Today we focus on Jesus' compassion. He sees people as distressed, lost, like sheep without a shepherd. And Jesus raises up workers for the harvest for ministry. Dominic Steele will help us see that the challenge for each of us from Matthew 9:35-10:42, is whether we will have the same Jesus like perspective, and have the same concern for harvest work as he has.

We're continuing our series today, focused on the miracles of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. Dominic Steele is back helping us to see the incredible power of Jesus in Matthew 9.

11a Moses, The Exodus and the Torah | Biblical Critical Theory with Chris Watkin | Dominic Steele | Daily Bible Time | 11 January 2022

We are just looking at the first half of the chapter eleven. We see in the Exodus, the story of Liberation of oppressed people, through know effort of their own, a narrative that has become a key theory in Judaism, Christianity and in the west.

But the freedom from oppression is not a freedom to do what you wish, it is a freedom to serve the protective, superabundantly gracious Lord of Israel.

We will see freedom to do whatever you want is an illusory freedom. And as Augustine says, in true worship comes perfect freedom.

https://youtu.be/_sgCGNK-ia8

10b Abraham and Covenant | Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin | Dominic Steele | Daily Bible Time | 10 Jan 2023

Today we are in the back half of the chapter on Abraham and Covenant. Watkin shows the contractual cost benefit analysis of most human contracts and contrasts that with the superabundance of Grace seen in God's covenants.

His end of chapter focus is on Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. In the chapter it is a test, and the point 'God will provide' is emphasised over and over. This is in sharp contrast to the point that Soren Kierkegaard gets from this chapter, which he uses as his basis for the concept 'leap of faith'. But as Watkin points out, although the Kierkegaadian 'leap of faith' has become the most common picture of faith today, it is profoundly at variance with the biblical account.

https://youtu.be/wmXjHv7Vq54



https://youtu.be/wmXjHv7Vq54

10a Abraham and Covenant | Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin | Dominic Steele | Daily Bible Time | 9 Jan 2023

Things move up a notch in Genesis 15. Back in Genesis 12, God made a promise to Abraham. Now in Genesis 15, God makes a covenant.

But significantly only God binds himself to the covenant. This is a further reflection of Grace. Watkin compares the covenant of Genesis with the modern social theories of Hobbes and Rousseau. As Watkin says 'Hobbes and Rousseau have each grasped something of the complex biblical reality, but as with all heresies, they exaggerate and deform some aspects while neglecting others.'

See interview I did with Christopher Watkin here: https://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/biblical-critical-theory-chris-watkin https://youtu.be/Vl05-S6Sweg