Matthew Chapter 4 (Part One)

The theme for chapter four is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The first thing Matthew deals with is a string of three temptations Jesus faced, which were orchestrated by Satan.Notice that all three temptations Satan offer Jesus, Jesus rebukes them by quoting Scripture. The Scripture He uses is from the Torah, specifically Deuteronomy 6 and 8. One of the reasons these particular passages is appropriate is that Jesus is being depicted as a second Moses. Jesus is echoing Israel’s experience in the wilderness. As the commentators Davies and Allison state:

“Having pass through the waters of a new exodus at his baptism, he enters the desert to suffer a time of testing, his 40 days of fasting being analogous to Israel’s forty years of wandering. Like Israel, Jesus is being tested by hunger. And like Israel, Jesus is tempted to idolatry.”

In Deuteronomy 8, we read that this was spoken to Israel as they navigated the trials of the wilderness and were about to emerge into the Promised Land.

“You are to remember everything of the way in which the LORD led you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was in your heart—whether you would obey his commandments or not. He humbled you, allowing you to become hungry, and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that a person does not live on food alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

God led the fleeing Israelites through the desert. He did so intentionally in a way to achieve a specific purpose: to teach them through testing and humbling, that what was hidden in the deepest recesses of their hearts would pour out in response to their circumstances. One of those humbling experiences they faced was that they became hungry, and God’s purpose for them enduring this was to teach them that God’s people do not live on food alone, but rather on what pours forth from His mouth. that is, His Word. Jesus, a sort of second Moses would now face similar trials.

Verse 2: Out in the desert, Jesus went without food for 40 days and 40 nights. He became hungry. For the Jews, the desert was not just a dangerous place, it was also a scary place.

He who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who brought water for you out of the rock of flint. (Deuteronomy 8:10)

Jesus was beyond famished after 40 days and nights of not eating. His body was deteriorating. It is interesting that Matthew says the fasting lasted 40 days and nights and not just 40 days. The Bible is usually careful on words. Paper was precious. Stories were short and did not use extra words. However, here we have the inclusion of the word “nights”. We may ask ourselves why this is.

It we look to other parts of the Bible, we find another passage in which it is stated someone else went without eating and drinking for 40 days and 40 nights.

Moses says, “I had gone up to the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets on which was written the covenant the LORD had made with you. I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights without eating food or drinking water.” (Deuteronomy 9:9)

Here we see again the connection between Moses and Jesus, and the idea that Jesus is reliving the experience of Israel and the exodus. But even more, there is another important connection which is being made:

The LORD prepared a high fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Form the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. (Jonah 2:1)

Everyone in ancient times understood that a day meant one entire day and night in sequence. The addition of the phrase “and nights” is not a usual Hebrew expression, but it was rare. When something is rare in the Bible, we need to pay attention. Later in Jesus’ ministry, He will make use of this phrase and its prophetic connections.

At this some of the scribe said, “Rabbi, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” He replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign. None will be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth." (Matthew 12:38-40)

Verse 3: Although I have never experienced hunger to the level which Jesus was experiencing, I am told it is very painful. The Devil, however, has an easy solution for Jesus. He tells Jesus that IF He is really the Son of God, then turn the stones into bread. The Devil is trying to sow self-doubt into Jesus.

IF: what a big word. It is meant to describe uncertainty. Have we not all heard deep within our minds: “IF you really love Jesus, He would enable you to live a perfect life?” “IF you really love Jesus, you would be able to do everything God wants you to do.” I suspect that most of us will struggle to understand and balance our new Godly nature with our old corrupted human nature. It is to be expected. It is also fertile ground for the Adversary to strike at us at any moment. What do we do? We follow out Savior’s example:

Verse 4: Jesus responded to this attack by quoting the Bible. He says from Deuteronomy 8:3 “A person does not live on food alone but on everything that comes from eh mouth of the LORD.”

This verse was spoken 1400 years earlier by Moses. The circumstance was similar. That’s look at the entire passage:

“He humbled you, allowing you to become hungry, and then fed you with manna, which neither you roe your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that a person does not live on food alone, but on everything that comes form the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

God provided starving Israel with manna, but they grumbled and complained about it. They were thankful only for a moment. Would Jesus, the Son of God, behave as Israel did in the wilderness? Or would Jesus remain faithful? As the second Moses, Jesus quotes Moses and passes the test.

Matthew Chapter 3 (Part Four)

 Verse 11: In verse 11, Jesus is formally introduced by John.

John’s baptism calls for an immersion in water which amounts to a public confession of the worshiper's act of repentance. He says the One who is coming (Jesus) will immerse this same repentant worshiper in the Holy Spirit and with fire. Immersion in water is only ritually symbolic in one sense, but yet it is done as an obedience to the commandment of God. However, immersion into the Holy Spirit actually changes the very nature of the person.

This change is expressed by the words which follow the Holy Spirit. That is, the word “fire”. Remember what we just discussed: fire is used for purification or it is used for destruction. The “fire” of the Holy Spirit brings divine purification to the worshiper, stripping the person of the uncleanness caused by a life of sinning, and making him acceptable to God. This is in contrast to the person remaining unclean and unacceptable to God, thus suffering the divine destruction which will come to those who refuse the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We need to be very careful as we encounter phrases such as “immersion into the Holy Spirit”, immersed in “fire”, etc. The writers of the Bible were under the inspiration of God. They used metaphors, illustrations and cultural expressions of the physical world they were familiar with in order to help describe and explain the otherwise inexplicable. But the physical is not the spiritual. So we must not carry the illustrations too far.

One of the main obstacles for Believers in the 21st Century is to grasp what these metaphors and illustrations used meant to 1st Century Jews. It is only looking at these saying within that context which is the most correct.

Verse 12: Verse 12 presents the contrast to the last words of verse 11. In verse 11 John speaks of the repentant worshiper being immersed into the Holy Spirit and fire (or purification). In verse 12, John now speaks of the alternative. In this illustration, we have the same wheat from the same harvest is winnowed.

Winnowing is the process of separation. In the winnowing process, a winnowing fork is used to toss the harvest up into the air, and the breeze carries away the lighter part but the heavier part falls to the threshing floor. The grain is seed and put away, but the unusable chaff is gathered up and burned.

The winnowing is another metaphor used to illustrate the consequence of those who refused the baptism offered by Jesus—a baptism John says that he cannot offer. The Believer’s experience with fire will purify them. The non-Believer’s experience with fire will destroy him.  

A Short Detour
If we take a short detour, the Apostle Paul also talks about fire and about its ability to purify and destroy. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul talks about our works. He states our works will be tested with fire.

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test [e]the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
 

Notice how anything which is built upon the foundation will be tested by fire. Things which are precious such as gold, silver and precious stones can withstand the fire. The things which are worthless such as wood hay and straw, fire will destroy.

Back to Matthew
If we look back at verse 10, we read that that axe is already laid at the root of the trees. The beginning words of verse 12 state “He has with Him His winnowing fork”. What do these two phrases say if you were a Jew living in the 1st Century? To me it says: “imminent”. They would say these events are about to happen any day. Those words do not convey to me “it will happen some time in the future”.

John and Jesus were not the one to raise the alert about the Apocalypse. They were living in the times of the expectation of it. Their presence and message also seem to validate it. The believe that the Jews were already in the End Times was well established. It was further believed  that with each passing year of the Roman occupation, a new atrocity was placed upon the Jews.

Verse 13: Verse 13 takes a sudden change of tone of what will happen when Jesus comes to John’s baptism. We are told where John had been baptizing people—in the River Jordan.

A question which may arise is why is John baptizing in the Jordan River and not in one of the many mikvehs in about around Jerusalem? The answer is that more than likely it is because the Temple authorities never would have allowed it since it would have been under Temple rules and supervision. We have established that John was not welcomed in the Temple. So, he had to baptize someplace where the Temple authorities had little control. The solution was the Jordan River.

The place where John was regularly baptizing people and living has been found. There is a place east of Jerusalem at the Jordan River which includes a cave. We are told John lived in the desert. He needed to keep a certain distance from the Jewish religious authorities, and this place would have provided this distance.
 

Verse 14: When Jesus arrives at the Jordan River, John balks at the suggestion he should baptize this man. John has already said that he is not worthy to carry His sandals. But Jesus insists on being baptized.

The controversy and doctrine debates surrounding Jesus’ immersion by John is hard to overstate. There are at least nine different explanations for Jesus seeking this baptism. I am not sure I agree with any of them.

One thing which leads to many of these strange doctrines is that they are trying to vault Jesus from His 1st century Jewish culture into our present age. The doctrines want to leave behind Jesus’ Jewishness and make Him a Christian.

When we discuss this event and take into account the very Jewish nature of it, some aspects of it become more clear. First and foremost, this was not Jesus’ first immersion. He would have been immersed hundreds of times by this point in His life, just as any observant Jew would have. This is especially true for a Jew who was living in the Holy Land.

Immersions were required for many, many reasons. If a person came in contact with a menstruating woman, the person had to be immersed in water. If a man had a seminal emission, he had to be immersed in water. If someone touched a dead body, he had to immerse himself in water. There are many other instances where a person was to be immersed. If a person did not get immersed, he was considered unclean. Someone who was unclean could not enter the Temple grounds. Also, someone who was unclean could get other people unclean by touching them. Thus, if anyone was planning on going to the Temple, he would try to stay away from someone who was unclean.

As you can see, being unclean is more important for someone living in the Holy Land. Any time the person wanted to go to the Temple he had to undergo and immersion. These immersions are translated into English as baptisms (derived from the Latin baptizo).

We know from the Gospels, Jesus touched dead bodies and a woman with a blood issue. He would have been unclean and would have had to undergo immerse to enter the Temple grounds.

I say all this because many Christians believe this was the first time Jesus was immersed. This is not true. Jesus had undergone this ritual numerous times. What is the significance of this particular immersion? I am not entirely sure. I will leave that for your own speculation.

Matthew Chapter 3 (Part Three)

Verse 7: In verse 7, we find representatives of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to John to question him. John did not welcome them, calling them vipers. He also sarcastically asks who warned them about the soon coming of God’s weather, implying that they did now know about it or were not ready for it.

The Pharisees and Sadducees represent both sides of the Jewish religious system. The Pharisees were associated with the synagogue system and the Sadducees the Temple system.

The Sadducees were Jewish aristocrats who ruled the Temple. When the Maccabees succeeded in taking the Temple back from the pagan leader Antiochus Epiphanes and his army (about 190 years earlier than John the Baptist) the Temple leadership structured or occupied by the Levites, the clan which God had ordained to run the Temple. Rather, unauthorized priests (not of the correct priestly lineage) were put in charge, and then later those who became High Priest purchased their way into their prestigious and powerful positions.

To understand what a mockery of the Temple system these Sadducees were, one must try to piece together what it is that they believed and taught. To begin with, the Sadducees were complicit with Rome in their handling of the Jewish people since the only thing which actually mattered to them was holding on to their wealth and authority. They did not believe in resurrection and refused acceptance of any kind of afterlife. They believed not in human freewill or even God’s will, per se, but rather in the Greco-Roman concept of fate. These doctrines would set them on a path of irreconcilable difference with the teachings of Jesus. The Sadducees also denied the authority of the Oral Torah also known as Jewish Law, Tradition, oral tradition and Halakah.

Sometimes it can be difficult to trace why a religious sect believes what they do and denies what they do. But in the case of the Sadducees, denying the authority of the oral tradition is rather obvious. It was a result of their political and religious rivalry with the Pharisees.

The oral tradition was the center and focus of the teachings of the religious and political sect of Pharisees.

Remember from previous discussions, the dual religious system which was in which in the first century A.D. The Pharisees were in charge of the synagogue system. The Sadducees were in charge of the Temple.

The common Jews and many of the the wealthier Jews were attached to one synagogue. This is where they obtained their moral, ethical and religious instruction. Much of their social life revolved around the synagogue.

The Temple system was where the common people went when they needed legal justice. The Sanhedrin was at the Temple. It was the highest court. It is also where they followed God’s laws concerning sacrificing, tithing and observing the ordinances of the appointed times including the biblical feasts. The Temple was where, according to the Bible, the people were to go for direct instruction of the Torah from the Levite priests, but that practice had died out long ago.

John the Baptist knew that nothing he was going to say would change the minds of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He knew they did not come to him to seek truth. Rather, they came to intimidate the people who were flocking to John.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were rivals, but they were not enemies. They were unified in the motive of wanting to guard their religious territory and authority. The growing flocks of people seeking out John sent up a red flag.

John characterizes the two representatives as trying to avoid God’s coming wrath. This once again plays into the Elijah and the End Times scenario because Elijah was believed throughout Judaism to appear shortly before the Day of the LORD when God would pour out His wrath.

The common people thought they were living in the End Times. Without a doubt, the Apostles Paul and Peter believed they were living in the Last Days and taught it to anyone who would listen.

Verse 8: John says to the Pharisees and Sadducees that is they are sincerely coming to confess or repent then they need to bear fruit to prove it. This concept of fruit, meaning works and good deeds, as the necessary proof of one’s faith in the God of Israel is stated several times in various New Testament books. The one statement which is perhaps the best known is in the Book of James.

“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, and someone says to him, ‘Peace! Keep warm and eat hearty!’ without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? Thus faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead. But someone will say that you have faith and I have actions. Show me your faith without actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions!” (James 2:15-18)

Feeling sorry for people in need is not the same thing as taking action to help people in need. Good fruit is not our nice thoughts and well wishes. It is physical, tangible deeds which we do to alleviate the sufferings of other. While James uses this good fruit as proof of our faith, John uses it as proof of our sincerity. John then takes it one step farther by telling these religious authorities that simply being a Hebrew descended from Abraham (the father of all Hebrews) is not good enough to be in good standing with God. That is, being a Jew does not negate the need for personal forgiveness of sins, restoration and redemption, or for performing good deeds.

The takeaway message is that sincere trust in God can only be proven by one’s outward deed and actions. This begins with our obedience to God. One’s affiliation to a group or one’s family heritage does not include or exclude anyone from having peace with God. However, it there is no obedience, and there are no good deeds ad work to go along with a professed faith, then one’s faith is to be doubted. This lack of fruit should be an alarm signal to one’s self that perhaps we have been deceiving ourselves.

Jesus soberly warns us:
“Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire! So you will recognize them by their fruit. Now everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that Day, many will to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not expel demons in your name? Did we not perform many miracles in your name?’ Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never know you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:19-23)

Verse 10: In verse 10, John tells the Sadducees and Pharisees that they are insincere. He uses the the metaphor of an axe chopping down a tree which does not produce good fruit. It is then destroyed with fire.

The tree represents a person who is a member of God’s covenant community—an Israelite. The fruit is the product of that person’s life, that is his actions and deeds. It is what is seen outwardly that is a window into that person’s character. It reveals what that person is. Bad fruit comes from bad character; good fruit comes from good character.

In the context of Judaism, bad fruit means evil deeds or lack of good deed. Good fruit means doing good deeds and works. Jesus uses a very similar analogy in Matthew 7:16-20:
“You will recognize them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every healthy tree produces good fruit, but a poor tree produces bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire! So you will recognize them by their fruit.”

In the Bible, God uses fire mostly for two purposes: for purification or for destruction. Purification is used to burn off the dross. Dross is the part of silver which has impurities in it. Dross applied to our lives includes our imperfections and sin. When the dross is removed, the pure silver is left behind. Destruction is to take a wicked thing and end its existence.

From John’s message, the leaders and teachers of the Temple and the Synagogue are those ones who are being warned.