Tag: Rome

Beyond winsomeness

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 17 – Finding our place

Beyond winsomeness

[Bible references: Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Proverbs 21:22; Acts 3:22; 4:1-22; 12:1-19; 16:16-40; Romans 13:1-7; Ephesians 6:11-13]

Oftentimes, our first impulse when confronting evil in the world is to resort to the world’s tactics. It can seem more expedient to respond to evil with physical force or displays of anger – and there are occasions when such responses are justified – but wisdom is called for. We need to remember that our real enemy is not our “flesh and blood” fellow image-bearer but the forces of darkness. We also need to discern between when it is time for God to act and for us to act.

After David was anointed to be the future king, he had to wait several years during which period King Saul pursued David intending to kill him. Even though there were a couple of occasions when David could have killed Saul, he did not think it was his to take – he waited for the kingship to be given to him. Ever since Moses, Israel had been waiting for “one like Moses”. But David’s refusal to “take” the kingship is likely part of the reason that David was called a “man after God’s own heart,” because unlike those who came before him, he did not (at least in this case) succumb to the impulse to “see, desire, take.”

God has established government to keep the peace. What is our role if the government carries out its duty, what action should we take in support of it? What is our role if the government abuses its duty, what action should we take in opposition to it? The apostles defied the authority of the Sanhedrin and the Roman government, with God even releasing Peter from prison on one occasion and Paul in another. But on another occasion, Paul submitted to the Roman government as a means to get to Rome to continue his work there. Is there ever cause for a Christian to participate in violence? There is a debate in the Christian community about these questions that calls us to seek wisdom in our different situations.

Observe

Read Ephesians 6:11-13. How might “putting on the armor of God” help us determine when to take action or to wait for God?

Expectant Magi and the non-expectant king

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Expectant Magi and the non-expectant king

[Bible references: Matthew 2:1-23; Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 31:15; Micah 5:1-4]

Some people in a foreign country east of Jerusalem were also waiting for the Messiah. Perhaps because they were aware of the writings of Daniel, the Magi had hearts that were open to God and invested time and money to travel to Jerusalem looking for this newborn “king of the Jews.” However, when they arrived in Jerusalem, no one there was ready for this news. While the chief priests and teachers of the law could belatedly figure out that the birth was supposed to happen in Bethlehem, they obviously had not been looking for the Messiah.

Herod’s claim to the throne was sketchy, but he was a politician who had proven his ability to “keep the peace” by means of violent suppression and so Rome had installed him as king. So, upon learning from the Magi about the “King of the Jews” being born, Herod was threatened by what he thought was a rival king and tried to use the Magi to find out who this rival was.

However, the Magi had been warned in a dream about Herod’s ruse and after visiting Jesus they returned home another way. Joseph also had a dream in which he was warned that Herod was going to search for Jesus in order to kill him and so Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt. Sure enough, when Herod realized that the Magi were not going to return, he put out an order kill all babies less than two years old in Bethlehem to eliminate His potential rival.

Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt until he learned in a dream that Herod died. However, when Joseph returned to Bethlehem, he learned that Herod’s brother was now king, he took the family to Nazareth in the region of Galilee. All these moves made it possible to make now sense out of three seemingly contradictory prophecies: that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem and come out of Egypt and that he would be called a Nazarene.

Observe

Read Matthew 2:1-23 Micah 5:1-4; Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 31:15. Some Biblical prophecies were hard to make sense out of until they were fulfilled. What does that mean in regards to how we handle seemingly contradictory scripture passages?

Taxation and Representation

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed– Chapter 10 – The Class of Apparitions

Taxation and Representation

[Bible references: Matthew 22:15-22; 17:24-27; Romans 13:1-7]

One of the issues at the beginning of the United States was a dispute over taxation without representation. The government in Rome set up a taxation system like all other governments in those days, the burden imposed by the taxes on the people was not a consideration. Furthermore, the tax collection that was done on behalf of the Roman government was handled by people that were often unscrupulous. When challenged about whether to pay those taxes, Jesus did not directly challenge the right of the government to collect taxes, but he used the image on the Roman coin to make a more significant point about idolatry.[1] The coin bears Caesar’s image (eikon) and belongs to that realm but God created us as his eikon and we belong to him.

The temple tax was established by Moses as a way of paying for the upkeep of the Tabernacle and was continued to support the upkeep of the Temple.[2] When challenged to pay the taxes by representatives of the temple, Jesus had a conversation with Peter which implied, that kings require taxes from strangers but not family, so as children of God, they did not need to pay the temple tax. Yet, so as not to cause offense, Jesus arranged to pay the taxes for Peter and himself anyway.

[1] By highlighting the physical features of the denarius used to pay the tax, Jesus gives us a number of things to think about. In the first place, the image of the emperor stamped into the coin’s surface, along with the blasphemous inscription with its claim to divinity2, call to mind the prohibition against images in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:4). By pointing out that his opponents possess and display such an object within the Temple grounds (21:23), Jesus seems to raise, not lower, the stakes of the conversation about money and human loyalty. The issue at stake here is nothing less than idolatry. (And this is not a problem that we can solve simply by printing different words on our currency — even words that confess our trust in God.) Furthermore, when we think about Jesus highlighting the physicality of that denarius — the coin stamped out by human hands for human purposes, and the image of Caesar imprinted on it — it’s hard to ignore the connection to those words from the beginning of Genesis about what God said the first time God stamped out a human being: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). (Pape, Lance. “Commentary on Matthew 22:15-22”) Working Preacher www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary; Donavan, Richard Niell. “Biblical Commentary (Bible Study) Matthew 22:15-22” Sermon Writer  sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/new-testament-matthew-2215-22/

[2] Smith, Dean “Why Did Jesus Pay the Temple tax?”; Keener, Craig S. “The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament Open the Word Sept 16, 2016, opentheword.org/2016/09/16/why-did-jesus-pay-the-temple-tax/ p. 92-93

Reflect

In our system of representative government, we don’t have a direct say in how our tax money gets used. Some people feel that some of our tax money is used for immoral purposes. What do you think our response should be?

Observe

Read Matthew 22:15-22; 17:24-27; Romans 13:1-7. What is the link between paying taxes and loving our neighbor?

Clash of empires

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 1 – Prelude

Clash of empires

[Bible references:1, 2 and 3 Maccabees; Lamentations 3; Matthew 3:1-12]                                      

As the era of the Old Testament ends

  • the Assyrian Empire took the tribes of Northern Kingdom into exile where they were never to be heard from again in history,
  • the Babylonian Empire conquered the Assyrian empire and then took the best and brightest of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon,
  • the Persian empire overtook the Babylonian empire and allowed those Jews to not only return to their homeland but gave them the resources to begin the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple.
  • the Greek Empire overtook much of the world, including the Persian Empire, then imposed its culture and language on all its territories. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek Empire split up.
  • Israel is first controlled by the Egyptian remnant of the Greek empire where some Jews were deported to Egypt where the Greek Septuagint version of scripture was written.
  • Then Israel came under control of the Syrian remnant of the Greek Empire whose general desecrated the temple, which invoked a successful rebellion led by the Hasmonean family and Israel become independent for a few years. The Maccabee books were written in this time.
  • the Roman Empire overtook the Greek Empire but kept Greek as the common language of the Empire, which in later years would become the language the church would use to write the New Testament texts as well as many of the texts that were written by the early church Fathers.

At the time the New Testament begins, the “king of Israel” installed by the Roman Empire was King Herod the Great. All the tumult of the times created an atmosphere where there was much speculation about the end of times and the coming of the Messiah. In fact, around the time of Jesus, there were many who claimed to be the Messiah.[1]

There are up to 400 prophecies concerning Jesus that were written in the Old Testament.[2] All the way back in the third chapter of Genesis, when Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority, God started to lay out His plan to have his image-bearing creatures restored to fellowship with Him. The New Testament introduces us to John the Baptist who could be said to be last of the Old Testament style prophets. He is the one who, as foretold by the Old Testament, was sent to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry.

The New Testament Gospels, which are biographies of Jesus, emphasize the years of Jesus’ ministry leading up to his death and resurrection.

[1] Tabor, James. “Messiahs in the Time of Jesus” This page lists 12 Messiah-claimants between 47 BC to AD 66. Taborblog, jamestabor.com/messiahs-in-the-time-of-jesus/

[2] Appendix D – Prophecies about Jesus

Observe

Read Lamentations 3. In times of silence and grief, what is a cause for hope?