Lesson 2 - Matthew 1

[Music] the worldview from which we're going to study the Gospel of Matthew is this Matthew whether that was the author's actual name or not was a Jewish believer this is an essential starting point because for centuries the institutional Church has tried to push the narrative that the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke were written by Gentile believers for Gentile believers the earliest of church fathers pious Iranians Eusebius they all record that Matthew wrote his gospel at the time that Paul was preaching in Rome so that would place it in the mid-60s ad no more than thirty years after Christ's ministry it also means it was composed and in circulation among the believing congregations prior to the Romans besieging Jerusalem and destroying the temple very likely this was the first gospel account written of the four Gospels that we find in the New Testament now although we have some very early fragments of Matthew's Gospel dating all the way back to the late 2nd or even early 3rd century they are not the original documents and they're not complete the earliest complete copy that we have of Matthew comes from the 4th century still pretty old and it's included in what is called the Codex Sinaiticus all of the early is known copies or even just fragments of copies are written in Greek however there is actual written historical evidence from the same earliest church fathers forthrightly stating that Matthew first wrote his gospel in his own native language Hebrew maybe it was Aramaic or a combination because it's a cousin language Hebrew so it was first written in Hebrew before it was soon thereafter translated into Greek this says that Matthews intended audience was Jews and that's another key to our study therefor Matthew's Gospel is in my estimation the most Jewish of the synoptic Gospels containing a number of Jewish cultural expressions called Hebrew isms in the academic world which are typically somewhat obscured or are masked because of their translation then into foreign languages such as English but also because while Greek is a very precise language at times it just doesn't have the vocabulary that can accurately translate Hebrew concepts Hebrew nuances into the Greek language and culture it also means that some things that Matthew put into his gospel that were inherently understood by Jews in that era would have been foreign bit confusing to Gentiles and it remains especially so to the modern church that is so many centuries removed from both the time and the culture of those first century Jews AD in a deeply embedded anti-semitism within church traditions and doctrines and allegorical teachings and we have the perfect recipe for contorting Matthew to fit whatever meaning any particular church branch would like it to me parables parables play a crucial role in Matthew and when we come to his shoe as teachings using parables we're going to talk extensively about them their nature and their place in 1st century Jewish society just know just know this much before we get started Christ did not invent the literary style of parables parables were common they were a mainstay within Jewish culture for a very long time before Jesus and they were a regular feature used for teaching Torah principles now because Matthew shaped his Gospel for reading by first century Jews we're going to spend much time learning about the mindset of those Jews and their world in the Holy Land but also the entirely different world where the bulk of them lived dispersed throughout the Gentile nations in Asia Europe and northern Africa we're gonna study about how their religion was practiced at that time there are societal norms and their nuances and even what it was like for them living under Roman rule these are among the several necessary ingredients that helped to build the much-needed context for properly understanding and interpreting Matthew's Gospel all too often especially Christ's words and particularly as they were spoken in his parables have been misunderstood over the centuries because think about this they been filtered through these Western Gentile eyes instead of Eastern Jewish eyes my goal is for us for us to understand the meaning of Matthew's words just as they would have been understood by the common Jewish folk in his time so open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1 Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 if you have a complete Jewish Bible it's on page 12 23 1 2 to 3 give you a moment to get there this is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah son of David son of Abraham Abraham was the father of Itzhak it saw was the father every out Kolff Yaakov was the father of Yuda and his brothers Judah was the father of parrots and Zara their mother was Tamar parents was the father of Anne it's wrong it's wrong was the father of ROM ROM was the father of Amina DAF I mean a dog was the father of not shown now shown was the father of Salman Salman was the father of Boaz his mother was Rahab Boaz was a rather ov ed was the Boaz was the father of Ovid his mother was Ruth evade was the father every shy-shy was the father of David the King David was the father of his mother was the wife of Oriya slowmo was the father of Rana Bom Rekha mom was the father of Audia of yahweh's the father of a saw I saw was the father of Yosef at Yahoo she fought was the father of your ROM your ROM was the father of who Yahoo Yahoo was the father of your Tom your Tom was the father of a has a fuzz was the father of his Khao his Kyle was the father of Manisha Manisha was the father of a mon amour was the father of Yoshio Yoshio is the father johani al and his brothers at the time of the exile to babble after the Babylonian exile yes honey al was the father of shell tal shall tal was the father say room of L they rube waddell was the father of our food abba hood was the father of eliakim eliakim was the father of azor azor was the father of sat oak sawed oak was the father of rahim yeah he was the father of Ellen hood l hood was the father of illis r Eleazar was the father of Matan Matan was the father of Yaakov and Yaakov was the father of Yosef that mirror the husband of Miriam from whom was born the Yeshua who was called the Messiah thus there were fourteen generations from Avraham - dahveed fourteen generations from Davi - the Babylonian exile and fourteen generations from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place when his mother Mariam was engaged to Joseph before they were married she was found to be pregnant from the ruach ha'qodesh the Holy Spirit her husband-to-be Yosef was a man who did what was right so he made plans to break the engagement quietly rather than put her to public shame but while he was thinking about this an angel about an eye appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mariam home with you as your wife for what has been conceived in her is from the rock ha kodesh she will give birth to a son and you were to name him Yeshua which means I don't I saves because he will save his people from their sins all this happened in order to fulfill what ad and I had said through the Prophet the Virgin will conceive embarrassin and they will call him a Manu el this name means God is with us when Joseph awoke he did what the angel of ad and I had told him to do he took Mary home to be his wife but he did not have sexual relations with her until she had given birth to a son and named him Yeshua Jesus now for those who have studied Torah with me one of the things you learned was that these long tedious genealogies that we encounter full of impossible to pronounce names carried more meaning and importance than a casual reading of them would imply genealogies in the Bible era were used for different purposes than we use them today for us genealogies are primarily a weighted chart precise family trees the information they supply has the purpose of telling us exactly who we related to and perhaps where our ancestors came from Hebrew genealogies on the other hand were used for different and varying purposes that depended on the circumstance for instance they were regularly used to prove inheritance rights that almost always involve land or they were meant as kind of a bridge to connect a living person to a highly revered person who live centuries earlier thus giving that contemporary person an elevated social status sometimes they were used to provide evidence of regal association and provide a basis for that person's claim of the right to rule now not surprisingly Matthew's Gospel begins with just such a list and it too has its own purpose and agenda this is not an attempt at subterfuge or spin it was the norm for that era when presenting the credentials of a very important person the second word of the opening verse of Matthew is in almost all English Bibles genealogy you see that genealogy I don't close those Bibles just yet Webster's dictionary says that genealogy is a line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor therefore when we read the word genealogy to us it means that this list of names is just a simple table of distant family from the past the traces without interruption from a beginning ancestor in this case to Yeshua of Nazareth however in Greek that word is not genealogy it's Genesis Genesis yes the same word used as the title for the first book of the Bible / if you were a Jew in that era more appropriately in the case of Matthew the name of his Genesis of course is the first book a book of the Torah some scholars are gonna argue that we are to take this word Genesis in the sense of birth record however that is certainly not how it was meant when pointing especially to the first book of the Torah and the creation account rather as we put on now our first century Jewish mindset a theme that flows throughout the Gospel accounts all of the New Testament is that the advent of Christ is to be viewed first and foremost follow along with me first and foremost as the beginning of a recreation a recreated a second Genesis Paul advances this theme in several of his books first Corinthians 5:17 therefore if anyone is united with Messiah he is a new creation the old has passed look what has come is new and fresh John's Gospel follows along even though he doesn't begin with the genealogy rather he opens his story of Messiah by making a direct connection of his Advent with the first and the original Genesis so for John Wiley a schewe is the inaugurate ur of a second Genesis a recreated that we find in the New Testament he is always also there to inaugurate the first Genesis the original creation that we find in the Torah listen to John 1:1 who can't hardly quote it by heart in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was with God in the beginning all things came to be through him and without him nothing had been made Paul in Romans chapter 5 expands that connection is he makes Christ to be the epitome of the second Adam WD Davies in his enormous three volume 2000 page commentary on Matthew says that the best possible interpret interpretation and translation of the opening few words of Matthew should be the book of a new Genesis wrought by Jesus Christ son of David son of Abraham this concept of Christ inaugurating an actual not a metaphorical an actual second Genesis a full-on read creation is brought home to us all the more in the final book of the New Testament the book of Revelation listen to Revelation 21 one through five then I saw a new heaven and new earth for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away the sea was no longer there also I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband I heard a loud voice from the throne they say see God's Shekinah is with mankind and he will live with them they will be his people and he himself God with them will be their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes there will no longer be any death there will no longer be any morning crying pain because the old order has passed away then the one sitting on the throne said look I am making everything new also he said right because these words are true and trustworthy a second Genesis a recreated now because Matthew was a Jewish believer then his opening point is also to demonstrate that Yeshua meets all the requirements of the Torah and the Tanakh the Old Testament to be that Messiah of God the Hebrew people have longed for since according to the Scriptures the true Messiah must be a descendant of Abraham Jacob Judah Jesse and David notice also how the opening verse is like a preamble because it introduces the genealogy that is Yeshua's identity is summed up simply as the son of David son of Abraham only thereafter starting in verse two does the actual generation by generation accounting of Christ's ancestors begin by saying that Yeshua is the son of David the intent is to prove that he is royalty of the tribe of Judah through David which makes him of the proper family lying to rule by saying also that he's the son of Abraham it makes a firm connection that he is a full-fledged Hebrew therefore eligible to bring about that promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12 that through Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed so we find Mathew then beginning his table of ancestors with Abraham the founder of that special set apart people of God and so the list of Christ's ancestors is a descending list oldest first and that begins with father Abraham and it ends with Messiah Yeshua now the other genealogy of Jesus that we will find in the New Testament is present in the Gospel of Luke it must not be overlooked that Luke's genealogy begins with Yeshua and works in ascending order NU'EST first which then ends with Adam and then God the usual Hebrew and so biblical way of presenting a genealogy is one that is organized in descending older order oldest first Genesis 4:17 begins the Bible's first genealogy it is given in descending order in the Hebrew tradition of presenting a genealogy beginning with the oldest first seems to have been taken from that now Luke the writer of the gospel name for him is regularly said to be dr. Luke the Gentile companion of Paul and that's very likely so therefore I find it informative that when he supplies a genealogy of Christ he does it from a very unhea brew way he writes it in ascending order in other words backwards from the Jewish norm further while Luke and endeavors to connect Christ to the ancestor of every human Hebrew and Gentile which is adam matthew seeks to connect Christ to his Hebrew origins so he begins with the undisputed father of the Hebrews Abraham this is more evidence that while Luke was probably a Gentile Matthew was indeed a Jew now from an overall standpoint we should notice that the ancestor list in Matthew's Gospel is divided into three equal parts of 14 generations each so Matthew was has created this this carefully ordered structure in his genealogy that is not found in Luke's between Abraham and David Heelys 40 generations from David to the Babylonian exile 14 more generations and finally from the Babylonian exile to Yeshua the remaining 14 generations giving us a total of 40 to keep that number in mind 42 without doubt the structure Matthew used is meant to convey some type of meaning because the list of ancestors is incomplete and it skips generations now before we explore that I want to emphasize something I told you a few minutes ago the Hebrews did not construct genealogies with the same purpose as it is for us modern Westerners whole different purpose ancient Hebrew genealogies were most often intended to communicate a meaning with an agenda they were not meant to convey a precise all-inclusive record of a family tree although there were times such as in certain chapters of Chronicles where they indeed meant were meant primarily as a more complete family history now there are a number of scholarly theories behind the reason for Matthews structure of Christ's genealogy and how we cannot help but notice it's rather neat mathematical basis some think he simply borrowed it as is from a some pre-existing record others think Matthew intended to connect it to Daniels seven weeks of years 490 years if one of the signs of value of 35 years as a biblical generation which i think is a reach by the way and multiplies it by 14 it adds up to 490 another theory says that since a moon cycle is based on on that theories idea that a moon cycles 28 days which isn't true it's 29 and a half with 14 days waxing and 14 days waning then the structure of the genealogy they say characterizes the ebb and flow of Hebrew history that we find among the persons that form the three groups of 14 generations each I could go on with a few other theories I prefer not to because the one theory that I think acknowledges the mathematical basis of Matthew's structure in a way that's familiar to first century Jews is that the foundation of it is Hebrew gematria that is the biblical meaning of numbers it's hard to ignore the David's Hebrew name consists of three consonants and has a geometry of value of guess what 14 even more David's name is the 14th name on Matthews list so what exactly is Matthew trying to communicate to us well I'm not a hundred percent certain of it it seems to me that David is the key to it all because all throughout the New Testament Yeshua is said to be the son of David and in the Old Testament the only Bible by the way that was known to Matthew as well as in many rabbinical the Messiah must be the son of David so I do think that the mathematical structure of David's name expressed in Hebrew gematria may well be the best explanation for the pattern for Yeshua's genealogy that was used by Matthew we should not overlook the use of the number 42 in the Bible Matthew expose its 42 generations three times 14 equals 42 from Abraham to Yeshua the prophet Daniel upon whom so much of Revelation is based speaks of the end times and the rule of an antichrist using the key numbers 1260 days 3 and 1/2 years and 42 months 1260 days and 3 and a half years are the same as 42 months did Matthew intend to connect to communicate a connection between Yeshua's genealogy David's name Daniel's in time prophecy and so the purpose for his coming mm-hmm as of now at least for me it is the most likely of all the theories put forward as it corresponds to actual biblical information and the Jewish culture and the mindset of those Jews in the first century a Jew of that day especially the more learned ones would probably notice the structure at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel in those terms using the numbers 314 and 42 because due to the oppression of Rome Daniels prophecies were hugely popular as well as were messianic expectations running high during that era was believed that in times of Daniel and the coming of Messiah occurred in tandem so what all could have worked together quite seamlessly in the minds of Jews at that time especially Jewish Jewish followers of Christ how about for Gentiles yeah not so much there's a few interesting and pertinent things to notice within this genealogy one of the most obvious is the mention in it of the Babylonian exile by highlighting this catastrophic event Matthew uses Christ's genealogy as a kind of salvation history lesson the Babylonian exile was a game-changer for the Jews I say for Jews because 130 years or so prior to Babylon coming and capturing Judah Assyria had conquered the northern region of the divided Kingdom of Israel that was occupied by ten of the 12 Israelite tribes those ten tribes were deported it was scattered all around Asia northern Africa and in that and in time that event gained the mythical title of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel the only Israelite tribes that remained free and in their own land were those in the southern half of the kingdom Judah and most of Benjamin these are the people who eventually came to be called Jews so what was the Jews not all of Israel who were captives of Babylon now this event was seen by the Jews as a terrible judgment upon them by God because even his own temple was destroyed well that meant they had no means to atone for their sins no means to commune with God it was an event that would forever change the community of Jews because when King Cyrus of Persia effectively rescued the Jews from Babylon and allowed them to freely return to their homeland even to rebuild their precious temple only about 5% of them made the trip home the remainder that 95% willingly chose to live scattered about the countless Gentile communities in the Persian Empire there is where therefore where's to the Jewish people the term salvation had always meant deliverance from the oppressions of a Gentile Conqueror upon the advent of Christ that were talked took on a new significance it meant deliverance from sin and eternal death now another important factor is the naming of four women in matthew's genealogy of Yeshua the inclusion of women in the Hebrew genealogy is rare the four were Tamar raha root and Bathsheba called the wife of Oriya and in the text Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah the founder of the tribe of Judah who disguised herself as a prostitute and produced twin sons with him Rahab is the innkeeper prostitute of Jericho who betrayed her own people to help Israel and Joshua conquer Jericho as they began their invasion of Canaan Ruth is the Moabite widow who gave up her allegiance to her own people and gods and joined herself to Israel and their God and then finally Bathsheba whom David had a sordid affair with and then also arranged to have her husband aurilla killed so the David could have her as his own Salomon you'll recall was best Bathsheba's most famous offspring now while we can't be a hundred percent certain regarding Bathsheba Tamar Rahab and Ruth were all Gentiles or perhaps another way of looking at it is that these women began life as Gentiles before joining Israel and converting it is likely very likely that Bathsheba was also a foreigner since her husband were yeah was a Hittite so the mention of for female Gentile ancestors of Christ is meant to catch our attention I'll tell you would have caught the attention of the Jews in the first century but in what way to what end now assuming that matthew's genealogy structure is indeed based on hebrew gematria and because numbers play such an important role in communing communicating a message in the hebrew community we should assume this sense it was exactly for Gentile women included not some other number that the meaning of the number for in the Jewish mind has to be considered and sure enough the number for and Hebrew geometry indicates universality it means the whole world since there are four directions on a compass and since in that era the Hebrew view of the structure of our planet was that the earth was flat square and literally had four corners where do you think the phrase to the four corners of the earth came from so the message seems to be that although Yeshua is thoroughly Hebrew Jewish of the royal lineage of David born of a Jewish woman in the Holy Land deep down in his being in essence there are traces of Gentile connections that cannot be ignored and even more interesting is that except for Ruth the background of the other three women mentioned is shall we say less than moral and up standing well after this long list of Yeshua's ancestors verse 16 says Yaakov was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary 'm from whom was born the yeshua who is called the Messiah so Matthew is careful to make Joseph Mary's husband but not the biological father of her child at the same time he does make Mary jesus' biological mother it's also informative that Matthew refers to issue as the Yeshua the yeshua who is called the Messiah why the Yeshua because Yeshua was one of the most popular names in the Holy Land in that era and it was necessary for Matthew to be clear about which one of the many hundreds if not thousands of Yeshua's he was referring to now Matthew after explaining his genealogical structure of three sets of fourteen generations each in verse 18 he just jumps right into the birth story of Yeshua and immediately Matthew takes on perhaps the most controversial aspect of Yeshua's birth circumstances if not of his entire life Matthew explains that although Yosef and Miriam were engaged they were not yet married yet Miriam had become pregnant this was a terrible scandal within the Jewish community the heat the complete Jewish Bible uses the word engaged to describe this relationship between Yosef and Miriam however a better word is betrothed the word engaged and the modern Western world does not carry the same sense as the word betrothed did in ancient times engaged as an arrangement whereby a man and a woman agreed what to do at some point to become married engagements are broken all the time and other than the typical emotional toll it takes little other harm is done betrothal is another matter all-together betrothal in hebrew culture was a solemn promise sealed with a commitment in which the male and the females bound themselves together through a marriage contract that was signed sealed and delivered at the moment of betrothal so the way we think of marriage in modern times in the West occurred at the time of betrothal among the Hebrews in ancient times the only thing left to be done that in Hebrew culture was called marriage was when the bride moved into the home of the groom and they consummated their union it was the norm that after the father of the bride agreed to the formal marriage contract the woman was now called wife even so she typically typically continued to live under her father's roof for about another year the union was considered to be so completed that if a beat betrothed husband were to die the woman was considered a widow so essentially the physical consummation of the marriage was a little more than a private ritual and since the woman was already legally a wife then cheating during betrothal was adultery not merely an indiscretion as it's treated today in the West so the fact that she was pregnant during the betrothal period with Joseph Lee certainly knowing it wasn't his child put Mary in danger of being executed typically if there was sufficient cause a betrothed husband would have to give his wife a divorce document the get to end a betrothal that can't be overstated how serious it would be for a betrothed girl like Mary to become pregnant the Mishnah on the tractate Sanhedrin calls for four kinds of death penalty to be administered in descending order of seriousness of the offense first stoning then burning then beheading than strangling not all for him it was a man who had sex with a betrothed woman was subject to stoning the worst after the girl moves in with her husband sex between that girl and another man brings death by strangling I think it's interesting to note that within a couple of centuries after Yeshua's day the incidences of adultery during the betrothal period became so many that the betrothal and marriage ceremonies were combined so as to eliminate that typical one-year waiting period in between the two of them to lessen the risk of a betrothed husband or wife committing this grave sin that demands their deaths matthew says with no further explanation that Mary's pregnancy was the work of the Holy Spirit the rock honk - that is it was a miraculous pregnancy she had done nothing wrong and the proof of this that's very interesting again Jewish mind sets the proof in Matthews mind the proof he offers is that although they were betrothed Mary and Joseph were Joseph weren't living together yet that's the proof so strong were Hebrew traditions in the first century and before about this whole marriage process and how the timing worked that there are few recorded instances of a betrothed woman having a fling with a man that's not her betrothed husband and just a few flings with her betrothed husband prior to them moving in together it would have brought enormous shame upon that woman's father's household as well as upon the betrothed couple so while it would it was no doubt quite a different story within the many pagan Gentile communities of the world such that they they wouldn't really understand the gravity of the situation or the seriousness of the Hebrew marriage contract the Jews reading Matthew's story would have immediately understood it would only be an issue of whether they would believe Miriam was pregnant by the Holy Spirit or not one other matter is also claimed and thereby settled by Jewish tradition even though the unborn child is not joseph´s he is the legal father there is no conflict should you sue Yeshua be called a son of Joseph actual biological relationship is not required when the father of the family simply accepts a child as his own now the next verse says that when it was clear that his betrothed was pregnant Joseph made a decision not to pursue a public action but to quietly put her away the reason he did this is because depending on your Bible version he was either a just man or he was a righteous man very often just or righteous is when preached about defined as being kind or merciful rather for Jews just and righteous held the meaning of law abiding obeying the law and law abiding meant being observant of the only law that mattered to the Jews the law of Moses here is the biblical law that addresses this exact situation Deuteronomy 22 verses 23 and 24 if a girl who was a virgin is engaged to a man and another man comes upon her in the town and has sexual relations with her you were to bring them both out to the gate of the city and stoned him to death the girl because she didn't cry out for help there in the city the man because he has humiliated his neighbor's wife in this way he will put it into such wickedness among you the very public nature of an execution held at the city gate was to bring maximum shame upon the criminals and their families I mean it's difficult to explain the extreme level of trouble that all this would bring to a family see we must not think that shame is the same as ashamed or embarrassed as we think of it today shame was and it remains so in the Middle East today a detested social status it's not an emotion having gained such an undesirable social status ridding oneself or one's family of it was was very difficult and it dominated that family's daily life being shunned by most of the community was just the beginning of it often the only way to atone for family shame and to regain than your family honor was to take revenge on the one or ones who were deemed to have caused it this could go on not just for years but for generations so Joseph decided not to accuse his betrothed of marital infidelity the remedy being to out her publicly and to shame her publicly in order to avoid himself being shamed rather he would quietly give her a letter of divorce and he'd give it to Miriam's father not to her to her father remember she's still living at home this would be an end to the betrothal but he would have handled the matter discreetly and privately I want to comment here that while one of the several purposes of use who was speeches was to teach the Jewish people that while Torah observance was the right and the holy thing to do doing it mechanically or woodenly without love without understanding the spirit of Torah laws perverted it this is why when he was famously asked what the most important of the Torah laws were Jesus quoted the Shema found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 taken from verse 5 Christ said and you are to love I deny your God with all your heart all your being and all your resources but he also included and quoted from a Leviticus 19:18 there says don't take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people love your neighbor as yourself I am i denying Joseph understood the spirit of the law of Moses he knew even in his gut this this horribly wrenching circumstance that he was in he was to act in love not vengeance even so he was to obey the Torah so he risked his own reputation and having shame being brought upon himself on account of his betrothed wife being pregnant without any believable explanation for it he acted exactly how the Lord wants us to act as we go about trying to be observant of his laws and Commandments in our time and it's not by abrogating or ignoring them not by applying our own sense our own cultural sense of mercy or justice to any given situation but rather by doing the commandments based upon the foundational principle for all the commandments just as Yeshua said to do of God love your neighbor now Joseph who was an older man was not one to decide and act impulsively or strictly on emotion so verse 20 says that he was thinking about all of this when he had a visitation from an angel now I can only imagine all the thoughts flying around in his mind I mean with this fine upstanding young country girl really commit adultery right under her father's nose which he really come up with some lame lie that while being admitting being pregnant at the same time she insists she's still a faithful virgin girl I mean what was the cost gonna be to him personally if he more or less just let her off the hook there was no hiding this there's so much shame involved somebody's gonna have to bear it and if he won't avail himself of the justice system that would condemn her but at the same time leave him free from ahead having shame heaped upon himself is that true dn't is it even fair in a dream the angel brought yourself a message that had to be troubling in itself I mean I suppose I have to ask myself the question if I had a dream in which it seemed that an angel smoked spoke to me about a very troubling matter and what he said seemed just too fantastic to believe what I believe it perhaps it's not a fair question in our time he/she was day in an earlier times divine revelations given in dreams were well accepted not particularly unusual we read of them in Genesis and in Daniel we hear about them in relation to Joe the apocryphal books that were written after the close of the Old Testament and prior to the writings of the New Testament spoke about divine dreams and messages from God perhaps it's just our own modern skepticism that shuts the door to them in our time or is it at the time for this experience is not right now in fact there is biblical evidence that we are currently in an era of dream vision and prophesying dormancy because in the book of Acts chapter 2 we read that the Peter tells the crowd at that special shablow that Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came in such a spectacular fashion he says I don't know says in the last days I will pour out from my spirit upon every one your sons and daughters will prophesy young men will see visions your old men will dream dreams when the last days Peter is actually quoting from the Prophet Yale Joel because Peter must have believed that what was happening indicated entry into those prophesied last days he was wrong he wasn't living in the time of this prophetic fulfillment of Joel but what I would like you to just take away from this is that clearly Joel's and Peter statements seemed to say that that which had not been happening for a long time will suddenly start happening when we enter those last days in other words this is a divine sign we should be looking for next week we'll begin by examining what the divine dream message was and how Joseph [Music] you see [Music]

Channel: Torah Class

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Keywords: Tom Bradford, Matthew, Seed of Abraham, Torah Class, New Testament, Jesus, Christ, Bible, Yeshua, Son of God, Bible Study, God, Christian, Hebrew Roots, Christianity, Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, Jews

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Length: 58min 29sec (3509 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 04 2019