Bible Study on Matthew 26, verses 26 to 46, a place called Gethsemane

 

Matthew 26:26 ¶  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29  But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. 30  And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

 

Obviously, the bread in Jesus’ hands was not His body and the drink was not His actual blood. To any sane person they were symbols or types of His body and blood. They do not magically transform into the body and blood of Christ when you ingest them. You are celebrating and remembering His crucifixion for our sins in this memorial; His broken body and His spilled blood are memorialized on this solemn occasion. This ritual would be a reminder to Christians throughout the ages just as baptism symbolized Christ’s burial and resurrection. This is the essence of the New Testament, the Crucifixion and then the Resurrection. The Old Testament was the Jews test of obedience.

 

Deuteronomy 6:25  And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

 

And the essence of the New Testament;

 

John 6:28 ¶  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

 

Matthew 26:31 ¶  Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. 32  But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. 33  Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. 34  Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 35  Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

 

Zechariah 13:7 ¶  Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

 

Jesus foretells His imminent arrest, His Crucifixion, His Resurrection, and Peter’s denial after Jesus’ arrest. Truthfully, all of them promise to be faithful to the end but they overestimate their own strength of will as we will see. They are much like us as these end times approach us rapidly. Remember this passage in the tough times ahead.

 

Matthew 26:36 ¶  Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. 37  And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 38  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. 40  And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 42  He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 43  And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. 44  And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45  Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46  Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

 

I’m not going to make this complicated. In this passage is a clear understanding that Jesus in human flesh had a divine will and a human will but in His humanity He deferred to the will of God the Father.

 

O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

 

Jesus was fully human and fully God. In His humanity He could experience physical pain and suffering but in His divinity, of course, He could not. It is His humanity that brings us closer to God the Father as He is the link between man and God. The Creator becomes like His creation.

 

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

 

Here is a statement of fact that for all of our desires to do right, to be brave, to serve God, our flesh usually betrays us.

 

This was the plan that Satan tried to derail in his temptations of Christ. Christ has now prepared Himself for His betrayal and eventual suffering on the Cross by teaching us lessons about God’s will and its supremacy over ours and the weakness of our own flesh. There are many things you could take away from this passage but my thinking is that the most important one was the picture of Christ’s humanity. No other representation of deity can empathize with our own suffering and frail humanhood like Christ. This is part of the brilliance of God’s plan. We cannot say that God doesn’t know how we feel. He has experienced our extremes of suffering in His flesh as the man Jesus, the bridge between humankind and God.

Bible Study on Exodus 4, verses 1 to 9, a warning about translating words

 

Exodus 4:1 ¶  And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. 2  And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3  And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4  And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: 5  That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. 6  And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. 7  And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. 8  And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9  And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

Moses expresses his doubts. The elders of Israel will not believe him, he says. But, God shows him a touch of the power that God will work through him. Here is an important point about Hebrew as well as Greek words.

The Holy Spirit, through Moses, uses the Hebrew word, naw-khawsh, for serpent, the same word used for the serpent who is Satan in the garden. But, in 7:9 & 10 serpent will be translated from tan-neem, which also is used in other places for a dragon or even a whale. But in 7:15 we come back to naw-khawsh again for serpent. As we have seen in Greek from our study of books in the New Testament it is pointless to look at a Hebrew or a Greek word and state that this or that is its exact meaning when the context determines meaning and while one word can be used for different ideas, more than one word can be used for the same idea. A study of the word, love, in the Greek text of the New Testament will produce little understanding if one runs off on a rabbit trail trying to use those words to delineate different kinds of love. The kind of love the Holy Spirit is explaining will depend on the context, not on the Greek word.

For instance, in the following passage different words for love are used and a great many mental gymnastics with the original Greek will take you off the road of understanding into the mire of the meaning of Greek words. For instance, several different Greek words are used for love in the New Testament but they all, in context, mean what we think of as love, not, though, the erotic or romantic kind.

After the resurrection, in John 21:15-17 Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him, which calls into sharp, painful memory that Peter had denied His Lord three times as Jesus predicted He would. And there are many other great sermons from that passage, I'm sure.

Here, a person who pretends to be a Greek expert is about to burst. He excitedly points out that the first and second time Jesus asks the question He uses the word Agape' for to love someone from esteem or respect and also used for divine love. Each of those times Peter responds with Phileo, the love that comes from friendship or brotherly love. The last time Jesus Himself uses Phileo and once again Peter responds with the same. The pseudo-scholar will say that this lends much more meaning to the conversation because Jesus is asking for a different kind of love, a divine love, which Peter is not capable of and this reflects a fundamental failure in mankind's capacity or willingness to love God in the right way blah, blah, blah.

What the person who likes to think he is more intelligent and knowledgeable than a Christian janitor who can read English has done is to reveal his own ignorance. Agape' and Phileo are words for love that are used interchangeably. No extra insight into these verses is gained by playing ping pong with them. In Matthew 6:5 hypocrites Phileo to pray standing in the synagogues, in Matthew 19:19 you are told to Agape' your neighbor as yourself, John 15:19 says the world won't Phileo the disciples, 1 Corinthians 16:22 says that if any man Phileo not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha, and when we are repeatedly told to love our neighbor as ourselves with Agape' the Scriptures in no way imply that this is superior to our brotherly love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I doubt anyone would imply that the kind of love Jesus says we are to have for each other, which distinguishes us as His followers, is inferior to the love we are supposed to have for a stranger who is in need.

Titus 3:4 doesn't have the love of God our Saviour toward man as Agape'. Paul's admonition in Titus 3:15 isn't Agape'. 1 Peter 1:22 uses both words for the same thought with Phileo first and then Agape'. Does knowing this change your understanding of the text? Does it help you know what you are to do? Is your lack of access or availability of access to the Greek a determinant of your ability to understand God's words? Finally, in Revelation 3:19 does it matter to you that Jesus Phileos here?

So, trust your English Bible and don’t be concerned about unbelieving preachers choking on nuances of meanings, offering “nuggets” of wisdom from the original languages that simply aren’t there.

Serpent is a serpent whichever Hebrew word for such a creature serpent comes from.

The incident of changing Moses’ rod into a serpent and back again is for the purpose of convincing the elders of the children of Israel, not the Pharaoh. Again, in the turning of his hand leprous and then healing him the purpose is to provide him a sign to show the Hebrews.

The Jews required a sign, Paul wrote.

1Corinthians 1:22  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks [Gentiles] seek after wisdom:

And God revealed Himself in signs and wonders on Egypt.

Deuteronomy 6:22  And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:

The third and last sign to convince the elders of Israel was to take water from the Nile and pour it onto the ground. It would become blood.

Bible Study on Matthew 26, verses 14 to 25, Judas betrays Christ to the chief priests

 

Matthew 26:14 ¶  Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15  And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16  And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

 

Judas Iscariot means Judas of Kerioth, according to Strong’s dictionary. Kerioth was a city of ancient Moab. Moab would be in Southern Jordan today.

 

See the prophecy of this betrayal in Zechariah.

 

Zechariah 11:12  And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13  And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

 

Also see Jeremiah 18, which will be alluded to in the next chapter referring to this betrayal. Some say the reason that Jeremiah and not Zechariah will be mentioned later is the way the scrolls of the Hebrew Bible were put together and read at that time with the section on The Prophets beginning with Jeremiah so it would natural to refer to that scroll as Jeremiah.

 

Matthew 26:17 ¶  Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? 18  And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. 19  And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover. 20  Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. 21  And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22  And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? 23  And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 24  The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. 25  Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.

 

Here is yet another example of an anonymous person performing a singular task that furthers God’s plan along. We know nothing about this person’s life but that he had been chosen by God to provide a place for this last Passover meal of Jesus and His Apostles and was probably a follower of Christ who must have heard Christ foretell that He would be sacrificed. He tells them to tell the man My time is at hand, that is, near or soon.

 

The disciples prepared the meal and Christ sat down with them for this momentous occasion and only He knew it was their last meal together before His crucifixion and resurrection.

 

He announced that one of them would betray Him. Then, Judas, knowing full well it was Him tested Christ’s knowledge of hidden things asking Him if it was Judas who would betray Him. Jesus announced, “you said it.”

 

Now as I have said previously, I did not want to make this a harmonization of the gospels but Matthew doesn’t tell the whole story or go into a great detail about the Last Supper in some of the aspects that other gospels do. What seems to be important from His memory and confirmed by the Holy Spirit is that Judas understood that Jesus knew he was the traitor. Judas is not mentioned in the rest of the chapter and we have other gospels saying that he left when he was identified by Christ. We will get to the account in John, chapter 13, which is more complete.

Bible Study on Exodus 3, verses 16 to 22, God gives Moses instructions

 

Exodus 3:16 ¶  Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: 17  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 18  And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 19  And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. 20  And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. 21  And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: 22  But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

God gives Moses instructions. Imagine the thoughts of the elders of Israel as this fugitive from Pharaoh’s court, wanted for murder, having disappeared for years not only returns but announces that Jehovah God, the God their fathers worshipped appeared to him and is intent upon delivering them from the bondage of Egypt and returning them to Canaan. It is a bountiful land and a land in which they will prosper. He and the elders are to go to confront Pharaoh, the most powerful man in their world with the power of life and death over them from whom there is no appeal, and demand that the people of Israel be permitted to go three days journey into the wilderness to engage in an act of worship to their God. God also tells him that Pharaoh will not let them go until a magnificent display of power from God forces him to do so. In fact, the Egyptians will be glad to get rid of them and will bestow on them much wealth and personal property in the form of precious jewels and valuable things.

You can imagine Moses’ consternation. You want me to what?!?! Here is an encounter between a finite, frail human being and the God of the universe. See things from each of their perspectives, not knowing versus all-knowing. Moses, in a movie setting, might be looking around for a rock to hide behind.

This brings up a valuable point. Notice that God tells Moses to lie to the Pharaoh. Even though it is highly unlikely that Pharaoh would release his slaves to wander into lands that are the possession of city-states subordinate to him and dependent on his army for protection, in the land of Canaan, the demand is only to let them go three days journey into the wilderness to worship God. This clears up the age-old nonsense question that philosophers and skeptics ask, “would a Christian hiding a Jew in their house be committing a sin if he lied to the Nazis and said he was not hiding a Jew?” When life is on the line and great injustice is being opposed what do you think? Are you justified in self-righteous smugness at saying, “I have not lied,” when you have allowed someone to suffer or die because of your feigned Godliness? This is not situational ethics, but simple common-sense. A lie told to save an innocent person’s life, to keep from crushing a person’s sense of self-worth and value, or to generally prevent a greater evil from taking place may be necessary at some point in your life.

As an example of hyperliteralism there are many heartless Christians who will say that since God has ordained marriage and proscribed divorce, except in very narrow circumstances and where the privilege of remarriage is denied, they would tell an abused woman who is beaten down and whose life is in danger and even the lives of her children that she is sinning if she divorces her abuser. This way of looking at God’s word is clearly not the way God looks at it. Religion, like all systems of living and philosophies, does attract people who are rigid in their thinking and liberal in their self-righteousness. By focusing on such strict understanding of what God says He wants they can then overlook greater sins in their own lives.

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.

Do what you know is right but as you form the way your convictions interact with your daily decisions keep in mind God's greater purpose.

But, back to the text, God knows what this Pharaoh will do. In fact, He has prepared this Pharaoh for this purpose.

Exodus 9:16  And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

Paul refers to this in Romans but reveals to us the power of the written word of God giving us more to think about regarding the book we hold in our hands;

Romans 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

But, God will set up a scene for the display of His power and of His identity to the world of that time and for the future.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

In God’s ministry of reconciling man to Himself He has prepared a time when He will reveal who He is through His power over reality to the world at that time and to all of history.

Bible Study on Matthew 26, verses 1 to 13, the devotion of an anonymous woman

 

Matthew 26:1 ¶  And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, 2  Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 3  Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4  And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. 5  But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.

 

Jesus repeats the warning that He will be betrayed and crucified.

 

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:

 

Matthew 20:18  Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 19  And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

 

And in this passage we see one part of the conspiracy to kill Him. Being political to the utmost and crafty politicians the priests, scribes, and elders along with the chief priest, Caiaphas conspire together.

 

Matthew 26:6 ¶  Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7  There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 8  But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9  For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10  When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11  For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12  For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13  Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

 

As I have said earlier I didn’t want to make this study a harmonization of the gospels as different eyewitness accounts will contain a slightly different version of events witnessed. For practical purposes I’m going in the assumption that this isn’t Mary, Lazarus’ sister from John 12:3, that this is a different event though similar. This woman in this account in Matthew, like so many other figures in the Bible, is not named but holds a special place in God’s heart and performs a special role. We know nothing of her life from Matthew, how long or short it may have been, or how happy or sad it may have been. But we know that she has been remembered throughout the ages as performing this token of compassion and devotion on the Saviour of mankind.

 

Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem. See John 11:18. Simon the leper must have been cured or he would not have been allowed to live in a town, John Gill said.  Gill also remarked about the actions of this woman in his commentary found free online.

 

The pouring of this ointment on the head of Christ was emblematical of his being anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows; of his having the holy Spirit, and his gifts and graces without measure; which, like the ointment poured on Aaron's head, that ran down to his beard, and the skirts of his garments, descends to all the members of his mystical body: and was a symbol of the Gospel, which is like ointment poured forth; and of the sweet savour of the knowledge of Christ, which was to be diffused, throughout all the world, by the preaching of it; and was done by this woman in the faith of him, as the true Messiah, the Lord's anointed, as the prophet, priest, and king of his church.[1]

 

Such a box of ointment, if it was a pound as in John 12, could have cost a year’s wages, or so I have read. It was very expensive.

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[1] https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/matthew-26-7.html

Bible Study on Exodus 3, verses 11 to 15, I AM THAT I AM

 

Exodus 3:11 ¶  And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12  And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. 13  And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15  And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

Moses begins to express his self-doubt and lack of confidence that he is the person who can do this job. God reassures him. In the exchange God tells Moses to tell the people of Israel who He is, simply I AM THAT I AM. God simply is. He is the source of all reality, time, space, and matter, of things invisible and visible, simply of all that can be said to exist and yet He is beyond that, too. God lives in eternity, limitless time, not one event after another that go on forever but where all events that we would consider past, present, and future are now.

Isaiah 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

It is mind-boggling for us constrained in a finite body and mind. We learned in the Book of Job that all events, no matter how seemingly trivial, result from His direct will or by His permissive will. This is who He is. Nothing can happen from dust forming into a clod of dirt in a farmer’s field to a star bursting into a nova millions of light-years from earth without His involvement. He is the God their fathers worshipped. Please see my comments on Genesis 1:1.

When Christ stated these words a crowd fell back.

John 18:1 ¶  When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. 2  And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. 3  Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4  Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? 5  They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. 6  As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

            Christ also identified Himself to the Jews;

John 8:56  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57  Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 59  Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

 

            Christ identified Himself to His disciples;

 

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?

 

Since Adam’s falling away from God by his disobedience men and women had been creating their own religions to appeal to the God-shaped space in their spirits that nothing else but God can fill. It is part of mankind’s legacy to believe in a world that is not part of this world of the flesh and matter. But the God who created them has begun a work of reconciling man to Himself and we watched this progress through Genesis. Now, He is going to intrude Himself in a very visible way into the existence of the world’s great superpower, Egypt. If we take the Bible as the record of God’s ministry of reconciliation what is happening is amazingly clear.

Most of mankind is the enemy of the God who created them. God is making peace but in a way that, when eternity comes for us, we will know that we had nothing to do with it but to respond in a way that God already knew we would. He has that advantage of seeing the future as well as the past.

Moses is being recruited to play his part in a monumental work, perhaps the most important work of world history before Christ’s resurrection and after creation itself.

Bible Study on Matthew 25, verses 31 to 46, of judgment to come

 

Matthew 25:31 ¶  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

 

This is clearly starting out with a statement of Christ’s return to take over the kingdoms of the world.

 

Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

 

This is the judgment on the nations of the earth at the beginning of His millennial reign. Look how they are being judged by their treatment of God’s people, a treatment witnessed in our discussion on the Revelation. With the church removed and the saved Jews and Gentiles who come to Christ in the Tribulation being persecuted by the Beast and Satan here the nations are judged by their apathy and acquiescence in the persecution and murder of these saved faithful, one might assume, of any Jews and Gentiles who believed on Christ during the horror to come. I don’t think it is necessary to reprint my comments on Revelation but I would suggest going back and reading or listening to them. Those who participated in the persecution by the Beast and Satan by their consent to the atrocities committed will be reserved for the Great White Throne judgment and their final and eternal destruction in a lake of unquenchable fire for the soul. Notice a description of Hell in Luke 16, the continuation which will be for eternity in the Lake of Fire.

 

There are those commentators, like John Gill, who believe that these are all professing Christians of every nation; the goats; the tares mentioned in the parable of the tares and the wheat and the sheep; the true Christians. Here is what separates them, how they treated other Christians, formerly both Jew and Gentile, or rather if they acquiesced to their torture. These are things to contemplate and pray about.