Jan 13, Matthew 13, Job 3,4&5, Psalms 13

 Matthew 13

    Matthew 13 is a great chapter! Jesus uses many parables to teach us about what the kingdom of heaven is like, the first few are illustrations using farming, which would have been much more culturally relevant to the demography he was talking too vs our industrialized farming world we live in today. I always like to try and think as tho i were a person in this era without the scientific understanding we have today. 

    In verse 10 “The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”” ‭‭ and i love Jesus response! He discusses the gift of discernment in his answer, telling the disciples that they have been given this gift and that the people he is talking will too be given this gift, we hear Jesus tell us about Gods Spirit later on, which is what gives us these gifs. ‬‬

“He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again: Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing. The people are stupid! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭11‬-‭15‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    Some of the New Testament chapters that talk about discernment -

• 1 Corinthians 12:10: "to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues."

• 
  

• Philippians 1:9-10: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ."

• 
  

• Hebrews 5:14: "But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

• 
  

• James 1:5: "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."

• 
  

• 1 John 4:1: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

 Matthew 13:14-15, Jesus references the following verse from Isaiah:

• Isaiah 6:9-10: "He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

In Matthew 13:14-15 Jesus says: "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."

This verse from Isaiah 6:9-10 is talking about the people's hardness of heart and lack of understanding towards God's message, Jesus is using this verse to explain why some people do not understand the message of the kingdom of heaven, and why some receive more understanding than others.

    Matthew 13:16-17 states:

"But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

In this passage, Jesus is addressing his disciples and is saying that they are blessed because they are able to understand the message of the kingdom of heaven, which many prophets and righteous people before them longed to understand but were not able to.

Jesus is emphasizing the importance of having spiritual insight and understanding, he is saying that his disciples are blessed because they have been given the privilege of understanding the teachings of the kingdom of heaven that many others before them were not able to understand.

He is also highlighting the fact that this understanding is not something that can be earned or deserved but rather is a gift from God, and those who are blessed with this gift should be grateful for it.

    Jesus goes on to explain the meaning of the harvest story, and i promise if you go type it into youtube you will quickly realize that this passage is well preached. the question is, who tills your soil? who pulls the rocks out of your thinking? who turns your heart from clay to soil? who uproots the weeds in your ideologies?

    There is so much going on in this chapter, the parable of the farmer sowing seeds and then an enemy coming in and sowing weeds . . .

    the kingdom of heaven, (on earth) or the community of believers, will have both good and bad people. Jesus is saying that it is not for us to decide or judge who is good and who is bad, but rather it is for God to make that decision. The weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest, when the weeds will be separated from the wheat.

    This parable also emphasizes the importance of patience and perseverance, reminding us that the kingdom of heaven will not be fully realized until the end of time, and that in the meantime, we must be patient and continue to do good work.

       Jesus explains Himself further in verse 37 > There are dozens of old testament references piled in here as well as things that get explained further in the Epistles. There is this misconception here that we are not to use our discernment or "judge" each other, you hear in our culture a lot the phrase "don't judge me", but as you study the word you realize how false this is, we can't judge the condition of a person heart, we can't judge in the sense of condemning someone to heaven or hell.

    Maybe look at it this way, i can judge my close friends, based on their behaviors and give them positive criticism out of love and encouragement with the intention of helping them grow, of course Jesus gives a warning about this too when he said in Matthew 7:3-5  "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." The passage is often interpreted as a call to self-reflection and humility, and a warning against being too quick to criticize or judge others. . . Though it is still very important to keep each other accountable. just not with a hot head . . 

The Greek word used in Matthew for "judge" is "krino". It is a verb that means to separate, distinguish, to make a decision, to come to a judgment, to rule, to condemn, or to acquit. It is used in various forms and tenses throughout the New Testament.

Another Greek word that could be translated as judge is "anakrino" which means to examine, investigate, scrutinize, or to inquire into something. It is also used in the New Testament in different forms and tenses.

In Matthew 7:1, for example, Jesus says "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." the word used here is "krino"

    The other way i see judge being used and what i think our culture means when they say "don't judge me" (usually when they are justifying something they know is stupid to do) is more of the idea of a court ruling judge who is going to make decisions that effect your future. more the condemnation term.   so Jesus is saying here in Matt 7, if you condemn others in your heart your are condemning yourself, kind of like how Jesus is real stern about forgiveness, and says that if you can't forgive others then you are robbing yourself of forgiveness. 

    “Jesus asked, “Are you starting to get a handle on all this?” They answered, “Yes.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭51‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Job 3-5

    Can you relate to Job here?

““Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night. And the night of my conception—the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac. Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness— no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! May those who are good at cursing curse that day. Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn. And why? Because it released me from my mother’s womb into a life with so much trouble.”

‭‭Job‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬-‭10‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    So, we see job really express his distress about the situation of his life here in this chapter, yet he still doesn't sin in any of this, he doesn't curse God, he questions him and his choices and goodness, I find this encouraging because it lets me know that God understands if i feel this way at times in my life when things feel like chaos. 

    we also meet the leviathan, I often hear people pray agains the spirit of leviathan, you can hear one here ->prayer agains leviathan

In the Bible, Leviathan is a sea monster referred to in the Book of Job, chapters 3, 41 and Psalms 74:14. It is often depicted as a large and powerful creature, often with multiple heads and a long tail. Some interpret Leviathan as a symbol of chaos, evil, or the devil. In Job 3, Leviathan is described as a powerful and fearsome creature that God has created and controls.

    In Job - 4 we are introduced to some of Job's friends, 

Now this is a really interesting conversation. and if you think about it, it actually corresponds really well to what we were talking about in Matthew 13! as far as a reap and sow world, Because Eliphaz is making judgments about Job's condition, He is assuming it is because of Job's sins, yet that's not what we know in the story, we know that this is a test for Job and that he has not done anything wrong. He is not a weed, in fact it seems that his friends are the weeds in this story, giving what seems like sound and wise insight, but later we will see them being corrected for their views. 

    This is whats interesting here, because the human wisdom of Job's friends do have a lot of insight and ancient wisdom and i do think we can learn from what they have to say. However it is still human wisdom and logic and not God's ultimate wisdom that we will hear later in the book. 

““So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you! Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of Almighty God! True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound; the same hand that hurts you, heals you. From one disaster after another he delivers you; no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you—”

‭‭Job‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬-‭19‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Did he know that God was going to step in and correct him later? 

Psalms 13

    I was trying to see where Psalms 13 falls chronologically and i got mixed answers, it's listed under David as the author and attributed to his time running from King Solomon. But i also found it listed under Daniel during their exile in Babylon. so i can't give a good answer on that one. 

    But Psalms 13 is a great example of how to respond in hard times, it shows us that we can come to God with our struggles and complaints and choose to worship God despite the struggles we are facing. Good place for it next to Job's suffering he is going through and also a good one to pray when you are feeling run down and ready to quit. 

“Long enough, God— you’ve ignored me long enough. 

I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. 

Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. 

Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me. 

Take a good look at me, God, my God; 

I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face. 

I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue. 

I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭MSG‬‬