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The Anvil and the Hammers

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INTRODUCTION

This is a message about the trustworthiness of the Scriptures. Many critics have attacked the Word of God over the centuries, and while the Word is still here, they are all gone. It has been well said that the Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.

What I want to do in this message is a little different than our usual pattern. In the first part I want to walk you through a detailed and somewhat didactic treatment of the genealogies of Christ given in Matthew and Luke, harmonizing them. I want to show you the Bible is reliable, in other words. And then after that, I want to do what all sermons should do, which is to proclaim Christ.

THE TEXT

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren . . .” (Matthew 1:1–17).

“And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph . . .” (Luke 3:23–24).

SUMMARY OF THE PROBLEM

These genealogies are different, which is why it is a common solution for people to say that one of them must be for Mary, and the other one is for Joseph. The problem is that both genealogies terminate with Joseph (Matt. 1:16; Luke 3:23), which then creates the new problem of why the genealogies are different. How can one person have two different family trees? So where are they different and why? Unbelievers, of course, can simply say that the accounts here are hopelessly corrupt—but that option is not open to us.

SOME RANDOM BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Matthew is clearly working from written records (he mentions a book), and he starts with Abraham. Luke traces the Lord’s ancestry all the way back to Adam. Luke is probably dedicating this book to Theophilus ben Annas, who was the high priest from 37 to 41 A.D. He was the son of Annas, and the brother-in-law to Caiaphas—the term excellentwas one that was applied to kings and high priests. This means that great care would have been taken with genealogical claims, which the Jews took very seriously. Now Matthew and Luke run in parallel from Abraham to David, and then they diverge—Matthew goes through Solomon and Luke through Nathan (1 Chron. 3:5). They converge later in Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, and then part ways again until they come back together with Joseph. So how is Scripture not in error when it gives us Joseph’s lineage in two different ways?

Genealogical records were public, housed in the Temple, and available to any serious inquirer. The patrician households of David and Zadok also kept independent records. Matthew and Luke would have had access to these records, and it is worth remembering that others would have been able to come and check on their work as well.

Why does Matthew have three groups of fourteen names? One reason is that 14 is the numerological value of the name David. The three-fold repetition emphasizes the descent from David. But that is not the only reason for some of the omissions.

CURSES AND OMMISSIONS 

Matthew removes three kings from his list, jumping from Jehoram to Uzziah. He does this because of Elijah’s curse.

“‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free” (1 Kings 21:21, NKJV).

Matthew does this out to the fourth generation (Ex. 20:3-6). And also he later drops the wicked king Jehoakim (2 Kings 23:36-24:7)—doing this, I believe, in response to Jeremiah’s curse.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost” (Jeremiah 36:30).

THE COMPLICATED PART

But omissions, while different, do not mess up a genealogy the same way different stirps do. (A stirp is a line of people descending from one ancestor.)

Matthew says that Shealtiel was the son of Jeconiah, and Luke says he was the son of Neri, and Shealtiel sure looks like the same man, the father of Zerubbabel in both places. How to explain this? Jeremiah, the prophet who cursed Jehoiakim, also cursed his son Jeconiah. And notice the first words.

“Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30).

This next part is pieced together with the aid of some extrabiblical history. But we need to figure something out because there is a place in Scripture that says that Jeconiah had one son, Zedekiah, but then in the next verse it says he also had seven sons (1 Chron. 3:16-17). What about that?

So I take it that Zedekiah died young, thus fulfilling the prophetic curse. Then Jeconiah in Babylon married a woman named Tamar, granddaughter of King Josiah. Scripture calls Jeconiah a captive here (1 Chron. 3:17). Tamar had been married before to a man named Neri, and her oldest was Shealtiel, who came into Jeconiah’s line by adoption.

But wait. We are not done. Who was the father of Zerubbabel? Matthew and Luke agree that it is Shealtiel, but we read elsewhere that it was Shealtiel’s brother, Pedaiah (1 Chron. 3:19). This is likely the result of a levirate marriage—Shealtiel dying without issue, and his brother sired an heir for his deceased brother.

One last thing, speaking of levirate marriage. Matthew says that Joseph’s father was Jacob and Luke says that his father was Heli. According to a second century source (Sextus Julius Africanus), this was the result of another levirate union. Heli died without issue, and so his brother Jacob raised up seed for him—who was Joseph.

THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE

God’s Word is perfect. Without that perfect Word, we cannot have confidence in the perfection of the Christ who is proclaimed to us. With that perfect Word, we can see that God is in absolute control of every detail of human history, and is able to weave it all together in such a way as to make plain that the Messiah of Israel, the Christ over all, was none other than Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus was descended (in part) from the line of Ahab, of the tribe of Ephraim—thus fulfilling the stupendous promises made to Joseph through Jacob and Moses (Gen. 48:3ff; Dt. 33:13ff). He was Messiah ben Joseph. Jesus was descended (in part) from Levi, in that Mary was a Zadokite (a relative of Elizabeth, recall). And He was also Messiah ben David, of the tribe of Judah as attested in multiple places. So God promised a Savior for the world, and He also, by many different means, identified Him for us clearly. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

The source for most of this is Jesus: The Incarnation of the Word by David Mitchell (Campbell Publications, 2021).

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Betrayal and Arrest

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THE TEXT

When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. And Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with His disciples. Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?”

They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?”

And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,” that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.”

Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”

Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him. And they led Him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year. Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought Peter in. Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, “You are not also one of this Man’s disciples, are you?”

He said, “I am not.”

Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself.

The high priest then asked Jesus about His disciples and His doctrine.

Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them. Indeed they know what I said.”

And when He had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, “Do You answer the high priest like that?”

Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?”

Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. Therefore they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?”

He denied it and said, “I am not!”

One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Peter then denied again; and immediately a rooster crowed (John 18:1–27).

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The Prophecy of Micah #10

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INTRODUCTION

We are now at the beginning of the last cycle of Micah’s prophecy. Remember that the pattern is one of warning, judgment, and consolation. We see in this section the testimony of Jehovah, in which He sets out the reasons for the judgment coming down upon Judah and Israel. It is a fearsome judgment indeed.

THE TEXT

“Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, And let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, And ye strong foundations of the earth: For the Lord hath a controversy with his people, And he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me . . .” (Micah 6:1–16).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The prophet has been speaking to a senseless people, and so now Jehovah has told them to go preach to the rocks instead (v. 1). Even the stones of the mountains will listen better than Judea and Israel did, and they will sit in the jury box, as the Lord lays out His case against His people (v. 2). God, speaking in a figure, as though He could fit inside a courtroom, asks them to testify as to what wrong He has committed against them (v. 3). Jehovah plays at defendant.

God redeemed them from the slavery of Egypt, and gave them Moses, Aaron and Miriam as leaders (v. 4). He then prevented Balaam from cursing them, as Balak wanted him to (v. 5). Speaking for the people, he asks about what they might think to bring to God—burnt offerings, rams, rivers of oil? Perhaps their own firstborn (vv. 6-7)? No—it is much more straightforward than that. Do justice, love mercy, and walk in humility before God (v. 8).

Jehovah cries out to the city, and a wise man knows where the rod is coming from (v. 9). Do not the wicked have a great treasury, filled with the profits gained with a short measure and crooked scales (vv. 10-11)? Her rich men are full of violence, and the people have a mouthful of lies (v. 12). And this is why God will strike them (v. 13). They will eat, but not be filled (v. 14). What they manage to salvage out of the wreckage will be taken from them later (v. 14). They will also experience true vanity in their agriculture (v. 15). And why? Because they decided to follow the doctrines of Omri (Ahab’s father) and Ahab they will be left desolate, and will be reproached with hissing (v. 16).

HYPOCRISY GAMES

When Micah brings his testimony, the hypocrites who listen to him are pretending to engage. Jehovah says that rocks would listen better than they do, and yet they try to prove Him wrong by making a show through religious bustling. What shall we offer to God that will prove our devotion? Rivers of oil? Our own first born? No. God wants you, and not some sacrifice swapped in instead of you. That is an extortion payment, not religious worship.

Hypocrites behave as though the God of Heaven is petty and simple, like some cranky toddler in a stroller, and that it is somehow possible to distract Him with baubles and trifles. Here, play with this, they seem to say.

No. God wants the heart. He has always wanted the heart. He has never settled for anything less than your heart. Rend your hearts, not your garments (Joel 2:13). Circumcise your hearts (Jer. 4:4). To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22). Sacrifices and burnt offerings you did not require (Ps. 40:6). Go and find out what this means, Jesus said (Matt. 9:13). I desire mercy and not sacrifice (Hos. 6:6). And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6).

GRASPING MERCHANTS

Hypocrites love paint their sins with the whitewash of religious scrupulosity. But two inches of white snow on a dunghill is a dunghill still, and you shouldn’t try to sled on it.

What particular sin is in view in this passage? There were numerous sins, no doubt, but what sins are in view here. The problem here was dishonesty in business. When the rod comes to give these hustlers their beat down, the wise man knows the reason for it (v. 9). Was it not their short measure (v. 10)? Wicked scales and deceitful weights (v. 11)? When they open their mouths, lies come fluttering out, like hundreds of moths (v. 12). That is why God is striking them, making them desolate (v. 13).

HE HATH SHOWN THEE

What does God actually want from us? There are three verbs—do, love, and walk (v. 8). Do justly. Love mercy. Walk with humility before your God.

When you make a judgment, it must be an honest assessment, not a partisan decision. It is not enough to do mercy, grudgingly dragged out of you. No, you must love mercy (hesed). It is this pairing, incidentally, that gives the lie to so many today who are trumpeting what they call “social justice.” It is not justice at all because biblical justice loves mercy, and those commies are merciless—without pity, without forgiveness, without tenderness, without compassion. In short, without Christ.

The third characteristic of this godly demeanor is that of walking humbly with God. God is the absolute ground of all goodness, all value, and so we must submit to Him. We must submit to His definition of justice. We must embrace His sacrificial commitment to mercy. We must submit to the God who is the ground of all objective truth, goodness, and beauty.

And this means Christ. Who displays the justice of God? Christ on the cross, wracked with pain because of His Father’s hatred of sin. Who displays the mercy of God? Christ on the cross, embracing our sin and folly so that He could carry it all down the grave. Who displays the humility of God? Christ on the cross, who summons us to take up our cross and follow Him. If we do follow Him in this way, we can be assured that we will do justly, love mercy, and walk with humility. And unlike the religious liars and thieves of ancient Judea and Israel, we will not try to bribe God to look the other way because we put on some sort of a religious show.

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The Prophecy of Micah #5

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INTRODUCTION

We begin the second cycle of prophetic ministry from the great prophet Micah. Remember that he ministered over the course of forty years or so, and yet was able to summarize his message in these seven short chapters. That is probably one of the reasons why his words are so potent.

In this second cycle, the words of warning and the words of judgment are combined, and so the next message will go straight to the words of consolation.

THE TEXT

“And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron . . .” (Micah 3:1–12)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Micah begins by addressing the civil rulers. Hear, oh you heads and princes. Shouldn’t you understand judgment (v. 1)? But instead you have inverted everything, hating the good and loving evil (v. 2). Instead of feeding your people, you feed on them. You flay them, you pull the flesh off their bones in order to eat it, you break their bones, and chop them up in pieces so that they might fit in your cauldrons (vv. 2-3). When they get in trouble, and cry out to Jehovah, He will be merciless to those who have been merciless (v. 4). He will turn away His face. The prophets who spoke lying words, who would bite with their words while mouthing peace, plotting their war again Jehovah, what will come of them (v. 5)? Instead of a vision, their night will be pitch black. The sun will go down on their prophecies, and they will minister in darkness (v. 6). Their seers and diviners will be abashed, and will have no answer from God (v. 7).

But Micah was ready to stand against them all. He was filled of Jehovah’s power, and fully ready to declare the sin and transgression of Jacob and Israel both (v. 8). Hear this word, you princes who twist everything (v. 9). You seek to build your city on the foundation of blood and iniquity (v. 10), which is why it will come to nothing. Your judges look for bribes, your priests are hirelings, and your prophets are willing to see visions for a fee (v. 11). Is it any wonder that everything is corrupted? Even so, your will dare to claim the presence and protection of Jehovah (v. 11b). And this is the reason why Zion will be plowed under. It is the reason why Jerusalem is going to be transformed into heaps of rubble. The mount of the house (i.e. the Temple) will be like the high places of the forest, meaning that trees will grow there (v. 12).

Some years later, when Jeremiah prophesied that the Temple of the Lord would be laid flat like Shiloh (Jer. 26:6, 9), the priests and prophets and people gathered against Jeremiah to kill him. The princes of the land refused to kill Jeremiah, and the elders of the land defended him by pointing to this verse from Micah (Jer. 26:18; Mic. 3:12).

MORAL INVERSION

Isaiah pronounces a judgment on those who invert all the basic moral categories (Is. 5:20). Micah charges the rulers of both kingdoms with a gross dereliction of their duty—weren’t you supposed to know what justice is (v. 1)? But instead of that, you have decided to hate what is good, and to embrace what is evil.

This is an inescapable reality. There is no way for rulers abandon good in order to adopt a studied neutrality. There is no such neutrality. To decide to celebrate wickedness is therefore a decision to persecute those who testify that your deeds are evil.

CRUELTY & ITS PRETENSES

Their rhetoric and their stock photos are all about normal, happy people, and the cry goes up that we should coexist, and love everybody, and make no distinctions, no exceptions. You have seen the bumper stickers.

But it always ends in blood (v. 10). At the first they keep up the pretense, but a time eventually comes when all the hot bile of their hatred comes pouring out. They flay their victims. They crush their bones. They chop the meat of their people up, and then stuff their stew kettles full. They despise the people they rule over. And as they are shepherds who feed only themselves (Eze. 34:2), the time necessarily comes when they feed on the flocks—instead of feeding the flocks.

AVARICE IS WHERE IT BEGINS

The mission of those who love the law of God is to uphold justice, and the only basis for justice, which is the holy character of God. When rulers—whether princes, judges, prophets, priests—decide that the first thing is to “get ahead,” it is not long before they are pursuing mammon instead of justice. The heads judge for reward (v. 11). The priests will teach you about the grace of God for a sum (v. 11). The prophets will give you a word from God if you cross their palms (v. 11). What is the end result of all such mercenary ministry? The end result is that all true justice is abhorred (v. 9), and the meaning of equity is distorted beyond all recognition (v. 9). This should not surprise us. We live in a time when words like justice, and equity, and reconciliation, and love is love is love derive all their definitions from the lexicons of Hell. And it all began with mammon.

INEXORABLE JUSTICE

But God is hard to those who are hard. God is merciless to the merciless, and those who love their cruelties drag a host of cruelties down upon their own heads.

God put no words in the mouths of these characters (v. 5), so they come up with the word peace all by themselves (v. 5). But while they speak that word with their mouths, they also bite with that same mouth (v. 5), and they war against God. Very well, then. God will return fire (vv. 6-7).

THE COURAGE OF MICAH

On one side were arrayed regiments of falsehood and unbelief, and on the other side was Micah. Micah was clothed in power, judgment, and might, and this enabled him to tell both nations what their sin was. He was equipped to do this without a spirit of timidity. His message was not an “it seems to me” message, but rather a “thus saith the Lord” message. And is this not what our diseased generation needs to hear? Hear the Words of God, you sinners.

CONSOLATION COMING

In the text of Micah, we will come to the consolation in our next message. That consolation, that salvation, comes through Christ and only through Christ. But before we come to that point, we need to let the message of this chapter settle down into our bones. We tend to have shallow views of Christ because we have shallow views of our sin. We heal the wound lightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace (Jer. 8:11). We want a slightly damp Jesus-washcloth that we can use to dab around the edge of our wound. But the wound is deep, and gangrenous, and self-inflicted, and we are entirely unconscious, and only the grace of God can admit us into His ICU—a place where He makes all the decisions. Our condition is indeed desperate. In fact, the image of an ICU patient is too weak—we are actually dead (Eph. 2:1-2).

But Christ is the resurrection and the life.

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Not as the World Gives

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THE TEXT

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But theHelper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ forMy Father is greater than I.

“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here (John 14:15-31).

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