The Bible

Feb

04

2025

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Feb

04

2025

The Bible is “God breathed” and was authored and inspired in its entirety by the Holy Spirit.  It has 66 books that were written over a period believed to be 1500 or more years and is commonly believed to have had 40 divinely inspired authors who penned it. And yet amazingly no one can disprove a word of it. An astonishing 668 prophecies have been fulfilled and none have ever been proven false (three are unconfirmed).

I find the Bible to be far more enjoyable if prior to beginning to read a book within it, I conduct research about it including who might have penned it. What an honor to be chosen by our awesome almighty Holy God to write down His communique to the world in words directly inspired by Him. Just think of it, the Bible gives all human beings guidance as we traverse through this life to eternity and it leads us to the permanent establishment of a personal relationship with the Holy God of all that exists. What a privilege to be selected from all mankind to pen even a small portion of it.

I find the Bible to be fascinating and I cannot ever seem to get enough of it. I made that statement to a friend of mine the other day and he had a disgusted look on his face like he’d just stepped in a fresh cow patty. I inquired as to why the nasty look and he exclaimed that quite frankly he found reading the Bible to be, “Boring as hell!”

Hmmm . . . Perhaps his approach to reading it is vastly different than mine. I don’t merely read the words; rather I try to understand the larger picture of what was going on at the time it was written. What is God’s purpose for including this particular book and its message in His Bible? Who were the people of the day when it was written? What was going on in their lives? What were they like? Who was the author? What was he like? Why do you suppose God chose him to write this particular book? What were his strengths and weaknesses?

I find out as much as I can before I start studying another book of the Bible and then vicariously project myself into those times to gain a greater perspective of what is being told to us by Almighty God Himself. Take “The Gospel according to MATTHEW” for instance. Matthew was a Jew, but he was also a tax collector, (publican), for the Romans and was despised by his fellow Jews. Many folks think our modern day IRS agents are scumbags; especially when being audited – Imagine if our country was occupied by a foreign power and one of your neighbors became an IRS agent for our occupier and started squeezing taxes out of you at every opportunity on behalf of them, and was also skimming additional of your hard earned monies to line his own greedy pockets. The Bible states they were crooks, and their corruption often knew no bounds. Luke 3:13 states, “They overcharged and brought false charges of smuggling in the hope of extorting money”.

These dishonest tax collectors-imposed taxes on anything and everything including admission to markets, highway taxes for carts, (additional for wheels and axles), pedestrians, and incredibly even the taxation of animals.

While the rest of the population struggled just to make ends meet, tax collectors like Matthew were drinking heavily and enjoying the “flash and the cash” of the good life and were considered vulgar heathens by the scribes and Pharisees. Naturally, they were hated and in fact even the Romans didn’t like guys like Matthew; they merely tolerated them as necessary evils.

Okay so why did Jesus walk by Matthew’s tax collection booth one day and tell him, “Follow me”? One would think instead of this despised sinner with all of his faults He would have picked one of those self righteous Pharisees, scribes, or similar “Holy Joes” of the day to be one of His 12 disciples.

Is there a lesson here?

Matthew responded instantly and with great enthusiasm to His calling by Jesus Christ; he immediately got up and followed Him, leaving his life of wealth and debauchery behind. Did the Holy Spirit miraculously transform this man? Yes and gloriously so. This clearly shows that none is beyond the reach of the Father’s grace and that man’s superficial standards for judging others are not the same as God’s standards. He does not look at us as to what we are, rather as to what we can become. This lesson should encourage all of us sinners; there is hope for one and all in Jesus Christ if we will only make the decision to follow Him.

Matthew prepared a great feast in honor of Jesus, and invited the disciples, and some of his personal friends (who included other tax collectors and various sinners). This feast provided a spiritual lesson for the readers of the Bible. While Jesus was wining and dining, the Pharisees asked Him and His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:29-32).

WOW! Now there is something for all of the judgmental – self righteous – pious – modern-day Pharisees to think about . . .

As always God doesn’t have any singular purpose in what He does. He didn’t call Matthew just for the purpose of this lesson, but a myriad of them including his unique skills. Matthew was of the Levi tribe and is believed to have been fluent in Greek, (the official language) and Aramaic, (the local dialect). He was literate and an educated writer and scribe and some analysts believe that he knew a form of shorthand called tachygraphy and that they say might explain how he was able to write the detailed accounts of Christ’s spoken sermons including the long Sermon on the Mount. (While it is true that God often used practical methods such as described above to achieve His goals, we should keep in mind that our Almighty God could have just as easily given Matthew total recall. There is no need to explain how the God of all creation who spoke the world into existence achieved His mighty works.)

The Gospel of Matthew is written by a Jew, to a Jew, about a Jew, (Jesus Christ). He carefully documented to the Jews that Jesus Christ was the Messiah beginning the Gospel with Christ’s genealogy and then he moved on to what he saw with his own eyes including His baptism, sermons, miracles, death, Resurrection and his declaration of Jesus as the “King of the Jews”.  Matthew was written at least 20 years after the death of Christ and it is believed that he died a martyr in Ethiopia . . .

One last thing though, remember that Matthew gave up his wealth and his life of ease and wine, women, great cuisine, and song in order to follow Jesus. He experienced great difficulty as he spread the good news of the Gospel which ultimately cost him his very life on this earth to a grisly sword, but he earned a prominent position in heaven as a martyr for Christ throughout eternity which he is currently enjoying today. I look forward to meeting him.

What will you give up for Christ today?

I leave you with one of my favorite verses in Matthew.

Matt 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

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