Showing posts sorted by date for query Elijah. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Elijah. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Matthew
The Gospel
of Matthew
is, in most Bibles,
the first of the four biographies
of Jesus
written by his followers and received by the church as
scripture, and the first book in the New Testament.
Matthew is attributed to the apostle of that
name, a former tax
collector called by Jesus.
Matthew places a particular emphasis on Jesus as the Messiah. He
frequently references Old Testament
to show how some aspect of the life of Jesus is a fulfillment of messianic prophecy.
I find this an interesting point of comparison between Christianity
and some later religions
that claim some connection to the Jewish or
Christian scriptures or historic people from them. Islam and Mormonism, along
with some others, claim that the Bible was corrupted over time and had to be
replaced or corrected by later texts. The authors of the New Testament, in
contrast, accepted, relied on, and appealed to the authority of the existing
Jewish Bible.
The book is organized in this fashion:
-Jesus’ ancestry
and early life,
-His ministry,
-His miracles,
-His parables,
and
Only Luke
pays comparable attention to the nativity and
early life of Jesus. Matthew presents
this as evidence that Jesus fulfilled prophecies that the Messiah would be a
descendent of David,
born of a virgin in Bethlehem, and
spend time in Egypt.
Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism by John,
himself a fulfillment of prophecy that the Messiah would be announced by a
prophet like Elijah.
Eventually, Jesus commissions others to carry His message. This section
includes the Sermon
on the Mount and the Beatitudes.
The miracles He performed were evidence of His authority from God.
Jesus is known as a teller of parables. Matthew presents several in one
section that relate to the Gospel and Kingdom of God. Later, Jesus uses a
series of parables to prepare His disciples for the things leading up to His
crucifixion.
The death and resurrection of Jesus are not only fulfillments of
prophecy, but are also the culmination of His work. On the cross, He bore the
punishment for all the sins
of man. In his resurrection, He demonstrated the means and hope of eternal life
for those who follow Him.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Second Kings
In the Hebrew Bible,
First
and Second Kings are one book.
Collectively, they are a history
of the Israelite
monarchy. During most of this period, it is dual
monarchies because two southern tribes make up the kingdom of Judah, the remaining
tribes being Israel.
Second Kings covers a period of about 250 years. It begins in the reign of Ahaziah. It ends with the fall of Judah to Babylon.
Fall is an appropriate word. The
book describes the decline of the Israelite monarchy. It is strongly associated with moral decline
and apostasy. Israel was called out to be God’s people. Instead, they worshiped the gods of the
people who occupied the land before them or of their neighbors. Sometimes this idol worship was
introduced and encouraged by the kings.
Some of the practices associated with these foreign religions included
temple prostitution, sodomy, and child sacrifice.
When God established ancient Israel as a nation, he made a covenant
with them. If they followed Him, He
would cause them to prosper in the land He gave to them. If they did not, and especially if they
abandoned Him to worship other gods and do evil, he would cut them off from the
land and let their enemies overcome them.
That is exactly what happened.
Israel, the northern kingdom, succumbed first. It fell during the reign of Hoshea. It became a vassal state to Assyria. More than that, the Assyrians removed the
Israelite population to other lands and resettled Israel with people from
across its empire. Chapter 17 is an
indictment against Israel, listing its crimes the judgment of expulsion from
the land.
God did not let Israel go easily.
Much of the first half of the book is devoted to the exploits of Elijah and Elisha. These prophets called people back to God and
stood up against the influence of false religions. Later, Isaiah would warn
against the coming captivity to Assyria.
Judah held out longer, in part probably because of fitful reforms by
kings such as Hezekiah
and Josiah. None of the kings of Israel committed
themselves to god, but some of the kings of Judah turned their hearts to God,
restoring the worship of God and sometimes even breaking down the idols of
false gods. Even so, they fell like
their brothers to the north.
Babylon was the empire that overtook Judah during the reign of Zedekiah. Zedekiah himself was appointed by Babylon
after it took his nephew Jehoiachin as
a prisoner. Babylon also moved much of
the population. The poor were left to
tend the farms, but anyone with status, military skill, training in crafts, or education
was moved to Babylon to serve there. The
Israelite monarchy was finally broken and replaced with a Babylonian governor.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Second Kings. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
Google
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
First Kings
First Kings is a history
of the kings
of Israel and Judah beginning
with the transition for David to his son Solomon. The book also recounts some of the notable prophets of the
time, particularly Elijah
and Elisha.
Solomon was David’s contested successor. David had many sons older than Solomon,
though some were dead, notably Absalom who had
tried to usurp the throne. David’s son Adonijah was
preparing to succeed his father, and even organized an elaborate celebration to
court the favor of important aristocrats.
The prophet Nathan
discovered the plot. He, Solomon, David,
and Bathsheba,
Solomon’s mother, arranged to elevate Solomon to the throne while his father
still lived.
Solomon was notable for his wisdom. God offered to the
young king what he wanted. He asked for
wisdom to govern
the people rightly. God was pleased with
the answer and gave Solomon wealth
and power in addition to wisdom.
Wisdom didn’t keep Solomon out of trouble. He had many wives (no doubt trouble by
itself), and he permitted his foreign wives to continue practicing their religions,
so the worship of false gods was allowed in the kingdom. Idol-worship would be common amongst
Solomon’s successors.
After Solomon, the kingdom was divided.
The ten northern tribes formed a kingdom generally referred to as
Israel. Two southern tribes made Judah. Throughout this period, idol-worship
prevailed in Israel. Some kings of Judah
served God, but many did not, and the godly kings did not succeed in
eradicating idolatry.
Following Solomon, most of the kings of both the north and the south
are summed up briefly. Some just get a
paragraph. We see the kingdom rise and
fall based on the faithfulness of the people.
When they sought God, even imperfectly, He blessed them and they thrived. When they sought to gratify themselves and
follow false gods, they quickly ran into trouble. This is a pattern in the history of ancient
Israel that started before the kings and continued after them.
First Kings ends with the reign of Ahab, famously
married to Jezebel. These monarchs promoted the worship of Baal and suppressed
the worship of God. They were opposed by
the prophet Elijah. Elijah is associated
with some spectacular miracles. God withheld rain from the land until Elijah
called an end to the drought. Elijah
called out the prophets of Baal in a contest to call down fire from heaven Baal did not answer his worshippers, but God
sent fire for Elijah, who that day executed hundreds of Baal’s priests. This put him in serious conflict with Ahab
and Jezebel.
Elijah is also well known in that he did not die, at least not in a
conventional sense. He was taken up to
heaven in a chariot of fire. He appeared
to Christ and
a few disciples on during the Transfiguration.
It is clear that First Kings is intended to be a summary. It frequently refers to records of the
actions of the kings as if these might be available to a reader who wanted to
confirm the recounting of find more information.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
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