#Matthew2 - Prophesies Fulfilled in Christ

Matthew 2:

1. What stood out to me from this chapter?

Matthew seems to be sharing his perspective with a strong desire to connect the Old and New Testament, especially the prophecies concerning the Messiah. It was the prophets who foretold the birthplace, prophets who described the time spent in Egypt, prophets who talked about the slaughter of children, and prophets who shared that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene. As I read this chapter this time through, it really caught my attention that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies about the Messiah. Though there are a few prophecies that remain to be fulfilled, we understand from other Scripture that these will happen in his second coming.

2. How does this passage relate to any other Scripture I know?

There are a couple instances in this chapter alone about God using dreams to speak to people. In chapter 1 and in Luke 1-2, God speaks to Mary, Joseph, and the Magi through dreams, besides using other visions and angel visits to speak to others. It made me think of a few other times in the Bible God used dreams and visions to speak to people. Since I just read Acts in October, I remember that Peter had a vision that helped him to be ready to minister to Gentiles, and Paul had a vision to visit a man from Macedonia. Besides that, Joseph interpreted dreams to Pharaoh in Genesis, and Daniel both interpreted dreams and had dreams/visions about the future.

3. So what does this mean for my life?

Don't trust wicked kings? Just kidding. I think I am most compelled personally by the wise men. When they met Jesus, they worshiped him and offered him great gifts. The fact that they were outsiders to the Jewish faith and heritage, and were among the first to worship Jesus helped me think about the church today. Sometimes it is those of us within the church that forget or are too prideful to humble ourselves and bow down in simple worship and adoration of Jesus. He's not a baby or a child now. He is the risen King of Kings. Jesus deserves my all.

4. What questions do I have about this passage?

I think my biggest question is, "WHY DIDN'T EVERYONE ELSE GO TO WORSHIP JESUS?" When the wise men came and said the King of the Jews had been born, and everyone knew the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, why didn't everyone follow the wise men to see the Messiah? I think I would have dropped everything. After all they had been waiting some 1500 years or more for the Messiah to come. I know it wasn't the kind of king they were expecting, but still...

Those are my thoughts. God bless.

In Christ,
Dan

Wise Men Image: Three Wise Men on Camels. N.D. Photobucket.com. Web. 3 Jan. 2015.

Bible Reading Goals? Check!

Image used from www.dereklevendusky.com

Did you have a New Year's resolution to read the Bible a little bit more (or start for the first time)? Join me here at Dan's Daily Dig, where we'll read through the Bible one chapter at a time. #NewYearsResolution #biblestudy #biblereading 

Quick Background

About 3 months ago I really felt like regular Bible reading was lacking in my spiritual life, and after a fairly long stretch of not reading it consistently I decided to do a chapter a day. I'm not very good at journaling (my longest journaling stretch was 3 days), so I thought I would try a blog. That way, others could potentially join me in this quest. So here we are. Here are a few things about my blog that I've developed to help people join me.

Following Dan's Daily Dig:

There are several easy ways to stay connected to the blog. On the actual blog website, you can "subscribe" by entering your e-mail or subscribing directly to the RSS feed on the right hand side.

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Fun Features:

I actually read my chapter a day most often on www.BibleGateway.com , so at the beginning of each blog I link the chapter from the site so you could read it right there too. 

Each chapter as well as the blog title is also "hashtagged" on Twitter, so for example you could search for either #Matthew1 or #dansdailydig and find the posts as well. 

ADDING YOUR OWN COMMENTS is encouraged. There are several ways to join the conversation:

1. The blog is set up so that anyone can post comments right on the blog itself. There is no need to be signed in as a "Blogger" user. 
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3. You could also share your comments right on the Facebook posts itself. 

Finally, withing the blog are "tags" or "labels". With each blog post I add a few labels based on the chapter and the content of the Bible reading. So you could search the blog using those labels as well. 

I hope this blog is a blessing to others, as it has been really good for me. 

In Christ,

Dan

#Matthew1 - What's in a Name?

Matthew 1: 

image from http://www.saviorsite.com/wp-content/
uploads/2010/10/baby-jesus-mary-joseph-by-dewey.jpg

1. What stood out to me from this chapter?

I decided that reading the four gospels would be an excellent way to start the year 2015 out. However, there is a strong temptation for me to just skip the genealogy of Jesus at the beginning of Matthew. After all, at least half the names in the list are completely unknown to me, and many of the others I only know a little about. But I decided that since it "made the cut" of what to include in the Bible, it was worth my reading. What stood out to me from the genealogy list was that even though it traced the lineage through the males, there were specifically five females that made the list. Each of them has their own interesting story, but I'll just list them briefly: Tamar (conceived through righteous trickery), Rahab (a prostitute turned believer), Ruth (a foreign woman), Bathsheba (who is mentioned as Uriah's wife, and was basically raped by King David), and Mary (who was most likely a teenage girl).

2. How does this passage relate to any other Scripture I know?

Here are the links to where you can read about the stories of these interesting women:

• Tamar - Genesis 38
• Rahab - Joshua 2 and 6
• Ruth - Ruth 1-4 (which also contains a section of the same genealogy)
• Bathsheba - 2 Samuel 11-12
• Mary - Luke 1-2 (and Matthew 1-2)

3. So what does this mean for my life?

Although the genealogy list doesn't explicitly offer much in the way of life application, the second half of the chapter offers a neat example of trusting God in Joseph. Despite the worldly perspective that Joseph should divorce Mary (even a righteous law-following worldly perspective), Joseph pays attention to the angel, and obeys God. Verse 24 says, "...he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife." There are many times when God's commands are clear, and I simply need to trust and obey even if it doesn't make much sense from a worldly point of view. Finances are a great example: "Give money away when I don't have much for myself?" It still works.

4. What questions do I have about this passage?

I know that there are different ways of doing genealogies, but I was just wondering if this is a complete genealogy from Abraham to Jesus, or if there are some names and generations that got skipped over. If so, why would Matthew claim that there were 14 generations between each section? Was 14 significant for some reason? 

That's it. I'm excited to go through each chapter of each gospel and become more familiar with the life and teaching of Jesus. 

In Christ,

Dan