Matt 4

Date: 10 Jan 2009

New Testament: Matt 4:1-5:1

The Temptation of Jesus

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4 But he answered, "It is written,
"'Man shall not live by bread alone,but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
"'He will command his angels concerning you,'
and 'On their hands they will bear you up,lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"
7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
"'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—16 the people dwelling in darknesshave seen a great light,and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,on them a light has dawned."
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.


Ps 5:4-8

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. 8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.


Sun Tzu:

The Way means inducing the people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share the death and share life, without fear of death….If the people are treated with benevolence, faithfulness, and justice, then they will be of one mind, and will be glad to serve. “Joyful in difficulty, the people forget about their death.” If the leaders can be humane and just, sharing both the gains and the troubles of the people, then the troops will be loyal and naturally identify with the interests of the leadership.

The Intellectual Devotion (Kidder, D. & Oppenheim N. The Intellectual Devotion, Rodale. NY, NY 2006):

Hammurabi was king of babylonia from 1792-1750 BC, he is credited with the first written law. “Future Kings, Hammurabi said, must uphold the rule of law rather than govern according to their own impulses. The notion that rulers could not arbitrarily change the laws governing their citizens was a revolutionary concept. Respect for the law remains one of the fundamental hallmarks of successful government. Hammurabi’s law was written on stone pillars that were unearthed in 1901 and are on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Bablonian scientists used a counting system based on the number sixty, which is why minutes have sixty seconds.

Events: Yesterday I had a full morning of seeing patients and helping an Engineer Battalion with their Flu Vaccinations. We had the non-deployable scrub and the Doc that I am transitioning with was there to help the tradeoff. He has great insight into how to accomplish the military aspects of my job, sure could have used him months ago as I flailed to find my way. Marla and I watched Sisterhood of the traveling Pants 2 last night and it was pretty good.

Thoughts:

Bible:

1) V1-2: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. As Hebrews 4 emphasizes…it is very comforting to know that we do not have a king who is “unable to sympathize” with our worldly struggles. We do not have a king who was born, lived and died in a “Castle that is far, far, away.” We have a King (as the praised leader in the Sun Tzu reading, “sharing both the gains and troubles of the people”) who took on flesh and experienced all of the heartbreak of lost relationship (both by death and desertion), all of the temptation of the world (and devil) and more bodily suffering and pain with his flogging and suffocation on the Cross than any man in history. Christ, the King of all the Kings of earth, humbled himself to a peasant’s birth, servants life and criminals death to win for us beyond the promise of salvation, the promise that he can truly sympathize with our struggles and pain.

2) V3-10: Notice the dialog is entirely Old Testament quote. The Devil has an awesome command of the scriptures (as I should expect as he was a most beautiful angel). The Devil is an incredible adversary; he knows our playbook better than we do. However, notice that Jesus does not simply command his legion of Angles to throw Satan into the pit of fire (as he could), instead Jesus, in his humanity, demonstrates how we are to resist the devil…by our own command of the scriptures. Satan is stronger and smarter than us in a debate, track meet, popularity contest, cage fight, academic decathlon etc… we lose. If we have any hope in keeping the faith we must not rely on our strength but the strength of the Word of God. “Resist the devil and he will flee.” The scripture is our only means or resistance. Sure reminds me to read more! Side note: When Christ quotes the old testament is what is called the ‘internal testimony’ to the divine origin of the scripture. This Proof does not work for unbelievers who throw out Christ and the bible but is a reassurance to believers that the entire bible is divinely inspired.
3) V17: From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Many are concerned with the second coming, is the promise true that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” even though it’s been 2000 yrs? Remember the kingdom of heaven was literally at hand… Jesus and his church. The Kingdom was established with Jesus as the king and the faithful (not the world, not Israel) as the nation. The kingdom was literally being expanded every step the King took down road as he drew citizens, first Peter and Andrew, then the sons of Zebedee and expanding like a “mustard see” to you and I.
4) Psalms 5:4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. This text is a brilliant gospel message from 1000 yrs before Christ…Remember God I Holy and by his law we are evil lawbreakers (no matter how good we look compared to our neighbor). V4: God is Holy and Just and we cannot dwell in his presence. But the Lord, out of love, provides an imputed (foreign/outside of ourselves), “your righteousness (v.8),”not a works based inherent righteousness to atone for our vileness. Thereby reconciling us to himself and bringing us into his house (v7).

Sun Tzu:

1) Great commentary on leading from the front.

Intellectual Devotion:

1) Great commentary on why a Just Law is a good one. I am thankful that we don’t serve an arbitrary God but one who published the standard and now provides mercy through his son.
2) I have always wondered why there were 60 seconds in a minute…most of all when finishing my residency required research and was trying to convert over 1,000 times into fractions/decimals in an excel file. I cursed the fact that time is based on 1/60 and the rest of the world is based on 1/100. This discrepancy cost me days of my life!