Simple studies in Matthew ...

Front matter

Class p' Book.

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Copyright^

Chapter i

Proceeding now to the study of the first chapter, we are confronted by the pedigree of the King (vs. 1-17) and His birth (18-25). This is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the Son of Abraham. Thus He is the Heir to the Davidic and the Abrahamic covenants. The throne is His, and He is the promised Seed through Whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Four women are named in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, and all of them are connected in some way with shame. They are Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Three of them certainly, and all of them probably, were Gentiles, one was a Canaanitess and one a Moabitess (See Ex. 34: 11; Neh. 13: 1). It is thus shown how truly the Lord Jesus identified Himself with His sinful people, and how grace overleaped all bounds.

It is interesting to notice that Jehoiachin's name appears in this list, despite the curse pronounced upon him and his seed in Jeremiah. Jehoiachin was the last King in David's direct line to reign in Jerusalem. He reigned but three months, but his brief rule was marked by terri-

THE KING'S PEDIGREE AND BIRTH. 13

ble wickedness. His name appears as Jeconiah in 1 Chron. 3: 16 and Jer. 24: 1, and in Jer. 22: 24-30 he is called Coniah. "As I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehioakim, King of Judah, were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born ; and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? Is he a vessel w r herein is no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed; and are cast into a land which they know not? O Earth! Earth!! Earth!!! Hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah : Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days ; for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah."

Here is the key to the right understanding of the genealogical tables of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew and Luke. According to the Old Testament predictions the Messiah must be the Heir to the throne in the Kingly line, and actually the Seed of David, without being descended from the wicked prince Coniah. It seemed impossible that this could be brought about, but again the absolute integrity of the Word of God was shown. Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus. Joseph would have been the rightful King of Israel were it not for the prohibition against the seed of Coniah. Luke, on the other hand, gives the ancestry of Jesus through His mother, Heli doubtless being the father-in-law of Joseph. Thus Jesus was at once descended from David through his son Nathan, as shown in Luke, and was also the acknowledged Heir of Joseph, who descended from David through Solomon's line, as shown in Matthew.

The names of Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah are omitted from this list. They were the descendants of the wicked Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, who sought to wipe out the house of David by killing the seed royal. Her sin is remembered against her to the third and fourth generations and her sons are blotted out of God's remembrance. Then in verse 17 the whole list is divided into groups of fourteen each. It is seven, the complete number, multiplied by two, the number of testimony ; and this repeated three times, the number of manifestation.

The King's birth is set forth in verses 18 to 25. Mary, an obscure maiden, of the lineage of Judah and David, living in the village of Nazareth, is chosen of God to be the mother of the Messiah. She was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter, but before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Joseph

THE KING'S PEDIGREE AND BIRTH. 15

thought of quietly divorcing her, for under the Jewish law betrothal was as binding as marriage itself; when an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." This was in fulfillment of Prophecy. The promise was made to Eve in Eden that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. The nation of Israel had longed and sighed for the coming of the Deliverer, Who should turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And the inspired record points out that in Isaiah 7:14 it was not the Prophet that spoke, but the words were "spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted, is God with us." Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not until she had brought forth her first-born Son, and he called His name Jesus.

How simple is the record, and how perfectly clear! Much as men may speculate upon the mystery of the Incarnation, and the mystery is confessedly great, no one can fail to see that the Scriptures plainly declare its miraculous nature. To the anointed eye there is no difficulty, for God is in the miracle, and nothing is too hard for Him.

The name Jesus, we learn here, is the same as Immanuel. Jehovah-the-Saviour is God-withus. As Dr. Weston says: "The close of the first chapter indicates the forward step of the Gospels. In the Old Testament God is for His people; in the Gospels He is with His people; in the Epistles He is in His people. These three — God for us, God with us, God in us — are the method and end of divine dealing; holiness eternal in the heavens, incarnate on the earth, embodied in the saints."

THE KING ANNOUNCED AND RE- JECTED

Chapter 2

The Scriptures tell us that "when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman" (Gal. 4:4), and that, after He had faithfully performed the will of His Father, "in due time Christ died." (Romans 5:6.) Everything transpired in due time, that is at the right moment, "just in the nick of time." A glance at the state of the world when He came in His First Advent will show how everything was made ready for His coming, and to the anointed eye it will readily appear that everything was prepared and executed "according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God."

The Situation Politically

The year of the Lord Jesus' birth was 750 A. U. C, or 4 B. C, according to the common chronology. Rome was mistress of the world. Her domain extended from the Euphrates on the east and included Egypt and Spain on the south and west and the German provinces on the north. The defeat of Antony and Cleopatra in the battle of Actium, B. C. 31, had produced an Emperor and concentrated and cemented the power of the Empire. God had been at work, though unknown and unrecognized, to prepare the world politically for the introduction and spread of the truth as it is in Jesus. The great system of highways was created at this time and it became a universal proverb, as it was an established fact, that all roads led to Rome. It was all a part of God's plan.

Socially

Another great evidence of the divine planning may be seen in the social conditions then prevailing. There was a wonderful union and intermingling of the peoples of the world. Rome itself was a great cosmopolitan meeting-place for the nations. The Greek language, though not the language of the state, became, nevertheless, the universal tongue of the people. -5£lius Aristides wrote of the Greeks, saying, "They celebrate a far greater triumph than that on the field of Marathon, in the victory of their language. All states and all races of men have yielded to the spread of our tongue and our way of life. It does not stop at the Pillars of Hercules, and neither the Libyan Desert nor the Bosporian Straits, nor the narrow defiles of Syria and Cilicia have set limit to it; but, as if by Divine Providence, an ardent desire for our wisdom and civilization has seized on all the world. Our language is now generally recognized as the common one, and through it the whole earth is become intelligible in the same utterance."

Even this heathen writer recognized the

RELIGIOUSLY. 19

working of "Divine Providence" in this matter; and surely, we ought not to fail to discern the hand of God in thus reversing for the time being the edict of Babel. The New Testament was written in Greek, and Paul, being a Greek scholar, was able to preach throughout the known world.

Religiously

The world had plenty of religions, such as they were, but this very fact helped to pave the way for the truth, for men were not satisfied, and were seeking something better. Idolatry abounded everywhere and religion was a synonym for that which was impure and degrading. The east worshipped nature. Greece idealized and idolized humanity and therefore had gods with human faults. Their idea of heaven was Mount Olympus, itself a scene of riot and disorder.

Rome worshipped imperialism. On every hand were scepticism and materialism. Philosophers and poets were unanimous in voting all existing religions a failure and were unable to point out the way of relief.

Epicurus could do no better than say "Enjoy thyself." The Sceptics said, "Give up all thought of certain knowledge." The Stoics said, "Abstain and endure ! Be sufficient for thyself." Seneca wrote, "Nobody can deliver himself. Someone must stretch out a hand to lift him up."

The acme of human wisdom was expressed in the advice to commit suicide. "Patet Exitus" was the cry. There was a way of escape open — Death! Pliny held that man's chief glory was that he could kill himself. Seneca united with him in advising suicide. "I am tossed," he said, "upon a sea of pure infirmity. * * * The human mind is by nature perverse and strives after that which is forbidden and perilous.* * * We must say of ourselves that we are evil, and — unhappily I must add — shall be also in the future."

Morally

As a matter of course, the moral condition of the heathen world, growing out of this state of affairs religiously, was beyond description. The philosophers taught good morals, but lived immoral lives. Juvenal wrote:

"A ninth age of the world is ours, in wickedness

greater Than that of iron; and Nature herself for its badness No name hath as yet found out, and no base metal engendered."

And Horace said:

"Our fathers, worse in their time than our grandsires, Begot us a still more degenerate race; And soon will a worse brood than we are succeed us."

"All is full of misdoing and vice," says Seneca. "More sin is committed than can be made amends for by punishment. The delight in wickedness becomes greater day by day, and the fear

THE SITUATION IN JEWRY. 21

of it less. Vice no longer conceals itself, but appears unabashed before all eyes. Innocence is not merely rare, but almost non-existent. ,,

And Livy adds this word, "Through virtue Rome became great, and now we can neither endure her vices nor their antidote. ,,

Surely this was the time for the Deliverer — this was "the fullness of the time."

The Situation in Jewry

In the Jewish nation affairs were all pointing toward some great crisis. Politically there was the galling Roman bondage, following the Maccabeean wars. Religiously, the people were divided into three classes. First there were the Pharisees, whose name means "Separated." These were the formalists or ritualists, punctilious observers of the outward things of the Law, but with little heart for God Himself. The second group called themselves Sadducees, meaning "righteous." These were materialists, denying the supernatural. In modern times such people are called moralists. The third class were the Essenes, whose name means "religious." These were the ascetics of that time, corresponding in some degree to the monastic orders of a later period.

The condition among the Jews was one of external misery and inward distress. But everywhere there w T as a feeling of expectancy, as shown by the literature of the time. The hope of the coming of Messiah was burning in many hearts, and as the distress grew more and more trying the belief increased that the Anointed One was about to come. This hope was abroad among the Gentile peoples also, for there were large numbers of Jews outside of Palestine ; and their expectation of a Ruler who should reign over the whole world was communicated in some measure to those about them. There was an expectant gaze toward Palestine. Thus we see that even in the Dispersion itself there was the working out of God's plan to prepare the way for the Advent of His Son.

The Record

The events immediately connected with the birth of Jesus, so fully described by Luke, are much more briefly given by Matthew. Luke, whose Gospel is the Gospel of the Manhood, tells us all about the miraculous conception of the Holy Child, and the marvellous circumstances attending His birth. He is not set forth in Luke as a "King of the Jews," but "a Saviour, Which is Christ the Lord." The announcement in Luke is not to Israel exclusively, but "good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." Luke tells about the taxing, but Matthew says nothing about it; for it is not meet that a King, as such, should be taxed. Luke, and not Matthew, speaks of the circumcision of the Child and the days of the purification of the mother. All this is foreign to Matthew's purpose. Matthew is careful to point out that the

THE RECORD. 23

royal Child received worship with the gifts of the wise men. Luke does not tell us that anyone worshipped Him, though it is through him we learn of the visit of the shepherds, and the joy of Simeon and Anna. The reason is that Jesus is the King in Matthew and the Man in Luke. Quite in keeping with this is the reference to Palestine as "the land of Israel," found twice in the second chapter of Matthew and nowhere else in the New Testament. It is thus proclaimed as Israel's land in the name of Israel's King.

The second chapter of Matthew contains matter which is all peculiar to this Gospel. No other w 7 riter tells of the visit of the magi, the rage of Herod and the massacre of the innocents at Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt and the return therefrom after Herod's death.

These events very evidently did not occur immediately after the birth of Jesus, for Luke tells us that after the birth and circumcision of the Holy Child, "when they had performed all things according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth." From Matthew we learn that immediately after the visit of the wise men from the east, "when they had departed," Joseph was warned by an angel to take the Child and His mother and flee into Egypt. "And he arose and took the young Child and His mother by night and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod." It seems, then, that the visit of the wise men and the flight into Egypt must have been when the Child Jesus was a least a year old. Evidently Joseph and Mary had lived with the Child at Nazareth for twelve months and had now returned to Jerusalem to keep the Feast. Luke tells us that the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. Bethlehem being their ancestral city, they would naturally lodge there during the Feast. All the details of the record seem to point to this understanding. The shepherds in Luke found the Saviour as "a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes." The wise men worshipped Him as a "young Child with Mary His mother." The shepherds had found Him in a stable, lying in a manger; the wise men found Him in a "house." This view of the record also explains why Herod, in seeking the life of the new-born King, destroyed all children in Bethlehem up to two years old.

Our English Bible is responsible for some of the confusion in this connection. The first verse of chapter 2 is made to read, "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem." The Revised Version does not help us any here, but the American Bible Union translation gives us the correct rendering : "And Jesus having been born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king," etc. Dr. Young translates the same way, and Weymouth reads: "Now after the birth of

THE RECORD. 25

Jesus, which took place at Bethlehem in Judea in the reign of King Herod, excitement was produced in Jerusalem by the arrival of certain magians from the east," etc.

If the star, seen in the east by the travelers, had first appeared at the time of Jesus' birth, they could not possibly have reached Judea a few days afterward; and in view of all the data we have, it seems certain that their arrival at Jerusalem was at the time of the Passover following that of our Lord's birth by one year.

The star seen by the wise men was not a conjunction of planets, as suggested by Kepler, for it went before them and led them to a certain town and to a certain house. It was a miraculous arrangement by God for the guidance of these seekers. We need not suppose that the star led them all the way from their eastern home. Verse 9 seems to imply that when they left Herod and started for Bethlehem the star reappeared to them, "the star which they saw in the east."

Of course no one knows how many of the wise men there were. Tradition says there were three and that each was a King. This number may have been suggested by the fact that three kinds of gifts were offered — gold, frankincense and myrrh. So far as the record is concerned there might have been scores or hundreds of these men.

The nature of the gifts offered to the infant King was significant. Gold is an emblem of royalty ; frankincense speaks of the sweet savour of our Lord's life, ever fragrant with the odor of a sweet smell, as he offered continually an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice of obedience to His Father. The myrrh was a resinous substance for embalming the dead and this gift was doubtless ordered of God to prefigure the consummation of that life, when Jesus, through the Eternal Spirit, should offer Himself without spot to God.

Fulfillment of Prophecy

In Isaiah 60 there is a prophecy, of which this visit of the wise men is sometimes referred to, as the fulfillment. The 6th verse says, "they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. ,, The prophecy is not yet fulfilled, but points to the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus. To Israel the Prophet says of that Day, "The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising." It is noticeable that myrrh is omitted here, for the death it symbolizes will then be past ,and He Who liveth and was dead shall be alive for evermore.

There are four prophecies, however, fulfilled in this second chapter of Matthew. The first is from Mic. 5 : 2, indicating Bethlehem as the Messiah's birthplace. The second is in Hosea 11: 1, saying, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." The prophecy itself appears to refer to the nation of Israel, and not to the Messiah:

FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY. 27

"When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called My Son out of Egypt." The Spirit of God implies, through Matthew, that the prophetic Word applied to the Messiah, and that when He went down into Egypt it was in order that He might come forth again ; and that in that coming forth He was identified with His brethren according to the flesh. Israel was in God's reckoning included in Jesus, and from His coming forth out of Egypt to His ascent into heaven to sit at His Father's right hand, He was acting as a Substitute for Israel, and saving His people from their sins.

The third prophecy fulfilled is from Jer. 31 : 15. The nation is personified in Rachel and is weeping for her children, slain by the sword. Israel has been weeping ever since, and will continue to weep until their mourning shall be for their Brother, Whom they pierced, and they shall know Him and receive Him as the promised Deliverer. Then shall they be glad. It is comforting to read the context in Jeremiah: "Thus saith Jehovah : Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears : for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Jehovah, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah; and thy children shall come again to their own border. "

The fourth prophecy fulfilled is referred to in the last verse : "He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." "Nazarene" is the feminine form of "netzar," a rod or shoot. Isaiah uses the word in chapter 1 1 : i : "There shall come forth a Rod (Shoot, R. V.) out of the stock of Jesse, and a Branch out of His roots shall bear fruit." In Jer. 23:5 and 33:15 the Messiah is again spoken of as the Branch, and also in Zech. 6: 12. It is a lowly name, as Nazareth was a despised place. Our Lord was often derisively called a Nazarene, and His followers were called "the sect of the Nazarenes." It is a part of the shame which He bore and despised — He made Himself of no reputation.

It is clear that all through the inspired record our Lord Jesus is entirely separated from all about Him as the divine One, amongst those who were human and sinful. Joseph was greatly honored in being called to minister to the holy Child ; Mary was greatly honored in being selected to bear the body prepared of God for Him; but when we have said that w r e have said all. Joseph and Mary do not appear with haloes about their heads, and the Bible knows nothing of "The Holy Family." The wise men did not worship the family, nor even the mother. When they saw the young Child with Mary His mother they fell down and worshipped — not them, but — Him; and their gifts were presented only unto Him. Mariolatry has no place in the Word of God.

It remains only to point out certain typical and dispensational lessons found in our chapter. We

FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY. 29

have here a picture of the present Dispensation, drawn by the Spirit of God Himself. The Lord Jesus is still rejected by His own people Israel and He is found and worshipped by the Gentiles. The natural olive branches are broken off and the wild branches graffed in, though this is "contrary to nature." Jesus, to the Jews, is just a Nazarene, despised and rejected; a Man of Sorrows, having no comeliness that they should desire Him, a Root out of dry ground.

But w r e have here also a picture, no less attractive, of the Dispensation yet to come, when not only wise men from the east, a little remnant of Gentiles, but from the east and from the west and from every quarter and corner of the earth, "the Gentiles shall come to worship the Lord of Hosts at Jerusalem." He will be on His throne then, in Jerusalem. In the meantime we must be content to go outside the camp to find Him, and there we may discover the secret place of the Most High and the shadow of the Almighty. He will be found of them who seek for Him. Bethlehem, for such, is the "House of Bread" indeed, for He is the Bread of God Which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.

"Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name,"

THE KING'S ANOINTING

Chapter 3

The third chapter of Matthew describes the coming of the King's forerunner, "the messenger to prepare the way before Me." (Mai. 3: 1.) In this Gospel of the Kingdom John Baptist comes preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent ye; for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Mark and Luke inform us that he preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Again, in the quotation from Isaiah 40, Matthew writes, "This is He that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight." Matthew stops there, for that is all of the passage having to do especially with Israel. But Luke, who is presenting the Lord Jesus, not as the King of Israel, but as the universal, representative Man, proceeds with the quotation: ; "Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth: and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

Both Matthew and Luke report the words of 30

THE KING'S ANOINTING. 31

the Baptist concerning his coming Master, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.' , This language is befitting the Lord Jesus, both as King of the Jews and as the Son of Man coming to judgment. Mark omits it, for in his Gospel our Lord is not the mighty King of Israel, nor the righteous Judge of all, so much as the meek and lowly Servant of God.

Only in Matthew do we have the protest of John against baptizing his Lord. Mark simply records that "Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan." That is all that needed to be said of the baptism of the Servant. Luke also mentions but briefly the baptism of the Man; but in Matthew this Man is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the glorious Messiah, and John shrinks back. He does not forbid Him, as in the Authorized Version, for he could not forbid the King. Rather, as in the Revised Version, "John would have hindered Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" The King's reply is very significant: "Suffer it now to be, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."

Righteousness the Key Word

This word righteousness is a key word in Matthew, b^ing found seven tirnes in the book.

Mark never once uses the word and though Luke has it once and John twice, the word has a peculiar meaning in Matthew which does not attach to it in the other Gospels. This will readily appear to anyone who will take the trouble to carefully read the passages where the word is found. In Matthew righteousness is the Law of the Kingdom of Heaven which is to be set up on the earth. In the present mystery form of the Kingdom, during the King's absence from the earth, there is a mixture of good and evil in the Kingdom, as shown in chapter 13, but when He shall return and establish the Kingdom in manifestation, only the righteous shall enter into that Kingdom to reign with Him.

This righteousness is an absolute thing, an inflexible requirement for entrance into that Kingdom. It will not do to present a partial righteousness : indeed, there can be no such thing ; if there be any flaw in it, there is no righteousness. It is not enough that we should do more good than evil; if evil be at all present, then righteousness is altogether absent. We must fulfill all righteousness.

"Who, then, can be saved?" This very natural question was once asked of Jesus (Matt. 19:25) and He replied, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."