DECEMBER 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
SUMMARY 04: JQ#1-33
The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life,
Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer
JESUS, You are Unchanging for Forever and Forever, for You are
the Alpha and the Omega. Lord as I face another day in the world I praise
You for the great and mighty work that You accomplish daily through the
Holy Spirit in our lives and the extra blessing of YOUR Teaching us
how to worship with our work and how to be a witness to Your Great Love.
I pray that others will see us living our lives through You and witness
to the Abundant Life that comes only from following You that they also
will learn that it is following You that is the most important thing in each
individual’s life — not what the owner’s of the business or our
earthly bosses think about our worship at work but of major
importance is what You think of our worship!
Jesus, You know our hearts and Lord,
help us die to our worldly self
and let Your Love show though in a mighty WAY!!!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus was established in the first chapter of Matthew as the rightful
Heir to the Throne of David through His genealogy through David
all the way back to Abraham and then Matthew documents the prophesied
“virgin birth” of Jesus thus fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14.
Matthew then moves directly into the conflict that developed with the then
earthly king of Israel, King Herod: “Now after Jesus was
born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king,
behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying,
‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’”
(Matthew 2:1-2)
The fact that “wise men” from the East came seeking the
“King of the Jews” and declaring that they had “seen His star in the East”
and they traveled all the way to Judea to find Him is significant
in the “universality” of the Jewish Prophecy that the
“King of the Jews” would be born in “Bethlehem of Judea”
for the prophets had written:
“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you shall come a Ruler Who
will shepherd My people Israel.”
(Matthew 2:5-6 and Micah 5:2)
Matthew has now demonstrated 3 major prophecies that have been
fulfilled by Jesus in just the first chapter and part of the second.
The odds of any one person fulfilling these 3 major prophecies
is an astronomical number and almost certainly by mathematical odds,
that Jesus, and ONLY Jesus by (1) His genealogy through David,
(2) His “Virgin Birth”, and (3) that “Virgin Birth” occurring in the town
of Bethlehem would be totally sufficient to declare Jesus the Heir
to the throne of David and therefore by prophecy Jesus would have
to be declared the “King of the Jews”!
So it is obvious why this news from the wise men declared in the
presence of Herod and all the chief priests and scribes in the city
of Jerusalem would cause Herod to be “troubled”.
What makes the odds of Jesus being the “King of the Jews” grow
exponentially is the fact that even this “trouble” that King Herod felt
was in prophecy as well for Matthew records
that when the wise men departed after
“they saw the young Child with Mary His mother”
(Matthew 2:11)
that “an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream,
saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother,
flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word for Herod
will seek the young Child to destroy Him.’
[Joseph] did as the angel had commanded that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord
through the prophet [Hosea], saying,
‘Out if Egypt I called My Son.’”
(Matthew 2:12-15 and Hosea 11:1)
When Herod “saw that he was deceived by the wise men…
[Herod] sent forth and put to death all the male children who
were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under,
according to the time which [Herod] had determined from
the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by
Jeremiah the prophet saying: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
(Matthew 2:16-17 and Jeremiah 31:15)
Now Matthew in only two chapters, has Jesus fulfilling prophecies
by Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, and Jeremiah and the miracle part of the
prophecy is that in order for these prophecies to be fulfilled that
the circumstances demanded that “wise men from the East” and the
current king of Judea be complicit in the fulfilling of prophecy!
To me it is significant that God was accomplishing His Plan
and using Jesus as a Child to cause literally a Universal Response
to His Arrival and that means that there will be required of the world
a Universal Response when Jesus comes again!
God’s complete Plan has been written down
for us to read and comply with —
all we have to do is accept the obvious:
Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God!!!
