Greetings to you all greatly beloved of God in Christ Jesus. Welcome to another beautiful day in the second month of the year 2021. We are thankful to God for preserving our lives each new day and for blessing us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.
In our today’s episode 639, we shall be examining the intro to the book of Matthew titled:
This Is Incredible, After 400 years, This Is What Happened!
First of all, we need to note that there was a big gap and period of silence of 400 years between the book of Malachi and Matthew. You might have been wondering, what exactly happened during this intertestamental period?
Well, we are going to find out shortly before we dive into the book of Matthew.
Recall that in Malachi, the Israelites had already returned to Jerusalem and the Temple in Jerusalem was already rebuilt. Unfortunately, during this period, there was laxity and corruption among the Priests and other religious leaders and as a result, the people also began to misbehave to the point that the good ones among them were already getting discouraged and they were saying it’s useless to serve God, adding that what is the point serving God when evil people were doing well, happy and getting away with their wrong doings? Read Malachi 3:13-14
That was when Malachi encouraged them not to give up and also assured them that God’s judgement was coming upon the wicked and the righteous would be greatly rewarded at the end of the day. Read Mal 3:16-18 and 4:1-6
That is why we see a lot of messages of rebuke and warnings from Prophet Malachi to the Priests and to the people.
So, the Old Testament ended around 403 BC with the book of Malachi.
Now, to answer the question about what happened within that 400 years of silence, let’s read on patiently.
During the time between the end of Malachi and beginning of Matthew, the Persian empire that defeated Babylonian and Assyrian empires and repatriated the people of Israel back to their land, was still in power at that time and still has some influence on the land of Judah (Jerusalem) since it was Persia who gave them their freedom and also gave them permission to practice their religion (Judaism) freely. This was a direct opposite of how the Assyrians and Babylonians ruled them in captivity.
As a result of this, the Jews became loyal to the Persians.
Fast forward to around 333 BC, a mighty emperor from Greece called Alexander the Great, rose mightily and defeated the Persian empire, which automatically gave him control over the territories the Persians were controlling at that time in which Judea was among.
All these have been prophesied by Daniel according to Daniel chapter 7:1-28, where he saw four beasts and the third one was like a leopard. That third beast was the Greek empire.
After the Greek empire (under the control of Alexander The Great) had defeated the Persian empire as prophesied by Daniel, the Greek empire became so powerful that they defeated many other empires in the east and also part of Africa (Egypt).
Alexander The Great eventually died at age of 32 years. His dynasty (Greece – Hellenic) spanned between 330 – 166 BC until they were were completely wiped out by the Roman empire at a battle called the battle of Corinth in 146 BC.
Recall that Daniel 7:7 talks about a fourth beast (The Roman empire), which crushed the third beast (Greek empire). Daniel says in verse 7 that this fourth beast had ten horns.
According to a bible scholar and theologian called Clarke, he stated that these ten horns (based on some findings he made) represent ten divisions through which the Roman empire was ruling the world at that time and the ten horns were as follows:
The Roman senate itself.
The Greeks, in Ravenna.
The Lombards in Lombardy.
The Buns in Hungary.
The Alemans, in Germany.
The Franks in France.
The Burgundians in Burgundy.
The Saracens in Africa, and a part of Spain.
The Goths, in other parts of Spain.
And the Saxons, in Britain.
Since the Romans have already taken over the world power through its ten horns, Judea became loyal to Rome and were paying taxes to Caesar at that time.
It was part of those taxes that Matthew was collecting when he met Jesus Christ and joined His movement.
Now, let’s quickly have a sneak peek into the entire book of Matthew.
About The Author
The four Gospels were named after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because they were traditionally thought and agreed to have been written by them.
Later on, many researchers and theologians came out to refute that claim and posited that the authors were unknown and what we read today were copies of copies of copies of copies of the original texts.
Apart from that, one prominent German theologian named Gottlob Christian Storr, wrote that the book of Matthew was not the first book among the Gospel books. Rather, it was the book of Mark that was written first. He claimed that the writer of Matthew copied most of his contents from the book of Mark, which has been confirmed by other scholars too to be true.
But the question is, if the authorship of the book of Matthew was not known, why did the early church leaders agree that it was Matthew who wrote it?
Well, we are going to look at some evidence within the book itself.
Evidence within the book of Matthew:
Reading the book of Mathew critically, one would discover that the author focused his attention on the Jews and was very versed in the Torah (the five books of Moses), and that is why we see so many quotes from Torah otherwise known as the Pentateuch, the prophets and psalms.
The author painted a picture of Jesus in such a way that Jesus was considered to be the real substance of what was foreshadowed in Adam, Moses, Noah’s Ark and the in the writings of old testament prophets including the Psalter.
This then means that Jesus is the fulfilment of the various prophesies in the Old Testament scriptures.
In short, the writer’s focus was mainly on the Jews and their practices with no reference to the gentiles.
Looking again at the content of the book of Matthew, the writer emphasized so much on the issue of tax and some financial information.
Scanning through the lives of the apostles, one who best fits the points raised above is no other person than Matthew, because he was a tax collector, who also did great in taking notes about Jesus’s itinerary based on his initial experience as a tax collector (Matthew 9:9) coupled with his financial management skills and his wealth of experience in the Jewish tradition and mode of worship.
Audience?
Who were the direct audience of the book of Matthew? The book was originally written to the Jewish Christians until everyone began to have copies.
When was it written?
Approximately between AD 55–80
Why was the book written?
To show readers and Bible scholars the fulfilment of the Messiah that was promised by both the Major and Minor Prophets including Malachi that we just finished his study.
How was the prophesy fulfilled?
Jesus was incarnated in form of a baby through Mary, the wife of Joseph.
Below is the flowchart of the family tree showing mostly only the males in the family. This will also show us why Jesus was fondly called the Son of Abraham and the Son of David.
From Abraham to Isaac to Jacob (Israel) to Judah to twins Perez and Zerah and from Perez to Hezron to Ram to Amminadab to Nashon, to Salmon (he married Rahab the Prostitute that saved the spies of Israel).
Then from Salmon to Boaz (he married Ruth – the woman that refused to leave Naomi having lost everything).
Then from Boaz to Obed to Jesse to David (remember he was the one that killed Goliath and became king of Israel).
Also never forget David was the king that slept with Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife and killed Uriah to cover up his initial sin but complicated his sins in the process and was severely punished). The result of their affair then was Solomon, who became king.
Then from Solomon to Rehoboam to Abijah to Asa to Jehoshaphat to Joram to Uzziah to Jotham to Ahaz to Hezekiah to Manasseh to Amos to Josiah to Jeconiah (Jehoiachin).
Remember in our previous studies of old testament books, we examined how Jehoiachin and some notable Israelites were taken captive to Babylon.
So, during that time in captivity, Jehoiachin had a son called Shealtiel and from Sheatiel to Zerubbabel to Abiud to Eliakim to Azor to Zadok to Achim to Eliud to Eleazar to Matthan to Jacob to Joseph (the Carpenter) who married Mary, and both gave birth to Jesus Christ.
Wow! It’s been a long journey!
Therefore, from Abraham to David, we can count 14 generations, and from David to the Babylonian captivity another 14 generations, and then from the Babylonian captivity to Jesus, another 14 generations.
That is what you experience when a special child is born – many things will just be remarkably unusual in some positive ways.
Below is an overview of what we shall be looking at in the book of Matthew as God will be helping us:
Chapters 1 to 4 inform us about the birth of Jesus, the preaching of John the Baptist, how he baptised Jesus and how Jesus was prepared for the ministry including His temptations.
Chapters 4 to 7 inform us about Jesus’ main message which is “The Kingdom of God” and that He came to fulfil the requirements of the Laws of Moses in order to lift its burdens off the people.
In Chapters 8 to 9, Jesus practically demonstrates His Kingdom Message through various miracles.
Chapter 10 talks about the choosing of the Twelve Apostles, their mission, the various persecutions they would encounter and why they should not allow fear to ravage their minds.
Chapter 11 talks about how John the Baptist sent some messengers to Jesus while he was in Herod’s prison to ask if He was the promised Messiah or he should be expecting another person. I will be explaining more about this later during our studies.
Chapters 12 informs us about various oppositions that Jesus faced including calling Him a Beelzebub.
Chapters 13 talks about Jesus’ Parables and some interpretations.
Chapter 14 talks about the death of John the Baptist, feeding of the great crowd, walking on water, and healing the sick.
Chapters 15 to 20 inform us about more of Jesus’ teachings, healing and as well as Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of the living God.
In Chapters 21 to 25, Jesus marches to Jerusalem, He gave more parables and literal teachings, gave serious warnings against the hypocrisy of the teachers of the Law, prophesied about their punishments and then talks about the final judgement.
In Chapters 26 to 27, Mathew talks about the plot against Jesus, how a woman anointed Jesus’ feet, how Judas agrees to betray Jesus, the Passover, Jesus’ arrest, His death and resurrection and the great commission to preach the Gospel.
To be continued… stay tuned and stay blessed.
Let’s pray:
I declare as an Oracle of God Most High: something miraculously unusual is going to happen in the life of someone reading this message and it’s going to serve as a pivot upon which other goods things will be built in your life and family. Receive this miracle, in Jesus name.
I want to pray with as many people as possible looking for job, financial breakthrough, and progress in life – doors of amazing opportunities are opening unto you right now. Receive the capacity to recognize them and key into them, in Jesus name.
Someone is reading this message right now and you have been wondering what your purpose on earth is. You have been asking God several times in prayer and also in soliloquy to know what you were created to do on earth. I declare tonight as you sleep, receive great revelations from the heavenly realm and I command your intuitive capability to be activated which will quicken you to take the right directions in life, in Jesus name.
I declare, no one on this platform will make any costly mistake, in Jesus name.
Bible Readings: Acts Chapters 22 to 28 with Proverbs Chapter 13
I call you blessed now and always.
Friday February 19, 2021 (DDMI)
