3444.) Matthew 4

“Jesus Tempted” by Chris Cook, contemporary Southern American artist

Matthew 4   (NRSV)

The Temptation of Jesus

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

After identifying with sinners in His baptism, Jesus then identified with them again in severe temptation. This was a necessary part of His ministry, so He truly was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.

It was a remarkable contrast between the glory following Jesus’ baptism and the challenge of this season to be tempted by the devil.

• Then the cool waters of the Jordan; now the barren wilderness.
• Then the huge crowds; now solitude and silence.
• Then the Spirit rests like a dove; now the Spirit drives Him into the wilderness.
• Then the voice of the Father calling Him “Beloved Son”; now the hiss of Satan the tempter.
• Then anointed; now attacked.
• Then the water of baptism; now the fire of temptation.
• First the heavens opened; now hell.

Jesus did not need to be tempted to help Him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15), and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character.

–David Guzik

²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

⁴But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  (Deuteronomy 8:3)

“Out flashed the sword of the Spirit: our Lord will fight with no other weapon. He could have spoken new revelations, but chose to say, ‘It is written.’”

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and on their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”  (Psalm 91:11-12)

the pinnacle of the Temple, Jerusalem

⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  (Deuteronomy 6:16)

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”  (Deuteronomy 6:13)  ¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (King James Version)

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

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Music:

HERE  is “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me” arranged by Moses Hogan, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, featuring Alex Boye.

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Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.

The region of Galilee was a fertile, progressive, highly populated region. According to figures from the Jewish historian Josephus, there were some 3 million people populating Galilee, an area smaller than the state of Connecticut.

–David Guzik

¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.”

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

from Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition:

Main entry: repent

Part of Speech: verb

Definition: ask forgiveness

Synonyms: apologize, atone, be ashamed, be contrite, be sorry, bewail, deplore, feel remorse, have qualms, lament, reform, regret, relent, reproach oneself, rue, see error of ways, show penitence, sorrow

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

“The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew” by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

¹⁸As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

How God Makes Fishermen
by Os Hillman

Our calling has three distinct stages, which we can see in the lives of many called before us, to become mature fishers of men who greatly impact God’s Kingdom. First, there is the gestation period. This is the development stage of our lives. It may involve years of normal work experiences. You may be a Christian during this time, or you may be following after worldly success as a non-Christian. Paul spent years in religious and political training, persecuting believers most of his early life. Moses spent years in the court of Pharaoh and 40 years tending flocks in the desert. Jesus spent 30 years living at home and working in His father’s carpentry business. However, all these years were part of their preparation.

Next is the crisis stage. Sooner or later, God calls you into relationship with Him. For many, like Paul, it comes through dramatic encounters like being knocked off a horse, blinded and spoken to personally by God. Some people are more difficult than others to reach and so require this level of crisis. This is a time when God requires major changes so that you follow Him fully. It can be a time in which God harnesses years of experience for a new life purpose. Paul’s earthly experiences would be used in his calling to the religious and political leaders of his day. For Moses, the burning bush experience would begin his journey in which he would discover his ultimate calling after years of preparation. For Peter, it was his denial of Jesus three times that allowed him to face his shallow commitment to Christ. For Jesus, it was the garden of Gethsemane. These were the benchmark turning points for men who made an impact on their world.

Last is the fruit-bearing stage. In it, God’s power is manifested in your life like never before. God takes all your experiences and uses them to build His Kingdom in and through your life. Your obedience to this final call results in fruitfulness you could never imagine without the long preparation process. For Abraham, it resulted in becoming the father of many nations. For Paul, it resulted in bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. And for Peter, it meant becoming the leader of the Church. For Jesus, it was salvation for the entire world.

What does God want to achieve through your life? God has a plan that is so incredible you cannot comprehend it. It requires only that you love Him and follow Him. Then you will become fishers of men like the world has never known.

Jesus Ministers to Crowds of People

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. ²⁴So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. ²⁵And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

_________________________

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Cook.    http://chriscookartist.com/images/jesus_tempted.jpg

stones.  http://www.gardensite.co.uk/upload/media/livingstone/aggregate/beach%20pebbles.JPG

Temple.  https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/m4-pinnacle.jpg

empires.  http://www.islamfrominside.com/images/Empires.jpg

di Buoninsegna.   https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.282.html

3443.) Matthew 3

Matthew 3  (NRSV)

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ²“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

John’s message was a call to repentance.

Some people think that repentance is mostly about feelings, especially feeling sorry for your sin. It is wonderful to feel sorry about your sin, but repent isn’t a “feelings” word. It is an action word. John told his listeners to make a change of the mind, not merely to feel sorry for what they had done. Repentance speaks of a change of direction, not just a sorrow in the heart.

–David Guzik

In the original Greek, metanoia is the term that is most commonly translated as “repentance” in English. This word literally means “change of mind” and helps us understand what repentance really means. Fundamentally, repentance is a change of mind, a switch from an outlook that esteems sin to one that considers it abhorrent. It is important that we remember, however, that Scripture understands a true change of mind to be one that includes more than just a shifting of intellectual categories. To have metanoia — to have true repentance — involves feelings of regret and remorse. Repentance means we are truly sorry for something we have done (not just its consequences) and want to change our behavior. A repentant life is a changed life, not in that perfection is ever attained but in that the fruit of repentance — a change in action and attitudes — becomes discernible in a person’s character (Luke 3:7–9).

–R. C. Sproul

³This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”

Our Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah and King, and John the Baptist was the one crying in the wilderness, and through his message of repentance, he worked to “prepare the way of the Lord.” We often fail to appreciate how important the preparing work of the Lord is. Any great work of God begins with great preparation. What preparation is the Lord working in your life right now? Another way of saying this might be — What problem are you dealing with now? The Lord is using it for your good and for His eternal purposes! And that may just be worth singing and dancing about!

_________________________

Music:

HERE  is an exuberant “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord”  from Godspell, the film, 1973.

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⁴Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, ⁶and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Baptism was practiced in the Jewish community already in the form of ceremonial immersions; but typically, it was only among Gentiles who wished to become Jews. For a Jew in John’s day to submit to baptism was essentially to say, “I confess that I am as far away from God as a Gentile and I need to get right with Him.” This was a real work of the Holy Spirit.

–David Guzik

⁷But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Bear fruit worthy of repentance. ⁹Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ¹⁰Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Baptism window from St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Colton, California.

¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Check it out!

Godspell — A Musical Based upon the Gospel According to St. Matthew, by Stephen Schwartz and others; opened off-Broadway in 1971. 

The Baptism of Jesus

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

“In accordance with the symbolic significance of the rite as denoting death to an old life and rising to a new, Jesus came to be baptized in the sense of dying to the old natural relations to parents, neighbors, and earthly calling, and devoting Himself henceforth to His public Messianic vocation.”

–F. F. Bruce

¹⁶And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

about baptism —

Certainly when the devil sees baptism and hears the Word sounding, to him it is like a bright sun and he will not stay there, and when a person is baptized for the sake of the Word of God, which is in it, there is a veritable oven glow. Do you think it was a joke that the heaven were opened at Christ’s baptism? Say, therefore, that baptism is water and God’s Word comprehended in one. Take the Word away and it is the same water with which the maid waters the cow; but with the Word, it is a living, holy, divine thing.
–Martin Luther

Is it possible for an unbaptized believer to be saved? Yes, definitely. Should every believer be baptized? Yes, definitely.
–Max Lucado

The old Irish when immersing a babe at baptism left out the right arm so that it would remain pagan for good fighting!
— Unknown

___________________

Music:

HERE  is “Baptism”  sung by Randy Travis.

_________________________

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

John the Baptist.  http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9l2lhz6XYkA/SZeAyqNC8aI/AAAAAAAAADY/4YYzUqVNVVo/s1600-h/baptist1.j

shell and dove.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/63b30-baptismstainedglass.jpg

Jesus with dove. https://www.soulshepherding.org/7-spirit-anointed-syllables/

3442.) Matthew 2

“Three Kings” by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, 1900.

Matthew 2   (NRSV)

The Visit of the Wise Men

_________________________

Music:

HERE  is “We Three Kings,” with artwork of the wise men as well as pictures of Bethlehem.

_________________________

In the time of King Herod,

King Herod

This was the one known as Herod the Great. Herod was indeed great:  in some ways great as a ruler, builder, and administrator; in other ways great in politics and cruelty.  “He was wealthy, politically gifted, intensely loyal, an excellent administrator, and clever enough to remain in the good graces of successive Roman emperors. His famine relief was superb and his building projects (including the temple, the port at Caesarea Maritima, Herodium, and Masada) were admired even by his foes. But he loved power, inflicted incredibly heavy taxes on the people, and resented the fact that many Jews considered him a usurper. In his last years, suffering an illness that compounded his paranoia, he turned to cruelty and in fits of rage and jealousy killed close associates.”

–D. A. Carson

after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,

Bethlehem was the ancestral home of David, the great king of Israel and founder of their royal dynasty; however, it was not a large or significant town.

wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?

Re: the wise men — they were more likely astronomers than kings.

Re: the child — It is a strange thing for a baby to be born a king. Usually they are princes for a long time before they are kings. D. A. Carson says, “His kingly status was not conferred on him later on; it was from birth.”

For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

There are many different suggestions for the natural origin of this remarkable star. Some say it was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn; some, other planetary conjunctions; others suggest a supernova; and some think of comets or a specifically created unique star or sign.

Whatever it was, it is significant that God met them in their own medium: He guided the astronomers by a star. This was also in fulfillment of Numbers 24:17: A Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel. This was widely regarded by ancient Jewish scholars as a Messianic prediction.

³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;

This trouble is testimony to the greatness of Jesus, even as a young child. “Jesus of Nazareth is so potent a factor in the world of mind that, no sooner is he there in his utmost weakness, a now-born King, than he begins to reign. Before he mounts the throne, friends bring him presents, and his enemies compass his death.”
–Charles Haddon Spurgeon

⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

The irony is strong. Herod claimed a desire to worship Jesus, when he really wanted to kill Him.

⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.

We see here three different responses to Jesus; one may say that all people respond in one of these three ways.

· Herod displayed an open hatred and hostility toward Jesus.

· The chief priests and the scribes were indifferent toward Jesus, all the while retaining their religious respectability.

· The wise men sought out Jesus and worshipped Him – even at great cost.

–David Guzik

Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The idea that there were three wise men comes from the fact that there were three gifts. We may say that gold speaks of royalty, incense speaks of divinity, and myrrh speaks of death. Yet it is almost certain that the Magi did this unawares; they simply wanted to honor the King of the Jews.

“Adoration of the Kings” by Jim Janknegt, contemporary

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

from “In the Bleak Midwinter”
by English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

The Escape to Egypt

“Flight into Egypt” by Chinese artist He Qi.

¹³Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

Psalm 91:11

He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.

There was a large Jewish community in Egypt, outside Herod’s jurisdiction.

¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

Art:

“The Flight into Egypt,” by John August Swanson. Love the skies! Click  HERE.

“Angel Visits Joseph” by A. K. Satheesan, 2009. This painting is done in the traditional mural art style of Kerala, India.

from This Day with the Master,
by Dennis F. Kinlaw

ANGEL VISITS

I love the story of Joseph of Nazareth. All he wanted to know was the right thing to do. His girlfriend was pregnant, and it was not his baby. She said that an angel had appeared to her and told her that her child was from God. That explanation did not seem plausible, but she had never lied to him before; she had always been a model of purity. Now she was telling him that she was pregnant, and he faced a dilemma. If he believed her story, he might be cooperating with her evil. But if he denied her story and it was true, then he would be guilty of evil. What should he do?

At this point, an angel appeared with directions for Joseph. The angel told him to believe Mary and take her to be his wife. Angels do not usually visit humans, but at this crucial moment in history they entered our world in order to help righteous people differentiate the truth from a lie. We must be in communication with the One from outside of our world if we are ever to know what is right and what is wrong. It is no accident that modern America has nothing to say about ethics and truth because true ethics come from outside our space-time universe.

At two other times in Joseph’s life, he received supernatural guidance when his only concern was the protection of his wife and her child. Could it be that the purpose of theses stories is to let us know that there is no way we can be responsible for our family unless that we are in communication with heaven? At crucial points in each family’s existence, divine counsel and guidance are needed to protect each member of the family. God provided direction to Joseph, and he will do the same for you.

The Massacre of the Infants

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled,
because they are no more.”

“Slaughter of the Innocents” floor panel designed by Sienese Matteo di Giovanni and inlaid with marble. (Siena Duomo, Italy)

The Return from Egypt

¹⁹When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”

²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazarene.”

_________________________

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Leyendecker.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/2-3-kings-kneeling.jpg

star. https://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/ask-roger/how-did-the-wise-men-know-to-follow-the-star.html

Janknegt.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/2-3kings.jpg?w=450

He Qi.  https://www.heqiart.com/store/p144/10_Flight-Into-Egypt_Limited_Edition.html

Satheesan.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/angel-visits-joseph-satheesan-a-k.jpg

Siena Duomo.   http://randomthoughtsfrommidlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/slaughter-of-innocents.jpg?w=590&h=391

3441.) Matthew 1

“For unto us a Child is born” by Hanna Cheriyan Varghese, Malaysia

Matthew 1   (NRSV)

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

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Music:

HERE  is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” — a haunting arrangement by the ethereal Irish singer Enya.

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The Jewish flavor of the Gospel of Matthew makes for a logical transition between the Old and New Testaments. For this reason, perhaps, the early church placed it first in order among the four gospel accounts.

The Jewish character of this Gospel is evident in many ways. There are many indications that Matthew expected that his readers would be familiar with Jewish culture.

• Matthew doesn’t translate Aramaic terms such as raca (Matthew 5:22) and corban (Matthew 7:11).

• Matthew refers to Jewish customs without explanation (Matthew 15:2 to Mark 7:3-4; see also Matthew 23:5).

• Matthew starts his genealogy with Abraham (Matthew 1:1).

• Matthew presents the name of Jesus and its meaning in a way that assumes the reader knows its Hebrew roots (Matthew 1:21).

• Matthew frequently refers to Jesus as the “Son of David.”

• Matthew uses the more Jewish phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” instead of “Kingdom of God.”

Yet significantly, the Gospel of Matthew also triumphantly ends with Jesus commanding His followers to make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20). So the Gospel of Matthew is deeply rooted in Judaism, but at the same time is able to look beyond; it sees the gospel itself as more than a message for the Jewish people; rather it is a message for the whole world.

–David Guzik

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

The genealogy of Jesus is arranged in three sections based on three great stages of Jewish history, writes William Barclay.  The first section takes its history down to David, Israel’s greatest king who welded Israel into a nation and made the Jews a power in the world:

²Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, ⁴and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶and Jesse the father of King David.

The second section takes the story down to the exile to Babylon — the nation’s shame and tragedy and disaster:

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, ⁷and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, ⁸and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, ¹¹and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

The third section takes the story down to Jesus Christ. Jesus liberated people from their slavery, rescued them from their disaster, and turned the tragedy into triumph:

¹²And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

“The Women in Christ’s Line” by contemporary American artist Sallie Poet (left to right: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary)

Four women:

This genealogy is noted for the unusual presence of four women. Women were rarely mentioned in ancient genealogies, and the four mentioned here are worthy of special note as examples of God’s grace. They show how God can take unlikely people and use them in great ways.

• Tamar: She sold herself as a prostitute to her father in-law Judah to bring forth Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38).

• Rahab: She was a Gentile prostitute, for whom God took extraordinary measures to save from both judgment and her lifestyle of prostitution (Joshua 2; 6:22-23).

• Ruth: She was from Moab, a Gentile and until her conversion, out of the covenant of Israel (Ruth 1).

• the wife of Uriah: Bathsheba (who is mentioned by implication in Matthew 1:6) was an adulteress, infamous for her sin with David (2 Samuel 11).

These four women have an important place in the genealogy of Jesus to demonstrate that Jesus Christ was not royalty according to human perception, in the sense that He did not come from a pure aristocratic background. They demonstrate that Jesus identifies with sinners in His genealogy, even as He will in His birth, baptism, life, and His death on the cross. Spurgeon says, “Jesus is heir of a line in which flows the blood of the harlot Rahab, and of the rustic Ruth; he is akin to the fallen and to the lowly, and he will show his love even to the poorest and most obscure.”

–David Guzik

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”

“The greatest truth of the Scripture is that God is with us.”

–ascribed to John Wesley

²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

“St. Joseph” by Guido Reni, c. 1630 (Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice)

Reflection:

As his “body,” the church, through us, members of the body, the living Christ is always intruding, going where he is not necessarily wanted or expected, taking up space where people did not expect God to be.

In his earthly ministry, Jesus intruded into the homes of sinners. He showed up at a wedding and caused a scene. He came into places of death, where people hardly knew him, and brought forth unexpected life.

Maybe that is one reason people try to keep religion theoretical and spiritual. But Christianity is not a “spiritual” religion: it is an incarnational religion. It believes that God has a body, that God takes up space, that God will not remain ethereal and vague, distant and detached.

– The Rev. Barbara Lundblad

_________________________

Music:

And  HERE  is “The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy,” sung by Kiri Te Kawana, Michael George, and the Choirs of Coventry and Litchfield Cathedrals.

_________________________

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Varghese.     https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/181112221150/christmas-art-by-hanna-varghese-malaysia

Poet.  http://comeuntochriststudyguide.org/day-three-was-born-jesus/

olive wood Holy Family.    http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v4/131605286/hand_made_olive_wood_Faceless_Holy_Family.jpg

Reni.   http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/r/reni/2/joseph1.html

3440.) Job 42

“Job’s Sacrifice,” by William Blake, 1805 (Morgan Library, New York)

Job 42 (NLT)

Job Responds to the Lord

Job’s repentance:

¹Then Job replied to the Lord:

² “I know that you can do anything,
and no one can stop you.

This wonderful statement from Job was obviously connected to the impressive display of the power and might of God over creation; but it was also connected to the comfort that the sense of the presence of God brought to Job. God indeed could do everything, including bring comfort and assurance to Job, even when Job still did not understanding the origin or meaning of his crisis.

And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You:  The God who can master Behemoth and Leviathan (Job 40 and 41) can also accomplish every purpose in Job’s life, including the mysterious meaning behind the twists and turns.

–David Guzik

³ You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,
things far too wonderful for me.

“God comes in at the end, not to answer riddles, but to propound them. The other great act which, taken together with this one, makes the whole work religious instead of merely philosophical, is that other great surprise which makes Job suddenly satisfied with the mere presentation of something impenetrable. Verbally speaking the enigmas of Jehovah seem darker and more desolate than the enigmas of Job; yet Job was comfortless before the speech of Jehovah and is comforted after it. He has been told nothing, but he feels the terrible and tingling atmosphere of something which is too good to be told. The refusal of God to explain His design is itself a burning hint of His design. The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

–G. K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job (1907)

⁴ You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!
I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.’
⁵ I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
⁶ I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

What did Job have to repent of? In his sermon, Job Among the Ashes, Charles Spurgeon suggested several things:

• Job repented of the terrible curse he had pronounced upon the day of his birth.
• Job repented of his desire to die.
• Job repented of his complaints against and challenges to God.
• Job repented of his despair.
• Job repented that his statements had been a “darkening of wisdom by words without knowledge”; that he spoke beyond his knowledge and ability to know.

And God’s confidence in Job is entirely vindicated!

_________________________

“Mother and Child” by Mary Cassatt, 1890

Psalm 131 (English Standard Version)

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore.

Conclusion: The Lord Blesses Job

Job’s restoration:

⁷ After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.

The NIV has this as:  “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” Yet we know that Job has said some things about God that are not true.  So what is the point?

I think God is saying that although certain of Job’s words may not have been truth, his heart towards God was always true. He was a man of fidelity and integrity in his being. Job was in a true relationship with God, heart and soul, world without end, Amen. The friends have spoken about God, while Job speaks to God. God doesn’t answer Job’s questions as much as God reveals himself to Job — as Truth, as Love. “Now I have seen you with my own eyes,” Job says, and this is enough.  his is the answer to everything. This is the answer that fills the God-shaped vacuum in our hearts. This is GOD.

_____

He had seen the great glory so shot through with sheer, fierce light and life and gladness, had heard the great voice raised in song so full of terror and wildness and beauty, that from that moment on, nothing else mattered. All possible questions melted like mist, and all possible explanations withered like grass, and all the bad times of his life together with all the good times were so caught up into the fathomless life of this God, who had bent down to speak with him though by comparison he was no more than a fleck of dust on the head of a pin in the lapel of a dancing flea, that all he could say was, “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

–Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures

⁸ So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.” ⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. ¹⁰ When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! ¹¹ Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home.

Job was once an outcast even from his own family (as described in Job 19:13-17). Now these relationships were restored.

And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.

¹² So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³ He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. ¹⁴ He named his first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. ¹⁵ In all the land no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job. And their father put them into his will along with their brothers.

What we have lost, God will restore;
That, and Himself, forevermore.
It won’t be long before the rod
Becomes the tender kiss of God.

–John Piper, from the Misery of Job and the Mercy of God

¹⁶ Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. ¹⁷ Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.

“The greatest, the most important purposes were accomplished by this trial. Job became a much better man than he ever was before; the dispensations of God’s providence were illustrated and justified; Satan’s devices unmasked; patience crowned and rewarded; and the church of God greatly enriched by having bequeathed to it the vast treasury of divine truth which is found in the Book of Job.”

— Adam Clarke

“In this great Book there is no solution of problems. There is a great revelation. It is that God may call men into fellowship with Himself through suffering; and that the strength of the human soul is ever that of the knowledge of God.”

–G. Campbell Morgan

 “We are not all like Job, but we all have Job’s God. Though we have neither risen to Job’s wealth, nor will, probably, ever sink to Job’s poverty, yet there is the same God above us if we be high, and the same God with his everlasting arms beneath us if we be brought low; and what the Lord did for Job he will do for us, not precisely in the same form, but in the same spirit, and with like design.”

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon

_________________________

Music:

“You Never Let Go” is a song of such confidence in God! And the book of Job shows us how magnificent and beyond our understanding our God is! We can trust such a One!  HERE  it is — from  Matt Redman.

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Blake.  https://www.themorgan.org/collection/William-Blakes-World/35

repentance.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/repentance.jpg

Cassatt.  http://hoocher.com/Mary_Cassatt/Mother_And_Child_ca_1890.jpg

God-shaped hole.  https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/thegodshapedhole.jpg

Job — the problem of suffering.   http://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.com/2010/10/suffering-of-job-and-natural-disasters.html

3439.) Job 41

“Behemoth versus Leviathan” by M. J. Tannacore

Job 41   (NLT)

The Lord’s Challenge Continues

Contending with Leviathan:

“Can you catch Leviathan with a hook
    or put a noose around its jaw?

Usually Leviathan is considered to be a mythical sea-monster or dragon that terrorized sailors and fishermen. Some believe that Leviathan describes an ancient dragon-like dinosaur that either survived to Job’s day, or survived in the collective memory of mankind, so that God could refer to it as an example. Others consider that in this context, Leviathan is nothing more than a mighty crocodile.

–David Guzik

² Can you tie it with a rope through the nose
    or pierce its jaw with a spike?
³ Will it beg you for mercy
    or implore you for pity?
⁴ Will it agree to work for you,
    to be your slave for life?
⁵ Can you make it a pet like a bird,
    or give it to your little girls to play with?
⁶ Will merchants try to buy it
    to sell it in their shops?
⁷ Will its hide be hurt by spears
    or its head by a harpoon?
⁸ If you lay a hand on it,
    you will certainly remember the battle that follows.
    You won’t try that again!
⁹ No, it is useless to try to capture it.
    The hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.
¹⁰ And since no one dares to disturb it,
    who then can stand up to me?
¹¹ Who has given me anything that I need to pay back?
    Everything under heaven is mine.

The point is clear. If Job cannot contend with Leviathan, how could he ever hope to stand against the God who made and masters Leviathan? This was another effective way of setting Job in his proper place before God.

*

And finally, my servant, Job,
Can you draw down and then disrobe
Leviathan, the king of all
The sons of pride, and in his fall
Strip off his camouflage of strength,
And make him, over all the length
Of earth and heav’n, to serve the plan
Of humble righteousness? I can.
I make Leviathan my rod.
Belovèd Job, behold your God!”

–John Piper, from The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God

*

The description of Leviathan:

¹² “I want to emphasize Leviathan’s limbs
    and its enormous strength and graceful form.
¹³ Who can strip off its hide,
    and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?
¹⁴ Who could pry open its jaws?
    For its teeth are terrible!
¹⁵ Its scales are like rows of shields
    tightly sealed together.
¹⁶ They are so close together
    that no air can get between them.
¹⁷ Each scale sticks tight to the next.
    They interlock and cannot be penetrated.

¹⁸ “When it sneezes, it flashes light!
    Its eyes are like the red of dawn.
¹⁹ Lightning leaps from its mouth;
    flames of fire flash out.
²⁰ Smoke streams from its nostrils
    like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes.
²¹ Its breath would kindle coals,
    for flames shoot from its mouth.

Definite dragon-like qualities! Think Smaug, from The Hobbit!

“My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”

–J. R. R. Tolkien

²² “The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck
    strikes terror wherever it goes.
²³ Its flesh is hard and firm
    and cannot be penetrated.
²⁴ Its heart is hard as rock,
    hard as a millstone.
²⁵ When it rises, the mighty are afraid,
    gripped by terror.
²⁶ No sword can stop it,
    no spear, dart, or javelin.
²⁷ Iron is nothing but straw to that creature,
    and bronze is like rotten wood.
²⁸ Arrows cannot make it flee.
    Stones shot from a sling are like bits of grass.
²⁹ Clubs are like a blade of grass,
    and it laughs at the swish of javelins.
³⁰ Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass.
    It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud.

³¹ “Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion.
    It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment.

Psalm 104:25-26 (NIV)

There is the sea, vast and spacious,
    teeming with creatures beyond number—
    living things both large and small.
There the ships go to and fro,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

³² The water glistens in its wake,
    making the sea look white.
³³ Nothing on earth is its equal,
    no other creature so fearless.
³⁴ Of all the creatures, it is the proudest.
    It is the king of beasts.”

“Jonah was swallowed by a whale; but the believer in Jesus Christ swallows the whale. We eat Leviathan for breakfast. It takes a very big God, and a very big faith in God, to be able to absorb so much evil. Leviathan seems to endlessly sprawling, gargantuan, invincible. But the essence of the gospel is that the love of God is greater than any evil.”

–Mike Mason

_________________________

Music:

As I have been thinking about sea creatures, I have also been thinking about bodies of water — and  HERE  is “The Blue Danube” by Richard Strauss II. Composed in 1866, it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. This performance comes from the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria on January 1, 2014.

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Tannacore.    http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/243/7/f/Behemoth_versus_Leviathan_by_HairyApeMan.jpg

“An artist’s drawing of the Pannoniasaurus inexpectatus that lived 84 million years ago in freshwater floodplains.”    https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna50252881

Smaug, the Dragon, by Evolvana.   http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/293/e/3/smaug_the_dragon_by_evolvana-d6qohvt.jpg

Danube River.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/ce1d6-danube-river.jpg

3438.) Job 40

“Behemoth and Leviathan” by William Blake, 1805 (Morgan Library, New York)

Job 40 (NLT)

God questions Job:

¹ Then the Lord said to Job,

² “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?
You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”

Job is speechless before God:

³Then Job replied to the Lord,

⁴ “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers?
I will cover my mouth with my hand.
⁵ I have said too much already.
I have nothing more to say.”

What a difference in tone here! Before, Job was full of questions, demanding answers! Now God is with him, and Job sees he does not have the ability to judge God or even to question his actions. Job says, “You are God and I am not.”

All of the arguing of Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu could not bring Job to this place. Only the revelation of God could so humble Job and set him in his right place before the Lord. Job made his strong and sometimes outrageous statements when he felt, to the core of his soul, that the Lord had forsaken him. Now with his sense of the presence of the Lord restored, Job could better see his proper place before God.

–David Guzik

The Lord Challenges Job Again

⁶Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

God once again teaches Job:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man,
because I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.

⁸ “Will you discredit my justice
and condemn me just to prove you are right?

How often do I presume to judge my circumstances — and God! — so as to put myself in the right? O Lord, forgive.

Job 40:8 (ESV)

Will you even put me in the wrong?
   Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

We might say that Job fell into the trap of thinking that because he couldn’t figure God out, that perhaps God wasn’t fair. Yet in this larger section of God’s revelation of Himself to Job, God has demonstrated that there are many things that Job doesn’t know, and therefore he was not a fit judge of God’s ways.

–David Guzik

⁹ Are you as strong as God?
Can you thunder with a voice like his?
¹⁰ All right, put on your glory and splendor,
your honor and majesty.
¹¹ Give vent to your anger.
Let it overflow against the proud.
¹² Humiliate the proud with a glance;
walk on the wicked where they stand.
¹³ Bury them in the dust.
Imprison them in the world of the dead.
¹⁴ Then even I would praise you,
for your own strength would save you.

¹⁵ “Take a look at Behemoth,
which I made, just as I made you.

God gave Job a remarkable survey of the wonders of creation in Job 38-39, including a look at many remarkable animals and their ways. Now lastly, God gives Job a look at two remarkable creatures: Behemoth (Job 40:15-24) and Leviathan (Job 41). 

Several of the commentaries I have read suggest that the behemoth might be a hippopotamus. So let’s go with that! The great African hippopotamus, pictured above, stands about 5 feet tall at the shoulder and may weigh up to 4 tons. It has been clocked running 19 mph over short distances. The hippopotamus is one of the most aggressive animals in the world even though it eats only grasses.

It eats grass like an ox.
¹⁶ See its powerful loins
and the muscles of its belly.
¹⁷ Its tail is as strong as a cedar.
The sinews of its thighs are knit tightly together.
¹⁸ Its bones are tubes of bronze.
Its limbs are bars of iron.
¹⁹ It is a prime example of God’s handiwork,
and only its Creator can threaten it.
²⁰ The mountains offer it their best food,
where all the wild animals play.
²¹ It lies under the lotus plants,
hidden by the reeds in the marsh.

Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.

Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami.

–Ogden Nash

²² The lotus plants give it shade
among the willows beside the stream.
²³ It is not disturbed by the raging river,
not concerned when the swelling Jordan rushes around it.
²⁴ No one can catch it off guard
or put a ring in its nose and lead it away.

The Lord showed Job that He was not only the all-knowing architect of the universe, but also its all-powerful manager. He asked Job to look at Behemoth and Leviathan, not look them up in a book, which indicates that these huge animals still existed.

Based on their detailed descriptions, some people think these two beasts were what we now call dinosaurs, and the Lord made the point that He was the only one who could control them, either with His sword, or by pulling them with a hook (40:19, 24). Behemoth was a huge marsh-dwelling land beast that answered to no one but God. He was the king of the Land, sustained by “springs of water.”

–Mike Bull

_________________________

Music:

HERE  is “I Stand in Awe” written by Mark Altrogge and performed by the GTA Praise Band.

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Blake.  http://kyrieeleison-jcm.blogspot.com/2015/03/da-dissolucao-da-polis.html

hand over mouth.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/job40-hand-over-mouth.png

hippopotamus.    https://animalplanetsthemostextreme.fandom.com/wiki/Hippopotamus?file=Hippopotamus.jpg

hippo at leaf lunch.   https://taliinasisafaris.com/tour/5-days-hippo-safari/

3437.) Job 39

“The Garden of Eden” by Jacob Bouttats, 1660-1718. So many animals!

Job 39   (NLT)

The Lord’s Challenge Continues

“Do you know when the wild goats give birth?
    Have you watched as deer are born in the wild?

While male deer are called bucks, the females are known as does, and they are distinct both physically and behaviorally. Does live differently than males do, and they take a more hands-on approach to parenting their young, known as fawns. Without the care and attention of a doe, a fawn may not survive, demonstrating how important the nurturing characteristics of this animal are.

–animals.mom.me

² Do you know how many months they carry their young?
    Are you aware of the time of their delivery?
³ They crouch down to give birth to their young
    and deliver their offspring.
⁴ Their young grow up in the open fields,
    then leave home and never return.

⁵ “Who gives the wild donkey its freedom?
    Who untied its ropes?

“One of the most admired animals of the Old Testament world was the wild donkey. It was a compliment and a promise of an enviable freedom when the angel declared that Ishmael (Genesis 16:12) would become ‘a wild donkey of a man.’ The creature was admired for both its freedom and its ability to survive under the harshest conditions.”

–Elmer Smick

⁶ I have placed it in the wilderness;
    its home is the wasteland.
⁷ It hates the noise of the city
    and has no driver to shout at it.
⁸ The mountains are its pastureland,
    where it searches for every blade of grass.

⁹ “Will the wild ox consent to being tamed?
    Will it spend the night in your stall?

Wild ox is not a very good translation; nor is the classic King James Version translation of “unicorn” here. This animal is actually a fearsome, mighty, extinct animal known as the aurochs. Extinct since 1627, this enormous animal was the most powerful of all hoofed beasts, exceeded in size only by the hippopotamus and the elephant. It is the standard symbol of strength in the Old Testament, where it is mentioned nine times.

–David Guzik

Pictured here:  The Indian aurochs (Bos primigenius namadicus), a subspecies of the extinct aurochs. 

¹⁰ Can you hitch a wild ox to a plow?
    Will it plow a field for you?
¹¹ Given its strength, can you trust it?
    Can you leave and trust the ox to do your work?
¹² Can you rely on it to bring home your grain
    and deliver it to your threshing floor?

¹³ “The ostrich flaps her wings grandly,
    but they are no match for the feathers of the stork.

Ostrich — why does a flightless bird have wings?

¹⁴ She lays her eggs on top of the earth,
    letting them be warmed in the dust.
¹⁵ She doesn’t worry that a foot might crush them
    or a wild animal might destroy them.
¹⁶ She is harsh toward her young,
    as if they were not her own.
    She doesn’t care if they die.
¹⁷ For God has deprived her of wisdom.
    He has given her no understanding.
¹⁸ But whenever she jumps up to run,
    she passes the swiftest horse with its rider.

¹⁹ “Have you given the horse its strength
    or clothed its neck with a flowing mane?

Horses were historically used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. Many products are derived from horses, including meat, milk, hide, hair, bone, and pharmaceuticals extracted from the urine of pregnant mares.

–Wikipedia

²⁰ Did you give it the ability to leap like a locust?
    Its majestic snorting is terrifying!
²¹ It paws the earth and rejoices in its strength
    when it charges out to battle.
²² It laughs at fear and is unafraid.
    It does not run from the sword.
²³ The arrows rattle against it,
    and the spear and javelin flash.
²⁴ It paws the ground fiercely
    and rushes forward into battle when the ram’s horn blows.
²⁵ It snorts at the sound of the horn.
    It senses the battle in the distance.
    It quivers at the captain’s commands and the noise of battle.

²⁶ “Is it your wisdom that makes the hawk soar
    and spread its wings toward the south?
²⁷ Is it at your command that the eagle rises
    to the heights to make its nest?

The Eagle
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

²⁸ It lives on the cliffs,
    making its home on a distant, rocky crag.
²⁹ From there it hunts its prey,
    keeping watch with piercing eyes.
³⁰ Its young gulp down blood.
    Where there’s a carcass, there you’ll find it.”

“If we find it exasperating that God never gives Job any reasons for his long ordeal of suffering, then we have entirely missed the point of these final chapters. While it is true that the Lord’s answer to Job is neither logical nor theological, this is not the same as saying that He gives no answer. The Lord does give an answer. His answer is Himself.”

–Mike Mason

“One thought, and one only, is brought into the foreground. The world is full of mysteries, strange, unapproachable, overpowering mysteries that you cannot read. Trust, trust in the power, and in the wisdom, and in the goodness of Him, the Almighty One, who rules it.” 

–George Granville Bradley

_________________________

Music:

HERE   is “All Creation Worships” written by Kirk Dearman and Jim Mills, performed by Tony Melendez.

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Bouttats.   https://pixels.com/featured/garden-of-eden-jacob-bouttats.html

wild donkey.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/job39-wild-donkey.jpg

wild ox.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_aurochs#/media/File:Indian_Aurochs_B_p_namadicus_3.jpg

ostrich and eggs.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/2c5fb-fresh_ostrich_hatching_eggs.jpg

horse.    http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/cd/2b/01/cd2b01589c98506e23f6a8ece10bc31b.jpg

eagle.    https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g499210-d5225713-Reviews-Advocate_Boat_Tours-Advocate_Harbour_Nova_Scotia.html

 

3436.) Job 38

“The Lord answering Job out of a whirlwind,” by William Blake, 1805 (Morgan Library, New York)

Job 38   (NLT)

Chapters 38 – 42:  God Answers Job

 

Perhaps you would like to hear this chapter. Son Devlin, currently a PhD student at Princeton Theological Seminary, learned this chapter by heart and presented it to a Wheaton College chapel some years ago. Of course, I am biased, but it is very cool!  Click  HERE  to watch and listen!

The Lord Challenges Job

¹Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

² “Who is this that questions my wisdom
with such ignorant words?
³ Brace yourself like a man,
because I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.

God questions Job regarding what he doesn’t know:

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
⁵ Who determined its dimensions
and stretched out the surveying line?
⁶ What supports its foundations,
and who laid its cornerstone
⁷ as the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?

the Milky Way galaxy

Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

⁸ “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
as it burst from the womb,
⁹ and as I clothed it with clouds
and wrapped it in thick darkness?
¹⁰ For I locked it behind barred gates,
limiting its shores.
¹¹ I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.
Here your proud waves must stop!’

the Atlantic Ocean at Cocoa Beach, Florida

Genesis 1:9-10 (NIV)

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.  God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹² “Have you ever commanded the morning to appear
and caused the dawn to rise in the east?
¹³ Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?
¹⁴ As the light approaches,
the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;
it is robed in brilliant colors.
¹⁵ The light disturbs the wicked
and stops the arm that is raised in violence.

sunrise over New York City

Genesis 1:14-18 (NIV)

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,  and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.  God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.  God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth,  to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

¹⁶ “Have you explored the springs from which the seas come?
Have you explored their depths?
¹⁷ Do you know where the gates of death are located?
Have you seen the gates of utter gloom?
¹⁸ Do you realize the extent of the earth?
Tell me about it if you know!

¹⁹ “Where does light come from,
and where does darkness go?
²⁰ Can you take each to its home?
Do you know how to get there?
²¹ But of course you know all this!
For you were born before it was all created,
and you are so very experienced!

Genesis 1:3-4 (NIV)

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

²² “Have you visited the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of hail?
²³ (I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war.)
²⁴ Where is the path to the source of light?
Where is the home of the east wind?

²⁵ “Who created a channel for the torrents of rain?
Who laid out the path for the lightning?
²⁶ Who makes the rain fall on barren land,
in a desert where no one lives?
²⁷ Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground
and make the tender grass spring up?

Genesis 1:11-12 (NIV)

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.  The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

²⁸ “Does the rain have a father?
Who gives birth to the dew?
²⁹ Who is the mother of the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
³⁰ For the water turns to ice as hard as rock,
and the surface of the water freezes.

³¹ “Can you direct the movement of the stars—
binding the cluster of the Pleiades
or loosening the cords of Orion?
³² Can you direct the sequence of the seasons
or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?

the Pleiades

Genesis 1:16 (NIV)

God also made the stars.

³³ Do you know the laws of the universe?
Can you use them to regulate the earth?

³⁴ “Can you shout to the clouds
and make it rain?
³⁵ Can you make lightning appear
and cause it to strike as you direct?
³⁶ Who gives intuition to the heart
and instinct to the mind?
³⁷ Who is wise enough to count all the clouds?
Who can tilt the water jars of heaven
³⁸ when the parched ground is dry
and the soil has hardened into clods?

³⁹ “Can you stalk prey for a lioness
and satisfy the young lions’ appetites
⁴⁰ as they lie in their dens
or crouch in the thicket?

Genesis 1:24-25 (NIV)

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.  God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

⁴¹ Who provides food for the ravens
when their young cry out to God
and wander about in hunger?

raven and chicks at Yellowstone National Park

Genesis 1:20-21 (NIV)

And God said, “Let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”  So God created every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

_________________________

Music:

HERE  is Steve Green and “Creation Sings.” It is a happy song! (This is the video from the Prince George High School Baccalaureate Service for the Class of 2010.)

Creation sings the Father’s song
He calls the sun to wake the dawn
And run the course of day
‘Til evening falls in crimson rays
His fingerprints in flakes of snow
His breath upon this spinning globe
He charts the eagle’s flight
Commands the new born baby’s cry

Hallelujah, let all creation stand and sing
Hallelujah, fill the earth with songs of worship
Tell the wonders of creations’ King

Creation gazed upon His face
The ageless One in times’ embrace
Unveiled the Father’s plan
Of reconciling God and man
A second Adam walked the earth
Whose blameless life would break the curse
Whose death would set us free
To live with Him eternally

Creation longs for His return
When Christ shall reign upon the earth
The bitter wars that rage
Are birth pains of a coming age
When he renews the land and sky
All heav’n will sing and earth reply
With one resplendent theme
The glory of our God and King

Fill the earth with songs of worship
Tell the wonders of creation’s King

_________________________

New Living Translation (NLT)   Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Blake.   http://en.wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-8EWSDW/$File/WILLIAM-BLAKE-THE-LORD-ANSWERING-JOB-OUT-OF-THE-WHIRLWIND.JPG

Milky Way.  https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/milky-way-galaxy1.jpg

Cocoa Beach.  https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/cocoa_beach1.jpg

sunrise.  https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/41625134_nicoatridge_nysunr.jpg

candles.   http://carolinemccain.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/light-dark-for-change-ability-tip-19.jpg

prairie grass.  https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/prairie_grass.jpg

stars.   https://serc.carleton.edu/details/images/35007.html

lioness and cubs.  http://lh3.ggpht.com/-wkGbmwkOyto/Tn-HpxIM2BI/AAAAAAAAAjA/LEyXvtuxRF8/s1600-h/leona-con-sus-cachorros%25255B8%25255D.jpg

raven.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/ravenchicks.jpg

3435.) Psalm 29

Psalm 29 (New International Version)

In eleven verses, the name of the LORD (Yahweh) occurs 18 times. “The Voice of the Lord” repeats seven times. And over the course of the Psalm, the repetitions have a powerful affect on the reader. I suggest you read this psalm out loud to get the full effect!

From the drumbeat of the Lord’s name and voice, the Psalm follows the storm of the Lord. Ripping through the coastland cedars of Lebanon (v. 5), on to Sirion (or Hermon) in the center of Israel (v. 6), to the wilderness east of Canaan (v. 8), Psalm 29 follows the path of God’s thunderous voice like storm trackers would follow a tornado.

Capturing the effect of Psalm 29’s words, Konrad Schaeffer in his book Psalms comments, “The [Psalmist] reproduces auditory and visual effects: the echoing crash of the thunder (‘the voice of the Lord’), the flames of fire, and the quaking earth and twisting trees” (Psalms, 72). As it often happens in the Psalms, the literary devices are meant to do more than explain truth; they make you feel God’s truth.

And the truth in this Psalm is that the God who sits enthroned over all his creation has power to do as he pleases. With the breath of his mouth he subdues the massive trees of Lebanon, shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh, and strips bare the forests. In the presence of such a God, all of creation is reduced to one word: “Glory!”

–David S. Schrock

¹ Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

² Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his  holiness.

³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.

Water is the most abundant compound on Earth’s surface, constituting about 70% of the planet’s surface. These still waters are off the coast of Tahiti.

⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.

⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

Cedars from Lebanon were used by King Solomon in the construction of the Temple.

⁶ He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
Sirion (Mount Hermon) like a young wild ox.

⁷ The voice of the LORD strikes
with flashes of lightning.

Lightning rapidly heats the air in its immediate vicinity to about 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about three times the temperature of the surface of the sun.

⁸ The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;
the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

⁹ The voice of the LORD twists the oaks
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

¹⁰ The LORD sits  enthroned over the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as King forever.

¹¹ The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.

This closing word with peace is like a rainbow arch over the Psalm. The beginning of the Psalm shows us heaven open while its close shows us his victorious people upon earth, blessed with peace in the midst of the terrible utterance of his wrath. Gloria in excelsis (glory in the highest) is the beginning, and in terra pax (peace on earth) the close. 

–Derek Kidner

_________________________

Music:

HERE  is Matt Redman and “All Glory.”

_________________________

New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica

Images courtesy of:

Psalm 29:2.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/ascribetothelordthegloryduehisname.jpg

water of Tahiti.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/ps29-water.jpg

cedar of Lebanon.    http://farm1.static.flickr.com/41/100083847_9de945d7d7.jpg

lightning.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/29-lightning.jpg