Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Bible Challenge: Day 306

The scriptures read are Hosea 7-8, Psalm 101 and Matthew 3.

Hosea 7, 8. Israel ignores God and continues on its self-destructive way.

Psalm 101. Finding a musical version of this psalm was complicated by the fact that there is a group called Psalm 101.  But here is a good contemporary version of  the first 3 verses of this psalm.

Matthew 3. Notice that John's announcement in verse 2 is virtually the same as Jesus' in 4:17 and that given to his disciples to preach in 10:7. The Kingdom of Heaven is the same as the Kingdom of God; Matthew, evidently writing to Jewish Christians, uses this circumlocution so as not to mention the name of God.

John is, you will note, dressed like Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). Hid diet is that of the extreme poor. His baptizing Jews as if they were Gentile converts should be shocking but indicates how far from God his people had strayed. Naturally John would object to Jesus being baptized, but Jesus must to do everything we should do since he is taking our place.

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