1CHRONICLES 29:
Yesterday we heard of the military commanders and officials under David, and the leaders of 13 tribes. Then we heard David’s instructions to Solomon. And it is always amazing to me the detail with which David planned for the temple, and also his generosity.

PROVERBS 22b:
Halfway through this chapter we begin a section where more of the proverbs are arranged in short paragraphs. That section begins at verse 17, just three verses after we begin today’s reading. Verse 20 introduces 30 sayings that follow

MATTHEW 3:
Yesterday we heard of the coming of the learned men from the east. While they brought three symbolic gifts, it didn’t say that there were just three men who came. And prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus being taken to Egypt, then at the family’s return, their move to Nazareth.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

1CHRONICLES 27-28:
Yesterday we heard of the assignments of Levites as musicians, judges, and temple gate keepers.

PROVERBS 22a:
Our highlighted verse for today:

14 The mouth of an immoral woman is a dangerous trap;
those who make the LORD angry will fall into it. (NLT)

MATTHEW 2:
For today’s intro to Matthew 2, I have a correction from what I said in this episode 251 before 2022. For this information, I am relying on Leon Morris’ commentary. How come the genealogies of Matthew and Luke are different? I have often heard it said that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph (the legal father) and Luke gives that of Mary, the actual genealogy. But that idea is unlikely. For one reason, genealogies were never reckoned through the mother, although as Morris says, “we must reckon with the fact that we have no information about what would happen when there was no human father.” But another problem with Luke giving Mary’s genealogy is that he speaks of Jesus’ father as “Joseph the son of Heli” (Luke 3:23), which doesn’t sound at all like Luke is giving Mary’s genealogy. Matthew says Joseph’s father was Jacob. There are ingenious ways of explaining how Heli or Jacob could both be correct, but all of that is pure speculation. Morris says this, and I agree: “The best suggestion is that Matthew’s list represents the legal descendants of David, those who would actually have reigned had the kingdom continued, while Luke gives the descendants of David in the line to which Joseph belonged. We have no way of being certain.”

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

1CHRONICLES 25-26:
There was a rather important shift in Israel’s religious life that happened with David and his plans for temple worship rather than the older pattern of worship at the Tabernacle: It was that the priests and Levites were re-organized into groups appropriate to the new state of affairs, introducing divisions on top of the old system which was based on family lines. This reordering was still in effect at the beginning of the New Testament, where we read that Zechariah was a member of the priestly division of Abijah. So we have precedent for not always ‘doing it’ the way it was done in the past.

PROVERBS 21b:
Today’s highlighted verse:

Pro. 21:30 GNT Human wisdom, brilliance, insight—they are of no help if the Lord is against you.

MATTHEW 1:
In my earlier podcast for this day 250, I stated that “Matthew’s Gospel was perhaps written as early as 50 AD, and some material was based on Mark’s Gospel.” In so saying, I simply followed what I had repeatedly heard. However the view that Mark was written first did not gain wide acceptance until the early 20th century. Throughout history, Christians believed that copies of Matthew’s Gospel were distributed first, and that Mark was not released until around the time that Luke’s Gospel appeared. (See the Wikipedia article on Marcan priority, and David A. Black’s article in the book Perspectives on the Ending of Mark.)

It is generally accepted that Matthew was written by Levi Matthew, the tax collector and the disciple of Jesus. He does not identify himself (similarly to John in John’s Gospel), but if he had identified himself, he would have started to do so in chapter 9.

It is clear that Matthew was written for the Jewish audience, and indeed, at the time it was written, the Gospel had not yet gone far among the non-Jews. Again and again Matthew points to fullfilments of Scripture. And at times, especially near the end, he does not bother to use the words “This fulfilled …” but just includes a couple of words that would have been obvious allusions to Scripture for his audience. An odd feature of this gospel is that Matthew three-times records two people or donkeys, whereas other Gospels record only one. My own original opinion on that feature is this: Every assertion according to the Law needed to be maintained by at least two witnesses. At the times 1 becomes 2, I think Matthew is dropping the hint that he was an eyewitness.

I saved Matthew for the last of the Gospels to be read in our reading calendar because I wanted to group together several New Testament books written to the Jewish audience. Today we will hear the genealogy of Jesus.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.