Time with Jesus - 24 Dec 2013
Hi all,
Regardless of your taste in
reading, you will find something somewhere in the Bible to satisfy that particular
taste. If you have a love of history, Biblical history is in both the Old
Testament and the New. If you like reading lists of names such as those in the
telephone book, you can satisfy your passion in the Book of Numbers. The
seemingly endless lists of names in Numbers are not as pointless as I thought
they were when I first looked at the Bible. Mostly they are the names of the descendants
of the 12 tribes of Israel. These lists are actually essential information for
those who would like to check out Jesus’ genealogy.
The prophets foretold that
Jesus would be a son of David and have been born in Bethlehem. In the gospel of
Matthew and Luke, Jesus’ genealogy is spelled out from Abraham to Jesus in
Matthew. Matthew was a former Hebrew tax collector. Thus, in good Hebrew
fashion, Matthew started the list of names in Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham. Since
his gospel was written primarily for new Jewish believers, why bother about
going any further back in history? As far as he was concerned there were no “Israelites”
before Abraham. Perhaps he felt that anyone other than a Jew was irrelevant as
far as genealogy was concerned.
Up to a point, Matthew was correct
in this assumption. Bear in mind that the Old Testament was written for God’s
people. Tradition tells us that Moses wrote the First 5 books of the Old
Testament. These books are known as the “Torah”. Historically, these are the
five most important books in the Jewish Canon of Scripture. At one time in the recent
past, Jewish male children were required to memorise these books verbatim. In
the days when not many people were literate, learning by the oral tradition as
it was called, was the only way many young men could get to know the Torah. We
shouldn’t let this surprise us. In the 19th century, when children
started to be taught to read and write, they did so at the expense of
memorising Scripture. Why bother learning anything off by heart if it’s written
in a book!
Matthew commenced his Gospel with a
record of Jesus’ genealogy. 1 The record
of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Mat 1:1 NASB He divides it into 3 groups of 14.
The first group is from Abraham to King David; the second is from King David to
the exile; and the third group is from the exile to the coming of Jesus. This
corresponds with the three eras of leadership in Israel. i.e. prophets, princes
(kings) and priests. He commences with Abraham and traces Jesus’ ancestry
through the male line. i.e. through the fathers. But Joseph was not Jesus
natural father. However, Joseph is rightly called the father of Jesus, by a Jewish
rule which states “he that brings up, and not he that begets, is called the
father''. From this we can see that “Matthew’s genealogy” has been written in
order to establish Jesus’ legal right to claim to be “son of David”. This is
also hinted at by working downward from Abraham. Each “successive” father is
listed to Jesus Himself.
A common criticism made concerning
Matthew and to some extent Luke’s genealogy is the names of Judah’s descendants
in the time of slavery in Egypt. Only, Hezron, Ram and Amminadab are named. It
seems unlikely that in the ±300 years of slavery, only three generations are
mentioned. This may be accounted for by the fact that God only includes in His
Word, the names of those whom He regards as significant. In other words, they
may be other men in the line of Judah that were not regarded as “noteworthy” by
God. This probably accounts for the paucity of names. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez
was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of
Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. Mat
1:3-4 NASB
Luke, the author of his Gospel and
the book of Acts, is the only Gentile to have written a book of the Bible; in
the New Testament. It follows that his genealogy goes back to the God Himself. Also,
Luke begins with Jesus and lists genealogy from Jesus “backwards” to God. In
other words, Jesus is the Son of God. Luke has recorded, as best as we can
tell, Jesus’ genealogy through Mary, His mother. We see this more clearly in
Luke’s Gospel. 23 When He began His
ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli. Luke 3:23 NASB. In this portion of Scripture according
to John Gill, a more accurate translation would be Jesus, son of Joseph; Jesus,
son of Eli; Jesus, son of Matthat; Jesus, son of Levi; Jesus, son of Melchi, Jesus,
son of Janna; Jesus son of Joseph, Luke 3:24 KJV culminating
in verse 38 with, Jesus, son of God.
Historically in the Jewish
tradition, women were not and could not be the head of a family. Thus her son
was regarded as Joseph’s son. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the
appearance of “Zerubbabel” in Matthew and Luke’s genealogy. Now it’s impossible
to have two different fathers coming together in one person. However, if we are
following the female line back to God, it would be acceptable to quote the husband’s
name as the father “Zerubbabel”. However,
if Luke was referring to the wife of Zerubbabel, the genealogy makes sense.
The essential difference between
the two genealogies is; Matthew referred to Jesus, as son of David. Luke
referred to Jesus as son of God. If we think for a moment, perhaps Luke was
tracing Jesus’ genealogy back to Eve, the wife of Adam. In this way we see a fulfilment
of God’s promise to Eve that her seed would one day bring forth Jesus
Christ, who would bruise the head of the serpent. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast
done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the
field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of
thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gen 3:14-15 KJV Bear in mind that Jesus “human”
blood came from Mary. His Father was God. He did not have the blood of a human
father. Thus Mary’s “seed” bruised Satan’s head. Thank you Lord. Eve was
deceived. In the final analysis, Satan was deceived into thinking that “killing”
Jesus would defeat Him. It didn’t!
One final comment about these
genealogies; the Religious Rulers in Jesus’ day knew that the Messiah would be
able to trace His ancestry back to David. This would have been one of the first
things they would have checked out. They found that He could not be faulted
through His mother’s or His father’s ancestry. To them it didn’t “prove” He was
the Messiah. But it did prove He could not be excluded on these grounds.
Shalom,
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 24 Dec 2013
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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These
devotionals are the intellectual property of Jim Strickland and copyright
protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute them to anyone provided it
is for non-commercial Christian purposes
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©
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INTRODUCTION
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DAILY
LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
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DAVID,
SAUL AND ACHISH
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Do animals laugh? It’s a strange sort of a question but strange things
do happen and answers are never easy to come by. I can’t think I’ve ever seen
anything like laughter from any animal that I’ve come across. I can remember
seeing a “Francis the Talking Mule” movie. But I suspect it was “rigged” for
Donald O’Connor’s benefit. We do have an account of Balaam’s donkey speaking
in Numbers 22:28. Read it and see. The donkey certainly wasn’t laughing!
Many folk feel that the Bible has no humour in it. It’s true that most
of it is tragedy, or human stupidity if you prefer. But dotted here and there
we find delightfully amusing statements. One of my favourites is found in the
book of Jeremiah. Speaking about idols of the nations, Jeremiah records the
Lord as saying, 5 Like a scarecrow in
a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they
cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do
no harm nor can they do any good."
Jer. 10:5 NIV. I love it. For me it’s the ultimate Biblical “put down”.
There is very little we could describe as “funny” in the tale of the
Saul, David and Achish. If it had been written by Shakespeare, it would be
classified and included as one of his tragedies like Hamlet and Macbeth. King
Saul who could be classified as the villain of the piece had become quite
mad. He was obsessed with a desire to kill David. He seems to me to have had
a depressive nature. Then he heard the women sing: - 7 "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."1
Samuel 18:7 NIV. Saul hadn’t read “How
to Make Friends and Influence People”. For a while he sat on it and
“incubated” it! Then, when his envious anger broke out of its shell, he threw
a spear at David. David ducked! If he hadn’t, he could never have become the
King. From that time, more or less, David was on the run.
The saga of David running from Saul comprises much of 1 Samuel. Saul’s
determination to capture and kill David was a calamity. In the end, almost in
desperation, David leaves the country and goes to live with King Achish of
Gath! Probably the same Gath as Goliath’s home? The time David spent in
Philistia seems to have been an all-time, pre Bathsheba, low. It does little
for his reputation. He is revealed as a liar and heartless killer. He was
nearly murdered by his men at Ziklag. While living in hiding from Saul in
Philistia, he fooled Achish into thinking he was raiding his own people. The
truth is he was raiding the places of Israel’s enemies. Achish was fooled.
The Philistine officers were not. David was still the enemy. Hence David
didn’t have to fight Saul in the battle with the Philistines. In this battle,
Saul and three of his sons died. One of them was David’s blood covenant
brother Jonathan. What a tragedy!
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
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3 The Philistine officers asked, "What are these
Hebrews doing here?" Achish asked the Philistine officers,
"Isn't this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with
me now for a year or two? I've found nothing wrong with him from the day he
defected until now."
1 Samuel 29:3 GW
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The very strangest threesome that you could ever see.
David, Saul and Achish. An “oddball” history!
Saul was chasing David. He wished to see him dead.
Achish was a Philistine. A man whom Saul should dread.
David had been running, to get away from Saul.
Anyone who helped him, found no mercy at all.
He slaughtered all the priests who lived within the town of Nob.
The Hebrews wouldn’t do it, so Doeg did the job!
Doeg was an Edomite, so it is no surprise,
He would kill the Priests of Nob; to look good in Saul’s eyes.
Saul kept hounding David. I think he had gone mad!
David wouldn’t harm Saul; though he be good or bad.
Saul was God’s anointed, so David wouldn’t kill,
This ruler who went crazy. He ran away until,
In order to find respite, he joined the Philistines.
And so he went to Achish to join their army’s lines.
Achish was a ruler. Gath was his home town.
Goliath was the Gathite whom David had struck down.
It didn’t seem to matter and David was “his man”,
So Achish gave him Ziklag; for David, a good plan.
For sixteen months in Ziklag and Gath, David would raid
The enemies of Israel, a dreadful price was paid.
Women, men and children were all put to the sword.
He said that they were Hebrews; but it was just a fraud,
He used to trick King Achish. He told a bunch of lies;
So he would be acceptable. Impressive in the eyes,
Of Achish and his people. But would he go and fight,
Against Saul and his people? How could he get that right?
The generals of the Philistines refused to take him on.
And very soon next morning, David’s men were gone.
They all went back to Ziklag. But Ziklag was forsaken.
Raided by Amalekites; and everyone was taken.
All his men were angry and David took the blame.
And so in desperation unto the Lord he came.
There he found encouragement and what he had to do.
Go and bring them back again before your men kill you!
The mission was successful and families restored.
All was “done and dusted”; courtesy the Lord.
Jim Strickland
Written
24th December 2012
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14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you
are blessed because the Spirit of glory-the Spirit of God-is resting on you.
15 If you suffer, you shouldn't suffer
for being a murderer, thief, criminal, or troublemaker. 16 If
you suffer for being a Christian, don't feel ashamed, but praise God for
being called that name.
1 Peter 4:14-16 GW
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16 Don't let something you consider good be spoken of as
if it were evil.
Romans 14:16 NIrV
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12 Live such good lives among the pagans that,
though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and
glorify God on the day he visits us.
1 Peter 2:12 TNIV
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14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what
partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light
with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or
what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What
agreement has the temple of God with idols? For
we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my
dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. 17 Therefore go
out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no
unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a
father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord
Almighty."
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 ESV
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9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
1 Peter 2:9 ESV
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