Matt 3

Date: 8 January 2009
Bible (OT/NT):
Matt 3:1-4:1
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 h In those daysi John the Baptist came preaching inj the wilderness of Judea, 2 k "Repent, forl the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare* the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.'"
4 Now John woreo a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food wasp locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, butd he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize youe with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus camel from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold,the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."


Ps 4:6-8
There are many who say, "Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord !"
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord , make met dwell in safety.

Sun Tzu:

Therefore measure in terms of 5 things, use these assessments to make comparison, and thus find out what the conditions are. The five things are the way, the weather, the terrain, the leadership, and discipline. Then you can determine who is likely to prevail. Having determined this, only then should you mobilize your forces.

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

The Torah is the 1’st 5 books of the Old testament (genesis, exodus, Leviticus, numbers, Deuteronomy). It’s 613 Laws are the basis of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Written by Moses between 4000-10,000 yrs ago, it is still transcribed by hand. If a single mistake is made the entire transcript is invalid.
Events: Yesterday I drove up here to fort Hood, spent time seeing patients. Took some pictures of my office so that I can show my family where I worked these last couple months, worked out on base and went for a beautiful run at lake Belton. I got to watch a beautiful sunset as I was running. I had dinner with Gracie and John. We talked for a couple hours about the death of Mrs. Conner’s sister last weekend. Apparently, she fell and had a severe head bleed. No word on deployment.

Thoughts:

1) V1-4: 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'" Is this the Elijah that was to prepare the way? The prophets foretold that Elijah would come to prepare the way of the messiah. Here we see John The Baptist (RC Sproul says the last and greatest of the OT prophets) who lived in the wilderness as the OT profits did, wore the garments of the profit, and had the first prophetic word for Israel for 400yrs. So why when asked specifically if he is the prophet Elijah does he say, I am not? Does this contradict Jesus who says later that he was Elijah? My thought is that by DNA John was entirely John thus John was correct when he said that he was not Elijah. However in the OT and NT the prophesy speaks of Spirit of Elijah… Thus Jesus is also correct because John did come in the Spirit of the old testament prophets…the spirit of Elijah.

2) V5: and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. What in the world was he doing baptizing before Jesus instated this new sacrament? When I was in medical school, one of my rotations was with a Jewish physician who brought me to synagogue 5 days a week in addition to many ceremonial circumcisions…great rotation! There I learned that there were many ceremonial cleansings For example, the priest would wash before entering the Holy of Holy’s. Another great example is how the unclean (from disease) would have to be washed before reentering Jewish society as clean…what a great image of a people being washed clean before meeting Lord incarnate and a symbolism of the unclean people who will soon be permanently (not temporally) cleansed from their disease of sin. The action, as much as the words “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” is symbolic of the King that is about to step onto the scene.
3) V9: And do not presume to say to yourselves,y 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. The Pharisees and many Jews today, thought they were more holy than the gentiles simply because they were descendents of Abraham, this is why the genealogies in the bible and in record were so essential to the Jewish religion. However, salvation has always been about faith in the Lords ability to cleanse the mess Adam created. I wonder when John says that God can “from these stones…raise up children of Abraham” if he pointed at stones on the ground or pointed at the Stone’s getting baptized and standing in front of him? The bible often talks about humanities hardened hearts that prevent people from seeing the truth of God and Loving him. Indeed it takes God’s supernatural intervention to raise up children of Abraham from our stone hearts.
4) V12: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Lets always remember, “the fear of the lord is the foundation of wisdom.” Too many people think of God and Jesus as the easy parent that can easily be manipulated into saying Okay to almost anything. Who we can bat our puppy dog eyes towards and out of their undying, unconditional love for us they will forgive our most grievous offenses. Again, I must repeat myself. ..this is not the God of the bible. Jesus himself says that he has come to sort the wheat from the chaff and turn father against son. I know that it may seem that I have a dark view of God, but I prefer to see it as a healthy respect for the creator of the universe who gives me my every breath. A God who instated a standard that I have not lived up to, but thanks be to God that in love he gave me salvation in the death of Jesus Christ (and no other way). Apart from Christ all that I deserve (and will rightly get) is wrath. In Christ we have been adopted as Sons. This is how God has chosen to glorify his son, by making the salvation of the human race dependent upon him. Yes, God the father expected a great deal of Jesus in the Cross. Many have in fact charged God with divine child-abuse, however let’s remember that Jesus chose the Cross out of love for his children, humbling himself to the point of death. As was the plan from the beginning, God then exalted his Son over all peoples so that in him and in his name is the only hope for man kind.
5) V12: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor andh gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Hell’s real. But…But…. If we can’t believe in it we should choose a less offensive religion like Buddhism.
6) V13: John immediately recognized Christ…the other gospels record his words: “behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” There should have been no doubt of Jesus purpose, as these words introduce the beginning of his ministry.
7) Psalms: I chose this verse today after all the talk of what a fearful God we serve for reassurance that through Christ we have overcome the world, a verse that brings me great comfort is 1st John: “he who is in you is stronger than he who is in the world.” I am reminded, that God in Me (the holy spirit) is more powerful than the ruler of this current world (the devil). Therefore, I have nothing to fear. My life ends in victory no mater my circumstance, obstacles, suffering and even death. The worst the devil can do to me is send me to home to Christ. How much less can man hurt me.

Sun Tzu: This works everywhere from training dogs to winning military campaigns…assess your situation thoroughly, choose your battles wisely and only the ones that you know you can win.

Intellectual devotion: The law is the basis of Judaism, Islam and Christianity but only Christianity. In fact laws govern every religion on earth. All other religions however teach that the law is something to accomplish and in that way merit “heaven”. I like to call these religions Maneanity because the reward depends on mans effort. Christianity, however, does not depend on my ability to fulfill the law, in fact, if I rely on the law, the new testament says that I have no part of Christ. Christians believe that the Law was given not to demonstrate our ability, instead as a demonstration of our inability. Good luck achieving salvation by keeping all 613 laws. The Jews atoned for their sin by their annual sacrifice on Yom Kippur (without a temple anymore I have no Idea how they feel they are atoned for now?) The Muslims acknowledge that it is impossible to keep the law so Allah is subjective in the way he determines salvation and the only way to ensure salvation is to die in jihad. As for me, I’ll rely on Christ’s righteousness for my merit.