Mark 14:57-61 - Their testimony did not agree

14:57-59

One of the lies was that Jesus had claimed He was going to destroy the temple. We know that He was in fact referring to His body, not the physical temple So they were misinterpreting, or misquoting, words that Jesus did actually say. And they failed to understand what He meant when He talked about rebuilding the temple. But they couldn’t even get their testimonies about this to agree.

14:60,61

The high priest stood up and asked Jesus to give an answer to the accusations. Jesus remained silent. When men are giving contradictory lies it is sometimes best to remain silent. There are two proverbs that say first “answer a fool according to his wisdom to show up his folly” and then “do not answer a fool according to his wisdom, lest he appear wise”. It takes wisdom to know which of these to apply in any situation. Jesus’ silence forced the high priest to get to the nub of the matter: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Note that the Jews were in no doubt that Jesus was claiming to be God. This is contrary to what some think. The gospels make no sense unless Jesus thought He was the Son of God, and that being the Son of God is equivalent to being God.

Mark 12:14,15 - Should we pay or shouldn't we?

12:14

They start by flattering Jesus, addressing Him as “Rabbi” or “teacher”. They add that they know He is a man of integrity and is not swayed by others, nor impressed by the apparent importance of an individual. Instead He teaches “the way of God in accordance with the truth”. If they believed that, then one might reasonably ask why did they not listen to Jesus!? Then comes the question, “is it right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar or not?”. The poll-tax was levied on subject citizens, not Roman citizens in Judea. Jesus, coming from Galilee, would not have been subject to the tax (Schnabel). An answer of yes would have turned the people against Jesus, a negative answer would have got Him into trouble with the Romans.

12:15

Then they ask if they should pay the tax or not. The tax may have been unjust, but it should be paid anyway so as to have a quiet life. Jesus knew the thinking behind their question and their flattery. So, as He often did, Jesus turned the tables back on His questioners. So He asked them to bring a denarius to Him. Presumably Jesus did not have a coin with Him, or maybe He just did this for effect.

1 Kings 8:15-19 - Has fulfilled what He promised

8:15,16

Solomon then turns to the Lord, praising Him for His goodness. The Lord had fulfilled His promise to David. In Deuteronomy there are repeated instances of God saying they must worship Him at the place of His choosing. They could not decide for themselves how they would worship God. Until this point the Lord had not chosen the place, but He had chosen David to “rule my people”. Ultimately God has chosen Jesus to “rule my people”.

8:17-19

David had wanted to build the temple, and God said this was a noble desire. Elsewhere it refers to the amount of blood shed by David that precluded him from being the one to build the temple. However, his own son would be the one to build the temple. We know that this temple was temporal, but have a common pattern in the Old Testament. There is a temporal, and partial, fulfilment of a promise, but the true fulfilment happens later in Christ. The temporal fulfilment demonstrates the seriousness of God’s promise.

Mark 12:12,13 - They looked for a way to arrest Him

12:12

The religious leaders reacted in typical fashion. Instead of repenting and believing, and so receiving forgiveness and eternal life, they chose to plan to have Jesus arrested, and so brought on themselves the judgement that Jesus had spoken of. They knew Jesus had spoken the parable against them, but reacted in the worst possible way. However, we also see the weakness of the religious leaders, for they were afraid of the crowd.

12:13

We now get a series of questions asked of Jesus, each asked by a different person or persons. We start with the Pharisees and Herodians. It is somewhat odd that these two groups came together. The Pharisees were fanatics for the purity of the Law, while the Herodians were supporters of Herod and adopted a much more political approach. However, both of them felt threatened by Jesus and wanted to catch Him out. All human authority, religious, political or whatever is threatened by Jesus.

1 Kings 8:12-14 - A place for you to dwell forever

8:12,13

We now come to what in many ways are the most interesting parts of this chapter, Solomon’s prayers. The first prayer, or declaration, focuses on the fulfilment of promises made to David. The second part, 8:22 onwards, recognises the inadequacy of any human structure to house the Lord. “The Lord has said that He would dwell in a dark cloud”. There are a number of references elsewhere to God dwelling in a dark cloud, or “thick darkness” (Ex 20:21; Deut 4:11, 5:22; 2 Sam 5:22; Ps 97:2), but none expand on the precise meaning of the term. Perhaps the idea here is that God is ineffable, but Solomon has now built a temple in which God can dwell with His people. Solomon does seem rather pleased with his construction.

8:14

All the leaders of Israel were there, and possibly all the people (8:1,2), though it may have been partly the leaders representing all of Israel. Whatever the case, Solomon blessed all the people. Israel was blessed by being in a covenant relationship with the Lord, this was an act of kindness on God’s part. The pity is that Israel did not keep this covenant. Indeed, right back in Genesis 1 the whole of humanity was in a covenant relationship with God.

Mark 12:9-11 - What will the owner of the vineyard do?

12:9

Jesus now asks what the landowner would do? He would kill the tenants and hand the vineyard over to others. Note the uncompromising language. The common image of Jesus is often badly mistaken. There is a serious sentence upon the religious leaders, and this did indeed happen with AD 66-70 and other events. Moreover the vineyard is handed over to others. This includes the Gentiles, but also Jews who believed. 

12:10,11

Jesus then quotes from Psalm 118:22,23. The religious leaders were rejecting Christ, but God had chosen Christ, and He would prove to be the cornerstone, the one around whom all God’s plans were founded, and in whom they are all fulfilled. “And it is marvellous in our eyes”. Part of the tragedy of all this is that the religious leaders could have received the riches of Christ if only they had believed.

1 Kings 8:6-11 - The priest's then brought the ark

8:6-9

The ark was then placed beneath the wings of the cherubim, these being the cherubim statues that we read about previously, not the ones that were part of the ark itself. The only contents of the ark were the two tablets of stone. There is no mention of Aaron’s rod nor the manna, and no indication of what happened to them. In fact, apart from 8:21, there is no further mention of the ark in Kings.In fact, when General Pompey came to punish the Jews in the first century BC, he was disappointed to find no sign of the ark in the Most Holy Place of the temple (this would be the second temple). The ark is truly lost.

8:10,11

The priests withdrew from the Holy Place, and the cloud filled the temple. The cloud represented the glory of the Lord. The presence of the Lord was so strong that the priests could no longer fulfill their duty. And remember this is only a shadow of the glory to come.