02 October

Bible In 365 Days               

Matthew 1-4 

Matthew 1

The Gospel of Matthew portrays Jesus as King. It reveals Him as realizing in His Person, and enunciating in His teaching the great principles which had been the peculiar deposit and glory of the ancient people. They were created a nation for the revelation of the beauty and beneficence of the Kingdom of Heaven established on earth, and in this Gospel the King is seen and heard, enunciating its laws, distributing its benefits, and laying its foundations in His life and death.

The first verse gives the title of the genealogy of Jesus rather than of the Gospel of Matthew. This genealogy is remarkable. It is Jewish in its outlook, tracing to Abraham, and is Jesus' legal genealogy resulting from His adoption by Joseph. It overleaps the Jewish boundary in Rahab, and Jewish prejudice in the introduction of women. By this genealogy the coming of Jesus is connected with the history of the ancient people, and yet it is shown to be distinct from it, for He came miraculously. The system could not produce Him. He came to crown the system and transform it. So came the KING, but His name was called JESUS, for the Kingdom had disintegrated and been devastated by sin, and He must begin by saving His people from their sins.

Matthew 2

The Kingdom was not ready for the King, so a reception for Him was not arranged and organized by those who should have been waiting for Him. They were in rebellion. The King's advent was heralded by a star, and a few subject souls of a nation other than the chosen were guided by it to the King, and, notwithstanding the poverty of His earthly surroundings, they poured out their gifts-gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The underworld of evil was moved to its center, and found vent through the false king, Herod, in his slaughter of the innocents. Heaven and hell were thus moved at Jesus' coming, and those on earth nearest to each in some way recognized the fact. The great crown remained in ignorance.

Matthew 3

Here ends the old prophetic line, John being the last of the Hebrew prophets. It found a fitting end in the stem ascetic who roused the nation and with vehement passion denounced their rebellion, and announced the King in the words, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." The herald graphically proclaimed the nature of the King's work. Scattering and destructive, witness the fan and the fire. Purifying and constructive, witness the cleansing and the gathering. What a thrill must have passed through the Baptist as he laid his hands on Jesus for that baptism which numbered Him with transgressors and indicated His choice of that identification, with the death it involved. Surely John's consciousness of sin gave rise to the protest, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?"

The King now comes forth from the seclusion of the life at Nazareth, where He had lived wholly within the will of God. His first public act was obedience to the voice of God as it speaks to His nation, and He is baptized "to fulfil all righteousness." Thus He recognized social responsibility, and graciously identified Himself with the needs of His people. The opening heavens and the divine voice immediately followed. In Psalms 2:7-11 is written the great prophecy. By the divine proclamation at the baptism God announced the presence of the King, and set the seal of His approval on the years already lived. The kingly character creates the kingly capacity.

Matthew 4

"Then." After the heavens opened, hell is opened. The King must not only be in perfect harmony with the order and beauty of the heavens, He must face all the disorder and ugliness of the abyss. Goodness at its highest He knows, and is; evil at its lowest He must face, and overcome. And so in the wilderness He stands as humanity's representative between the two, responding to the one and refusing the other. How gloriously He won the battle and bruised the head of the serpent. Every vulnerable point was attacked: hunger, trust, and responsibility. When these are held, no other avenue through which the foe can assault the citadel of the human will remains.

The need of material sustenance, the spirit's confidence in God, and the carrying out of a divine commission in a divine way-every gate our Captain held, and the foe, defeated, left Him.

The King now commenced His preaching, and in the same words as the Baptist had used, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." He, however, went further than John, who could only announce and point to another. Jesus immediately followed the announcement with the word spoken to individuals, "Follow Me", thus claiming the position of King. That kingly word includes repentance and the Kingdom.

The narrative shows how, in the early stages of His work, men were attracted by the material benefits of His kingly rule rather than by the spiritual principles He revealed. How blind men are! Had they sought only the spiritual, He would have ensured them the material. Grasping only for the lower, they lost both.