You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

Today’s reading launches with Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem, where the crowds celebrate “The prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” Jesus is not celebratory at the Temple, though, and launches a multi-day assault on the religious leaders’ practices, teaching, and management.

Question and response drives the plot in the first two chapters: the Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests and scribes, attempting to entangle Him in His words. By the end of chapter 22, “No one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” Jesus then turns on His harassers: warning the crowd of the hypocrisy, blindness, and arrogance of their religious leaders. Woe to them! For “whoever exalts himself will be humbled…”

As elsewhere in narratives, repetition can be a way for an author or speaker to convey meaning, and there are at least three repetitions to note today. I’ve already mentioned the “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!” which constantly recurs in chapter 23. Earlier, in chapter 21, Jesus concludes a series of responses to the chief priests and elders by twice asking, “Have you never read…,” then quoting Scripture. Later, Jesus reiterates His point from chapter 17 that with enough faith, mountains can be moved.

Finally, the crowds are prominently featured today. They surrounded Jesus on his arrival in Jerusalem, cried out “Hosanna to the Son of David!” in the temple and struck fear in the hearts of the Pharisees. The crowd was astonished by Jesus’ rejoinder toward the Sadducees and was Jesus’ audience for His stringing “Woe to the scribes and Pharisees” sermon. Pay attention to how these crowds figure into the events to come.

Our verse for this week is Micah 6:8: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 21 through 23. Now let’s read it!

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  – Exodus 40:34-35

Chapters 7 and 8 highlight the completion of Solomon’s house and, most importantly, the completion of the LORD’s house.  Solomon oversees both the construction and the grand dedication, at which the LORD makes his satisfaction evident. 

As at the end of Exodus, the author of Kings weaves a rich tapestry of detail and emotion.  My comments will be brief, so you can drink it in.  Pay attention to the variety of allusions to that long ago day in the Wilderness of Sinai: the procurement of raw materials, the attention to each element, the offerings, the Ark of the Covenant, and the glory of the LORD.  Listen as Solomon speaks to Israel words of worship, exhortation, and benediction as no leader has since the days of Moses. 

This sense that a new age is dawning is reflected in the LORD’s response to Solomon.  As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD, the LORD reaffirms His covenant with David’s house: As for you, if you will walk before Me, as David your father walked…then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever… 

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

1 Kings 7 through 9.  Now let’s read it!

In chapter 17, Jesus and His disciples were gathering in Galilee when Jesus told them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”  After a brief final stop in Capernaum, they now head southward, inevitably toward Jerusalem. 

Matthew calls attention both to the crowds and to the Pharisees, who again test Him: “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”  Matthew doesn’t reveal in this passage whether the Pharisees are testing Jesus to trap Him or whether they are seeking wisdom.  It’s tempting to read this in the negative, but it’s not necessary to observe Jesus’ deftness both at handling the Pharisees and their question.  As He did with the devil in chapter 4, and with the Pharisees and scribes in chapter 15, Jesus quotes Scripture: “Have you not read…” He asks “…A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh?  What God has joined together, let not man separate.”    

Their response “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?" can either be cynical or curious.  Odds are it’s the former, because they twist Deuteronomy 24 into an unrecognizable shape.  Moses makes no such command; he simply acknowledges the reality of divorce, and the Law provides protections for women who are tossed about by fickle husbands.  Jesus pushes beyond their legal question to the heart of the matter: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

This acute interaction sets up the rest of today’s reading, which emphasizes the upended nature of the Kingdom of God.  It is where “The last will be first, and the first, last,” a place that the rich can only enter “with great difficulty,” and where God can do what He chooses “with what belongs [to Him].” 

Now keen readers will pick up on the track of Jesus’ journey today.  In today’s first verse, Jesus and His disciples entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.  This was a typical route for Jews heading to Jerusalem who wished to avoid Samaria, which sat between Galilee and Judea.  Then in chapter 20 Jesus reenters Judea by crossing the Jordan near Jericho.  This ancient city is where the final leg of Jesus’ journey begins, and it’s where the last leg of Israel’s journey began, fourteen centuries ago. 

Our verse for this week is Psalm 19:4: Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

Matthew 19 and 20.  Now let’s read it!

“…You shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there… And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.”  - Deuteronomy 12:5 & 7

Though Solomon and David each reigned for forty years, Solomon receives less than a quarter of the airtime given to his father.  The highlight of those four decades, though, was of such importance that the author erects a milepost:

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD. 

This connection with the Exodus generation reinforces that Solomon can take no credit for the Temple, or for the conditions that allowed its completion.   For Solomon to even begin construction on so grand a structure this must have been an era of extraordinary peace and prosperity for Israel – security that those first Israelites could have only dreamed of. 

No, the Temple is the fulfillment of a promise that the LORD made to Israel 440 years ago on the plains of Moab.  Back before the land had been taken, the kingdom established, and David’s family installed on the throne.  “In the four hundred eightieth year…” is not just a chronological marker; it’s a reminder of God’s faithfulness to His covenant and to His people. 

These chapters are a reminder of all that Solomon inherited.  His father had left him a united kingdom that touched the Gulf of Aqaba in the south and the Euphrates in the north.  Tribute flowed from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Aram and Hamath.  He bartered as an equal with the wealth of Tyre and Sidon. 

And to top it all, God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure.  Listen as peace, wisdom, and blessing converge in ways we’ve not yet seen.

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

1 Kings 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!