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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Monday, September 6, 2021
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Return to Israel Bible Verse:Matthew 2:19-23 (J.B. Phillips NT) "But after Herod’s death an angel of the Lord again appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Now get up and take the infant and his mother with you and go into the land of Israel. For those who sought the child’s life are dead.” So Joseph got up and took the little child and his mother with him and journeyed towards the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was now reigning as king of Judea in the place of his father Herod, he was afraid to enter the country. Then he received warning in a dream to turn aside into the district of Galilee and came to live in a small town called Nazareth — thus fulfilling the old prophecy, that he should be called a Nazarene." Message:
Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. His kingdom was divided into three parts, each ruled by another Herod (as client kings of Rome): Galilee to the north, Samaria towards the center, and Judea to the south. (See Map) We do not want to get into the terribly confusing matter of delineating all the kings named “Herod”, but there are two to remember. Herod the Great, ruling when Jesus was born, who slaughtered the infants, and his son Herod Antipater or Antipas, who ruled in Galilee after Herod the Great. This second ruler is called simply “Herod” throughout the rest of the New Testament.
Archelaus
Archelaus
Archelaus (also a Herod) has no further part to play. He was as terrible as his father, murdering three thousand potential opponents in the Temple soon after Herod the Great died. Joseph did well to avoid him.
And so, Jesus grew up in the Nazareth, a small town of poor reputation. It lay near a crossroads: North and south ran the Damascus-Egypt road, one of the great caravan routes of the world, which was used by Napoleon 1800 years later to invade Egypt. East and west ran “The East Road,” between Acre/Ptolemais (on the coast) to the Roman colonies and trading partners in Asia.
Such caravan towns, like commercial ports, saw a constant flow of all sorts of people from many nations. The people who make their living catering to such traffic become hard and morally flexible, which lent Nazareth its unsavory reputation. But there is also a sort of low sophistication that comes with the international trade; Jesus almost surely spoke some Greek, and he would have seen much of life that a shepherd boy would not.
We do not have any idea where Matthew came up with the apparent prophecy, “he should be called a Nazarene.” There is nothing even close to it in the Old Testament. It might be a prophecy from a lost Hebrew writing, or it might have been copied incorrectly. It might even be a sort of pun we no longer understand; for example, nezer in Hebrew means “branch”, and Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be a branch springing from the root of Jesse.
Matthew tells us nothing of Christ’s boyhood. One of his themes, remember, is to prove to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, and so the important point for Matthew is to dispel the notion that the Messiah would come from the City of David, Jerusalem. But as we know, now, Christ’s message and role will be very different from the powerful political and military ruler the Jews expected; and consistent with the unanticipated character of the Messiah is his unanticipated origin, as a humble blue-collar worker from a shabby little town on the fringe of Canaan.
Meditation : Prayer : Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted me as a living member of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have blessed me with the grace of forgiveness through the sacrifice He made for me and for all people. Send me now into the world in peace, and grant me strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord.......Amen |
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