Search The Scriptures —Study 30 — Matthew 19:23-20:28

Study 30  From the Book of Matthew is: Matthew 19:23-20:28

1.     Consider the teaching of Jesus on riches and possessions. With verses 23-26, cf. Lk. 6:24; 8:14; 12:13-21. Compare Paul’s teaching in 1 Tim. 6:7, 10, 17. But note that Christ gladly received help from the rich (cf. Lk. 8:2, 3).

2.     Is there a place for the concept of reward in Christian service? What do verses 27-30 teach about this?

3.     Verses 1-16. What is the main teaching of the parable of the labourers in the vineyard? What does it have to say about the legalistic spirit in Christian service?

4.     Verses 17-19 are the third prediction by Christ of His own passion. Cf. 16:21; 17:22, 23. What new details are added here? What do verses 22 and 25-28 reveal of the mind of Christ with regard to what was ahead?

5.     In what ways do verses 20-28 prove the disciples to be out of sympathy with Christ at this moment? What do both Christ’s teaching and His example demand of us?

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Search The Scriptures —Study 29 — Matthew 19: 1-22

Study 29 From the Book of Matthew is: Matthew 19: 1-22

1.     In Christ’s answers to the Pharisees and the disciples on the subject of marriage (19:1-12), what does He teach about the place and character of marriage, and what does He say about the celibate life?

2.     Verses 16-22.  What do you find commendable in the young man in this incident? What were the factors which nevertheless made him turn away from Christ?

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Search The Scriptures —Study 16 — Jeremiah 24 and 25

Study 16  From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 24 and 25

With this study we will make a short pause for now with the intense study of the book of Jeremiah to delve once again into the book of Matthew, starting with study 29.

Chapter 24 dates from the reign of Zedekiah.  Chapter 25 declares to Judah and the surrounding nations that they shall all be brought under the power of Babylon with great slaughter.

1.     Who are the good figs and who the bad, and what will happen to them respectively? Cf. Ezk. 11:14-20.

2.     25:1-11. The fulfilment of the vision of the boiling pot (1:13-15). Much of what is said in these verses is found in proceeding chapters.  See, e.g., 7:6, 7; 16:9; 18:11, 16. What however, do you find here that is new?

3.     ‘The supreme factor in history for the Hebrew is the activity of the eternal God’. Illustrate this statement from today’s portion. Note especially 25:29. Cf. Am. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:17, 18. What is the correlative of special privilege?

Notes

1.     25:12-14.  These verses break the sequence of thought, and were possibly introduced at a later date; so also the words ‘as at this days’ in verse 18 (they are not in the LXX) and the last clause of verse 26.

2.     25:23. Dedan, Tema and Buz were tribes of northern Arabia. Unlike the Jews (Lv.19:27), they shaved the hair from the sides of their forehead.  Cf. 9:26.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 15 — Jeremiah 23

Study 15 From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 23

1.     Verses 1:8. To meet the situation created by the failure of Judah’s rulers, what does God say He will do?  Cf. Ezk. 34:1-16. How much of what is promised here has been fulfilled?  Cf. Jn. 10:1-18; Lk. 1:32, 68, 70; 1 Cor. 1:30.

2.     What does Jeremiah say concerning (a) the religious life, worship and ministry of the prophets of his day; (b) their moral character and conduct; and (c) their influence? What qualifications are essential in those who are called to speak in the name of the Lord?

Notes

1.     Verse 1: ‘Shepherds’ see 2:8 and mg.

2.     Verse 5. ‘Branch’: better, ‘shoot’ or ‘sprout’, i.e., a growth of new life.  Cf. 33:15; Is. 11:1.

3.     Verses 7:8. ‘The new and more wonderful Exodus’ (R.C. North).

4.     Verse 9 describes the effect of God’s words upon Jeremiah himself.

5.     Verses 33-40. The Hebrew word translated ‘burden’ could also mean, figuratively, a solemn utterance, and oracle, normally of ominous import. Cf. Is. 13:1; 15: 1; 17:1). The people had evidently been speaking mockingly of the prophet’s utterances ‘burdens’. Jeremiah uses it to rebuke its users. (verses 33, 39), and forbids its employment in such an irreverent context.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 14 — Jeremiah 21 and 22

Study 14  From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 21 and 22

These chapters refer in turn to the last five kings of Judah: Josaih (22:15, 16). Jehoahaz or Shallum (22:10-12).  Jehoiakim (22:13-19), Jehoiachin or Coniah (22:24-30) and Zedekiah (21).

1.     Zedekiah’s hope was that God would work a miracle, as He had done in the days of Hezekiah, a little over a century before (21:2; 2 Ch. 32:20-22). What was Jeremiah’s answer, and what light does this throw on ‘unanswered prayer’?  Cf. 7:16; 11:14; 11:12; Is. 59:1, 2.

2.     Chapter 22. Why did Jeremiah condemn injustice and outrage? Consider the contemporary application of this world from the Lord.  Are we guilty of conforming to any current social iniquities or sharp practices?

3.     22:21. (The northern kingdom behaved in the same way – see 3:25.) Reflect upon this verse as depicting the pattern of Judah’s history.

Notes

1.     22:6. Gilead and Lebanon typify prosperity.

2.     22:20. ‘Abarim’: a mountain range to the south-east of Palestine

3.     22:22. ‘Sheperds’: see 2:8 ang mg.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 13 — Jeremiah 19 and 20

Study 13 From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 19: and 20

1.     Reflect on Jeremiah’s courage, and what it must have cost him to deliver the message of 19:1-13.  What was his immediate reward? See 19:14 – 20:6.

2.     The strain and tension caused the prophet to break out into a more bitter lament than he had yet uttered (20:7-18).  In the midst of it his faith triumphed in the assurance of God’s protection, and he was able even to sing His praise (20:11-13).  Then once more waves of sorrow swept over him.  In the light of this passage, try to enter into the loneliness, hardship and suffering of Jeremiah’s life. Note especially verse 9. Do we know anything of this almost irresistible constraint to speak God’s word, even when we are daunted by the costliness of speaking? Cf. Acts 5:27-29.

Notes

1.     19:5, 6, 11b. See 7:31 – 33 and Note on 7:32.

2.     19:13. ‘Defiled’: i.,e., by dead bodies

3.     20:16. ‘The cities’: i.,e., Sodom and Gomorrah; see Gn. 19:24, 25.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 12 — Jeremiah 17:19 – 18:23

Study 12  From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 17:19 – 18:23

1.     The issue between God and His people turned on the question of obedience.  How was it brought in 17: 19-27 to a single test?  In your Christian obedience are there test issues of this kind, which, although possibly not themselves the most important subject, are the heart of the question of obedience at the time?

2.     To Jeremiah the condition of the people made the destruction of the kingdom inevitable; yet the destruction seemed to involve the failure of God’s purposes. How does the illustration of the potter throw light upon this problem (18:1-12)? What other lessons about God does it teach? Cf. Rom. 9:20, 21.

3.     How does 18:13-23 reveal the costliness for Jeremiah of being a more faithful spokesman of the Lord? Cf. Mt. 10:24, 25, 28-33.

Notes

1.     17:26. ‘The Shephelah’: i.e., the lowlands, of Palestine between the coastal plain and the higher central hills.

2.     18:14. The Hebrew is uncertain, but the meaning is clear. The snows of Lebanon remain, and its streams do not run dry:  but God’s people have failed.

3.     18:18. ‘The law shall not perish…’ : the people refused to believe that the present order of things would be destroyed.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 11 — Jeremiah 16:1 – 17:18

Study 11 From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 16: 1 – 17: 18

1.     Consider how hard it must have been for a man of Jeremiah’s affectionate and sympathetic nature to obey the commands of 16:2, 5 and 8. Why did God lay this burden upon him?  What other trials that Jeremiah had to bear are referred to in 17:14-18?

2.     How does the passage illustrate Jeremiah’s oft-repeated statement concerning God’s dealings with His people: ‘I will not make a full end of you’? See 4:27; 5:10, 18; 30:11; 48:28.  Cf. Ps. 94:14; Rom 11:1-5.

3.     Contrast, clause by clause, 17:5 and 6 with 17:7 and 8. How do verses 9:13 reinforce the certainty of curse or blessing? Examine yourself in the light of this contrast. Cf. Ps. 146.

Notes

1.     16:6, 7. Mourning customs.  Cf. Am. 8:10; 2 Sa. 12:17; Pr. 31:6b.

2.     17:1, 2. ‘The tablet of their heart’: i.e., their inmost being. ‘The horns of their altars’:  an allusion to their polluted idolatrous sacrifices (cf. Lv. 4:7, 30; and with verse 2, cf. 2:20) ‘Asherim’: probably wooden images of the Canaanite godless, Asherab.

3.     17:15 Cf. 2 Pet. 3:3 – 4.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 10 — Jeremiah 14 and 15

Study 10  From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 14 and 15

These two chapters consist of a kind of colloquy between Jeremiah and God. The prophet is driven to prayer by a time of drought (14:1-6)

1.     What pleas of the people does the prophet present before God in 14:7-9, and what does God answer (14:10-12) tell us of the people’s confession? Cf. 3:10; 15:6, 7; Is. 59:1, 2. What further pleas does Jeremiah urge in his second and third prayers (14:13 and 19:22)? What are God’s answers in each case?

2.     The prophet, ceasing to pray for the people, breaks into a lament (15:10) and prays for himself (15:15-18). Observe carefully God’s answer, especially in verses 19-21. How well did Jeremiah know himself? What new element is added in verse 19? Have you ever had a comparable answer to prayer? Cf 2 Tim. 2:19-21.

Notes

1.     14:2; 15:7. ‘Gates’: i.e., cities.

2.     14:7, 21. ‘For thy name’s sake’: God’s name is ‘His nature as revealed in the covenant, which  is the ultimate ground of prayer’ (Cunliffe-Jones). Cf. Ex. 33:19; 34:5-7.

3.     15:1 Cf. Ps. 99:6-8. Moses (e.g., Ex. 32:11-14, 30-32) and Samuel (e.g., 1 Sa. 7:8, 9) were outstanding in intercession of their people.

4.     15:4. See 2 Ki. 21:1-5, 16.

5.     15:11. The Hebrew is very difficult, and rsv, av, all differ considerably from each other.

6.     15:12. A reference to the Chaldeans.  There is no hope of breaking their power.

7.     15:19.  The tone is severe. Jeremiah must return to a more undivided allegiance. For ‘stand before’. Cf.. verse 1 and Note 3 above, and 18:20.

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Search The Scriptures —Study 9 — Jeremiah 13

Study 9 From the Book of Jeremiah is: Jeremiah 13

1.     What is the purpose of the incident of the waistcloth? Which is a truer description of you, verse 10 or verse 11?

2.     Consider the images used to describe the coming judgment and their usefulness for preaching today.  See Notes below; and cf. Pss. 1:4; 60:3; Is. 8:22; 51:17; Mi. 3:6, 7; Jn. 12:35; 2 Thes. 2:11, 12.

3.     Verse 23. What answer does the New Testament give to this question? See Rom. 5:6; 2 Cor. 5:17.

Notes

1.     Verses 13, 14. ‘Drunkenness’ is used in a figurative sense to describe mental fear and bewilderment, when men in their panic turn against each other.

2.     Verse 16. ‘Give glory to the Lord’: a Hebrew expression for confession of sin, recognizing God’s holiness, and turning from sin to obedience. Cf. jos. 7:19; Mal. 2:2; Jn. 9:24.

3.     Verse 18: i.e., Jehoiachin and his mother Nehushta (2 Ki. 24:8, 9). Queen mothers regularly wielded great influence at court.

4.     Verse 19. ‘The Negeb’ is the area of Palestine south of Beersheba.

5.     . Verse 21. Another. Translation reads ‘he’, God, instead of ‘they’ (driver). Cf. Dt. 28:13, 44; La. 1:5.

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