Mark 1:12-13

“Notice what you notice.” Sorry for a late post today, folks. Things happen! So today only two verses – Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark is not at all detailed in his account of the content of the temptations. He has nothing to say about the content. However, he includes one item that the other two synoptics do not include – wild beasts.

I had never thought about wild beasts in connection with Jesus in the wilderness. But when we think more fully about it, in the OT there are a number of occasions where we see lions in Palestine: “The presence of the lion in the land of Palestine is shown in the historical narratives in which the lion actually appears, most of which are well-known to all of us. Such familiar incidents include Samson’s empty-handed slaying of the lion in the vineyards of Timnath (Judges 14:5, 6); David’s combat with a lion in defense of his flock (I Sam. 17:23); the slaughter of a lion in a pit in winter by one of David’s notable companions in hiding (II Sam. 23:20); and the tribe of lions which, sent by the Lord, descended upon godless Samaria and killed some of them (II Kings 17:25), as well as the destruction of the disobedient prophet by a lion, mentioned in I Kings 13…” (https://standardbearer.rfpa.org/node/46784). We also have the story of two female bears killing 42 boys (2 Kings 2:23-24).

So, reading between the lines and with reference to OT texts, lions and bears were probably among those wild beasts that Jesus may have encountered in the wilderness. How did Jesus handle them? Matthew says that angels came and ministered to Him after the temptations while Mark says that angels were ministering to Him (verse 13, past continuous tense). Guardian angels? We have seen such “creatures” before in the OT (Ps. 34:6-7, 94:11) and we’ll see them again in the NT. Here we see them with Jesus. Can we see them with and around us?

Matthew 4:1-11

Moses and Elijah… When we see those two names together we are inclined to think of the Transfiguration or of Jesus’ references to “the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 5:17, 22:40).

Another connection with those two to Jesus is their unique “departures”. Jesus died, rose, and ascended; Moses died and the Lord buried him (Deuteronomy 34:6); and Elijah was “taken up to heaven” (2 Kings 2:1-11).

But a third connection is their “forty days and forty nights”. Moses was forty days and forty nights on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24:18-34:29). Elijah arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:8). And now we have Jesus in the wilderness forty days and forty nights (Mt. 4:2). Beyond observing these connections, I have nothing to add. “Moses, Elijah, Jesus” – sounds like a good book title.

The second item I noticed was Satan quoting Scripture (Mt. 4:6). He saw Jesus do it in verse 4 (Mt. 4:4) so he thought that was a good tactic. But Jesus refuted Satan’s Scripture quote with his own quotation in verse 7 (Mt. 4:7). The lesson: be careful not to use Scripture to satisfy your own ends.

Slava Bohu!

Luke 3:23-38

“Notice what you notice.” Not much today, Luke’s genealogy… I had already commented back on January 8 about some comparisons between the two accounts, Matthew’s and Luke’s. But I did notice three more small items. First, Luke has no women mentioned, while Matthew mentions four (Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary). Why? No idea…! Second, there are two more Josephs mentioned, in addition to Mary’s husband. I might not have seen that, except that my middle name is Joseph. Finally, I counted 76 human generations named in Luke. Matthew had only 42 – three sets of 14. Nothing special about Luke’s 76 (compared to Matthew’s 42), except that if you add God as a generation you get 77 – a play on 7, the number? Go figure.

Not much today…

Slava Bohu!

Luke 3:21-22 and John 1:29-34

“Notice what you notice.” Again today we have Jesus’ baptism, Luke’s and John’s accounts. Luke is quite short; he only adds in verse 21 that Jesus was praying at the time of His baptism. John, however, is (again) quite different from the Synoptics. First, he has his verse 29 greeting, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! My Study Bible says that this “Lamb of God” phrase occurs in the Bible only in verses 29 and 36. That was surprising to me.

But what I really noticed was a time frame confusion. John writes in verse 29, The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God…, presumably before Jesus was baptized since Jesus was coming toward him. It is then at Jesus’ actual baptism that John sees the Spirit descending (v. 33) and receives the confirmation? that Jesus is in fact …He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. So how did John know that Jesus was the Lamb of God before He was baptized? John says twice, I myself did not know Him… (vv. 31, 33). Again, my Study Bible suggests that John was referring to knowing Jesus “as the Messiah”.

My thought is that John probably knew Jesus from childhood – Mary and Elizabeth had their own spiritual relationship, plus Mary and Joseph may well have gone beyond Jerusalem to the “hill country of Judea” on some of their trips to the Temple. Then again, Elizabeth and Zacharias were advanced in years, so John may have been orphaned in his early years to the Essenes. That’s something I never thought about before! Always more reading between the lines and more questions!

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 3:13-17 and Mark 1:9-11

“Notice what you notice.” Today we have Jesus’ baptism. As I recall, until we get to the Last Supper, Jesus’ baptism is the only event in his life that is covered in all four Gospels. Our reading schedule splits the four Gospels into two sets of two, first Matthew and Mark, then Luke and John. You may want to read all four on both days, but let’s keep our comments directed to the readings of the day.

Each day I notice things that I’m sure I’ve seen before or that I’ve read dozens, maybe even hundreds of times, but never really noticed. Today it’s Jesus coming south from Galilee (Matthew), more specifically from Nazareth (Mark). Presumably He had come to Jerusalem with His parents up to three times a year, so He was not unaccustomed to the trip. The straighter road would have been directly south, but we have often heard that Jews from Galilee refused to go through Samaria, instead diverting east and traveling along the Jordan River. My guess is that the Holy Family varied their routes and took both roads irregularly. See the map below.

So if Jesus irregularly diverted east, could He have come upon John baptizing and passed him by because His time had not yet come? Or would this have been the first time that Jesus encountered John baptizing? And was John baptizing near the very mouth of the Jordan River, 20 miles east of Jerusalem, or was he baptizing further north, near Aenon/Salim? So many questions! And I’m not even touching on the most intriguing question, “…to fulfill all righteousness…”? What does that mean? I’ll leave that to John S.!

So Jesus came south from Nazareth to be baptized. Not a lot of food for thought today…!

Blessings!

John 1:19-28

“Notice what you notice.” So today we have John’s account of John the Baptist appearing in the wilderness. And it’s always intriguing to compare John’s account of events with the Synoptics. The other three largely agreed with one another and even shared the same words. John shares the same OT verse (Is. 40:3) and the strap of the sandal that he is not worthy to untie, but he has more detail than the others, especially the conversations between John and the Jewish delegation. Again a first verse jumped out at me, the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”. It’s a short phrase, “…the Jews sent…”. Not that “all Jerusalem” or “all of Judea” were coming to him (active voice) but that the priests and Levites “were sent” (passive voice). Obviously the Jews who did the sending were the Jerusalem leaders. But how did John know this? He was not personally at Jesus’ baptism, so where did he get his report? Did he have inside information that the Synoptics did not have? That may well be the case!

Let’s jump ahead some three years. Here’s a familiar passage from John’s Gospel: Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in (Jn. 18:15-16). That disciple (John, most likely) “was known to the High Priest”. It makes me wonder if John is both a first-person witness of later events (after he was called by Jesus) and an insider to the Jewish leadership.

Consider later, when Peter and John are called in before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4-5. Was their “defender”, Gamaliel (Acts 5:34) also John’s insider? Since Gamaliel was …held in honor by all people… (op. cit.) he would have had substantial knowledge of all that was going on. My Study Bible indicates that the phrase “the Jews” occurs some 70 times in John’s Gospel, sometimes favorably and sometimes neutral, but often hostile. John may simply know more of the inner workings of the Jewish leadership than the Synoptics. Intriguing! I may end up reading John in a completely different light!

Blessings!

Luke 3:1-18

“Notice what you notice.” Two items… First, I love Luke, the historian. In his first two verses today he is specific about the timing of John’s appearance in the wilderness, referring to a time frame that included five political figures and two religious leaders. Presumably intersecting those peoples’ reigns we would be able to date John fairly exactly. However, even with this level of specificity, there is still some confusion as to the exact date, in part because Luke is writing his Gospel some 30 to 50 years after Jesus’ life on earth. Still, Luke makes the attempt!

Second, I was noticing the people who came to John in the wilderness. He mentions four groups: a “brood of vipers”, the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers. The “brood of vipers” presumably refers to the religious leaders – the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees (see Mt. 3:7, 12:34, 23:33). So I was wondering about today’s counterparts. The soldiers could obviously translate to our military and first responders. The tax collectors could refer to our government representatives and employees – local, state, and national. The crowds could be everyone else – the people – or more correctly those people who are seeking the Lord and those who are just curious. The “brood of vipers”, the first century religious leaders, could translate to today’s religious leaders. HOWEVER, not all Scribes, Pharisees, or Sadducees back then were “snakes”, nor would all of our religious leaders today fall into that category. I trust that most of us can be found in the crowds, the people who are actively seeking the Lord. But we are also religious leaders – RTB, Avanza, Children’s Worship, etc. Sinners though we are, we need to be careful that we do not fall into any “brood of vipers” category.

Slava Bohu!

Mark 1:1-8

“Notice what you notice.” Another first verse item – …Jesus Christ, the Son of God… We’ve often heard that Mark moves fast and gets right at the heart of the matter. And now in his introduction he leaves no doubt as to where he is headed. This Jesus (of Nazareth) is our Christ (Messiah) and He IS the Son of God!! Mark shows us where he is headed. He opens proclaiming immediately that Jesus is the Son of God and he will close with the same proclamation in 15:39, this time from the centurion at the foot of the cross, Truly this man was the Son of God! What a bold statement, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark leaves no doubt!

A second item today was truly a learning moment for me. I had always assumed that the OT quotation in verses 2 and 3 was from Isaiah. Mark even attributes it to Isaiah. However the verse two portion is from Malachi (Mal. 3:1); only verse three is from Isaiah (Is. 40:3). Matthew 27:9 is the only other place in the Gospels where multiple OT prophets are quoted with attribution only to the “major” prophet. Thank you, Study Bible!

This getting up early and reading and posting is blessing me! Hopefully those of you reading these verses and posts are also being blessed!

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 3:1-12

“Notice what you notice.” Maybe I’m caught up on geography a bit. Again, “notice” came to me in today’s first verse: …the wilderness of Judea. I noticed it in part because we had Zacharias and Elizabeth living in the hill country of Judea and I had done some research to understand that region. So I wondered a bit about the wilderness of Judea. But also “wilderness” is a term that catches my eye whenever I see it because it brings back teaching from a Bible study from long ago, in the group where Carol and I first met.

The leader of that Bible study was teaching from the book of Exodus. After escaping from Pharaoh and traveling a bit further, On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 19:1). They spent almost a year in the Sinai region: On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. ¹² Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran (Numbers 10:11-12). This time frame occupies the last 22 chapters of Exodus, the entire book of Leviticus, and the first ten chapters of Numbers. That’s an extended time of preparation that the Lord was giving the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. Think of it as a year-long retreat. So “wilderness” to me is not just a geographical region – it’s more a metaphor for a time of seeking God and learning from Him.

So we have John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and baptizing in the Jordan River (verse 6). Geographically, Jerusalem is about twenty miles from the nearest point of the Jordan River. This narrow ribbon of land north of the Dead Sea from Jerusalem to the river is the region known as the wilderness of Judea.

So “wilderness” for me is both geographical and spiritual. It’s also a “time frame” for me, a time to get outside myself (in wherever location) and seek the Lord more completely. Often it’s been some “down time” in my life when things were not going so well. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that my “wilderness” should be a more regular habit – getting outside myself and seeking Him.

Blessings!

Luke 2:41-52

“Notice what you notice.” So, a number of items today! The first jumped out at me in the first verse, an item we’ve read over many, many times: Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. “…every year…” Immediately I imagined Mary and Joseph on their trip to Bethlehem. More than likely this was a trip they had made many times before (to Jerusalem), so the road was familiar. However, at nearly full-term, it would have been much less pleasant for Mary than in her younger years! So that was #1, pretty simple…

#2 was verse 46, After three days they found him in the temple… The Study Bible notes helped me here. The journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem was likely a 2-3 day journey. It probably would have taken only one day in Jerusalem to find Jesus, and the temple was a good place to start. So my Study Bible had Mary and Joseph going one day out, one day back, and one day looking. So why a full day out?

Last summer Carol and I were visiting Turkey when we learned about caravanserai.

1. My Internet search yielded two definitions. The first was labeled historical: “an inn with a central courtyard for travelers in the desert regions of Asia or North Africa”. The second was simply “a group of people traveling together; a caravan”. As to the first, Carol and I visited a caravanserai in Turkey. Along this one particular road, caravanserai were located approximately every 30 miles (50 km), the distance a camel could travel in one day or a ten-hour trip for humans walking three mph. With robbers aplenty back in those days, these caravanserai were “safe havens” for travelers. We have a great photo of Carol relaxing in true traveler fashion. Hopefully she will add that to her own post.

So, one day out for Mary and Joseph makes sense. They were traveling in a group and possibly did not start looking for Jesus until they reached the caravan stopping point. They certainly would not have wanted to return to Jerusalem alone and not unless they were certain they could make it back before dark. At a reasonable “caravan” stopping point they would probably meet other travelers headed to Jerusalem. Traveling in a group was always safer. So they could reasonably continue traveling north that first day until the entire caravan stopped, then reverse directions the next day. I know, not a big revelation, but it’s nice to connect our own personal experiences with Bible history.

Finally, verse 51: And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. Here we see one of Luke’s primary sources – Jesus’ mother! We don’t know much about Luke, only what he personally revealed in his introductions and what we read of him in Acts. We don’t know if he was an early disciple (but not an apostle) or if he came to faith later. But I can easily imagine that Mary lived many years after Jesus’ Ascension and that she had many face-to-face conversations with Luke. It just gives me more confidence when I read Luke’s Gospel. I surmise that he is reporting first-person, factual accounts of Jesus’ early and later life. Glory!!

Blessings!