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Here are some verses that have made me think during my read through the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 5:17-18
Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of Gods law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.”

Matthew 7:1-2
Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.[a] The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”

Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord! Lord! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

Matthew 16:24-25
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

Matthew 18:3-4
Then he said, I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Matthew 18:18
“I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid[a] on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

Matthew 21:21
Then Jesus told them, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and it will happen.”

Matthew 22:31-32
But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So he is the God of the living, not the dead.

Matthew 25:29-30
“To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:42-46
“For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me. Then they will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you? And he will answer, I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.

I finished reading the Old Testament early last week in my journey through the Bible in 90+ days. I was going to try and write a little bit about each of the last few books in the Old Testament, but those posts would be very similar to things I have already written before. So instead, I am going to talk about the Old Testament as a whole and what I have learned through this read through.

First let me begin by saying that the Old Testament is still very relevant to Christians. It is not a goup of books that should be ignored. The Old Testament creates the very foundation for being able to fully understand the New Testament. The Old Testament gives an amazing picture of God’s character. Through Genesis to Malachi it is clear that God is all loving, compassionate, just, and holy. And God often teaches people through bad situations. I have often heard the question “If God is loving then how can He allow bad things to happen?” Usually the good Christian answer is simply say that ‘God makes all things good in the end, we just can’t see this from our perspective’. But I think a more accurate picture is that we are stubborn, thick headed, and down right disobedient. And God uses bad situations to force us to look to Him and Him alone. He doesn’t do this out of anger, but out of perfect love for us. This is how God dealt with Israel. He was gracious and very slow to anger. He allowed many generations of disobedience before He acted against Israel. But when it was clear to God that only through exile and destruction would Israel truly come back to Him, He did bring Israel’s enemies to conquer them and drag them off to foreign lands. If anything the Old Testament clearly teaches us that bad things can come from God, that it does not need to mean that the devil is out to get you. It could mean you need to get right with God. As Christian’s we shouldn’t forget this, love doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen. When we teach that the devil is behind all bad things we can seriously mislead people and give the enemy credit for God’s work. It also takes away the responsibility we may have in the situation. We can clearly be in a bad situation due to our sin, with God trying to bring us to our knees so that we will look to Him as our last resort.

The Old Testament is also a group of books about Hope. Nearly every book focuses on how things are not perfect. How God’s people don’t follow Him well, and how messed up the world is since humans have sinned. But in all of this there is the constant hope for a time when God makes it all right. When God saves everyone from all that is wrong in the world. A picture of a God who is just to all, the righteous and the unrighteous. A time of blessing and of punishment. For Israel the hope is all in the future, much of the Old Testament was glim for Israel, focusing on her disobedience and then punishment by God. Yet at the same time clear that Israel, though a disobedient nation, is special to God. When you finish the Old Testament it is hard to be excited since the last group of books are simply depressing. But all of the prophets shared a glimpse of the hope to come, a hope that would come through Israel.

The Old Testament also shows us how much we need God to be merciful with us. Israel had God’s laws and could not obey them. Israel had God’s prophets and could not listen to them. Through God’s interaction with Israel it is clear that the hope in the future is not found in a group of rules or laws. But these rules and laws show us our desperate need for a God who is gracious and merciful, because we will always fail to uphold those laws perfectly. God did not have plan A, the Old Covenant, and then a plan B, the New Covenant because plan A failed. Plan A was designed to show us our need for plan B. Without Plan A (the sacrifices), Plan B (Jesus sacrifice) makes no sense. God has worked through history intentionally with great purpose. He has done things so that we can know His character and desire to be His children.

Many Christians have not fully read the Old Testament and my theory is that due to a dominant idea among Christians being: that the New Testament (New Covenant) has done away with most of the Old Testament (Old Covenant). The Old Testament also seems to be treated by many as short stories for children or used as simply a general reference resource. But I challenge you as an adult to read the Old Testament fully so that you will know God better. It isn’t all cute pictures and stories like you might remember in vacation Bible School. I think you will be challenged by some of the ideas and things that God does in the Old Testament, so your view of God will be stretched and refined to what is a more accurate represenation of the creator and sustainer of the universe.

So now I am moving into the New Testament (a set of books more familiar to many of us) so I am interested to see what new insights I may glean from having read through the Old Testament. I believe I have a more accurate picture of God now than I have ever had before and I am looking forward to what He will teach me.

Micah is yet another one of the prophets that God gave a clear message to. Micah shared this message with Israel and Judah and also wrote down what God revealed to him in the book of Micah. Micah lived during the reign of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So his life overlaps with Isaaiah.

Micah’s prophecy is nearly identical to the prophecies given to the other prophets. (not in a word for word sense, but in the overall message to Israel and Judah) So God is being very clear about what is about to happen and why it is going to happen.

Micah also focuses on Israel’s leaders, including the priests being guilty of misguiding the people. (chapter 3) He also talks about false prophets, basically prophets that are being paid to prophecy a specific message. (chapter 2)

Micah paints a picture of Israel that shows how distorted things had gotten. The people were being misled by the very people that were to be helping them worship God.

Esentially there is not a lot that appears to be unique with Micah’s message. So I really won’t do much of an outline. God simply seems to be wanting to hammer in that Israel being destroyed and taken into captivity was for one clear purpose. To bring them back to God.

I love the book of Jonah. Soon after I became a Christian a friend of mine was talking about Jonah being swallowed by a big fish. I laughed, because I thought he was making it up. It certainly sounded like a scene from Pinnochio to me. Well, it just so happens that Pinnochio got this idea from the book of Jonah.

God spoke to Jonah and asked him to go to Nineveh to tell them that He was going to destroy them. Jonah decided not to go and ran from God. Chapter 4 verse 2 Jonah reveals why he ran away.

Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.

Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he knew God might spare Nineveh because God is merciful and compassionate. Well, on the way to Tarshish by boat a great storm began to break apart the boat. The captain of the boat learned that Jonah was likely the cause of the storm and as a last resort they tossed Jonah into the sea. Immediately the storm stopped and all of the sailors were awe struck and offered sacrifices to God. This is when a huge fish then swallows Jonah. Jonah spends three days and three nights in the fish praying to God. Then the fish spits him out and Jonah heads on to Nineveh. (kids books seem to really like this part of the story)

Jonah heads to Nineveh and tells the people in Nineveh that God is going to destroy them. Everyone in Nineveh begins fasting and praying to God. So God spares Nineveh.

When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. — Jonah 3:10

You would think that Jonah would be overjoyed by Nineveh turning to God and God sparing them. However, Jonah has the exact opposite reaction.
Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh. Nineveh was a wicked city full of gentiles. So the book of Jonah ends with Jonah sitting on a hill overlooking Nineveh being angry with God. So by the book of Jonah you can already see that Israel really is not understanding that God’s grace and mercy are not exclusive to the Jewish people.

What I like about this book is that the people listened to the prophet God sent to them and repented. It is good to see a very different outcome than when the prophets are speaking to Israel. And it shows God’s grace to all people, not just the Jewish people.

Another interesting thing is that Jonah had been inside of a fish for three days. I wonder what he may have looked like?
Well, I think stomach acids would bleach your skin and hair. So Jonah was probably freakishly white. And I mean freakish. So I think a large factor in Nineveh even listening to Jonah was that he looked so bizarre. How could they not listen to a freakishly white man with a message of forthcoming doom?

Maybe God chose Jonah specifically because He knew Jonah would run and get swallowed by a fish before he would share the message to Nineveh? If an obedient prophet had gone to Nineveh maybe the ending would have been very different, maybe Nineveh would have ignored the message from God.

Well now I am heading into the book of Micah.

The book of Obadiah is a message given to the Edomites. The Edomites are the descendants of Esau. Esau was Jacobs older brother that traded his inheritance for a bowl of soup.

The book is only one chapter long so it is a quick read and the cliff notes version of the book would look like this.

Edom, you did not help your relative Israel. You watched them suffer at the hands of their enemies and get taken to a far away land. In fact you plundered their land and gloated at their destruction. So now Edom will be destroyed by Israel’s return.

Obadiah ends this book with a description of Israel coming back to their land and all of Edom being destroyed by Israel. Verse 18 says “There will be no survivors in Edom. I, the Lord, have spoken.” So…. I don’t likely have a family tree that will go back to Esau.