Bible Study on Matthew 18, verses 1 to 6, Jesus called a little child unto him

 

Matthew 18:1 ¶  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

We have to be as trusting as little children to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Who knows, maybe we will be little children in Heaven, which explains in one respect why Jesus says we are not given in marriage there.

 

That man or woman who humbles themselves like a weak and helpless child before God receives the highest praise and to receive such a one into fellowship is to receive Christ Himself. Plus, whoever causes one of these children to stumble, who harms their faith, well it would be better if they had had a millstone tied around their neck and they be thown into the sea. Destroying the faith of another comes in several ways.

 

See to offend as to cause to stumble or cause to sin;

 

Isaiah 8:14  And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

 

1 Peter 2:8  And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

 

Matthew 5:29  And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30  And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

 

Discouraging them, a tactic of Satan, is a way of causing a Christian to stumble in their faith by not believing they can be forgiven for sin.

 

2Corinthians 2:5 ¶  But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. 6  Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. 7  So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. 8  Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. 9  For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. 10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;

11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

 

Another method of Satan is to entice someone to sin in some weakness of the flesh they may have;

 

Romans 14:1 ¶  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3  Let not him

that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4  Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. 5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. 7  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

 

9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. 10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. 14  I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

 

16  Let not then your good be evil spoken of: 17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 18  For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. 19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. 23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

 

Corrupting, or the case of the following from a Greek word meaning to water down wine, the word of God.

 

2 Corinthians 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

I am sure you can think of other ways Christians have placed stumbling blocks in the way of your faith that could have or did make you stumble, make you to be offended. Maybe you’ve seen someone else crushed by the shenanigans of a Christian. I taught homeschoolers at one time and a young woman later told me that she had suffered abuse at the hands of a previous teacher and was grateful that I wasn’t like him when I taught her.

Bible Study on Genesis 48, verses 1 to 7, Joseph visits his dying father Jacob

 

Genesis 48:1 ¶  And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2  And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. 3  And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4  And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. 5  And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. 6  And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. 7  And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.

Upon hearing that Jacob was ill Joseph took his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to see him. Jacob was apparently pretty out of it as he had to be told they were there. He then relates the blessing God bestowed on him through his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.

Genesis 28:13  And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14  And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15  And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

Remember that it was Abraham who would be told that Canaan was to be an everlasting possession.

Genesis 17:7 ¶  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

8  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Jacob states that Joseph’s sons are just as much a part of this blessing as are Joseph’s brothers, Jacob’s own sons Reuben and Simeon. He established them as tribes included in the inheritance by saying that their descendants would be named after them. Then, Jacob mentions his beloved Rachel and where she was buried. It has been many, many years but the pain is still there as it is with many of us who have lost a loved one decades in the past.

Genesis 35:16 ¶  And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. 17  And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. 18  And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. 19  And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20  And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.

Bible Study on Matthew 17, verses 14 to 27, Because of your unbelief

 

Matthew 17:14 ¶  And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, 15  Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. 16  And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 17  Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. 18  And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. 19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 21  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

 

Luke 9:37 says that these events happened the day after the last ones. A lunatic can be a reference to a mental disease or some issue that causes seizures and fits. The Greeks recognized diseases that caused seizures including epilepsy but they understood little about it although Hippocrates suggested it’s origin was the brain. In this case the seizures were caused by a devil. Jesus rebukes the devil and the faithlessness of the disciples who could not deliver the child from the devil.

 

Verse 20 tells us that with sincere faith things that seem impossible are possible but it does not suggest that the Apostles had the capacity to move literal mountains around. Only a modernist assumes such a thing. Jesus thing tells them the “nuts and bolts” of this work; prayer and fasting. Check to make sure this verse is in the Bible you use.

 

Matthew 17:22 ¶  And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: 23  And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.

 

Again, the disciples did not understand that the Messiah had to die and be resurrected. This repeated prediction of what Jesus must face dismayed them.

 

Matthew 17:24 ¶  And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? 25  He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? 26  Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. 27  Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

 

Here, Jesus provides the tax money that is required of them supernaturally, making a point to Peter. Indeed, it appears that there is no warrant to justify being rebellious against the laws of the land in which you live for the fruits or proof of your being a Christian outwardly cannot be legislated against.

 

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 

James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

 

See what Paul and Peter also said;

 

Romans 13:1 ¶  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6  For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 7 ¶  Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

 

1Peter 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.16  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

 

The exception appears only to be when the secular rulers demand that you disobey what God has called you to do in proclaiming Christ and His gospel to the world.

 

Acts 5:26 ¶  Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. 27  And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28  Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. 29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

 

Don’t use Christ as a justification for your seditious, rebellious heart. If you want to make a case for resistance against everything from a local zoning ordinance to the federal tax code then make it based on sound political arguments, moral arguments, or personal opinion or self-interest but don’t use the name of God to justify your unwillingness to do what lawful authority tells you to do.

 

This doesn’t mean we don’t fight and try to change unjust laws like the ones that permit and even encourage infanticide or encourage depraved behavior or try to limit the power and scope of government over our lives as citizens. It just means to be careful how you bring your Saviour into the argument. In the end all of the laws, institutions, and structures of your country will be burned up and in eternity be totally meaningless. Keep in mind that the government is not a fit substitute for God though Christians have made it so. The three branches of proper government are not found in Washington, D.C. but under God’s righteous authority.

 

Isaiah 33:22  For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

 

Notice Isaiah said the LORD, not the Supreme Court, Congress, or the President.

A Psalm for Sunday, Psalm 69, verses 13 to 21, Hear me, O LORD

 

Psalm 69:13 ¶  But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. 14  Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15  Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 16  Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. 17  And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. 18  Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. 19  Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. 20  Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21  They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

 

David prayed regularly and was disciplined about it.

 

Psalm 55:17  Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

 

He pleads with God to deliver him from the mire like quicksand in which he is held fast, as we can experience. Think about this for verse 14;

 

Psalm 40:2  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

 

Imagine Jeremiah thrown into the pit in Jeremiah, chapter 38.

 

For verse 15 I am reminded of Jonah in chapter 2 of that book.

 

The sentiment in verse 16 is expressed elsewhere in Psalms.

 

Psalm 36:7  How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

 

Psalm 63:3 ¶  Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

 

Psalm 109:21 ¶  But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

 

Can you hear yourself praying this? You need help, deliverance, and yet there is no one to help you. You call unto God for mercy and for the help only He can provide.

 

Also, do you see how this references Christ’s suffering.

 

Matthew 27:34  They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

 

We can see the torment of Christ’s sufferings in this passage although we must always remember where such typology breaks down, as I’ve noted before. We can also easily see our own torment. If you have ever stood alone accused and with no one willing to help you, you can understand how this passage can apply to you. Every alcoholic and drug addict and any Christian addicted to anything knows what it means to stand alone and plead to God for mercy and help from the situation in which they are sinking.

Bible Study on Matthew 17, verses 1 to 13, part 2, the Son of man, the Son of God

 

PART TWO In this passage Jesus is using the phrase Son of man as a reference to Himself as the Messiah. But we also have the use of the title Son of God. The importance of the phrase Son of God, whether it be uppercase S for Christ or lowercase s for spiritual beings, those transformed by God, or Adam himself representing the image of God in some respect is of vital importance. Here are the three parts of the Godhead speaking; Father, Son or Word (Logos), and Holy Ghost;

 

Genesis 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 

 

 

The Jews of the first century and before, in particular the Jews of the Second Temple Period, had interpretations of the Old Testament called Targums which were in Aramaic. They would read the verses in Aramaic, the language of the common man in a way that Hebrew was not, and change the text to match their interpretation. It is not authoritative but is a way of seeing what they believed before the resurrection of Christ.

 

John Gill, the great Baptist preacher who preached in Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s church a century before him, noted in his commentary that the Jerusalem Targum renders Genesis 1:1 as, “in wisdom God created.” We have this also then as a cross-reference in Proverbs.

 

Proverbs 3:19  The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

 

A source I studied said that one translation of the Targum Neofiti has two interpretations.

 

From the beginning by wisdom the son of the LORD created the heavens and the earth.

 

From the beginning by (the) wisdom the LORD created and formed the heavens and the earth.

The Targums, as a way to understand how the Jews of the first century and before interpreted the Old Testament, have the Word of God, an appellation used for Christ in John’s gospel and letters, as well as Revelation, was the second part of the Godhead, a second power in the heavens who was actually part of one God, equal to God the Father and the presence by which He personally interacted with human beings. I’ll discuss the Holy Ghost as the third part of the Trinity as presented in the Old Testament in a different context.

The Targums have the Word, the Memra or Hebrew version of John’s Logos, of God as a person, speaking the universe into existence in Genesis 1:3. We see from the very beginning a reference to what are two powers in the Heavens, who are both the same God, the invisible Father who is a Spirit and the Word of God, who has a physical form and yet they are both the same God.

Here is a reference to what He created;

 

Genesis 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 

Luke 3:38b … which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

 

This appearance would deteriorate as man devolved with each passing generation in sin following in the likeness of the previous generation moving away from that perfection.

 

Genesis 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

 

This was also important due to Gnostic cults of the time the New Testament and much later in European History like the Cathars, also called Albigensian, insisting that Jesus Christ had no physical body thereby contradicting the entire doctrine of the Son of God.

 

1 John 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

 

This reference to the spirit of antichrist will be important to us later in our description of the Beast of Revelation which we often call The Antichrist, even though John doesn’t use that title in Revelation.

 

When Jesus tells them to tell no one about what they had seen until His, referring to Himself as the Messiah or the Son of Man, Resurrection.

 

They ask a question referencing this;

 

Malachi 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

 

Now they understood that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah.

 

Matthew 11:7 ¶  And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? 8  But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9  But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. 10  For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 11  Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 13  For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14  And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. 15  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

 

Jesus here reinforces the importance of John the Baptist’s ministry and the value of this Old Testament prophet living in the New Testament. Verse 10 is a reference to;

 

Malachi 3:1 ¶  Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

Jesus here states that John the Baptist was Elijah the prophet in type. This is not about the idea of reincarnation which is false.

 

An angel of the Lord told Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father, this very thing as referenced in;

 

Luke 1:17  And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

 

Bible Study on Isaiah 1, verses 10 to 15, Jerusalem likened to Sodom and Gomorrah

 

Isaiah 1:10 ¶  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

God is calling Jerusalem Sodom and Gomorrah for its sins. This is a profound insult, as you can imagine. Put your mind back in Genesis to the rain of ruin on Sodom and Gomorrah. God has likened Jerusalem to Sodom in other prophecies including one about the end of history.

Jeremiah 23:14  I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Ezekiel 16:46  And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. 47  Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways. 48  As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

Revelation 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

They rejected the important matters of the Law given to Moses as the Scribes and Pharisees did in Jesus’ time.

Matthew 23:23  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

But they focused on the strictly ceremonial aspects of the Law. But God had no need of those things such as sacrifices without the proper obedience. He already possesses, owns all creatures.

Psalm 50:10  For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11  I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. 12  If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

He’s done with the sacrifices made by an unrepentant people.

He told them what He wanted from them.

Deuteronomy 10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

Micah 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

The sacrifices He valued most were the sacrifices of obedience, mercy, praise, and thanksgiving.

1Samuel 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Hosea 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Psalm 69:30 ¶  I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31  This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

God is telling the Israelites through Isaiah that their worship, their rituals, their holy days, and solemn occasions are all a fraud, a phony and hypocritical show of false worship that the God to whom these so-called acts of worship are directed to, despises. Imagine Cain’s false religion that God rejected and the Israelites false view of religion.

For verse 15 one can think of Cain killing Abel as well as the decree by God in Genesis 9:6.

Bible Study on Matthew 17, verses 1 to 13, part 1, the mount of transfiguration

 

Matthew 17:1 ¶  And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2  And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 3  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. 4  Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 5  While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. 6  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. 7  And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. 8  And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. 9  And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. 10  And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? 11  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12  But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13  Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

 

I think logically this is a fulfillment of verse 28 of the last chapter. The Preterist would say that Christ returned within their lifetime to rule the world but that seems sort of insane considering the way history has gone since AD70. It just seems more likely that revealing Himself in His glory to these disciples was His intention by making that statement in the last verse of the last chapter.

 

Peter, one of the witnesses, confirms this;

 

2Peter 1:16 ¶  For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

 

Regarding verse 2 notice some other contexts.

 

Revelation 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Christ’s face glowed like the sun shining in its power. Notice the verses regarding Moses;

Exodus 34:29  And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30  And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. …33  And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face…35  And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

2Corinthians 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

Moses and Elijah are there which gives us evidence as to the two witnesses in Revelation.

 

Revelation 11:3 ¶  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

 

Peter, who has been forgiven the error he made in the previous chapter, wants to build three tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and in this context he is referring to a tent or some other kind of structure like the boughs of trees for shelter.

 

Then, verse 5 reveals a declaration from a voice in the cloud declaring the Sonship of Christ, which terrified the Apostles present. With Jesus’ touch this also ended their vision.

 

The Old Testament alludes to the Messiah’s sonship in verses that refer in context to Israel itself and then prophetically looking forward to the Messiah to come;

 

Proverbs 30:4  Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?

 

Exodus 4:22  And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

 

Psalms 89:27  Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.

 

Hosea 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

 

This verse in Hosea is referenced in the gospels regarding Christ;

 

Matthew 2:15  And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

 

As I explained in my comments on Genesis the son of a king in the ancient world, as evidenced in many sources, came in the name of the king and for all acts and purposes was considered in authority as the king he represented. This is just as the son in an ancient family would inherit the property as well as the religion of his father.

 

Indeed, the Jews understood that for Jesus to declare Himself the Son of God made Him equal with God the Father;

 

John 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

 

Paul would confirm;

 

Philippians 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

 

The Son of God, uppercase S, then is a reference to God walking in human flesh, as well, as Jesus declared that He and His father were one;

 

John 10:30  I and my Father are one.

 

And to have seen Him was to have seen the Father;

 

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

 

Indeed, Paul declares that Christ is the visible image of an invisible God.

 

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

 

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 

And remember He is said to be the true God as I interpret this verse;

 

1 John 5:20  And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.