The Meal
Matthew 26:17-30
The Meal
Matthew 26:17-30
Main Idea: The Lord’s Supper reminds us of Jesus’ substitutionary and sacrificial death until he returns.
I. The Shadow of Passover (26:17-19)
Surrounding Jesus’ final meal with his disciples is the observance of Passover. This was the high point of the Jewish calendar, as Passover was the most significant of their feasts and festivals in remembrance of God’s great deliverance of his people from slavery.
Exodus 12:14: This day [Passover] shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever.
As the Israelites observed Passover in Jerusalem annually, each component of the meal was infused with symbolism and significance:
Unleavened bread (to remember their hasty exit from Egypt)
Bitter herbs (to remember their time of bitterness)
Cup of salt water (to remember their tears in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea)
4 cups of wine (to remember the four promises of Exodus 6:6-7)
A lamb (to remember their deliverance by the blood)
II. The Sorrow of Sin (26:20-25)
In this intimate setting, Jesus prepares his disciples for his impending betrayal. Though this was in the sovereign plan of God (“as it is written of him”), it does not lessen the responsibility of this sinful action by Judas. The response of the other disciples (“Is it I, Lord?”) shows a humble awareness of their own capacity to sin, and established the need for this meal in the first place.
Matthew 26:31: Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
It is essential to keep together these two complementary ways of looking at the cross. On the human level, Judas gave him up to the priests, who gave him up to Pilate, who gave him up to the soldiers, who crucified him. But on the divine level, the Father gave him up, and he gave himself up, to die for us. As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both, “I did it, my sins sent him there,” and “He did it, his love took him there.
~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ
III. The Substance of Christ (26:26-30)
As Jesus presides over the Passover meal, he breaks from the script and the story to insert himself: “this is my body… this is my blood of the covenant.” As the fulfillment of Passover, Jesus presents his impending death and crucifixion as:
Sacrificial (cf. John 1:29, 1 Cor. 5:7b; 1 Peter 1:18-19)
Substitutionary
The concept of substitution may be said to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.
~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ
1 Corinthians 11:26: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
[The Lord’s Supper] is a happy remembrance. Our remembrance of Christ is chastened with repentance, but it is also perfumed with faith. The Lord’s Supper is no funeral meal, but a festival; it is not a fast, but a feast. My happiest moments are spent with the King at his table, when his banner over me is love. The death of Christ is a well-spring of solemn joy
~ Charles Spurgeon, “The Blood Shed for Many”
Don't Shoot the Messenger!
Malachi
Don’t shoot the messenger!
malachi
Main Idea: God loves us and calls us to trust his promises and worship him with all of life.
I. Remember God’s Love (Malachi 1:2-5)
Mal. 1:2–5: “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord.
Rom. 8:35, 38–39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
II. Honoring God’s Name (Malachi 1:6-3:18)
Mal. 1:6: A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
1. Honor God in Worship (1:6-2:6)
Your sacrifices are blemished (1:7-11)
Your attitude is apathetic (1:12-13)
You have fallen short of your glorious purpose (1:14)
You approach God with irreverence (2:1-4)
You have been unfaithful in your teaching (2:5-9)
We become what we worship.
2. Honor God in Relationships (2:10-16)
Mal. 2:10–16: Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god…You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
We worship in our relationships.
3. Honor God with Your Wealth (3:6-12)
Mal. 3:6–12: “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
We worship with our wallet.
III. Trust God’s Promises (Malachi 4:1-6)
Mal. 4:1-6: For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
The prophets cry out from the wilderness, and Jesus Christ answers.
Clothing, Cleansing, and Commissioning
Zechariah
Clothing, Cleansing, and Commissioning
zechariah
Main Idea: Christ has clothed us in righteousness, cleansed us from sin, and commissioned us as royal priests.
I. Dirty Clothes (3:1-3)
The prophet Zechariah is given a vision of a heavenly courtroom scene, where Joshua (the high priest) stands before the Lord, with “Satan” (lit. ‘the accuser’ or ‘the adversary’) standing ready to accuse (cf. Rev. 12:9-10; Job 1-2).
Satan does not even need to make a case against Joshua, however, because he is “clothed with filthy garments” (cf. Isa. 28:8; 64:6; Deut. 23:13). Since the high priest was to be the representative of the people before a holy and righteous God, Joshua is clearly unfit for this work, meaning the people also stand condemned.
Joshua, representing Jerusalem and God’s people, is compared to a “brand (stick) plucked from the fire.” Though they had returned to the land from the purifying fires of exile, they needed to return in their hearts to the Lord (cf. 1:3-6). Their return from exile was the beginning of a gracious “rebuke” against the accuser.
II. Righteous Robes (3:4-5)
Before the accuser begins his attack, the “angel of the Lord” orders that Joshua’s filthy garments be removed, a powerful picture of the promise: “I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments” (cf. Isa. 61:10; Lk. 15:22; Rev. 7:9, 14; 19:8). His external cleansing is a symbol of his internal cleansing from sin.
This “angel of the Lord” is likely the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus, who “lives to make intercession” (Heb. 7:25) on behalf of God’s people:
Romans 8:33-34: Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
1 John 2:1: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
It is before Christ that sin is to be confessed. Confess it anywhere else, your sorrow is not repentance but remorse… Remorse is repentance made out of sight of Jesus; true repentance is sorrow of sin in the presence of Christ. Foul and filthy as you are, there is but one voice which can speak you clean. Go not away from that voice. There is but one hand which can touch you and make you pure; stand where that hand is close to you, and still, filthy as your garments are, shun not the face of your best, your only friend.
~ Charles Spurgeon, “Zechariah’s Vision of Joshua the High Priest”
III. Royal Priests (3:6-10)
As Joshua and his “friends” (priests) are (re)commissioned to serve as priests they were a “sign” (3:8) of greater realities God would bring about:
The temple would be restored, signifying Yahweh’s commitment to his promises and his people (cf. 4:10)
The Lord would send his servant, “the Branch” (cf. Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5-6; 33:14-26), a messianic, royal, Davidic figure.
The “iniquity of the land” will be removed in a “single day” (cf. Lev. 16; Zech. 12:10; 13:1)
Hebrews 10:1–4, 11-14: For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins… And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
In that “day” (of the Lord) after all of this is accomplished, the priests will “invite his neighbor” to come into a renewed land of peace (1 Ki. 4:25; Mic. 4:4). Zechariah will later prophesy that these “neighbors” are the nations themselves coming to the New Jerusalem on the Day of the Lord (2:11; 8:20-23, 14:16).
Zechariah’s vision of Joshua is a small picture of the greater experience of all God’s people; by faith, we have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness, cleansed from sin by Christ’s finished work, and commissioned as a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9) in Christ’s coming Kingdom, inviting others to share in the blessings of salvation.
So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!
~ Martin Luther
Four Days, Three Months, and Four Oracles
Haggai
Four Days, Three Months, and Four Oracles
Haggai
Main Idea: The Lord’s past faithfulness brings present comfort in His future promises.
I. Stirred to Faithfulness (1:1-15)
It was not a remarkable year in terms of the secular history of the time, but it was a spiritual watershed in the history of God’s people and the unfolding of the divine plan of redemption. God sent the prophet to stir up the community in Jerusalem to new obedience, and his ministry was blessed with revival. The record of those months is a memorial to God’s grace and a challenge to the obedience of subsequent generations.
~ John l. Mackey, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi: God’s Restored People
1 Peter 2:4 - 5: As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
II. Strength for the Work (2:1 - 5)
The work of building God’s kingdom can often seem “as nothing” in our eyes. Periods of difficult and apparently unfruitful ministry might cause those with long memories to hark back to the “glory days” of old, de-energizing ministry in the present.
~ ESV Expository Commentary
III. Security for the Future (2:6 - 9)
Ezra 6:6–10: Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 2:18–22: So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Ephesians 2:13–22: But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
From Judgement to Joy
Zephaniah
From Judgement to JOy
zephaniah
Main Idea: Seek the Lord and rejoice in His salvation.
I. The Warning: Judgment of the Lord
As in several of the other Minor Prophets, the expression that is frequently used to describe this time of God’s punishment on the sins of the people is the “Day of the Lord”. Zephaniah, more than any other of the Minor Prophets, uses this expression - 14x in chapter 1 alone (sometimes “on that day” or “a day.”)
Zephaniah 1:14-15: The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
The scope of this “day” of judgment can be understood by imagining four concentric, geographical circles:
Jerusalem (at the center; 1:10)
Judah (1:4, 14)
The nations surrounding Judah (2:4-15; Philistia, Moab and Ammon, Cush, and Assyria)
On all people (1:2-3, 18)
2 Peter 3:7–10: But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
II. The Command: Seek the Lord
Zephaniah 2:1-3: Gather together, yes, gather,
O shameless nation,
before the decree takes effect
—before the day passes away like chaff—
before there comes upon you
the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you
the day of the anger of the Lord.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the Lord.
The call to repentance in Zephaniah is in three movements:
The call to Judah (2:1-2): seek the Lord before the day of judgment comes
The call to repentance (2:3a): seek the Lord, seek righteousness, and seek humility
The result of repentance (2:3b): hidden on the day of the Lord
III. The Promise: The Joy of the Lord (3:14-20)
Not only are the warnings of judgment an incentive to seek the Lord, but a second incentive is given: a glorious vision of the future for those that do trust in God, for those who “seek refuge in the name of the Lord” (3:12). The Day of the Lord has “two parts” - it is not only a time of God’s punishment, it is also a time of God’s salvation.
With the shadows of judgment looming, Zephaniah’s greatest motivation for patiently pursuing God comes in his glorious vision of future hope that is held out for all who persevere in faith. Growing out of the fires of judgment will come a new creation that will include transformed worshipers from the nations of the world (Zeph. 3:8–10). And with God’s wrath now satisfied, having been poured out on the sinners or on the Substitute, the implications of this renewal are glorious for the faithful remnant of Judah.
~ Jason DeRouchie, We Are Made for Praise
This salvation is totally from God (3:18-20 - 8x ‘I will’), which is the reason to “rejoice and exult with all your heart” (3:14), because “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save” (3:17).
The safety and happiness of knowing God as ever-loving and ever-present will satisfy the deepest, most desperate longings in your soul. When you meet this God and know more and more of him, you won’t have to tell your heart to rejoice. It will be full and overflowing. Joy is the spontaneous song of the saved, the never-ending condition of the acquitted.
~Marshall Segal, “A Dream Come True in Corporate Worship”
Remarkably, this passage is not only about our joy in the Lord, but it is also about the Lord’s joy in us!
Zeph. 3:14: Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.Zeph. 3:17: He [the Lord] will rejoice over you with gladness; for he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
Living by Faith
Habakkuk
Living by Faith
Habakkuk
Main Idea: As we experience the burdens of life, we are to wait on the Lord with a patient faith.
I. The Language of Lament (1:1-17)
The ‘oracle’ (lit. ‘burden’) felt and seen by Habakkuk drives him to ‘complain’ to God in a prayer of lament. As he cries out to the Lord “how long” and “why” he feels that God is silent (1:2a), distant (1:2b), and indifferent (1:3) while “justice is perverted” in Judah (1:4). The prophet is wrestling with why the wicked are going unpunished in his midst.
God answers Habakkuk (1:5-11) in an unexpected way that will cause “wonder” and “astonishment.” The Lord will raise up the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to bring his righteous judgements to bear on Judah (cf. Jer. 5:14-17; 25:9). He emphasizes the pride, viciousness, violence, and quickness in which Babylon will bring this about.
This raises a second complaint & lament from Habakkuk (1:12-17), as the prophet wrestles with what he knows to be theologically true about God (1:12-13a) while expressing the disorientation he experiences with this response. He affirms God’s character, while questioning his actions. How could the Lord use such a wicked nation like Babylon to punish a less wicked nation like Judah?
To cry is human, but to lament is Christian… Belief in God’s mercy, redemption, and sovereignty create lament. Without hope in God’s deliverance and the conviction that he is all-powerful, there would be no reason to lament when pain invaded our lives… Lament is rooted in what we believe. It is a prayer loaded with theology. Christians affirm that the world is broken, God is powerful, and he will be faithful. Lament stands in the gap between pain and promise... To learn how to lament, we must resolve to talk to God and to keep praying.
~ Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament
II. The Life of Faith (2:1-20)
Chapter 2 reveals that the life of faith is marked by two realities:
1. Patience (2:1-3)
After his complaint has been lodged to the Lord, Habakkuk takes up his ‘stand’ at the “watchtower,” waiting for a response from God. The Lord instructs him to “write down” this vision, which will come in its “appointed time.” “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay” (2:3b; cf 2 Pet. 3:8-9).
You cannot judge God by your calendar. God may appear to be slow, but he never forgets his promises. He may seem to be working slowly or even to be forgetting his promises, but when his promises come true (and they will come true), they always burst the banks of what you imagined… God’s grace virtually never operates on our time frame, on a schedule we consider reasonable. He does not follow our agendas or schedules. God seems to forget his promises, but he comes through in ways we can’t imagine before it happens.
~ Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas
2. Humility (2:4-5)
The pride of Babylon (2:4a, 5) is set against the humility of the righteous who live by faith (2:4b; cf. Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11, Heb. 10:27-28). The Lord here is inviting Habakkuk to “lay down the melancholy burden of assumed omniscience” (Tim Keller), and instead embrace the mystery of dependent faith.
Habakkuk does not know why God is doing what he is doing with the Babylonians. He only knows that God is doing it… The mystery of faith is borne in prayer and suffering. It is embraced in both, because God may take his follower to extraordinary depths of pain and confusion. The whys and hows of human experience in God's world are often never answered. And sometimes, Habakkuk teaches, when God does answer, it raises even more questions. But this little poem teaches how humans are deeply formed, from the inside out, in the mystery of faith. Our questions call out for response. But finally, the word that God offers is extraordinarily a word of rest and peace, even if it means our suffering and a "day of distress." Habakkuk calls its readers to abandon themselves to divine providence. God is not safe, but he is good. He is the King.
~ Heath Thomas & Craig Bartholomew, The Minor Prophets
III. Longing for the Day (3:1-19)
After the Lord’s response to the prophet’s lament, Habakkuk responds with a prayer-psalm (cf. Ps. 7). Throughout this prayer, the prophet is recalling the mighty visitations of the Lord to his people in dire circumstances, where “in wrath he remembered mercy” (3:2). His remembrance of past grace gives birth to future hope.
The Temptation
Matthew 4:1-11
The Temptation
matthew 4:1-11
I. The Challenge of Identity: Provide For Yourself (4:1-4)
II. The Craving of Validation: Prove Yourself (4:5-7)
III. The Contest of Futures: Promote Yourself (4:8-11)
The Good News of Judgment
Nahum
The Good News of Judgment
Nahum
Main Idea: God's judgment is Good News for those in Jesus Christ
I. God's Judgment Provides our Refuge (1:2-8)
In order to know how we can find refuge in God's judgment, we must know God's character.
Psalm 9:9-10: The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
The justice of God must be satisfied; and this will be either in the sinner's person or in the person of Christ, the surety.
~ Jonathan Edwards
II. God's Judgment Plows our Enemies (1:9-14)
God's judgment puts to death external forces that oppress us and the sin that oppresses us from within.
Romans 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Much like Nahum exposed the self-serving and self-destructive nature of Nineveh’s idolatrous imperialism, Christians should critique the many forms in which individuals, groups, and whole cultures usurp God’s prerogative in defining the human being as self-governing, without an innate knowledge of God, and fully capable of achieving perfect happiness by oneself.
~ Daniel Timmer
III. God's Judgment Paves the Way for our Pilgrimage Home (1:15)
God's judgment in Christ gives us certainty that we will make it through the perils of this life to our heavenly home.
Revelation 19:6-9: Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up, heart; let’s neither faint nor fear.~ John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress
Who is Like the Lord?
Micah
Who is like the lord?
Micah
Main Idea: We are to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly because of the Lord’s gracious redemption.
I. The Lord’s Rebuttal (6:1-5)
Micah 6 describes a courtroom setting with the Lord as the plaintiff, Micah serving as the prosecuting attorney, Israel as the defendant, and the “mountains” called as witnesses (cf. Dt. 4:26, 30:19, 31:28).
The specific indictments against Israel have already been given in Micah:
Idolatry (1:7)
Oppressing the vulnerable (2:1-2)
Robbing refugees and taking advantage of widows (2:8-9)
Unjust & violent civil leaders who take bribes (3:1-3, 9-11)
False prophets driven by greed (3:5-7)
The rich dealing in deceit and violence (6:9-12)
Israel has accused the Lord of ‘wearying’ them (6:3). The Lord’s rebuts that rather than wearying them, he has provided:
Redemption in the Exodus (6:4a)
Leadership through Moses, Aaron, & Miriam (6:4b)
Blessing through Balak & Balaam (6:5a; cf. Num. 22-24)
Safe entry into the Promised Land (6:5b; cf. Josh. 2-4)
God had always found it easier to get his people out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of his people. The words I … ‘redeemed you’ (6:4) were wonderful, but it now looked as though they had become a memory, not a motivation… Remembering in the Bible is not merely a matter of calling to mind, but of actualizing the past into the present. That kind of remembering brings events so vividly into people’s experience that they take part in them afresh for themselves. Remembrance equals participation.
~ David Prior, The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God
II. The Lord’s Requirement (6:6-8)
Micah’s rhetorical question (“With what shall I come before the Lord”) reveals the concerning spiritual state of God’s people; they were willfully ignorant of what God had clearly communicated.
Micah presents an elaborate list of increasingly extravagant sacrifices. The people wrongly assumed that God’s presence among them assured his blessing and protection (3:11), and that they could “appease” God with their offerings for the “sin of their soul” (cf. Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21-24, Mt. 23:23-24).
The Lord reminds his people what is “good” and what he has already told them:
1. Do justice (mishpat) (cf. Isa. 1:17). Justice has a number of categories and associations in the OT related to “neighbor love:”
Punitive / Retributive Justice (Lev. 24:19-20)
Structural / Commutative Justice (Lev. 19:15-18, 24:22)
Restorative Justice (Prov. 31:8-9; Deut. 10:18-19)
Generous Justice (Lev. 19:9-10; 25:8-17)
The righteous (just) are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.
~ Bruce Waltke
2. Love kindness (hesed). This speaks not to the actions of justice, but a heart and an attitude that loves to treat others with mercy, kindness, and grace.
3. Walk humbly with your God. Humility (attentive, careful living) is necessary in order to “do justice” and “love mercy.” Humility is a life of remembering how God has generously acted toward us, the undeserving, as we walk with Christ.
In the mind of the OT prophets as well as the teaching of Jesus, an encounter with grace inevitably leads to a life of justice. [The prophets] all leveled the charge that, while the people attended worship, observed all religious regulations, and took pride in their biblical knowledge, nevertheless they took advantage of the weak and vulnerable. The prophets concluded, therefore, that their religious activity was not just insufficient: it was deeply offensive to God. The implications of this accusation are clear. Justice is not just one more thing that needs to be added to the people’s portfolio of religious behavior. A lack of justice is a sign that the worshippers’ hearts are not right with God at all, that their prayers and all their religious observance are just filled with self and pride… In Jesus’ view, this revealed that they did not know God or his grace at all.
~ Tim Keller, Generous Justice
III. The Lord’s Remnant (7:18-20)
As we humbly walk with God, we become more like him who has “righteousness and justice as the foundation of his throne” (Ps. 89:14) and who “delights in steadfast love (hesed)” (7:18). Rather than abusing or exploiting his power and authority, Jesus Christ comes in the incarnation to show us what the Lord “requires” and what is “good.”
Philippians 2:3–5: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…
These wonderful promises of redemption are all given before the coming of Christ. These truths find their ultimate fulfillment in his finished work, as the “yes and amen” (2 Cor. 1:20) of all the promises of God sworn to Abraham and the fathers from the “days of old,” now given to the “remnant of his inheritance” (cf. 2:12, 4:7, 5:7-8).
The Boat, The Fish, The Cow, and The Worm
Jonah
The Boat, The Fish, The Cow, and The Worm
Jonah
Main Idea: Although we run, Jesus rescues and recommissions us to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
I. Jonah Runs from God (Jonah 1)
Jonah 1:1–2: Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.
Jonah 1:3: Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah is okay preaching to sinners like him, but he’s not okay with preaching to sinners like them.
Jonah 1:4–6: But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. [Jonah gives them a plan of action]. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore, they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”
In their attempts to lighten the ship’s cargo, they proved that the weight of Jonah’s disobedience was the heaviest burden.
~ John Chrysostom
Jonah 1:15–16: So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
You can run, you can hide, but you can’t escape God’s presence.
Jonah 1:17: And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
II. Jonah Rescued by God (Jonah 2)
Matthew 12:40: For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
How you respond to this will depend on how you read the rest of the Bible. If you accept the existence of God and the resurrection of Christ, a far greater miracle, then there is nothing particularly difficult about reading Jonah literally. Certainly many people today believe all miracles are impossible, but that skepticism is just that—belief that itself can’t be proven. Not only that, but the text doesn’t show evidence of the author having made up the miracle account. A fiction writer ordinarily adds supernatural elements in order to create excitement or spectacle and to capture reader attention, but this writer doesn’t capitalize on the event at all in that way. The fish is mentioned only in two brief verses, and there are no descriptive details. It’s reported more as a simple fact of what happened. So let’s not get distracted by the fish.
~ Tim Keller, The Prodigal Prophet
Jonah 2:1–2: Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
Psalm 107:23-31: Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits' end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
Jonah 2:7–8: When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Jonah 2:9: But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
2 Timothy 3:15: … and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Jonah 2:10: And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited [vomit means vomit] Jonah out upon the dry land.
III. Jonah Recommissioned by God (Jonah 3)
Jonah 3:1–3: Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
1 Corinthians 6:9–11: Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Jonah 3:6–10: The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Jonah: Disobeyed God by fleeing to Tarshish and was swallowed by a great fish (Jonah 1:17).
Peter: Denied Jesus three times despite declaring his loyalty (Luke 22:61-62).
Jonah: Prayed from the belly of the fish and was delivered by God's mercy (Jonah 2:1-10).
Peter: After his denial, filled his belly with fish the morning Jesus restored him and commissioned him to care for His flock (John 21:15-17).
Jonah: God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, a major Assyrian city, to warn them of impending judgment (Jonah 1:1-2). Nineveh was a Gentile city and a long-time enemy of Israel.
Peter: God called Peter to preach to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, marking the inclusion of Gentiles into the early church (Acts 10:1-33).
Jonah: Instead of obeying, Jonah fled in the opposite direction to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3).
Peter: Peter initially resisted God’s vision of unclean animals, which symbolized the inclusion of the Gentiles, saying, "Surely not, Lord!" (Acts 10:13-16).
Jonah: Preached reluctantly, yet the entire city of Nineveh repented, leading to God's mercy (Jonah 3:5-10).
Peter: Preached to Cornelius and his household, and they received the Holy Spirit, leading to the official acceptance of Gentiles into the church (Acts 10:44-48).
Jonah: Was angry and bitter that God spared Nineveh, questioning His compassion (Jonah 4:1-3).
Peter: Rejoiced and defended God’s inclusion of the Gentiles when criticized by Jewish believers (Acts 11:1-18).
IV. Jonah Resentful Toward God. (Jonah 4)
Jonah 4:1: But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
Jonah had a PhD in theology, but he’s in grammar school when it comes to having the heart of God.
Jonah 4:2: And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Matthew 12:40–41: For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.