You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

At the beginning of today’s reading, when a paralyzed man is placed before Him, Jesus again makes an apparently unnecessary comment during an otherwise ordinary healing.  Instead of telling the man to “Rise and walk,” Jesus assures the paralytic, “…Your sins are forgiven.”  “Blasphemy,” the Scribes mutter under their breath.  This sets up a tension that will drive the rest of the chapter, but there was no immediate need for Jesus to provoke them.  Why did He?  The answer might be embedded in His response.

Matthew 9 seems to be designed to heighten the distinction between regular citizens and the religious leaders.  Just listen to how ordinary people approach Jesus: “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” … “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.”… “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”…and “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.”

Now compare that with the dialogue Matthew records from the Scribes and Pharisees: “This man is blaspheming.”…  “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  and “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”  There is a clear fracture between Jesus and the religious leaders, but there seems to be an even greater one between these leaders and the common people.  Listen as Matthew observes Jesus’ compassion on them: because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus’ prayer at the end of chapter 9 marks a transition from public to private space.  After praying for “the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest,” notice as twelve are called to Him as disciples and a few words later are sent out as apostles.  This is no slip of the pen, but a commissioning: those who sat at Jesus feet were being sent out to the lost sheep of Israel.  And they were not emptyhanded: to these twelve Jesus gave authority over unclean spirits…and to heal every disease and every affliction. 

They were also sent with Jesus’ foundational message: “…the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand…” and with a solemn warning about how the world would receive them.  “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves”… “you will be flogged before governors and kings for my sake… For I have not come to bring peace, but a sword…”

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 9 and 10.  Now let’s read it!

Yesterday, we learned of Hushai, who remained loyal to David, and Ahithophel, who defected to Absalom, whose counsel was esteemed as if one consulted the word of God.  In chapter 17 these counselors play a defining role as Hushai and Ahithophel jockey for Absalom’s ear. 

At the outset, Ahithophel recommends that he himself command a force to overtake and destroy David while he is on the run.  This idea seemed great to Absalom but Hushai, whom David had instructed to play the spy, counters.  “Wait,” he tells Absalom, until all Israel has rallied to you, then go out yourself and strike a decisive blow. 

Pay attention to the author’s observation that the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the LORD might bring harm upon Absalom.  Once again we see deception – one intended to bring destruction – not just engineered by men but being used as an instrument by the LORD.  The LORD has, in this instance, revealed His preference of David over Absalom, and He’s willing to manipulate Absalom’s heart – just as He manipulated Pharaoh – to fulfill His purposes. 

This advice – along with his advance warning to David – gives David’s forces crucial time to escape across the Jordan and regroup.  The coup ‘d’état explodes into civil war, as forces loyal to Absalom engage David’s army, and the loss was great on that day.  And though David had ordered his commanders to “deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom,” the king’s son faces a humiliating, violent end.

It’s always important to pay attention to where the author focuses his time.  Nearly half of chapter 18 is committed to describing how David learned of Absalom’s death.  The detail here is tenfold greater than that used to describe the battle where thousands died.  It might be appropriate to slowly grasp that image of David, sitting between the two gates, earnestly wondering “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” 

Our verse for this week is John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

2 Samuel chapters 17 and 18.  Now let’s read it!

Today’s reading drops in for the final third of the Sermon on the Mount.  The sermon began with Jesus ascending a mountain, presumably to escape the crowds, to speak with His disciples.  What Matthew hides from us until the end is that the crowd has followed, as eager for Jesus’ teaching as they were for His healing. 

Their response to Jesus’ teaching comes in three parts.  First, they were astonished, blown away by what they heard.  Matthew then qualifies this by describing what astonished them: it wasn’t just the message; it was the authority with which He spoke.  And finally, Matthew tells us that these crowds were making a comparison: Jesus was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” 

Jesus continues to be followed by these crowds when he descends the mountain in chapter 8.  Among these crowds Jesus performs a series of healings: the leper, the centurion’s servant, the demon-possessed, the sick, and even Peter’s mother-in-law. 

The story of the centurion in chapter 8 creates an early thematic climax for Matthew’s book.  The story is an ordinary healing (if there is such a thing) of a centurion’s servant, but the dialogue pushes way beyond the events.  Jesus telling the Roman “I will come and heal him.”  The centurion’s understanding of authority, and recognizing it, as the crowds do, in Jesus.  And Jesus marveling privately to His followers: “Truly, with no one in Israel I have seen such faith…”

Jesus didn’t need to say this to perform the healing.  Nor did He need to add that “many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.”  This is a clear shot at the very foundations of His countrymen’s faith: that being a child of Abraham would not guarantee security in the kingdom of heaven.  This adds another layer to Matthew’s preoccupation with connecting Jesus’ story to Abraham’s, and is worth remembering in future chapters. 

Our verse for this week is Isaiah 40:31: “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Matthew chapters 7 and 8.  Now let’s read it!

David’s declining strength is evident from the outset today as Absalom begins mounting an insurgency right under his nose.  For four years, Absalom aligns himself with the disgruntled and disenchanted in the land, then recruits them to Hebron to anoint him king.  David is warned of the conspiracy, and he commands his family and court to flee Jerusalem. 

Much of these chapters is devoted to David’s flight, so there might be something significant or emblematic going on here.  The author recounts the people who came to greet him, to pledge their allegiance to him, and even to heap scorn on him.  There is Hushai, the loyal adviser who has yet a part to play.  Ziba, who bears ill news of his master, Mephibosheth.  Six hundred Gittites, who had followed David from Gath decades before.  Abiathar, and Zadok, bearing the Ark of God. 

Listen also for the emotional toll of this moment on the king.  He weeps when summitting the Mount of Olives, barefoot and with his head covered.  He tells Abiathar to return the Ark to Jerusalem, for if the LORD says, “’I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let Him do to me what seems good to Him.”   And when Shimei, a man of the family of the house of Saul heaps abuse on him, David does not respond except to hope “that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today.”

Yesterday’s reading ended with Absalom entering Jerusalem as a distrustful fugitive; today he enters as king.  Not content simply to possess his father’s throne, he aims to show that he has “made himself a stench to his father,” pitching a tent on the palace roof for he and David’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. 

Now think back to when this descent for David’s family started, in chapter 11 – on this very same roof. 

Our verse for this week is John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

2 Samuel chapters 15 and 16.  Now let’s read it!