In the last post we concluded that one reason for Matthew’s careful tripartite arrangement of fourteen generation sections is an apologetic and rhetorical feature to 1) rectify Jesus’ regal right to the throne and covenant promises of David, and 2) that with Yahweh’s covenants Abraham and David, the Babylonian Exile was a judicial-redemptive-historical event that made clear that there was no longer hope for the promised Davidic King to arise by means of ordinary providence; Yahweh alone could save Israel, which is precisely who and what Jesus Christ was doing in history.
A second and closely related point is the apparently intended presence of gematria in connection with “fourteen” and the name David. Gematria was a widespread literary phenomenon of Matthew’s culture. It is a tool for symbolism, using an alphanumeric value system. Simply put, each letter of a given alphabet also carries its relative numeric value, e.g., A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on. This works with both the Greek and Hebrew languages. Many argue that this instrument was used when John wrote the elusive “666” in Revelation, which is the only other likely occasion of gematria in the NT.
Accordingly, the consonants of David’s name in Hebrew are D = 4, W = 6 and D = 4. Thus, the alphanumeric value of David is 14. In addition to this, David’s name is the fourteenth in the list. For us modern readers, this appears peculiar at best, having little significance. But our question should first be, “What would this have meant to the original audience?”
The gematria would have 1) been another means of stressing that Jesus is the coming Davidic Son, the Messiah, and 2) provided a mnemonic tool to aid the memorization of the genealogy.
The mnemonic aspect, I think, should be teased out a bit.
Matthew often uses triadic arrangements to ease and encourage memorization. There are the three fourteens here in the genealogy, Satan’s three temptations with Jesus’ three corresponding scriptural rebuts (4:1—11), the three cities of woe (11:20—24), three symbolic, living parables (21:1—22), three polemical parables (21:28—22:14), threefold prayer and return (26:36—46), Peter’s three-time denial (26:69—75) to name a few.
But why would Matthew see the genealogy as a crucial part of his gospel to put to memory? Well, I think one reason could be apologetic (I know, what else would I think?).
Today, Christians are encouraged to memorize various arguments for God’s existence, certain facts about OT prophecy and how Jesus fulfills them, the historical facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, the textual evidences for the Bible we possess today, and in addition to these, all the major objections that are raised against the rote evidences. Today, these are relevant points of contention that believers find themselves challenged with by unbelievers. For Matthew’s audience, however, the questions were not preeminently, Was Jesus divine? Are the scriptures reliable? Was Jesus raised from the dead? Instead, Matthew’s readers would first and foremost have to answer this: “Was Jesus the Davidic Messiah?” Additionally, the meticulous record keeping of ancestral descent among Jews made Matthew’s account all the more important. When antagonistic Judaic opponents attacked the Hebrew Christians of the Matthean community, Jesus’ pedigree would have supplied the believers with a first line of defense.
While the average Christian won’t find him/herself toe to toe with a Jewish rabbi, I think there is an application we can draw that is universal in its utility.
I’m not insisting that we memorize the genealogy, though that would certainly be a profitable exercise. More needful, I believe, is understanding it better. For the first century Jewish Christian, this battery of names had immediate content. These names had significance in the Hebrew community’s self-consciousness. Today in the West, however, especially with the popular emphasis on the discontinuity between the two Testaments, most of these names don’t inform our understanding of Jesus but simply challenge our pronunciatory prowess.
If anything is to be taken from the last few posts it should be that we cannot rightly understand Jesus, the Messiah, without being acquainted with the organic development of the Father’s plan to reveal him “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4). These names, for various reasons, are mileposts in the progressively unfolding story of redemption and are therefore persons we should become familiar and conversant with.
What better time than the Advent season to do this? So, here's my challenge: If we would begin tomorrow, with a good Bible dictionary, and choose just two names from the genealogy a day, reading the entries and go to the scriptures with the important references found in the article, how greatly broadened would our horizon become? The significance of these names, though, must be kept in contact with its culminating terminus, Jesus Christ; viewing the micronarratives in terms of the epinarrative, and vise versa.
The application, then, is twofold. We have gained a better understanding of God’s providential and redemptive acts in the lives of OT saints (and sinners), each foreshadowing his final salvific work in Christ, in order to bring ultimate redemption to us through his Son. Secondly, I am absolutely convinced that the weakest link in the Christian witness and apologetic today is our general ignorance of the Bible’s “story line.” In other words, the better one does biblical theology, the better one can explain and defend the message they extend to the lost. Especially within our postmodern context, internal coherence and personal credulity are touchstone criteria for plausibility. Our audience is biblically illiterate. If we cannot communicate the continuity of the Bible’s plot, thus challenging the unbelievers’ “big story” and sharing ours, then the Gospel is simply incoherent.
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Advent in Matthew II
There are a couple of other noteworthy features in Matthew’s genealogy, which invite one into a deeper study and contemplation of the importance of this tether to salvation history.
Notice that the evangelist sums up Jesus’ impressive pedigree with these words:
“So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations” (1:17).
The question is “Why?” I think there are several reasons, I’ll share only one here and a couple tomorrow, Lord willing.
One reason is that Matthew was, of course, proving Jesus’ legitimate claim to the Davidic throne; Jesus is, in fact, David’s Greater Son. The ‘son of David’ motif is plain throughout Matthew. But the rhetorical point of Matthew’s framing of the genealogy is even more sublime.
The hopes and expectations bound up with the omni-blessing Seed of Abraham finds a more specific identity in the Davidic covenant. This narrowing specificity is, nonetheless, anticipated in earlier prophecies, such as Gen 49:10, the Scepter of Judah, and the “star/scepter” sign in Balaam’s fourth oracle. Abraham’s coming Seed was to be a ruler, a king.
These promises are made explicit in Yahweh’s covenant with David. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me [Yahweh]. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16).
Now there was one of two ways this promise could be fulfilled. Either Solomon would inaugurate a perpetual dynasty, one that would augment the rule of Yahweh’s kingly co-regent in both space and time, or the promise would find its realization in a peculiar One who could sustain that rule without end. This dilemma is answered by Matthew’s next generational junction—“from David to the deportation to Babylon.”
This junction in the pattern eliminates the possibility of the perpetual line of kings. The Babylonian siege and resultant exile terminated the hope of an everlasting line of ruler’s from David’s loins.
The OT prophets, writing before, during and after the exile, began to point the faithful ones forward to the second option above (see also Ps 89, etc). The Davidic dynasty would be restored, but not through means of ordinary generation. Rather Yahweh’s Servant—David’s true Son, who is also David’s Lord (Ps 110)—would arrive in history, finally and fully establishing God rule, God’s Kingdom. Moreover, the Jewish apocalypticism of the Second Temple period was rife with messianic expectations. All the hopes of Israel rested in the Advent of Yahweh’s promised Messiah, and with him, the greatly anticipated “last days,” the fulfillment of the messianic age.
It seems, therefore, that if Abraham’s Seed would more specifically be the fulfillment of the promised king from the Davidic dynasty, and the “deportation to Babylon” and its entailments would demand that the sure promises made to David could only be realized in the Messiah, then Matthew’s ‘3 times 14’ framework, and especially its summary statement in 1:17, is a rhetorical case that 2000 years of Israelite history and hope had culminated and been fulfilled in the Advent of Jesus Christ. The waiting was over, the messianic age had arrive. Jesus is the greater Son of David, King of Israel.
Solomon, in spite of all his wisdom and riches, could not discharge the role of ‘Son of David.’ But, Shema!, Hear O’ Israel, “something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42)! Amid great strife and competition with a self-made impostor, Adonijah, Solomon was hastily made king of the Jews (1 Kings 1); David’s greater Son, against the Roman-made imposter, Herod, was “born king of the Jews” (2:2). Concerning Solomon, a message from Yahweh was carried by the prophet Nathan, naming the child Jedidiah, “beloved of the Lord” (2 Sam 12:24—25); concerning the Messiah, a direct edict came from Heaven for all to hear, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17; cf. 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7; Is 42:1), and so his name was to be “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). And because Jesus would save his people from the captivity of their sins, “they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)” (Matt 1:23).
Although many of the people had returned from the land of Babylon, the land to which they had returned was now ruled by a new Babylon, Rome. Their nationalistic souls were provoked day and night by the promised land’s defilement and uncleanness, trodden underfoot by the iron-clay soles of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream idol (Dan 2). They had returned to the land, but the exile wasn’t over!
First century Judaism had morphed the old covenant religion into an infinite series of laws, but no liberty. It offered meticulous jurisprudence, but no justice. It had sacrifice, but no mercy. The elders of Israel, with their religion and false king, had succeeded only in giving God’s people another unbearable yoke, in addition to Rome’s yoke of bondage. There was Sabbath upon Sabbath, but no rest for the wearied souls of God's heritage.
Matthew’s point, however, was that the exile was now over with the Advent of Jesus and the subsequent inauguration of the messianic age. The provisional temple of the restoration had now finished its archetypical course; its antitype had arrived to give real substance to its shadowy proleptic purpose, “something greater than the temple is here” (12:6). For those with ears to hear, the cry went out, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (11:28—29). The real return from exile, then, was not coming out of Babylon, but coming to Jesus. In Jesus alone is there eschatological Rest for God’s people.
King David had establish a kingdom by the blood of his sword; his greater Son, King Jesus, has come and established a Kingdom by the blood of his cross, giving his people rest from their enemies.
Matthew 1:17, therefore, is the evangelist’s bottom line, his apologetic absolute. The present age was closing and the long awaited messianic age has dawned in Jesus Christ’s Advent. The rest of Matthew’s Gospel is an argument for and demonstration of this fact.
Notice that the evangelist sums up Jesus’ impressive pedigree with these words:
“So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations” (1:17).
The question is “Why?” I think there are several reasons, I’ll share only one here and a couple tomorrow, Lord willing.
One reason is that Matthew was, of course, proving Jesus’ legitimate claim to the Davidic throne; Jesus is, in fact, David’s Greater Son. The ‘son of David’ motif is plain throughout Matthew. But the rhetorical point of Matthew’s framing of the genealogy is even more sublime.
The hopes and expectations bound up with the omni-blessing Seed of Abraham finds a more specific identity in the Davidic covenant. This narrowing specificity is, nonetheless, anticipated in earlier prophecies, such as Gen 49:10, the Scepter of Judah, and the “star/scepter” sign in Balaam’s fourth oracle. Abraham’s coming Seed was to be a ruler, a king.
These promises are made explicit in Yahweh’s covenant with David. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me [Yahweh]. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16).
Now there was one of two ways this promise could be fulfilled. Either Solomon would inaugurate a perpetual dynasty, one that would augment the rule of Yahweh’s kingly co-regent in both space and time, or the promise would find its realization in a peculiar One who could sustain that rule without end. This dilemma is answered by Matthew’s next generational junction—“from David to the deportation to Babylon.”
This junction in the pattern eliminates the possibility of the perpetual line of kings. The Babylonian siege and resultant exile terminated the hope of an everlasting line of ruler’s from David’s loins.
The OT prophets, writing before, during and after the exile, began to point the faithful ones forward to the second option above (see also Ps 89, etc). The Davidic dynasty would be restored, but not through means of ordinary generation. Rather Yahweh’s Servant—David’s true Son, who is also David’s Lord (Ps 110)—would arrive in history, finally and fully establishing God rule, God’s Kingdom. Moreover, the Jewish apocalypticism of the Second Temple period was rife with messianic expectations. All the hopes of Israel rested in the Advent of Yahweh’s promised Messiah, and with him, the greatly anticipated “last days,” the fulfillment of the messianic age.
It seems, therefore, that if Abraham’s Seed would more specifically be the fulfillment of the promised king from the Davidic dynasty, and the “deportation to Babylon” and its entailments would demand that the sure promises made to David could only be realized in the Messiah, then Matthew’s ‘3 times 14’ framework, and especially its summary statement in 1:17, is a rhetorical case that 2000 years of Israelite history and hope had culminated and been fulfilled in the Advent of Jesus Christ. The waiting was over, the messianic age had arrive. Jesus is the greater Son of David, King of Israel.
Solomon, in spite of all his wisdom and riches, could not discharge the role of ‘Son of David.’ But, Shema!, Hear O’ Israel, “something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42)! Amid great strife and competition with a self-made impostor, Adonijah, Solomon was hastily made king of the Jews (1 Kings 1); David’s greater Son, against the Roman-made imposter, Herod, was “born king of the Jews” (2:2). Concerning Solomon, a message from Yahweh was carried by the prophet Nathan, naming the child Jedidiah, “beloved of the Lord” (2 Sam 12:24—25); concerning the Messiah, a direct edict came from Heaven for all to hear, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17; cf. 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7; Is 42:1), and so his name was to be “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). And because Jesus would save his people from the captivity of their sins, “they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)” (Matt 1:23).
Although many of the people had returned from the land of Babylon, the land to which they had returned was now ruled by a new Babylon, Rome. Their nationalistic souls were provoked day and night by the promised land’s defilement and uncleanness, trodden underfoot by the iron-clay soles of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream idol (Dan 2). They had returned to the land, but the exile wasn’t over!
First century Judaism had morphed the old covenant religion into an infinite series of laws, but no liberty. It offered meticulous jurisprudence, but no justice. It had sacrifice, but no mercy. The elders of Israel, with their religion and false king, had succeeded only in giving God’s people another unbearable yoke, in addition to Rome’s yoke of bondage. There was Sabbath upon Sabbath, but no rest for the wearied souls of God's heritage.
Matthew’s point, however, was that the exile was now over with the Advent of Jesus and the subsequent inauguration of the messianic age. The provisional temple of the restoration had now finished its archetypical course; its antitype had arrived to give real substance to its shadowy proleptic purpose, “something greater than the temple is here” (12:6). For those with ears to hear, the cry went out, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (11:28—29). The real return from exile, then, was not coming out of Babylon, but coming to Jesus. In Jesus alone is there eschatological Rest for God’s people.
King David had establish a kingdom by the blood of his sword; his greater Son, King Jesus, has come and established a Kingdom by the blood of his cross, giving his people rest from their enemies.
Matthew 1:17, therefore, is the evangelist’s bottom line, his apologetic absolute. The present age was closing and the long awaited messianic age has dawned in Jesus Christ’s Advent. The rest of Matthew’s Gospel is an argument for and demonstration of this fact.
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Advent in Matthew I
The other day, Fanny and I were discussing the genealogy of our Lord recorded in Matthew’s gospel and the profound significance it has in connection with the first Advent of our Lord in history. In the next few posts, I'll share some of those observations.
Matthew 1:1 is a flag, evoking in the readers’ hearts millennia of salvation history. Approximately 2000 years before, God covenanted a people for himself. Through the loins of Abraham would come One through whom God would bless “all nations” (Gen 22:18); and through this coming One, Abraham would, with all his spiritual children “inherit the world” (Rom 4:13). Matt 1:1 is the cry that salvation history was climaxing...the coming One had come!
If the Promise-Fulfillment paradigm for understanding the unity between the Old and New Testaments is taken up, few verses could challenge the sheer volume of that motif when compared to Matt 1:1.
From v. 2 through v. 16, Matthew gives us a detailed catalogue of names. The Advent of the Messiah was not happenstance; it was sovereign Providence. Furthermore, despite a history of bitter warfare and all the best efforts of the “seed of the serpent,” the “Seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15) had arrived; he had come to take possession of the “gate of his enemy” (Gen 22:17). This covenant promise of God to Abraham, that his seed would posses the gate of his enemy, was also a blessing over Isaac’s—“the son of Abraham”—bride, Rebekah (Gen 24:60). In it’s fulfillment, the same blessing is given to Jesus’—the Greater “Son of Abraham”—bride, the Church (Matt 16:18).
How often do we slog and plod through this genealogy (if not simply skip it altogether) in order to get to the “good stuff”? But this is the “good stuff”! Matthew did not include this list merely to prove Jesus regal right to David’s throne. That’s one purpose to be sure, but that’s not all.
From the time of Yahweh’s special, redemptive promises and purposes, beginning in his sovereign election of Abram (Gen 12), til the climax and fulfillment of that covenant in the Person and work of Jesus, the epinarrative of history—historia salutis—was being wrought by God through the micronarratives of the lives behind these names. This is Gospel! This was the soil in which the Seed of the woman, of David, of Abraham would be planted; from this loamy heritage the “Root of Jesse” would shoot forth his branches, creating a plant so great that “all nations” would come and find their eschatological Rest beneath its boughs (Matt13:32).
The chapters immediately preceding the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham (Gen 10, 11) and his Seed is the table of “all the nations” in rebellion to God, God’s judgment and his turning from “all nations” to one nation—one family, Israel. Matthew’s genealogy takes us from that great turning point and its Promise to the Great turning point and its Fulfillment, when God’s Kingdom would turn again. Thus in the chapters that follow Matthew 1, we see God through Jesus turning from that one nation in judgement to again adopt and baptize “all nations” (Matt 28:19) into his one family, the New Israel.
And who is at the center? Christ Jesus our Lord, King of Israel, King of Kings, King of Glory. Promise at one foot and Fulfillment at the other, they bow and kiss the Son:
A. Abrahamic Covenant (Promise – Gen 12 – 22)
B. Davidic Covenant (Promise – 2 Sam 7; Ps 89)
C. “Jesus Christ, the son...” (Matt 1:1a)
B'. “...of David...” (Fulfillment – 1:1b)
A'. “...of Abraham.” (Fulfillment – 1:1c)
Matthew’s genealogy, therefore, is a list of those who “all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar...And all these, though commended through their faith, did not received what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:13, 39—40).
“And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:29). And through your adoption “in Christ Jesus you are all son’s of God, through faith!” (3:26).
Therefore, the names we too often slog and plod through are the first half of the Great Drama of Grace, the story of redemption; it’s their story and it’s our story too. In Christ, the Center, their promises are ours, and his fulfillment becomes theirs. We share their history, they share our future. It’s the history and the future of a people created and redeemed by God, for his glory. Christ, the Center, is Father’s gift to us; we are the Father’s gift to him, the Bride of his choosing.
Redemptive history is not over; it’s accomplished in Christ, being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit daily in our micronarratives and throughout the world in God’s epinarrative. “Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” is at the center of the latter, by grace, O’ Lord, let him be at the center of the former!
Matthew 1:1 is a flag, evoking in the readers’ hearts millennia of salvation history. Approximately 2000 years before, God covenanted a people for himself. Through the loins of Abraham would come One through whom God would bless “all nations” (Gen 22:18); and through this coming One, Abraham would, with all his spiritual children “inherit the world” (Rom 4:13). Matt 1:1 is the cry that salvation history was climaxing...the coming One had come!
If the Promise-Fulfillment paradigm for understanding the unity between the Old and New Testaments is taken up, few verses could challenge the sheer volume of that motif when compared to Matt 1:1.
From v. 2 through v. 16, Matthew gives us a detailed catalogue of names. The Advent of the Messiah was not happenstance; it was sovereign Providence. Furthermore, despite a history of bitter warfare and all the best efforts of the “seed of the serpent,” the “Seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15) had arrived; he had come to take possession of the “gate of his enemy” (Gen 22:17). This covenant promise of God to Abraham, that his seed would posses the gate of his enemy, was also a blessing over Isaac’s—“the son of Abraham”—bride, Rebekah (Gen 24:60). In it’s fulfillment, the same blessing is given to Jesus’—the Greater “Son of Abraham”—bride, the Church (Matt 16:18).
How often do we slog and plod through this genealogy (if not simply skip it altogether) in order to get to the “good stuff”? But this is the “good stuff”! Matthew did not include this list merely to prove Jesus regal right to David’s throne. That’s one purpose to be sure, but that’s not all.
From the time of Yahweh’s special, redemptive promises and purposes, beginning in his sovereign election of Abram (Gen 12), til the climax and fulfillment of that covenant in the Person and work of Jesus, the epinarrative of history—historia salutis—was being wrought by God through the micronarratives of the lives behind these names. This is Gospel! This was the soil in which the Seed of the woman, of David, of Abraham would be planted; from this loamy heritage the “Root of Jesse” would shoot forth his branches, creating a plant so great that “all nations” would come and find their eschatological Rest beneath its boughs (Matt13:32).
The chapters immediately preceding the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham (Gen 10, 11) and his Seed is the table of “all the nations” in rebellion to God, God’s judgment and his turning from “all nations” to one nation—one family, Israel. Matthew’s genealogy takes us from that great turning point and its Promise to the Great turning point and its Fulfillment, when God’s Kingdom would turn again. Thus in the chapters that follow Matthew 1, we see God through Jesus turning from that one nation in judgement to again adopt and baptize “all nations” (Matt 28:19) into his one family, the New Israel.
And who is at the center? Christ Jesus our Lord, King of Israel, King of Kings, King of Glory. Promise at one foot and Fulfillment at the other, they bow and kiss the Son:
A. Abrahamic Covenant (Promise – Gen 12 – 22)
B. Davidic Covenant (Promise – 2 Sam 7; Ps 89)
C. “Jesus Christ, the son...” (Matt 1:1a)
B'. “...of David...” (Fulfillment – 1:1b)
A'. “...of Abraham.” (Fulfillment – 1:1c)
Matthew’s genealogy, therefore, is a list of those who “all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar...And all these, though commended through their faith, did not received what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:13, 39—40).
“And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:29). And through your adoption “in Christ Jesus you are all son’s of God, through faith!” (3:26).
Therefore, the names we too often slog and plod through are the first half of the Great Drama of Grace, the story of redemption; it’s their story and it’s our story too. In Christ, the Center, their promises are ours, and his fulfillment becomes theirs. We share their history, they share our future. It’s the history and the future of a people created and redeemed by God, for his glory. Christ, the Center, is Father’s gift to us; we are the Father’s gift to him, the Bride of his choosing.
Redemptive history is not over; it’s accomplished in Christ, being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit daily in our micronarratives and throughout the world in God’s epinarrative. “Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” is at the center of the latter, by grace, O’ Lord, let him be at the center of the former!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)