June 9, 2022 – Click here to listen
I am now studying the New Testament and of course, started with reading the book of Matthew. My Bible study partner seems to sometimes focus on the various stories in the Bible in more of a human sense and in so doing I believe will often miss the true spiritual message behind it. He is not unlike many who try to study the Bible and focus on its lessons in human terms instead of the Holy Spirit’s message.
Matthew was very detailed oriented, smart, and well educated and I believe Jesus selected him as a disciple primarily because he was well equipped to write with precision to convince the Jews that Jesus was none other than the Anointed One, the Messiah, foretold by various prophets throughout the Bible for centuries and centuries. He handily demonstrates that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. Albeit to this day many Jews deny Jesus as the Messiah, Matthew presents an irrefutable case for it.
If we read the genealogy that starts the Book of Matthew, it seems boring and a waste of time; however, to the Jews it was all-important because it established the prophesied lineage of the Messiah. It makes the point that Jesus was born of a virgin. If we are not careful, we get all hung up on how such a thing could occur, and how that made Joseph feel, and so on, but the real message was that it was prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Yes, it was supernatural and from a human sense many have doubted this, but we simply must understand that our all-powerful God spoke the world into existence, and nothing is beyond His abilities. The spiritual message is that Jesus fulfilled many prophesies and this is just the beginning of them.
It had been prophesied that He would be born in Bethlehem, and He was. It said the magi, (three wise men). would come bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and yes that happened. Later it was predicted that there would be “weeping and wailing” in Ramah. This occurred when the children 2 years and younger were slaughtered by King Herod and the town mourned their deaths. It was an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate Jesus by Herod because he feared Jesus would replace him as king.
Jesus of course escaped to Egypt which fulfilled another prophecy that He would be “called out of Egypt”. Prophecies related that He would be called a Nazarene. He became a Nazarene after Herod died and He returned to Israel and made His home in Nazareth.
Matthew methodically builds the case for Jesus being the Messiah in terms the Jews could understand. It’s amazing really when you see how many prophecies Jesus fulfilled. It would be impossible to fulfill them unless it was orchestrated by almighty God. What I have outlined here is just a very small number. the question of how many prophecies Jesus fulfilled is difficult to answer with precision. Should we count only direct messianic prophecies? Do we count repeated prophecies twice? How about allusions and indirect references to the ministry of Christ? Some scholars conservatively state that Jesus fulfilled at least 300 prophecies in His earthly ministry. One scholar, J. Barton Payne, has found as many as 574 verses in the Old Testament that somehow point to or describe or reference the coming Messiah. Alfred Edersheim found 456 Old Testament verses referring to the Messiah or His times.
To get all hung up on that seems like a waste of time to me. What is the overriding spiritual message? That Jesus is the Son of God and in fact is God. Focusing on how He might have walked on water, been born of a virgin, made the blind see, and arose from the grave cannot be explained in human terms. God cannot be explained and Jesus was God. Jesus lived a perfect life in the flesh without committing a single sin. This made him an unblemished sacrifice like a snow-white perfect lamb without defect whose death on the cross God deemed an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the entire world provided we confess Jesus as our Savior and ask for forgiveness, and repent, (change), and follow Him and not the world.
Whatever you might believe about the Bible the overriding Spiritual Message is just that. He loved us enough to die for us. It is easy to reconcile with Him and you should do it. He stands at the door and knocks, answer the door!.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life . . .