John the Baptist Prepares the Way
The 'word of God' came to John and told him about a way to repent for forgiveness of sins through baptism. John spread the word all around Jordan. There was a prophecy from Isaiah that this would happen. Crowds came out to get baptized by him and he insulted them calling them a brood of vipers. He tells them to bear fruit to go along with their repentance or like a tree not bearing fruit, they will be cut down and thrown in the fire.
The crowd asks him what they can do, he gives a few examples but basically says to help each other out, when you have excess give some to people who have nothing. Also don't extort money from people. The people thought that he was great and were thinking that he might be the Christ. He said that he was simply baptizing with water but someone is coming that is much better than me, who will baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire.
John did a bunch more preaching including some criticism of Herod, which will be among the reasons he winds up in jail later. Everyone gets baptized, including Jesus, and the heavens open up and the holy spirit descended in a dove-like form and says Jesus is the son of God.
A little more detail on John the Baptist, that is nice I guess. I thought it was interesting that when he was telling people to be generous he specifically told tax collectors not to take extra money and soldier not to extort people. I also found it interesting that when Jesus was baptized the "heavens were opened". What does that mean? I read that in biblical times they believed that above us was a dome that held the clouds and stars and such, and heaven was up there. I wish a had a reference, I can't remember where I read that.
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
I'll be honest, I didn't really read this, scanning the page it looks like it is just a bunch of "...son of _____ who was son of ____" and I just don't care.
I can remember which pew I was sitting in as a child when I heard verse 17 about the "burning" of the "chaff." I can remember that it was being read as one of the readings. This was the verse that really started giving me trouble. I couldn't figure out if God was an all loving forgiving God, or a vengeful God. As you've said before, its crazy what you remember.
ReplyDeleteThe only other thing I have to add is that this genelogy doesn't match up with that of Matthew. I think we already covered this, and the "solution" to this problem was that only one lineage was through Joseph and the other one through Mary. Though back then the lineage through the woman didn't really matter, and neither of them say explicitly that one is Mary. It's just "assumed". I think we also discussed why Joesph's lineage was even mentioned if it was the holy spirit that impreginated her. It was to fulfill David's prophecy, that he was the "seed" of David.
yeah, you never know what will resonate with a child. It could be a verse you never even thought about and always just read past but the kid can really focus on it.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed something in my notes. (I have a whole flood of notes on these pages.) At the very end of the last verse in the genelogy, it says Adam was the son of God. Is this a contradiction with these verses?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/passage.aspx?q=luke+3:38;john+3:18;1+john+4:9
Also, Seth was the "son of Adam?" I though that it was just Cain and Abel that were the sons of Adam and Eve? *shrugs shoulders*
Here are some more verses about the "sons of God."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/passage.aspx?q=john+3:18;1+john+4:9;luke+3:38;genesis+6:2-4;job+1:6;job+2:1;job+38:6-7;john+1:12
I guess one can use the term literally or metaphorically depending on the situation?
(note: some of the translations Genesis 6:4 says that there were giants back then.. http://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/6-4-compare.html)
Very interesting point. I think metaphorically vs literal is the way it needs to be interpreted. To use an analogy, Data is the son of Nunian Sung in the same way that Adam is the son of God. They were both built in a sense and were called children, but they weren't really children in the sense of Jesus and God.
ReplyDelete