April 04, 2008 09:25 am
—
By Judy Myers
Special to the Index
The Wednesday Bible Study Club of Mineral Wells met on March 26 in the home of Betty Wells.
After enjoying refreshments and fellowship, the club president asked the hostess to open the meeting with prayer.
The lesson for the day was the first chapter of the book of Matthew. Sara Simmons gave the lesson.
Mrs. Simmons began by saying that because of its emphasis on the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, Matthew is well suited as the opening book of the New Testament. In it, the promises of God are recalled and their fulfillment in Jesus Christ is announced and emphasized. Matthew has more quotations from and allusions to the Old Testament than any other New Testament author.
Matthew’s words were not directed exclusively to Jews, but to the Gentile world as well.
The kingdom of God refers to the reign of God, not only in the world, but in our hearts as well.
A person enters the Kingdom not by saying the correct words, but by doing “the will of the Father in heaven.” One of the most important aspects of Matthew, especially to the Jew, is that Jesus is portrayed as a descendant of the three greatest personalities of the Old Testament. These names include Abraham, the father of the faith; Moses, the founder of the faith; and David, the greatest king of Israel. Matthew’s picture of Jesus is of the man born to be King.
Verse 1, Chapter 1, begins: “This is the record of the lineage of Jesus Christ, the son of David, The son of Abraham.” The Jews set great store on purity of lineage. The slightest mixture of foreign blood could cause loss of the right to be called a member of the people of God. Although we find the list of names difficult, to the Jews it would be an impressive matter that the pedigree of Jesus could be traced back to Abraham.
The genealogy is divided into three groups. The first section is history and takes the lineage down to the reign of King David. The second section takes the story down to the exile to Babylon; and the third section takes the story down to Jesus Christ.
These three sections also stand for three stages in the spiritual history of mankind:
1. Man was born for greatness, made in the image of God.
2. Man lost his greatness and became a slave of sin.
3. Man can regain his greatness through belief in God’s son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The most amazing property found in this genealogy is the inclusion of the names of four women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Women usually were thought of as possessions not people. Three of these women were guilty of gross sins and the other was of Gentile origin. Matthew shows us that through Jesus Christ the barriers are going down. Barriers between Jew and Gentile, male and female, saint and sinner are removed. In Matthew 9:13 Jesus said “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The genealogy in Matthew is quite different than the one in the Gospel of Luke. Luke writes for Gentile and Jew alike and what he gives is really Mary’s genealogy. The accepted way was to leave out Mary’s name and list her father’s name as the grandfather of Mary’s son, Jesus. Luke begins with Jesus and works back to Adam, the son of God.
Matthew gives the legal genealogy by beginning with Abraham and working his way to Jesus. Matthew does not say that Joseph was the father of Jesus, but only that he was the husband of Mary and that Jesus was born of her.
Although Jesus is not the physical son of Joseph, he is the legal son and therefore a descendant of David.
In Jewish marriages there are three steps involved:
• Engagement - often made by their parents or a matchmaker while the couple are still children.
• Betrothal - once entered into, the betrothal was considered absolutely binding. It lasted for one year and could only be ended by divorce by the husband. Although the couple would be called man and wife, there would be no physical relationship between them.
• Marriage - took place at the end of the year of betrothal.
During the betrothal stage, Joseph was told that Mary was to bear a child, and the child was of the Holy Spirit. Joseph was troubled by this announcement but before he took any action. God’s messenger spoke to Joseph in a dream and explain what was happening. Joseph was instructed the child’s name would be Jesus, the Messiah. When Joseph awoke, he did what the angel had instructed him to do.
Mrs. Simmons closed the lesson by saying, “There is much more to this chapter that the fact that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin mother. The essence of Matthew’s story is that in the birth of Jesus, the Spirit of God was operative as never before. It is the Spirit who brings God’s truth to man; it is the Spirit enables man to recognize that truth; it is the Spirit who can re-create the human soul when it has lost the life it was meant to have.”
Jesus enables us to see what God is and what man ought to be; Jesus is the re-creating power that can release the souls of man from the death of sin.
Following the lesson there was a lively discussion period with everyone participating. The business meeting was then opened by the president. Appointment of a nominating committee was announced. The committee will present their slate of officers for the coming year during the first meeting in May.
The next meeting id the second Wednesday of April in the home of Linda Farmer. Edna Faye Lister will bring the lesson. The meeting was closed with all members reciting the club prayer.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.