Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 1-4.

So, we finally get to the New Testament on the 3rd day of the 10th month.  Make of that what you will.  Everything I have read about the Gospel of Matthew says that he appears to have been writing in order to keep Christianity grounded in Jewish tradition.  This suggests to me that even though I would not read the Old Testament prophecies they way he did that much of the Jewish community of the First Century did (even if they did not apply the prophecies to Jesus, they saw them as applying to the Messiah).

As I read this I was thinking about how I was going to write something tying together all of the important things in this passage.  Then I got to Matthew’s introduction of John The Baptist and decided that I was going to focus on that.  Many people came out to hear John’s preaching.  They heard his message and it struck them to the heart.  So, they confessed their sins and were baptized.  When the political leaders realized what was going on, they too went out to hear John.  Except they were not there to hear the word of God.  They were there to harness the popularity of John The Baptist for their own political ends.  John The Baptist was having none of it and he called them out for their hypocrisy.  He told them, and the rest of the people listening, that it was not enough to put on the appearance of righteousness.  We need to hear that message today.  We need to both make sure that we do not fall into the trap of trying to use the show of righteousness for our own ends and call out those who are doing so.  As Jesus is quoted later, we will be judged by the fruit which we produce.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.