in a chronological way. However, instead of slowly moving through every event in His life and taking four or more years, the plan would be to pick out events in Jesus’ life and work through Jesus’ life four times, each time looking at a different set of events, and each year would conclude looking at Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Moving forward to today, we are just finishing up the first year of this four-year plan and I don’t know about you, but I have found this trip through these gospel stories fascinating. Personally, I cannot wait to dive into Jesus’ life again looking at a different set of events, a different set of teaching, and a different set of miracles.

However, if I’m not careful, we’ll dive into our first event for next year and miss reviewing and remembering some of the greatest insights from this past year. So without any further delay, let’s pick back up where we left off last week, and focus in on the last half of this year podcasting through the gospels.

Starting with episode 26, which focused us on what happened following Jesus’ followers returning from a successful missionary trip, we were reminded with the truth that for thousands of years, the devil has tried to abuse people out of heaven, but God is bigger, God is stronger, God is smarter. He won’t let Satan’s abuse separate or steal away those He loves from being connected with Him.

In the next episode, number 27, we looked at Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray, and if I’m not mistaken, this was using Jesus’ model prayer that is found in Luke’s gospel, rather than Matthews. In this episode looking at prayer, we were challenged with the detail that everything in Jesus’ example prayer is completely focused on God – even the part where Jesus tells us to be forgiving towards others. We can learn from this teaching that Jesus wants us to see God the Father as our Heavenly Father: specifically as Someone big enough to tackle any problem we face, but also personal enough for us to share life with.

Moving forward to episode 28, we spend a little bit of time looking at Jesus’ parable about the rich man building bigger barns rather than being generous with his surplus crop. This parable and episode challenged us with the truth that any time an object, a project, or a balance sheet becomes a part of our identity, greed is working its way into our lives. This parable is not about God blessing or punishing rich people; it is about showing us a different perspective about ourselves that He can then redirect us towards having a new perspective on our lives.

I promise I won’t cover every episode in this finale, even though some might find that desirable, but before jumping forward, episode 29 was extra powerful when we looked at Jesus healing a man who was born blind. In this episode, we were reminded that throughout the Bible, as well as history, God has often used people’s lives as a witness to lead people to Him. This formerly blind man is an example of this: His life before meeting Jesus was filled with blindness, and after His encounter with Jesus, He had a completely new perspective. In our world today, both the church world and the secular world, there are groups of people who claim they can see even though they are blind. Acknowledging one’s blindness allows God to work in one’s heart, while claiming sight stops God from moving.

Jumping forward to episode 32, we looked at Jesus teaching about faith and not being a stumbling block to others. In this episode, we were challenged with the realization that Just like the wind, only by seeing what faith moves can we truly know how strong it is. Jesus has called and challenged us to be humble, to place others ahead of ourselves, and to look to God for the strength to press forward with Him.

Jumping forward again to episode 36, we began zeroing in on Jesus’ final week leading up to His crucifixion. Prior to Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey, we looked in this episode at a special supper that takes place right before this grand entrance into Jerusalem. In this episode, we were reminded that having a relationship with Jesus is more important than helping those who are in need. While both are significant and important in the big picture, if we could only choose one, a relationship with Jesus would ultimately be more important. Jesus calls each of us to focus on growing closer to God and to make Him our highest priority, even higher than the noble act of helping the poor. Having a saving relationship with Jesus is that important!

Moving forward to episode 38, we looked at some religious leaders challenging Jesus about where He received His authority. The details and themes of this episode challenged us to understand that Jesus came to build God up, and that isn’t done by using God as a platform. Throughout His entire ministry, Jesus avoided drawing the attention onto Himself at the expense of God receiving glory. If Jesus erred on any side, it was that He gave too much credit to God, while not accepting any praise onto Himself. Jesus took the opposite position the chief priests and leaders took: He came to build God up, not use God to build Himself up like the other leaders at the time were doing.

Skipping forward to episode 40, we come to the episode where we looked at Jesus challenging His followers to avoid some specific labels for themselves and each other. In this episode, Jesus challenges His followers to view God as our Teacher, our Father, and our Leader, and in a skillful way, Jesus shares these three roles in a way that connects each role with a member of the Godhead. God’s model for His people is to view themselves as a group of spiritual brothers and sisters who hold God as our true Father, true Leader, and true Teacher.

Moving forward to the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, we come to some significant insights within episode 44, that looked at Jesus promising His followers the Holy Spirit and challenging us as followers how we can show love towards God. In this episode, we discovered that the Source behind Jesus’ words and commands is God the Father. We also uncovered the theme and truth that we love who we obey. If we love the Father, then we will obey what the Father has commanded. In this case, Jesus is simply an Ambassador, speaking on behalf of the One who sent Him.

In the very next episode, which is episode number 45 and which also covered teaching Jesus shared with His disciples on the night He was betrayed and arrested, we were comforted with the truth that even though trouble, abandonment, rejection, hurt, or pain come, Jesus is bigger than these feelings because Jesus has overcome the world that includes all these symptoms of sin.

Jesus recognized that even when everyone He thought was a friend, follower, or disciple had run away, He was never truly alone, because God the Father and His Spirit would be with Him. Even while hanging on the cross, even if Jesus didn’t feel God’s presence, He still knew God was there.

As followers of Jesus, we too can claim this promise that being alone is never truly alone, because God the Father and His Spirit are with us.

Speaking of the cross, moving forward to episode 48, which looked at part of the time Jesus was hanging on the cross, we were reminded that before being nailed to the cross Jesus had the option of, and the temptation to, avoid it entirely; after being nailed to the cross, Jesus faced the temptation to come down off of it. However, in spite of this temptation Jesus chose to stay on the cross because His mission was more important than showing off His ability. Jesus fulfilled His mission on the cross because it is the way for His followers to receive salvation.

Moving forward to just a few weeks ago, we come to episode 49, which covered the guards reporting Jesus’ resurrection to the religious leaders. In this episode, we learned and were reminded that wherever lies are present, the truth will come to light eventually – and when it does, it is up to us to examine the evidence and choose the truth. In the case of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our eternity depends on it!

To wrap up this first chronological year of podcasting, our last episode before these finales, which was episode number 50, focused in on Thomas doubting then believing in Jesus’ resurrection. In this passage and episode we focused in on the promise that Jesus’ greatest blessing in this passage is for those who believe without having seen. Thomas could have been one of the first people to be gathered under this banner of “really blessed individuals”, but he stands as an example of many of us who are skeptical first, and only believe after we have been given proof.

Every blessing from God is given for our benefit. Every blessing is sent to help us learn, grow, and/or help others on life’s path.

As we come to the close of our first chronological year podcasting through the gospels and events within Jesus’ life, let’s remember just how much Jesus has blessed each of us, and look forward to His return and our eternal lives with Him forever!