July 2

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July 2

Reading 1 - 1Samuel 14

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v.44 - Even though Jonathan was saved by the power of the people, as it were, it would seem that he was still under the curse which had never come to his ears. It seems frightening to me to think that such a situation could exist. Could we be punished for not obeying a law we had never heard? Within the law of the land this is certainly possible. Let us be sure to study God's law and save ourselves this possible embarrassment.
Peter Cresswell

v.6 gives us an insight into Jonathan as a man of great faith and courage. May we learn from him.
Peter Cresswell

v.45 We see an example of how Saul was swayed by the people. He was not in control. Of course he would have been foolish to have killed Jonathan. However it was the people, and not Saul. who saw the folly of his words.
Peter Forbes

14:2 We learn that Saul had 600 men with him. This is so also in 13:15. Why do we find such a small number of men with Saul? Was it that the kingdom was really fragmented or was it that the people would not align behind Saul? Whatever the reason we must realise that it was a very small number of men.
Peter Forbes

:3 So we learn that Icabod had an older brother. He must have been older because their mother died in childbearing. (1 Samuel 4:20)
Peter Forbes

DON'T JUST SIT THERE!

While Israel trembled in fear of the Philistines, and their Leader, King Saul, stayed under a pomegranate tree in Migron, Jonathan decided to do something about the situation. It appears that Jonathan was not in a position to motivate or command all of Israel, so he did what he could with what he had. Jonathan and his armour bearer went across to the Philistines with a great faith in the LORD their God. There they attacked and killed about twenty men. Twenty men were only a drop in the bucket as far as the Philistine army were concerned, but the attack against them sparked a wave of panic that spread through the whole Philistine army. It ended in the defeat of the Philistines as Israel recognised the panic they were in, seized the moment, attacked and overcame them

In many ways we are like Jonathan. We are not in a position to do great things - to lead the whole of Israel against the enemy, but we can do what we are able to, within our sphere of influence. By controlling ourselves and being proactive in our own lives, we will motivate others to do the same and to follow our lead. Then, from small beginnings, we may be able to achieve great things with the help of the LORD our God.
Robert Prins

Reading 2 - Isaiah 58

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v. 5-7 - Here we have a similar contrast between man's thinking and God's thinking to the ones put forward by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. There are lots of aspects of the New Covenant in these last chapters of Isaiah, where the inclusion of the Gentiles is paramount. Here is another aspect of Old Testament teaching that leads directly to the New Covenant which is powered by love. Matt.25:35-40, Luke 11:41, 19:8, Rom.12:20,21.
Peter Cresswell

v.8 is full of pictures of the way God cares for His own. We see the crossing of the Red Sea where God protected them as their rereward, keeping the Egyptians at bay until they were all safely across - what great faith was required by those at the back! - We also see the salvation in Jesus, who is the great bringer of the light. A complete picture of salvation in one verse.
Peter Cresswell

v.6 - The only time that God asked the people to afflict their souls was on the day of atonement [Leviticus 16:29]. The day of atonement marked the beginning of each year of release and jubilee. Hence 'let the oppressed go free' catches the language of the year of release also. Isaiah 37:30 also uses language of the year of release when it speaks of eating that which groweth of itself. [Leviticus 25:11]. Around the time of the Assyrian invasion there was a year of release which Isaiah alludes to on these two occasions. Despite the wonderful deliverance Yahweh gave them at that time the people did not think about His deliverance and so were unwilling to keep the law with respect to their slaves.
Peter Forbes

58:14 Ride upon the high places of the earth echoes Deuteronomy 32:13 which was a promise that Moses made by inspiration at the end of the wilderness journey.
Peter Forbes

:1-2 The whole context of the day of atonement here is set against the nation coming to God as if they were faithful but living a sinful life. Their actions belied their words. Whilst the day of atonement was for the forgiveness of sin it was of no benefit to those who only gave God lip service. Likewise for us. We must not only say we are new creatures. We should also live as new creatures.
Peter Forbes

Reading 3 - Matthew 1 & 2

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2 v. 23 - This verse speaks as though Nazareth was not the original dwelling place of Joseph and/or Mary, but in fact a place that they settled in having fled Judaea for fear of Archelaus (v.22), which brings about, we are told, a direct fulfilment of a prophecy, even though it is a prophecy which appears not to be recorded in our Old Testament.
Peter Cresswell

1 v.1 - The mention of David and Abraham marks the two important milestones in the purpose of God. Abraham, through whom the promises were given and David the king to whom further promises were given. Both of these men had promises made to them of a singular seed who was to come [Genesis 21:12 2 Samuel 7:12] Both of these promises are applied in the New Testament to Jesus. Genesis 21 in [Romans 9:7] and 2 Samuel [Hebrews 1:5] Notice the preponderance of occasion where Jesus is spoken of as The son of David in Matthew. Matthew 1:1,20 9:27 12:23 15:22 20:30,31 21:9,15 Compared with Mark and Luke. [Mark 10:47,48 Luke 3:31 18:38,39] It is a phrase never found in John.

1 v.3 - Whilst it is not strictly necessary to record the second son that Tamar bare to Judah he is here. [Numbers 26:20 21 1 Chronicles 2:3 4] Show that Zara is the son of Judah by Tamar. This would indicate that Judah took Tamar to be his wife - it is inconceivable to think that Judah had intercourse with Tamar again outside wedlock. Thus, I presume, the second son is mentioned here to make the point clear that the irregularity was cleared up. This section of the genealogy quotes exactly [Ruth 4:18 - 20] In fact it is the only part of the family tree in Matthew which can be seen to be drawn from a specific area of the Old Testament.

2 v.4-5 - The fact that the priests and scribes correctly identified the birthplace of Messiah as Bethlehem only indicates that they sent the 'wise men' in that direction. There is no indication that Jesus was still in Bethlehem. Indeed eight days after his birth he was brought to Jerusalem to be circumcised. [Luke 2:21 - 24] Then he was taken to Nazareth by his parents [Luke 2:39] The wise men arrived to see Jesus 'in the house' [Matthew 2:14] They were then warned not to go back to Herod [Matthew 2:12] Joseph was warned that He should take Jesus to Egypt. [Matthew 2:13 - 15] So we can conclude that the visit by the 'wise men' was not at Bethlehem, but rather at Nazareth. That is why, having received directions to Bethlehem from the scribes. [Matthew 2:8] The star still guided them on their way. [Matthew 2:9]
Peter Forbes

1:1 In describing Jesus as The son of Abraham the son of David we are instructed to look for fulfilments of the promises to both these individuals in Matthew's gospel

Ch 2 - Matthew records the visit of the wise men whilst Luke records the visit of the shepherds. These two events took place some time apart. The wise men visited Jesus when the family had gone back to Bethlehem.
Peter Forbes

1:25 Notice the precision 'he called his name ...' which observes the command of the angel 'thou shalt call ...' (Matthew 1:21)

ch 2 - There are a number of parallels between the narrative of the birth and death of Jesus.

:2	King of the Jews	John 19:3
:11	worshipped him	Luke 24:52
:16	mocked	Matthew 27:31

This fits in with the reason for his name as given in Matthew 1:21
Peter Forbes

ch.1 - Close examination of this chapter reveals a few startling anomalies:

Having gone through the entire forty two generations leading up to Christ, we find in verse 16 that they were the forefathers of Joseph, whom in verse 25 were told had nothing to do with the birth of Christ!
After having traced Joseph right back to his forefather Abraham, in verse 20 the angel calls him the son of David, when surely Abraham was more significant?
In verse 23 were told that they shall call his name Immanuel.., and then in verse 25 they name him Jesus!

These things must have been put there by God to make us think about them, but why?

A further point to ponder:
A virgin conceiving isnt actually uncommon. We should not mistake conception with birth. When this prophecy was made in the time of Isaiah, the people may not have been expecting a miracle. The prophecy may have had its fulfilment immediatly in Hezekiahs mother. Here in Matthew the wording of the prophecy is changed from the virgin shall conceive and bear a son (Isaiah) to the virgin shall be with child, which is of course a miracle!

Did you know all the women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus werent virgins, neither were they with their first partners when they begat their sons, except for Mary?

2:1-6 Here we find the reason why Jesus is called the son of David in Chapter 1. Jesus is shown to be the promised king of Micah 5v2. But why in verse 3 was all Jerusalem, including Herod, troubled at the thought of the promised Messiah coming? The sceming of Herod to kill the baby seems to have been done through popular demand, see verse 4. Does the prophecy in verse 6 give us a clue to this ..a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel? Would this remind the current shepherds of Israel that if the true shepherd were to come, then their deeds would be exposed? The clue to this is the word shepherd, which doesnt appear in the quotation from Micah. The word of God seems to be giving us a clue to where we ought to look for illumination. In the search the scribes made of Christ in the books of the law, they may have found Jeremiah 23:1-6 which shows that wrath would be executed on the evil shepherds by the promised King, and replaced by good shepherds. Note how this prophecy is in the context of the return of the Jews to their own land, an event which had recently occurred.

A further point to ponder:
In verse 23 we find that the prophet had said he shall be called a Nazarene. As far as I know the only place where we can find this is Judges 13:5 speaking of the birth of Samson. How can this apply to Christ if it was spoken of Samson, or am I looking in the wrong passage of scripture?
Robin de Jongh