Medicine Hat Joe

Week 35  Matthew 3

I’ve been mulling-over Matthew’s phrase the kingdom-of-heaven. I don’t remember it being a common OT expression but I figure I’d better check my word book.
I found the word “kingdom” used about 160 times in the OT and so then I rechecked those 160. Now I was searching for kingdom-of-heaven (and kingdom-of-God). Here’s what I found:
a) most “kingdoms-of” were kingdoms-of-people. Kingdom of Sihon. Kingdom of Saul. Of David. Of Rehoboam. Of Persia.
b) the kingdom of the Lord was used a couple of times in Chronicles (but it seemed to refer to the political kingdom of Israel).
c) Psalm 145 was pretty interesting: they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power…Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
d) Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that: the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed…It shall stand forever. Daniel also said God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Later he told Darius (and Belshazzar) that the Lord’s kingdom shall never be destroyed.
So anyway the reason I looked for kingdom-of-heaven / kingdom-of-God in the OT was pretty straightforward. When first-century people heard John or Jesus use those expressions they seemed to know what they were talking about. I just figured they knew from the OT. But what I found today was that even though the OT did tell them something it didn’t tell them much. Comprehensive information from the OT about the kingdom-of-heaven was pretty thin-on-the-ground.

Note: see 1 Chronicles 28:5 & 2 Chronicles 13:8. Quotes from Psalm 145:11-13 Daniel 2:44 4:3 & 34 6:26 & 7:14 (ESV)

Week 35  Matthew 3

Matthew uses the phrase kingdom-of-heaven fairly frequently and a question I have is: what’s the kingdom-of-heaven?
I know that I can try answering that by reading through the gospel of Matthew. But what I’m wondering about today is what kingdom-of-heaven meant to a regular guy in the audience who was listening to John or Jesus talking about it.
Matthew says that John the Baptist would stand there out in the wilderness with a crowd of people listening to him and he’d say: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I wonder about what a guy thought when he heard that the kingdom-of-heaven was at hand?
He could think one of two things. He could think: “I know the kingdom-of-heaven is coming…but what I didn’t realize was that it’s right-around-the-corner!” Or else he could think something more like I think: “What’s John talking about? What-in-the-world is the kingdom-of-heaven?”
In order for the guy to think the first thing he’d have to already have some notion about what the kingdom-of-heaven was. If the kingdom-of-heaven wasn’t a (commonly) known thing then John would be talking gibberish. But people didn’t ask: “what’s the kingdom-of-heaven?” It’s like they already knew.
So two things I’d like to know are 1) what did people already know and 2) how (exactly) did they know it?
(To search that up I think I might need to do a quick review of the OT.)

Note: quote from Matthew 3:2 (NASB)

Week 35  Matthew 3

The first words that John the Baptist said in Matthew were: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I checked my word book and found 34 times where Matthew used that expression – kingdom-of-heaven. It’s hard to know for sure if that’s a lot. It’s something like 1.2 times per-chapter on average. Which seems fairly frequent.
I checked Mark. He didn’t use kingdom-of-heaven at all. But he sometimes used kingdom-of-God.
Luke didn’t use kingdom-of-heaven either. But he used kingdom-of-God numerous times.
John used kingdom-of-God three times. He didn’t use kingdom-of-heaven at all.
So I know now that Matthew (and only Matthew) used the expression kingdom-of-heaven.
It’s hard to know if this is useful info to have. It might come in handy at some point.
But I do wonder a) why Matthew liked that term so much and b) what exactly he meant by it and c) whether his kingdom-of-heaven meant more-or-less the same as Mark Luke & John’s kingdom-of-God.
I don’t have time to check those questions right now. One thing I think I will do is to temporarily run with my hunch that the kingdom-of-heaven is approximately equivalent to the kingdom-of-God. But that’s a hunch I’d need to test. So I’ll be looking for data that confirms whether the two kingdoms are either identical (or similar) or else two totally different places.

Note: quote from Matthew 3:2 (NASB)

Week 35  Matthew 2

When the Three Wise Men came looking for Jesus King Herod called in the Jewish leaders and asked them: where is the Christ to be born? The bible I’m reading has a margin-note that says that the title the Christ is the same as  the Messiah.
I check the name ‘Messiah’ in a word book. It’s only used four times in the bible (twice by Daniel & twice by John). I flip over to John’s gospel.
Andrew went and told Peter: we have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ). Of course Andrew only said the we have found the Messiah part. John added the brackets to help readers know these are two names for the same person. (My bible adds a note saying that in Greek Christ means ‘the Anointed One’). So it looks like ‘the Messiah’ & ‘the Christ’ & ‘the Anointed One’ can be used interchangeably.
John uses ‘Messiah’ again in Jesus’ conversation at the well in Samaria. The woman says: I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ). John again adds the bracketed note that ‘the Messiah’ is ‘the Christ’. Almost all the other versions use that same formula: the Messiah (who is called Christ). (One version did throw-a-curve by saying: I know that the Anointed One is coming, who is being called ‘the Messiah’.)
But I’m on safe ground saying that the Messiah = the Christ = the Anointed One. Three transferable names…same person.

Note: quotes from Matthew 2:4 John 1:41 (NASB) & 4:25 (NASB & ISV)

 

Week 35  Matthew 1-2

Specific unambiguous directional dreams from the Lord aren’t all that common and not too many people in the NT get them. But Joseph did. He had four:
An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife…”
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you…”
An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…”
Having been warned in a dream, (Joseph) withdrew to the district of Galilee.
Joseph is famous because of his connection with Jesus. But being part of the Mary-Joseph-Jesus Christmas Story was the only reason for his notoriety. Other than that he was mostly a shadowy and unknown man. No one knows where he came from or what happened to him. Mostly a life of obscurity. Except for those couple of key years where he played the role of saving the endangered life of Jesus while the Lord was still just a defenseless little kid.
But there at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel Joseph had his short & decisive role to play.
Then I guess that for him it was back to regular dreaming.

Note: quotes from Matthew 1:20 2:13 19-20 22 (NIV)

 

Week 34  Matthew 1

Matthew starts his gospel with two family name-lists. There’s a short one – only one verse long. Then right away there’s a longer list – fifteen verses of names.
Matthew could easily have started his gospel at verse eighteen:
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
That could have worked. But Matthew began his gospel story with a fifteen-verse list of names.
It can’t be because he figured it would grab people’s attention. But he must have figured the list was important to the story.
One thing the list does is make it clear that Jesus’ family connection went back through the centuries. Back through the kings of Judah to David. Then all the way back to father Abraham.
The key connection is to king David. In the OT a couple of key promises were made to David about the big things that would eventually come through his family line.
Matthew doesn’t come right out and say that’s his point. He just lays out a family tree showing that Jesus did come from the line of Judah’s greatest king (through whom someone big would come). And Jesus is part of David’s line. So now Matthew has twenty-eight chapters to make a case for Jesus being a big thing.

Note: quote from Matthew 1:18 (NIV)

 

 

Week 32  Malachi 3

Malachi 3:1 triggers a memory. The Lord is speaking: I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.
The cross-reference says that the verse is quoted in the NT by Mark: as it is written…: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”. Right after quoting Malachi Mark starts talking about John the Baptist. He doesn’t explicitly say “John the Baptist is Malachi’s Messenger”. But that’s the implication.
Matthew quotes Malachi too (but he’s more unambiguous than Mark). Jesus is talking to a crowd of people – specifically about John the Baptist – and he tells them: (John) is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you”.
Anyway the reason I looked up the Malachi quote in Matthew & Mark is because there’s a note in the margin of the bible I’m using that says ‘messenger’ can also mean ‘angel’. That confused things. I felt pretty sure that Malachi’s Messenger was John the Baptist. But if the Messenger is an angel then he’s not John the Baptist. Unless John is referred to as an angel in an unliteral – a flatteringly figurative – way.
I check several dozen other versions. Almost all of them use the word ‘messenger’. So I decide to leave it at that – messenger…not angel. It’s a smallish but nagging glitch in my mind. But I’ll go with the majority opinion.

Note: quotes from Malachi 3:1 Mark 1:2 Matthew 11:10-11 (NIV)

Week 32  Zechariah 12-14

Zechariah focuses a lot of attention on a future time that he says will happen on that day. Other bible versions use that same phrase (or in that day). One says when the time comes. Another one day. And one goes out-on-a-limb and calls it the Big Day.
Zechariah uses on that day at least 18-times in chapters 12 13 & 14. A couple of the things he says about The Big Day are unclear. But one thing isn’t: it’s going to be a day of conflict. Distress. Mourning. Panic. War. It’ll be Jerusalem vs. Jerusalem’s Opponents.
Zechariah also adds a couple of details that will take place:
on that day…I will remove the names of the idols from the land
on that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision
on that day (the Lord’s) feet will stand on the Mount of Olives
on that day there will be no light; the sunlight and moonlight will diminish
it will be a unique day known only to the Lord, without day or night
living waters will flow out of Jerusalem
on that day the Lord will become King over the whole earth.
But I’m left wondering about the Big Day. Has it already happened? (the second half of chapter 13 sounds like Christ’s time on earth). Or am I still waiting for it? Or did Zechariah squeeze two distinct Big Day events into one forecast?

Note: Conflict verses are in Zechariah 12:3 4 6 9 11 14:13. Quotes from 13:2 4 14:4 6 7 8 9 (CSB)

Week 32  Zechariah 12

I can’t say for sure but I think the last three chapters of Zechariah – 12-14 – are a separate section of the book. Up to that point there’s been a lot of content dealing with Zechariah’s visions. But then 12 starts off with what looks like a heading or subtitle:
The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.
A few other bible versions use that same (odd) expression: the burden of the Lord. But others change the word burden – replace it with:
a pronouncement
a prophecy
the oracle.
I notice that a couple of them decided to make it into a kind of title by adding a semicolon:
A prophecy:
One of them bolds the words to emphasize it:
An Oracle.
Anyway the point is that it looks to me like chapter 12 is the start of a new section. I realize that it’s possible to break down the book of Zechariah in other ways so I’m not going to go-to-the-wall over this one.
But I have two reasons to think that Zechariah was moving-on in 12:1.
The first was that opening phrase: An Oracle. To me that looks like an ancient-world equivalent to a bit of neon signage.
Secondly was that Zechariah began to frequently use the expression day of the Lord in his last three chapters – I counted 18 times in 44-verses. Often enough that the day of the Lord might be Zechariah’s key idea in 12-14.

Note: quote from Zechariah 12:1 (NASB CSB CJB ESV NIV & RSV)

Week 31  Zechariah 7

The chapter begins with men coming to Zechariah and asking him about a fast they had been practicing for years-and-years.
The way they put the question to Zechariah he had two options. Answer a) yes…keep fasting. Answer b) no…stop fasting. But like what happens sometimes in the bible Zechariah didn’t answer the question directly. Instead he told them about other things the Lord wanted to see:
Make fair decisions
Show faithful love and compassion to one another
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor
And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.
I check a cross-reference to Isaiah where the people  were wondering about fasting and Isaiah told them what the Lord preferred:
break the chains of wickedness
untie the ropes of the yoke
set the oppressed free
share your bread with the hungry
bring the poor and homeless into your house
clothe the naked
and don’t ignore your own flesh and blood.
Some of the same practices in both lists. Some of them maybe even harder than fasting.
I like lists like these.
They remind me that the technical formalities of OT religion were supposed to be technical. And also personal.
And they remind me that the prescribed practices of OT religion didn’t end in the Temple court. They were supposed to carry over into my regular day-in-and-day-out.

Note: quotes from Zechariah 7:9-10 (reformatted) & Isaiah 58:6-7 (reformatted & slightly rephrased) (CSB)