Jeremiah 32:1,2 - The prophet was confined

32:1,2

Things were looking pretty desperate at this stage. Babylon was besieging the city of Jerusalem. This means that conditions within the city would be becoming increasingly awful, with food shortages, possibly disease spread. Jeremiah was confined within the courtyard of the royal palace. This may have been a place of relative comfort.

32:3-5

Zedekiah could not understand why Jeremiag kept prophesying that God would give the city into the hands of the king of Babylon. Surely a prophet should be speaking about victory? But a prophet of God is there to speak the word of God, not to comfort men. Jeremiah even said that Zedekiah would be taken to Babylon. Fighting against Babylon would be futile. The reason Zedekiah could not understand Jeremiah’s message was that he did not understand the nature and extent of the nation’s sin. Understanding sin is essential to understanding the gospel.

Matthew 16:13-15 - Who do you say I am?

16:13,14

We now come to one of the most famous sections in the gospel, Peter’s confession of who Jesus is. Jesus starts by asking the disciples who the people say He is (using the term Son of Man). The disciples’ reply lists John the Baptist (following on from Herod’s fears, Matt 14:2), Elijah (probably based on Malachi 4:5), and Jeremiah or one of the prophets (I guess this is a rather loose identification).

16:15

Jesus then turns the attention back on to the disciples. “Who do you say I am?” You have probably heard a number of evangelistic messages based around this question. We should remember that by this point the disciples had been with Jesus for some time. Maybe it is more appropriate to address this question to ourselves and other church members. There will be an amazing number of people in our churches that really don’t appreciate who Jesus is. That is why good teaching is essential. There is a model of church that sees the primary function of Sunday services as being evangelistic. This is a questionable model. A more Biblically based model would see the Sunday services as essentially twofold. One is to praise God, the other is to be taught and to receive from the Holy Spirit, and that we then go out into the world to live and speak as Christ’s disciples. This is not to say that we never have evangelistic services, but if that is the only sort we have we are going down a wrong road.

Jeremiah 31:35-40 - The city will never again be uprooted

31:35,36

We have here a very clear declaration of the commitment of God to Israel. First we are reminded who is making this commitment, it is the Lord who controls the whole universe. So the creator and sustainer of all things is committed to Israel, and He is well able to make good on these promises. And we should take to heart the words of v36. To belittle or remove God’s commitment to Israel from our “theology” is a very dangerous thing to do.

31:37-40

31:37 is a declaration that God will never give up on Israel.  Even with  our  increasing knowledge we have not searched out the “foundations of the earth”, and nowhere near the heavens above. So a time would come when the city would be rebuilt. The measuring line will be stretched out. We should note the use of the measuring line in a positive sense. In Zechariah he is told to stop the man with a measuring line. Why the difference? Simple, it is being used in different contexts. Here it is used to show that God has definite plans for Jerusalem, in Zechariah it is used to show that God’s plans are without limit. Note also that it is an eternal city that God will establish.

Matthew 16:8-12 - You of little faith

16:8-10

Jesus knew what the disciples were saying and rebuked them for it, asking them if they had learnt nothing from the two recent miracles. The miracles had demonstrated that a lack of bread was not a problem! So often God will do something in our lives, we will gratefully accept the result, but will not think beyond that. We will not learn that God really does care for us, that His care for our well-being is real and continuous. 

16:11,12

Having admonished them Jesus repeats His instruction to beware the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Having got their minds off its fixation with bread they finally understood what Jesus was on about, that it was the teaching that they needed Jesus was warning against. Our minds can get so focused on something that really does not matter, this is both bad in itself, usually causing anxiety. But it also blinds our minds to what really matters. Once we get our minds off this thing we can see much more clearly.

Jeremiah 31:34 - They will all know me

31:34

This verse does not mean that we have no need for teachers, the New Testament makes that abundantly clear. But there will no longer be any division between “laity” and “priesthood”, there will be no elite. So the pastor or elders in a church are no better than the “ordinary” church member. They should obviously have many good Christian virtues, as outlined in the pastoral epistles, but the “ordinary” member can know God just as well as the pastor can. “They will all know me, from the least to the greatest”. Any group that sets a certain section above others is misled, and may even be a cult. Why will this happen? How can this happen? “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”. All of us are in the kingdom purely because of the grace of God.

Matthew 16:5-7 - Be careful!

16:5,6

This incident shows clearly that the feeding of the 4000 and 5000 were separate incidents. More importantly, it shows the slowness of the disciples, or rather the human propensity to focus on things that don’t really matter. Jesus warns them to beware the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. What He meant was there teachings, in particular the underlying attitudes and assumptions, were dangerous and could work their way through eventually contaminating everything. The odd item or two of Pharisaical or  Sadducee teaching might seem quite sensible and certainly harmful, but then it can permeate its way to infect all sorts of things. Notice also that Jesus talks about the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two groups were quite different and were usually at war with each other. The answer to one wrong teaching is not to go to the other extreme, which is what we usually do!

16:7

While Jesus was talking about important spiritual matters, the disciples' mind went elsewhere! They thought it was because they hadn’t brought any bread. Now just consider how ridiculous this thinking was. How was yeast going to help them? They could hardly bake a loaf of bread while they were on the boat. So why did their minds go there? Maybe it was guilt or the fear of making a mistake, so we imagine every possible way in which things can go wrong. Our minds are very prone to focus on things that do not matter.

Jeremiah 31:32,33 - I will put my law in their minds

31:32

The new covenant  will indeed be new, it will not be like the old covenant. The old covenant “failed” in the sense that it was never intended to be the final answer. Why did it fail? Because the people broke the covenant. God was faithful to it and to the people, He “was a husband to them”. The old covenant would only “work” if the people it governed were righteous. So why did God give this old covenant? It was because we need to realise that in our own strength we cannot be righteous. This is the first lesson we all need to learn, and which we devote an awful lot of effort to not learning.

31:33

So how would the new covenant work? God would “put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts”. We need to be changed. Giving new or updated laws or systems is of no use. We are the problem! This is why Jesus said we need to be born again. It is why we need the Holy Spirit. It is why being a “new creation” is fundamental to the gospel. Even after we become Christains we are so prone to going back to doing things out of our own strength, as the Galatians were and provoked Paul’s strongest letter.

Matthew 16:1-4 - Forecasting the weather

16:1

“A sign, a sign. Show us a sign!” seemed to be the perpetual cry of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Sceptics can seem to be doing the same sometimes in demanding proof. How much proof do you need? How many signs do you need? They were ever seeing but never perceiving (Is 6:9; Mark 4:12). It is interesting to note that the Pharisees and Sadducees were together here, normally they were sworn enemies. 

16:2-4

Jesus castigates them for their blindness. With natural signs, meteorological ones in this case, they could read the signs. They could predict the sort of weather that was coming. However, with the signs of the kingdom they were utterly blind. They were blinded by sin, they were a “wicked and adulterous generation”. The only sign they would get would be that of Jonah. This refers to the resurrection, but also to comparing their reaction to that of the Ninevites who repented in response to the word alone. As well as all the miracles, they would have the resurrection, but the Pharisees and Sadducees  failed to respond.

Jeremiah 31:29-31 - I will make a new covenant

31:29,30

31:29 was apparently a common saying, Ezekiel quotes it as well in Ex 18:2. The Ten Commandments teach that our sins can affect future generations, “down to the third and fourth generations” (Ex 20:5). The people of the time felt that they were suffering for the sins of previous generations. Now the sins of the past generations did have an effect, there had been a record of persistent rebellion. However, the present generation was as guilty as any, and their first priority needed to be to accept their own guilt. Today critical race theory, and all the other critical theories, start by blaming someone else. In fact, they never get beyond blaming someone else. When you are obsessed with someone else’s guilt above your own you are going down a wrong and dangerous path.

A key point on the road to redemption and restoration is acknowledgment of our own sin.

31:31

We now come to a famous section in Jeremiah, one that is quoted in Heb 8:8-12. How can salvation possibly happen? How can a righteous people come about? They always sin. There may even be a short time of change, but they always fall back to their old sinful ways? And we are all like that. What can be done?

The answer is that God will make a new covenant. Here it is looked in terms of Judah and Israel, in Hebrews we see that it applies to all. It is significant that it is made with Judah and Israel. God’s new covenant brings unity. Unity is found only in Christ.

Matthew 15:29-39 - How many loaves do you have?

15:29-31

We now come to the second great feeding miracle. Some say this is just another retelling of the first miracle. This is not the case. There are distinct differences between this and the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus refers to both miracles (Matt 16:8-11). Anyway, many who say there was only one feeding probably don’t believe the first was a miracle anyway! Jesus went up a mountain, presumably just meaning he just went a little way up as the crowds followed Him. Many were healed of all sorts of diseases and conditions, Matthew putting emphasis here on the mute being able to speak. They also saw the crippled walking.  And so they praised the God of Israel. They saw this as God’s work, unlike the clueless religious leaders.

15:32,33

Jesus speaks to His disciples. In the previous incident it was the disciples who raised the question of the people needing food. This time it is Jesus who initiates the conversation. He is testing the disciples, but it seems that they had learnt nothing. They had seen, even partook in, the miracle, so one might have hoped they would have at least suggested a repeat performance, but no. We can be the same. God may act in our life in a particular situation, we accept it gratefully enough, but we learn nothing. The next time a similar situation arises we are just as full of fear as the last time. So the disciples' response is that it is impossible for them to feed the people.

15:34-39

Jesus then got the disciples to go through a similar routine as they had done in the feeding of the five thousand. This time they had seven loaves and a few fish to play with. Jesus gave thanks for what they had and everyone had more than enough to eat. He then sent the crowds away and left for the region of Magadan.

Jeremiah 31:25-28 - I will refresh the weary

31:25,26

“I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint”. Note how this is personal, and that it is God who does the refreshing. It does not say “you will be refreshed”, but “I will refresh”. Now consider the words of Jesus in Matt 11:28 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. So see a fulfilling of Old Testament prophecy, and Jesus doing what God says He would do.

Jeremiah then woke up. Evidently God had been speaking to him in a dream, and it was quite detailed. His sleep had been pleasant to him.

31:27,28

There are a number of key things here. As always, the emphasis is on what God does, and also on what He did. He watched over them to “uproot and tear down”, and now He will watch over them to “build and to plant”. Then Israel and Judah are united. They were opposed to each other, but in Christ they will be united.

Matthew 15:24-28 - Woman, you have great faith!

15:24

The way Jesus deals with this is quite amazing. Drawing out the disciples’s attitudes seems entirely reasonable, we can all sit there and think “yes, their attitudes needed drawing out and dealing with”, but the woman? She is putting her hope in Jesus, she has a demon-possessed daughter, why doesn’t Jesus just throw His arms around her and heal the daughter? Instead He says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”! There is a strong implication here that Israel needed to hear. They were lost sheep. They considered themselves superior to Samaritans, and definitely superior to the Gentiles, but they needed to see themselves as the lost sheep that they truly were.

15:25-28

But the woman is not to be deterred. Jesus is drawing faith out of her, and faith isn’t always quiet and reserved. We must also note that the belief that as a Gentile she had no part in what the Jews had would be deeply rooted. So Jesus is dealing with deeper things than the immediate problem, serious though that was. And He may do the same in our lives. We may have a serious problem, and it seems to be the most important and critical thing in our lives, and God seems so slow in doing anything about it. What He may be doing is dealing with an even deeper problem, bringing about an even deeper healing.

So the woman asks Jesus for help, and gets what seems to be an amazingly cruel and heartless answer. Yet it draws out an incredible answer from the woman. “Even the dogs ...”, and “dogs” was a term the Jews sometimes used to refer to Gentiles. Jesus commends the woman on her faith, and her daughter is healed immediately.

Jeremiah 31:21-24 - How long will you wander!

31:21,22

Earlier they had been told that they should submit to Babylon and go into exile, but this was only for a season. Likewise, Israel was in slavery in Egypt for a season (a long season as well), but there came a time when the captivity was over. The thing is, we get used to circumstances, even if they are unpleasant or worse and leaving them can seem dangerous and frightening. God sets up signposts, to mark the way back. We are not to wander forever, we are meant to be home with the Lord. “The Lord will create a new thing on earth - the woman will return to the man”. God had “divorced” Israel because of her persistent disobedience, but there would come a time when she would return.

31:23,24

Jerusalem had become a difficult place to live in, and had then become a ruin, but all that would change. “When I bring them back ..” It was God who sent them into exile, it is God who would bring them back. We were all banished from Eden by the Lord, it is the Lord who brings us back to Himself. There would be restoration and the people would call Jerusalem blessed.

Matthew 15:21-23 - Send her away!

15:21,22

When the Israelites had conquered Canaan many of the Canaanites had been dispersed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman came to Jesus crying out “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!”. To be merciful meant to deal with some severe problem someone was facing, in this case it was that her daughter was demon-possessed. So what we have here is a Gentile woman seeking help from Jesus. The centurion back in Matt 8:5 was the first Gentile encounter to be noted by Matthew. 

15:23

Jesus kept quiet. Now why did He do this? Maybe it was to draw out the reaction of the disciples and to draw out faith from the woman. In the case of the disciples this seems a perfectly reasonable thing for Jesus to do, for their attitude needed changing. By the way, it is quite normal for a disciple to need his or her attitudes to change, and you and I are disciples. The disciples just wanted Jesus to get rid of the woman. She had at least two, and possibly three, things against her in the eyes of the disciples. She was a woman, she was a Gentile, and she was making a noise.

Jeremiah 31:16-20 - I have great compassion for him

31:16,17

The situation looked desperate and hopeless, hence the weeping in 31:15, but God tells them to “restrain their weeping”. The work would be rewarded. We all need to remember this. Our work for the Lord is never in vain. People will be brought back from the “land of the enemy”. We can maybe apply this to the work of evangelism.There are many times when it can see a rather fruitless task, or at least one of limited fruitfulness. We should not give up. Our reward is in the Lord’s hands. “Your children will return to their own land”.

31:18-20

These verses express how salvation works. We are disciplined by the Lord. Judah was disciplined by the Lord. The first step is to accept the discipline, to accept that we have sinned against God. Then we need to repent, to turn to the Lord, to accept that our previous way of living was not good or right. This goes together with the heart of God, who longs to forgive and to restore. God will have compassion on those who turn to Him in repentance.

Matthew 15:17-20 - For out of the heart comes evil

15:17,18

The Pharisees were obsessed with externals, including food laws, but Jesus points out that what goes into the stomach and then comes out again. What goes in one end, comes out the other. Now, there were food laws in the Law, and Israel was to observe these, but they did not change a man or woman. They did not make someone good or bad. Conversely, what comes out of the mouth reflects what is in a person’s heart, and that is what defiles us. It is our hearts that make us unclean, it is our hearts that need dealing with.

15:19,20

When Jesus said “what comes out of the mouth” He was not just talking about words, but was thinking of the whole gamut of evil behaviour. This includes words, thought and actions. Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony amd slander are mentioned here, though we should not take the list as intended to be exhaustive. The human problem lies within the heart, eating and washing do nothing to change that.

Jeremiah 31:12-15 - I will turn their mourning into gladness

31:12-14

Zion is the city of God, they will rejoice in the  bounty of the Lord. We find truly good things in the hands of the Lord. When we follow our own inclinations something may seem attractive, but it will soon turn sour. With the Lord we find everlasting joy. Look at the description here. Sometimes people paint the Christian life as utterly joyless, and there are a number of Christians who reinforce this view! But it is not a Biblical picture. Here there is joy, dancing, young and old, there is new wine. Joy is the gift of God.

31:15

This verse is quoted by Matthew in the context of the flight to Egypt. In some ways it seems out of place here, but when we come to the next verse the purpose will become clear. The people were mourning, for it seemed that all was lost. The next verse will tell us the truth.

Matthew 15:13-16 - They are blind guides

15:13,14

Jesus does not reply with diplomatic words, nor seeking to pour oil on troubled waters. Instead He makes the point even sharper. First His words imply that the Pharisees were not “planted” by the Father. They were nothing to do with God’s plan. They may have thought of themselves as God’s chosen, they may have been looked on as the most devout people, but in reality they were nothing of the sort. Secondly, they would be uprooted by the Father. Now, remember the parables which talked of the angels taking up the weeds at the end of time. Jesus is likening the Pharisees to the weeds.

So we have had God’s view of the Pharisees. Now we come to what the disciples should do in response. They should leave them, they would learn nothing good from the Pharisees, for they were blind guides, and so the result of following them would be to join them in falling into the pit.

15:15,16

Peter asks Jesus to explain the parable. The “parable” is v11 where Jesus spoke about what goes into and comes out of a man. Parables do not have to be long!  Jesus is exasperated with them, because they were so slow to understand anything, even the simplest of lessons.

Jeremiah 31:9-11 - Hear the word of the Lord, you nations

31:9

This verse expresses the deep concern that God has for His people, and how He will lead them from captivity. They will come back weak, but will be praying to the Lord. Weakness is not a problem if we pray to the Lord. God will lead them by streams of water and on level paths. Why will He do this? Because He is their father and they are His children. We should note that everything here is rooted in God. 

31:10,11

The nations need to understand God’s relationship with Israel. Israel was not like any other nation, and it was (and is) a nation for which God has a plan. He will restore them. This is still relevant today. A nation opposes or treats Israel badly at its peril. For Christians, any theology that says Israel as a nation no longer has any special part in God’s plan is treading a very dangerous road, and seems to be ignoring so much of the Bible.

Matthew 15:10-12 - Listen and understand

15:10,11

Jesus then speaks to the crowds so that they understand clearly what He is saying and what the point is that they need to grasp. We live in an age when there are many who seek to stir up crowds (though it has probably always been like that). The Pharisees were keen on focusing on the externals, Jesus focused on the heart.  It is what is inside that matters, and it is what is inside that determines what comes out of our lives. So Jesus is getting them to focus on themselves. People who stir up crowds will get people to focus on an external enemy, that is how to rouse a rabble. Jesus did not want to do that.

15:12

The disciples were shocked and concerned about what Jesus was saying and doing, for the Pharisees were offended by what He said. The Pharisees were a pillar of the religious establishment, and considered to be the most devout members of that establishment. And the religious establishment was extremely powerful in Jewish society, they had a great influence in life. So to offend them was a dangerous thing to do, but Jesus knew what He was doing.

Jeremiah 31:5-8 - Make your praises heard

31:5,6

Even the hills of Samaria will be covered with fruit. This is particularly significant because Samaria was regarded as something of an outcast, right up to the time of Jesus. There will be fruitfulness, and a heart to worship the Lord. There will be complete unity within Israel, wit past divisions being healed.

31:7,8

Jacob is to look forward to its salvation. They were to make their praise heard. This applies to the church as well. We should be aware of the Lord’s plans for the church, for the final destination, and we are to praise God for it. Sometimes we have to go through difficult and discouraging times, but our destiny has not changed.  We are also to pray to the Lord for this to happen. So we praise Him for what will happen, and pray to Him to make it happen. The Lord wants us to pray for His plans to be fulfilled.

Those who return will include the “blind and the lame”, “expectant mothers and women in labour”. The weak will not be excluded.

Matthew 15:4-9 - You hypocrites!

15:4-6

What was the command of God that they broke? It wasn’t some obscure law hidden away in the recesses of Leviticus or Numbers. No, it was one of the Ten Commandments, to honour your father and mother. When we get blinded by sin we will break the most obvious commands and be totally blind to it. So how were they doing this? They were saying that some money that should have been given to their parents to help them did not need to be given if it was declared as “devoted to God”. They were then not to honour their father and mother with it!. See that their supposed godliness was now used to disobey God’s commands. We need to watch ourselves so carefully.

15:7-9

“You hypocrites!” Jesus does not say they might have got things a little wrong, He declares their sin in no uncertain terms, and then quotes from Isaiah 29:13, which exposes the truth of where the Pharisees really were. Their words sounded fine, outwardly it looked as if they were indeed worshipping God, dedicated to Him. But their hearts were far from God, and their teachings were mere human rules. Again, we need to watch ourselves for this same tendency. Note also that the Scriptures clearly taught that all men, including, even especially, Israel, were sinners in need of a saviour.

Jeremiah 31:1-4 - I will build you up again

31:1,2

God’s plan is a plan of salvation. Yet it seems to involve harsh elements. For many died in Jerusalem and in exile. Yet, those who survive the sword will find favour. It is difficult for us to comprehend all this and work it out. One of our problems is that we look at things from a human perspective. We need to start from a God perspective. No one deserves to be saved on their own merits. On our own merits death is the only just outcome. Those who are saved are saved by grace as a result of God’s decree. God will be our God and we will be His people. We will find favour in the wilderness, and God will give us rest. Remember that Jesus invited all the weary to come to Him and find rest (Matt 11:29).

31:3,4

God had made promises to Israel in the past, and had acted with “unfailing kindness”. Yet Israel had rejected God, had repeatedly sinned against God. But Israel’s sin would not be the last word. God’s love would be the last word, He would build her up again. And there would be dancing and joy in the land. So we see that God has the last word, but our sin matters, it has an effect, for many died as a result of Israel’s rebellion.

Matthew 15:1-3 - Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition

15:1,2

The religious hierarchy had heard about what Jesus was doing, and the crowds that He was attracting. Some of the religious leaders came from Jerusalem to investigate, and came with an agenda of wanting to find fault. Here they do this indirectly by focusing on Jesus’ disciples, and asked Jesus why they didn’t wash their hands before eating. Note that they are concerned about the disciples breaking not the Law, but the “tradition of the elders”. A multitude of rules had been added on to the Law by the religious leaders.

15:3

Jesus turns the attack right back onto the Pharisees. The religious leaders were putting their rules above the Law, the command of God, even to the point of breaking the Law. We need to be very careful that we do not do this, it is so easy for us to put our traditions or our customs above God’s commands. It probably won’t be deliberate, but it is what we will do.

Jeremiah 30:23,24 - The storm of the Lord

30:23,24

“The storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath”. Any “understanding” of God that ignores or denies His wrath is at best wholly inadequate, and worst completely wrong. The wrath of God is an essential attribute of His, and was one of the most important chapters in J I Packer’s classic, “Knowing God”. The wrath of God is both passionate and wholly rational and righteous. It is passionate because only God knows the true extent of sin, and its disastrous and deadly effects. It is rational and righteous because it is not an uncontrolled outburst, but one based entirely on knowledge of what sin does.

“In days to come you will understand this”. People often worry about “how can a God of love send people to hell”. We can be assured that on the last day we will worry no more, for we will see the whole truth. Our only wonder will be how can God be so merciful and patient.

Matthew 14:28-36 - Why did you doubt?

14:28-31

Peter reacts in his usual manner by asking Jesus to tell him to walk on the water as well. Jesus does call him, and for a time Peter is actually walking on the water. He then looked around and became aware of the wind and fear entered his heart and he began to sink. Jesus reached out and rescued him, but then rebuked him for his lack of faith. There are many lessons we can draw from this. First, we should not be harsh on Peter, for which of us would have got out of the boat? Peter has walked further on water than any of us have! Secondly, Jesus expects us to be able to do the things that He did! Peter was actually walking on water for a time. Then we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, for it was when Peter looked at the storm that he became afraid and started to sink.

14:32-36

Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat and the storm died down. The disciples were amazed at Jesus, declaring that He was truly the Son of God. They eventually did get to the other side. True to form, the crowds gathered and wanted their sick to be healed. They believed that if they even touched the edge of His cloak they would be healed. This was a sign of their faith that Jesus could heal them. “All who touched Him were healed”. 

Jeremiah 30:18-22 - You will be my people and I will be your God

30:18,19

This describes the nature of the restoration. The Lord will have compassion on both the people and their dwellings. We are right to oppose the so-called “prosperity gospel”, but we should also recognise that God’s salvation is material as well as spiritual. The material and the spiritual are part of God’s creation, of His universe. “The city will be rebuilt on her ruins”. There are those who place a wrong emphasis on physical Israel, but we must not go to the other extreme. The physical land of Israel and Jerusalem do matter. God will restore things to the way they are meant to be. We can apply this to our own lives as well. There may be parts of our lives (or even most or all of our lives) that are a ruin. God’s plan is to restore our lives.

30:20-22

Israel had been punished by her oppressors, the oppressors being used by God as an instrument of judgement, but now the oppressors would be punished. In verse 21 we then have a messianic prophesy. The leader is Jesus. He is “one of their own”, i.e by birth Jesus was a Jew, an Israelite. He is utterly devoted to the Father, and brings us near to God. “So you will be my people, and I will be your God”. This is the overriding purpose of the Bible.

Matthew 14:22-27 - Walking on the lake

14:22-24

Jesus dismissed the crowd and sent the disciples away in the boat. He did this because He wanted to be alone to pray. So we see again the importance of prayer to His Father. Before the feeding of the five thousand He had sought solitude, but had been denied it. This time He managed to get the time alone that He needed. In the meantime the wind was getting up and waves were buffeting the boat, which was now some way out from the shore.

14:25-27

The boat was some distance from the shore, so Jesus walked out to the boat, walking on the lake! This was just before the dawn. On seeing this the disciples were terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. They did not expect to see Jesus walking on the water! Jesus reassured them that it was indeed He. He tells them not to be afraid, but also to take courage. 

Jeremiah 30:16,17 - All who devour you will be devoured

30:16,17

“But all who devour you ...” These verses are an amazing turnaround, an amazing result!. Death and destruction should be the outcome, but instead it is restoration. Those who devour us will be devoured. The tables will be turned upon all who have threatened and oppressed us. 

How can this possibly happen? How can it possibly be the case? It is because God “will restore us to health and heal our wounds”. And He does this because we need it! I know I keep harping on about this, but note again that Is 53:5 refers to healing our sin, not physical healing. Now this does not mean I don’t believe in physical healing, I most certainly do, but Is 53:5 should not the goto verse! It is referring to something much greater.

Matthew 14:18-21 - They all ate and were satisfied

14:18-21

Jesus then gave them instructions on what they were to do. The miracle was carried out in a very orderly and quiet way. There was no big announcement to the crowd that a miracle was about to take place! So the people were organised into groups. Jesus gave thanks for what they had. This is something that we need to do. We so often focus on our lack, whether it be a material lack, or a lack of ability. We should give thanks for what we do have. The food was then distributed among the people. Everyone was fed, and twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered up. There were five thousand men plus women and children. In Jewish culture, men were not allowed to eat together with women and children in a public place.

Jeremiah 30:13-15 - Why do you cry out over your wound?

30:13,14

“There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy, no healing.” There is nothing we can do to sort ourselves out. We can do it ourselves, and no ally we may turn to can do it either. Judah had turned to many nations looking for allies, but the allies could not help her.  Moreover, her “allies” did not care for Judah, they had no concern. It was the Lord who had struck her. This is so important to appreciate. It is why there was no escape, because Babylon was not the real enemy, God was! But it was also good news. For the one who had defeated her would also rescue her. Our biggest problem is our sin and God’s judgement upon our sin. We are by nature enemies of God. But this is also good news, for this same God has redeemed us.

30:15

“Why do you cry out...” It was because of their “great guilt and many sins” that these things were happening. All societies and human beings know that life is full of trouble. The fundamental reason for this is our rebellion against God, and until we acknowledge this there can be no lasting solution.

Matthew 14:15-17 - You give them something to eat

14:15-17

This was leading to one of the most famous miracles, the feeding of the five thousand, and one reported in all four gospels. It was getting late and the disciples foresaw a problem arising, so they made Jesus aware of it and suggested a very practical solution. Namely to send the people away so they could go and get food. This was an entirely reasonable thing to propose. However, Jesus saw things rather differently: “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat”.

This was an utterly ridiculous suggestion, for they only had five loaves and two fish. This was not going to work, based on the way things normally operated. But Jesus was going to do something out of the ordinary. Sometimes God will tell us to do things that require Him to act in an extraordinary way. Now there must be some emphasis on the word sometimes. Most of the time we are to act and make decisions on the assumption that things will function in the normal way. It is a legalistic and silly approach to think that we must always act as if a miracle is going to occur. It is even sillier to think that because we come up with a madcap scheme that God will do some miracle to make our idea work! So how do we take account of the fact (and it is a fact) that sometimes God’s plans will require a miracle? I think there are two key facts to note. The first is that it was Jesus’ instruction to the disciples. The idea came from Jesus, not from the disciples. The second is that the disciples had a relationship with Jesus. They knew Him and were following Him. We need to know Jesus and to follow Him.

Jeremiah 30:11,12 - I am with you and will save you

30:11

“I am with you and I will save you”. Now remember who this is addressed to. It is addressed to a sinful people, I people who are in exile because of their sin. God saves sinful people. Now the rest of the verse talks of them being a scattered people, a people scattered by God. They would be disciplined, “but only in due measure”. God’s purpose is to save His people, and that means dealing with the sin within us.

30:12

“Your wound is incurable”, Jeremiah had said a similar thing back in Jer 10:19. The section, v12-17, is said before the promise of restoration. Before we can receive salvation we need to recognise the full extent of the problem. Humanly speaking, our wound is incurable. And let me emphasise again that in Is 53 when it says “by His wounds we are healed” it is talking above all else about the problem of sin being cured in our lives. The penalty that comes with sin, and the hold that sin has on our lives. 

Matthew 14:6-14 - He had compassion on them

14:6-12

We now come to the event where John ended up being beheaded, and it again displays the weakness of Herod.The daughter of Herodias was dancing and Herod found this very pleasing. Herod then made a rash promise to give her whatever she wanted. Her mother was also a manipulating woman, and had no doubt been offended by John’s habit of reminding them of their sin. So she saw an opportunity in the situation and told her daughter to ask for head of John the Baptist. The daughter duly did this, and Herod was now in a complete bind. Herod was focused on himself, self-centred, so what motivated him above all was not wishing to lose face, so he ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. John’s disciples took his body and buried it, then they went to Jesus. We need to be dedicated to Jesus above all else.

14:13,14

On hearing the news Jesus withdrew to a quiet place, or at least He tried to. The crowds learnt where He was and chased after Him. When momentous events, whether momentous on a personal level, or momentous on a national or global scale, we need to be careful how we react. We need to seek God first, to still our hearts before Him. Otherwise we can be led by events, by crowd emotion, by our own emotion, and not by the Holy Spirit. 

The crowd did find Jesus. Despite His desire from peace and quiet, Jesus did not react angrily. Instead He had compassion upon the people and healed the sick.

Jeremiah 30:8-10 - So do not be afraid

30:8,9

It now becomes clear that God is speaking of the yoke of oppression being broken off the necks of Jacob. No longer would they be enslaved by other nations. The result of God’s salvation is freedom and release from oppression. But it is not just getting rid of oppression. The oppression is replaced by submission to the Lord. Some might object that this is merely replacing one form of oppression with another! But the truth is that when we serve the Lord we are the freest people on earth. “and David their king, whom I will raise up for them”. This is clearly referring to Jesus, and also shows that “David” is not referring to King David who reigned previously, but to the one of whom King David was a “type”. The real King David would be a much greater king.

30:10

“So do be afraid”. In the Olivet discourse Jesus told His disciples to see that they are not alarmed (Matt 24:6), and this was talking of traumatic times. The people in Jeremiah’s day were going through traumatic times. Today we are going through somewhat traumatic times, though if we have a more historical and global perspective there have been many times and places when things were much, much worse. It is more the response of governments that seem to be traumatic. In traumatic times we do not need to be afraid, nor do we need to be dismayed. God was working to save His people, and seventy years later would bring His people home.

Matthew 14:1-5 - He wanted to kill John

14:1,2

Herod the tetrarch was Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great. After Herod the Great died his kingdom was divided in four parts, and Herod the tetrarch ruled one of these parts. The various Herods were not good guys, being prone to violence and corruption of various sorts. We will shortly read how Herod had John the Baptist killed. There have been, are, and always will be tyrants of various sorts. Ranging from the mega  tyrants like Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, to lesser ones like Mugabe, and local tyrants.They have power of a sort, and do much evil with it, usually costing many lives and making many others miserable. This is what tyrants do, but they are also weak figures, ruled by paranoia, guilt and fear, and we see this in the story related here. Herod had had John the Baptist killed (which was an act of weakness). Herod knew that that had been a wrong thing to do, so when he hears about Jesus he thinks John the Baptist had risen from the dead! In effect, he believed he was being haunted.

14:3-5

Herodias was a granddaughter of Herod the Great. Herodias had married her uncle, Herod Philip (a lot of evil people were called Herod at the time, fortunately it is not a Biblical name that has caught on!) who lived in Rome. Herod Antipas (the Herod who is in the events here) had persuaded Herodias to leave her husband. This was forbidden under the Law (Lev 18:16). John had declared to Herod that what he was doing was wrong. John was truly speaking “truth to power”. So Herod had him thrown into prison.

Jeremiah 30:2-7 - How awful that day will be

30:2,3

First, God tells them to write all of the words He gave to Jeremiah in a book. They were all to be recorded, and Paul tells us that all of God’s word is useful for our instruction. All of Jeremiah comes from God, and we need all of it. even, perhaps especially, the bits we don’t like! God tells them that one day He would bring His people, Israel and Judah, back to the land He gave to their ancestors. The mention of “Israel and Judah” is significant. The land would be united. Now, remember that the false prophets were prophesying a return, but there were two things wrong with their prophecies. They predicted an immediate return, and they neglected the reality of Judah’s sin. Any talk of God’s love that ignores the reality of man’s sin is just so much hot air.

30:4-7

There seems to be some ambiguity here. The section ends with our being told that there will be turmoil, a day of trouble for Jacob, “but he will be saved out of it”. Yet we know that it is referring (at least in the immediate context) to the downfall of Babylon. The reference to “every strongman” being doubled up in agony would seem to refer to previous oppressors being in agony.

Matthew 13:53-58 - A prophet without honour

13:53,54

The kingdom parable section has now ended and Jesus moved on from there and came to His hometown. There He began to teach in the synagogue. A town would have a synagogue and it would be a focal point of religious and community life. The people were amazed at the wisdom that Jesus demonstrated in His teaching. Being the Son of God it would be a cut or two above the normal fare that they were used to! He also demonstrated His miraculous powers. Again, something that was rather unusual!

13:55-58

As well as being amazed, they also wondered where He got these powers and this wisdom from. This was His hometown, they had known Him as a boy, and knew that He was (humanly speaking) a carpenter’s son. They knew His mother and His brothers and His sisters. There had been nothing unusual about His upbringing that the eye could see. There was no reason to expect Him to be anything out of the ordinary. They “took offense at Him”. They thought He had no right to be anything special. 

Jesus then gives His now famous statement about a prophet being without honour in his hometown. In any other place people focus on the gift that the person has. In the hometown the people focus on what they think they know about the person and think both that there cannot be anything special about them, and that they have no right to be special. Jesus did not do many miracles because of their lack of faith. 

Jeremiah 30:1 - The word that came to Jeremiah

30:1

To be called “a Jeremiah” is to be called a person who is always gloomy. Jeremiah does contain a lot of judgement, but this is because there was a lot of sin! However, we now come to a few chapters where the tone is a lot more harmful. Judgement is not forgotten, but God’s ultimate purpose is salvation. However, if we do not take full account of the judgement we will be totally ignorant of the nature of God’s salvation. Those who have problems with the penal substitutionary atonement aspect of the cross always amaze me as being very foolish people and having a very limited understanding of God’s salvation. 

Matthew 13:51,52 - have you understood all these things?

13:51,52

Jesus asks the disciples if they have understood these things. They answer yes, though one must suspect that their understanding was far from complete! Jesus then makes a statement about a teacher of the Law. First, He is referring to those who have been instructed about the kingdom of heaven. So, knowing about the kingdom of heaven is vital, and it is not opposed to the Law, but is also different from it. Such a teacher will bring out both old and new things. So there will be teaching about the Law, but there will also be new things as well, relating to the kingdom of heaven, relating to the gospel. Those who think the Law is now irrelevant do not know what they are talking about. At the same time, if we just teach Law then we don’t know what we are talking about either.