Have you ever been discouraged? That’s like asking, “Are you human?” Rare, if not non-existent, is the person who has never been discouraged. Many well known, successful pastors have struggled with discouragement: Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Alexander Whyte, John Henry Jowett, Andrew Bonar, and G. Campbell Morgan all admitted to times of serious discouragement (Warren, Wiersbe, Walking With the Giants [Baker], pp.263-269).

Why do we become discouraged? Sometimes discouragement stems from a physical cause. We are simply tired and worn out from working too long and too hard without a break. Or perhaps a bodily illness inclines us toward depression and discouragement.

Another cause of discouragement is that we can be too idealistic. This is a special hazard of pastors. Warren Wiersbe observes, “The pastor, if he is dedicated at all, is a man of ideals; he wants to achieve for the glory of God. Yet, no matter how hard he prays and works, it seems that his goals forever elude him” (ibid., p. 265). He goes on to tell how G. Campbell Morgan astounded his congregation at London’s Westminster Chapel on the tenth anniversary of his ministry there by telling them that he considered himself a failure! “Yet,” Wiersbe says, “he had rescued his church from almost certain failure and had made it the focal point for evangelical Bible study in the entire English-speaking world!” (ibid.)

Coupled with idealism, discouragement often comes when people disappoint us. We were counting on someone who let us down. We had high hopes for a person who turned against us or failed spiritually and morally. Pastors especially are subject to disappointment when someone who made a good beginning in Christ turns back to the world. It’s not hard to hear the discouragement in Paul’s lonely voice from prison, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (2 Tim. 4:10).

Pastors also are often the objects of criticism and slander. If you don’t keep your focus on the Lord, laboring for His “well done,” you can get discouraged. When Charles Spurgeon began his ministry in London at age 20, he was barraged with criticism in the press, much of it from other ministers who were jealous of his success (over 5,000 flocked to hear him each week). Several pastors wrote that they doubted his conversion. Others predicted that he would be like a rocket that would climb high and then drop out of sight. Another asked for proof that Spurgeon was the Lord’s servant and that his ministry was heart-searching, Christ-exalting, truth-unfolding, sinner-converting, church-feeding, and soul-saving (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:305)! Reading that in light of history makes you laugh!

Disappointment with God is another cause of discouragement. You prayed and worked for something, but it did not happen. As far as you could tell, it would have been for God’s glory if it had come about, but it fell apart. You even had claimed a promise from the Bible as you prayed and worked, but from your perspective, God didn’t keep His promise. You begin to wonder whether you should ever try again to do anything for the Lord.

People try to deal with spiritual discouragement in many wrong ways. Many plunge themselves into other things that they think will bring them fulfillment: entertainment, sports, travel, or their careers. Tragically, some turn to drugs or alcohol or adultery. All these things only dig them deeper in discouragement. A few become so discouraged that they take their own lives.

In Ezra 4:4, we read, “Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building.” The work on rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem stopped for about 16 years. According to Haggai 1:4-9, the people’s focus shifted to building their own houses, and they neglected building God’s house. If the subject came up, they responded, “We tried that. It didn’t work!”

How could this dismal situation be reversed? How could the Lord’s people put their discouragement behind them so that they could finish the task of rebuilding the temple? To turn things around, the Lord raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, who spoke to the people in the name of the God of Israel (Ezra 5:1). Under the renewed leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the people began to rebuild and in spite of further opposition, the work was finished in a little over four years. So our chapter gives us some clues on how to overcome discouragement in our work for the Lord:

To overcome discouragement, we need a fresh encounter with God’s Word, we need to get back to work for Him and to persevere, trusting Him to accomplish His will through us.

1. To overcome discouragement, we need a fresh encounter with God’s Word.

Derek Kidner writes, “Like every spiritual advance, from Abraham’s to the missionary expansion in Acts, this venture began with a word from the Lord. And in common with the rest, it was quickly tested and threatened” (Ezra & Nehemiah, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries [IVP], p. 53). The Old Testament prophets did not so much expound on God’s already-written word; rather, they received new revelation directly from God for His people. When these prophets spoke, the Jewish people realized that God was speaking through them.

We no longer have prophets to give direct revelation from God. But in this case, we have the heart of the prophets’ messages preserved for us in the Old Testament canon. When we are discouraged, the thing that will most refresh us is to hear God speaking to us in our particular circumstances through His Word. Although some will testify that the “open the Bible at random” method has worked, I would not recommend it. I recommend reading the Word consecutively or systematically. I have often found that the passage of that day has particular relevance to the very circumstances I am going through at the time.

There are a number of ways that you can have a fresh encounter with God’s Word, but in every case, you must have exposure to that Word. In other words, it won’t happen if you never open your Bible or sit under the preaching of the Word. When you are discouraged, you may not feel like getting into the Word, but you must go against your feelings, if need be, and expose yourself to the Word. You can listen to the Bible on tape or CD. I often find great help reading the sermons of men of God from the past, like Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, or John Bunyan. You may need to schedule a special time on a day off to take your Bible and get alone with God. But God speaks to us through His Word, and so you must take the time and effort to expose yourself to it.

When you do, God’s Word will do at least four things:

A. God’s Word confronts our sin.

That is the main thrust of Haggai. He directly confronted the people with their sin of building their own houses while neglecting God’s house. God used him to stir up Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the people so that “they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God” (Hag. 1:14).

You may be thinking, “When I’m discouraged, why would I want to be confronted with my sin? That doesn’t sound very encouraging!” It may not be pleasant at the moment, but it’s the medicine we all need. Sin destroys us and damages those who are close to us. To neglect the Bible because it confronts our sin is like avoiding the doctor when we know that we have cancer. It may not be pleasant to go through the treatment, but without it we will die. Scripture is profitable for reproof and correction (2 Tim. 3:16).

B. God’s Word confirms His grace if we will repent.

While Haggai confronted the people’s sin, Zechariah gave them hope that God would remember them and keep His covenant promises to send the Messiah. Zechariah’s name means “whom the Lord remembers.” His father was Berechiah, which means “the Lord blesses.” His grandfather (mentioned in Ezra 5:1) was Iddo, which means “at the appointed time.” Those three names sum up the message of Zechariah: “Whom the Lord remembers, He blesses at the appointed time.”

Although Zechariah was the prophet of hope and encouragement, he began his message by talking about God’s fierce wrath because of His people’s sin (Zech. 1:2). But immediately he follows it with the Lord’s gracious invitation, “‘Return to Me,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I may return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 1:3). If we will repent, God will be gracious to us.

This is illustrated in our text: Ezra 5:1 is a new, new beginning. The first new beginning was in chapter 3, when the returned exiles gathered in Jerusalem, set up the altar, celebrated the Feast of Booths, and laid the foundation of the temple. Then the opposition discouraged and frightened them, resulting in 16 years of doing nothing about the temple. But now, we have a second new beginning. Thank God that He allows for new, new beginnings, and new, new, new beginnings!

C. God’s Word reorients our priorities under His lordship.

These two prophets spoke “in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them” (5:1). “Them” is grammatically ambiguous. It could and certainly does refer to the prophets, who were under God’s lordship. But it also refers to the people who were God’s chosen nation. Haggai exhorted them to get their priorities in order by putting God’s house first. Wherever we turn in God’s Word, it confronts our skewed priorities. We’re all prone to let the things of this world crowd the things of God out of first place in our lives. The Word keeps calling us back to the basic priority: “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

D. God’s Word shows us how to live in a manner pleasing to Him.

Without the word from these two prophets, most of the Jews back in the land probably thought that they were doing okay. They may have congratulated themselves for giving up their comfortable lives in Babylon and making the long and dangerous journey across the desert. Perhaps they thought, “Sure, we don’t have a temple yet, but these things take time. The Jews back in Babylon don’t have a temple, either. We’re better off than they are. At least we came back to the land!” But then the prophets spoke and the people realized that to please God, they needed to commit themselves to rebuild His temple.

It’s easy to think that you’re doing okay in the Lord if you compare yourself to other Christians. We always seem to compare ourselves to those who aren’t quite as committed as we see ourselves! But then you come to God’s Word, and it exposes the thoughts and intentions of your heart! You realize that God wants purity in your thought life. He calls you to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You learn that Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her. But you don’t love His church like that! So the Word shows how we need to adjust our thinking, our priorities, and our behavior to please God. To overcome discouragement, we need a fresh encounter with God’s Word.

2. To overcome discouragement, we need to get back to work for the Lord.

Discouragement had led the people to abandon work on the temple for 16 years. These prophets called them back to work. There is something encouraging about serving the Lord, especially if you’ve been on the sidelines for a while. There is the encouragement that He can even use me, in spite of my previous failures. Whether it’s physical labor or being used spiritually in someone’s life, there is joy in knowing that you are laboring for God’s eternal kingdom, and that someday you will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

One cause of discouragement is that we become self-focused. Often that self-focus generates self-pity and self-justification for why we quit serving the Lord. With Elijah, we begin to say, “I have been very zealous for the Lord,” but everyone else has “forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets …. I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10). That kind of self-focus prevents us from seeing the needs of others and ministering to those needs.

A woman who was very depressed once came to me for counsel. After listening for a long time to her problems, I asked, “What is your ministry?” She said, “What did you say?” She had heard me, but she was dumbfounded by the question. After I repeated it, she said that she did not have any ministry and that she had never even thought about the question. I told her that I would be depressed, too, if I just sat around thinking about my problems. Go over to the Sunshine Rescue Mission and offer to sweep floors or do dishes. It will do wonders for your discouragement. Get back to work for the Lord!

3. To overcome discouragement, we must persevere in the face of opposition.

As we saw last week, the enemy will not be idle when we make a new beginning with the Lord. No sooner had the people begun to build than Tattenai, the governor over Israel, and his sidekick and their colleagues came and challenged them (5:3). In their defense, they were only doing their job. They reported to King Darius, who began his reign with a number of challenges to his rule. These men were making sure that the Jews were not plotting rebellion against the king. But even so, the enemy was using them to threaten the people to abandon the work again.

But in this case, they did not demand that the work stop until a word came from the king. Rather, they permitted the people to continue building until such a word came back, which would have taken four or five months. The reason given is, “The eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews” (5:5). Joseph Parker observes, “The eye of the enemy and the eye of God are continually upon us in all the work of life” (Preaching Through the Bible [Baker reprint], 10:174). Knowing that the eye of God is upon us, we can persevere even when the enemy is watching and trying to get us to quit.

Tattenai sent a letter to Darius, which our text quotes. It reveals several interesting things. For one, it is surprisingly accurate. Unlike the letter of 4:11-16, which distorted the truth to make the Jews look worse than they were, this letter just states the facts, asking for verification. I don’t know whether the governor assumed that the Jews’ story was so far from the truth that the king would easily disprove it, or whether he was a man of integrity who was just doing his job. But he states the Jews’ claims accurately and asks the king to confirm or deny those claims.

Also, the letter shows that the Jews gave a strong testimony to Tattenai and his colleagues of God and His ways. They let them know that they were servants of the God of heaven and earth (5:11). They give a brief history of Israel, that formerly they had worshiped at a temple which a great king of Israel [Solomon] had built. But because of their sin, God had given the nation into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the temple and deported the people to Babylon. But King Cyrus had issued a decree to the Jews to return and rebuild the temple. He had even restored the gold and silver utensils and entrusted them to Sheshbazzar (who was either a co-leader with Zerubbabel or another name for Zerubbabel). Perhaps the Jews even showed these utensils to Tattenai as proof. But the point is, the Jews had given Tattenai and his colleagues a strong witness about God and His covenant faithfulness to His people.

There is an application for us in overcoming discouragement. One way to persevere in the face of opposition is to give a strong witness of our faith in Jesus Christ. That commits us so that we know others will be watching us. If we will be bold for the Lord, we can know that His eye is upon us in whatever response our enemies come back with.

Thus the first thing we need to overcome discouragement is a fresh encounter with God’s Word. If our discouragement has caused us to quit, we need to get back to work for Him. And, we need to persevere when opposition hits, as it will, knowing that His eye is upon us. Finally,

4. To overcome discouragement, we need to trust the sovereign God to accomplish His will through us.

Behind these events of the renewal of God’s people, God was sovereignly at work. Mervin Breneman writes, “Ezra-Nehemiah constantly reiterates God’s providence in the life of his people. The reestablishment of the covenant community was the result of a continuing series of God’s providential acts” (The New American Commentary [Broadman], pp. 108-109). The fact that this governor allowed the work on the temple to continue while inquiry was sent to Darius was due to God’s eye on His people. Breneman continues, “In order to fulfill his purpose, God used and coordinated the preaching of the prophets, the work of the leaders, the determination of the whole community, and the decisions of ‘pagan’ government officials” (ibid., p. 109).

It’s also obvious that the Jews saw God’s sovereign dealings with them in history, and this knowledge enabled them to put the current opposition in proper perspective. As Joseph Parker observes, “They went back to the beginning with certainty, and traced the whole providential line most distinctly and vividly, thus always keeping memory and imagination abreast with the facts on which they relied as proofs of the divine election and rule” (p. 175).

Along the same lines, Breneman applies the Jews’ history to us by saying, “The Christian faith is tied to the fact that God made promises and fulfilled them in history, exemplified by Jesus, who actually came, died, and rose again. Although God is sovereign, decisions we make do affect history” (p. 111). As Paul exhorted, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). We can know that as we work for the Lord, we are working in harmony with the sovereign God who is working out His purposes in history through His people.

Conclusion

As we’ll see next week, the temple was completed on March 12, 515 B.C., a little over 70 years after its destruction. There was great joy as the returned exiles gathered there to celebrate the Passover. We read the source of that joy (6:22): “for the Lord had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.” When our discouragement is turned to encouragement, it is because of God. He gets all the glory.

To modernize a familiar legend, the devil had a garage sale. He marked all his tools with their appropriate price: hatred, envy, lust, deceit, lying, and pride. Laid apart from all of these was a rather harmless looking but well-worn tool marked much higher than the rest. A buyer pointed to it and asked, “What is that tool?” The devil replied, “That is discouragement.”

“Why is it priced so high?” the man asked.

“Because it is more useful to me than the others. I can pry open a man’s heart with that when I can’t get near to him with the other tools. Once inside, I can make him do whatever I choose. It’s badly worn because I use it on almost everyone. But few know that it belongs to me.”

The devil’s price was so high that the tool of discouragement was never sold. He still uses it on God’s people. By God’s grace, through His Word, we can overcome discouragement. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Discussion Questions

1. Discouragement is a feeling. Are feelings neutral, or can they be sinful? Give biblical support.
2. If God’s Word seems stale to us, how can we break out of the doldrums and have it be fresh again?
3. How can we know what we should be doing in our work for the Lord? How do we figure out what our spiritual gifts are?
4. How can we know when to persevere in our labors for the Lord, or when it’s time to move on to something new?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Over thirty years ago, I read a sermon that has impacted my life as much or more than any of the thousands of sermons that I have read. It is titled, “Expecting the Lord’s Blessing,” by the late Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee (in Twelve Baskets Full [Hong Kong Church Book Room], 2:48-64). That sermon, based on the Lord’s feeding of the 5,000, has affected the entire direction and motivation of my personal life and my ministry.

Nee hammers home a simple but profound truth: “Everything in our service for the Lord is dependent on His blessing” (p. 48). He observes that in the feeding of the 5,000, the supply in hand was totally inadequate to meet the demand, and yet the demand was met. He says, “The meeting of need is not dependent on the supply in hand, but on the blessing of the Lord resting on the supply” (ibid.). That leads Nee to ask a question that I want you to ponder seriously: “Do we really prize the Lord’s blessing?” (p. 49). Do you really want and seek God’s blessing on your personal life, your family, your service for the Lord, and on His church?

We all know the right answer to that question. Few would be so brazen as to say, “No, I don’t want God’s blessing. I’d rather try to make my own blessings apart from God!” But I don’t want you to give a knee-jerk “yes” answer just because it is the obviously correct answer. I want you to think about the implications of the question before you answer.

There are a number of men in Scripture whom God blessed: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and David are prominent examples. But Ezra is also a man whom God blessed, even though he is not so well known as those other men are. We first meet him in chapter 7 of the book that bears his name. There is a 57-58 year gap between the events in chapters 6 and 7. The temple had been rebuilt under the ministries of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, aided by the preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. The exiles that had returned to Israel during that first wave were either dead or very old by now. They had settled into the land and, as we will see, in many cases had begun to blend together with the pagans of the land. The walls of Jerusalem had not been rebuilt, leaving the city vulnerable to attack. God raised up Ezra and Nehemiah to bring spiritual reform to His people.

Both men were born in Babylon and had close connections with King Artaxerxes. No doubt they both enjoyed comfortable living conditions there. But both men were burdened with the low spiritual state of the exiles that had returned to the land. Both men were willing to give up their comfortable situations in Babylon and endure the hardship and hassles to bring reform to God’s people. But how could they accomplish this overwhelming task?

The answer occurs in a phrase that first occurs three times in our chapter, and then five times in the rest of Ezra and Nehemiah: God’s hand was on these men (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31; Neh. 2:8, 18). God’s hand is another way of saying God’s blessing. God blessed these two men and their labors for Him. If we want His blessing or hand to rest on us, we would do well to study their lives. We could add more factors, but limiting ourselves to Ezra 7, we learn that…

To have God’s hand of blessing on us, we must study and obey His Word, with a view to teaching others and glorifying God for everything.

That theme is stated in Ezra 7:10, which explains why “the good hand of his God was upon him” (7:9): “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.” The connection between Ezra and God’s Word is repeated no less than eight times (7:6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 21, 25, and 26)! There is a definite correlation between our commitment to know and obey God’s Word and His hand of blessing being upon us.

1. All of us should seek God’s blessing on our lives above all else.

A. God’s blessing is the only blessing that counts both for time and for eternity.

If you have God’s blessing on your life, you may die a painful martyr’s death in your twenties or you may live happily into your nineties. You may live in a physically impaired body like Joni Eareckson Tada or in a robust and healthy body. But either way, you will be irrepressibly joyous and successful in the true sense of the word if God’s hand of blessing rests on you.

The world’s blessings promise happiness but deliver ultimate emptiness and pain. Yet most people, and sadly, even many professing Christians, live for the world’s blessings. Last Sunday night, Marla and I had what was for us a first-time experience: we spent the night in Las Vegas. It was on the way to where we were going, the right distance for the driving time that we had, and the rooms were cheap. They hope to make up from your gambling what they discount on the price of the room. In our case they lost, but it was obvious that they were making out big time on everyone else!

It was amazing to see thousands of people sitting in the casinos of our hotel and in every hotel we walked by, playing the machines, hoping to strike it rich. I thought, “This isn’t just a freak occurrence! This happens all over this city every day and night of every week of every year!” Little old grannies and young people and foreigners were all feeding the machines in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. I wanted to scream, “What do you think you will gain if you win?” “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).

God’s blessing is the only blessing that counts both for time and eternity. If you gain and die with the world’s blessings, but lack God’s blessing, woe to you! You are poor indeed! If you live and die with God’s blessings, even though you lack what the world calls “blessing,” you are truly blessed! As John Newton wrote, “Fading is the world’s best pleasure, all its boasted pomp and show; Solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion’s children know” (“Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken,” stanza 4).

B. God’s blessing flows through family lines.

Verses 1-5 trace Ezra’s family lineage back through 16 forefathers to Aaron the chief priest, brother of Moses. There are a number of gaps in the list. Seraiah (7:1) was the high priest at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who executed him about 130 years before (2 Kings 25:18-21). Thus Ezra was a great or great-great grandson of Seraiah. The point of the genealogy is to show that Ezra was qualified as a priest to teach God’s law. Also, it “prepares us to meet a man of considerable importance” (Derek Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries [IVP], p. 62).

You may be thinking: “If God’s blessing flows through family lines, that’s not fair! What if I came from a godless family? What hope is there for me to experience God’s blessing?”

The answer is, first, never ask God to be fair with you! That’s a bad prayer! You want mercy, not fairness. But, second, there is great hope for you, because you can be the start of a long heritage of God’s blessing on your children and grandchildren. You can’t do anything about your ancestors, but you can do some things that will positively affect your descendants. As Psalm 128:1 promises, “How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.” It goes on to show how the wife, children, and grandchildren of the man who fears the Lord will be blessed. No matter how rotten your upbringing, if you will follow the Lord, you will be blessed and you also will be the source of great blessing to your children and grandchildren, perhaps for many generations.

This genealogy also should serve as a warning to us who have been blessed with godly parents. Aaron had some sons who were consecrated as priests, but they did not obey the Lord and He struck them dead with fire from heaven (Lev. 10:1-3). Aaron also had a grandson, Phinehas (Ezra 7:5), who took bold action for God so that a plague was stopped among the Israelites. Israel had fallen into the insidious plot of Balaam, who counseled the Midianite king to seduce Israel into idolatry through intermarriage. An Israelite man brazenly had brought a Midianite woman into his tent in the sight of all Israel. Phinehas took a spear, went into the tent, and pierced them both through, probably while they were in the act of immorality!

As a result of Phinehas’ bold action, the Lord told Moses that He was giving to Phinehas His covenant of peace, and then added, “and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God” (Num. 25:13). Phinehas’ bold obedience resulted in blessing on his descendants for hundreds of years, right down to Ezra!

The lesson for us who have godly parents is, we can either disobey the Lord and deprive our descendants of God’s blessing, or we can be bold in obeying the Lord and bring His blessing on our descendants. But the point stands in Scripture, that God’s blessing flows through family lines. We never obey or sin in isolation. That sobering thought should motivate us to follow the Lord.

C. God’s blessing refers to God’s doing above and beyond what human effort can produce or expect.

Just before He fed the 5,000, Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” John adds, “This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do” (John 6:5-6). Philip does a quick calculation and answers, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” Philip and the disciples didn’t have 200 denarii, which was about 200 days’ wages. Even if they could scrape together that much, it would not have been sufficient for everyone to receive just a little!

But Jesus could do far beyond what human calculations and effort could ever hope to do. The result was that the people all ate “as much as they wanted” (John 6:11), and they even gathered up twelve baskets full of leftovers, a full basket for each disciple!

God’s hand of blessing on Ezra is seen in that this pagan king “granted him all he requested” (7:6). The king’s grant is stated in the letter that he gave to Ezra (7:12-26, written in Aramaic). To summarize, the king granted five things: (1) He authorized Ezra to go to Jerusalem and insure that God’s law was both taught and observed (7:14, 25). (2) He provided a generous grant to buy supplies and temple vessels for the temple worship (7:15-20). (3) He commanded the treasurers in the provinces to supplement anything else that Ezra needed, up to 3¾ tons of silver, 600 bushels of wheat, 600 gallons of wine, 600 gallons of olive oil, and salt without limit (7:21-22). (4) He exempted all temple officials and workers from taxation (7:24). And, (5) he authorized Ezra to set up a judicial system to see that these laws were obeyed and that violators were properly punished (7:25-26).

That is no doubt far more than Ezra dreamed that a pagan king would grant to him. From the king’s perspective, it was wise and cost-effective policy. He had already had trouble with Egypt revolting. He figured that if he granted political and religious self-governance to the Jews, they would live contentedly under his reign. Also, his superstitions motivated him: He didn’t want to incur the wrath of the God of heaven (7:23). By providing generously for the people who followed this God to worship Him as He prescribed, Artaxerxes hoped that this God would be nice to him and his sons. But God used the king’s superstitions and political strategies to bless His people through His servant Ezra.

Verse 27 makes it clear that it was none other than God who put it into the king’s heart to beautify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. But Ezra still had to go and ask for it (7:6, Kidner, p. 62). Sometimes the Bible compresses a lot into a passing phrase (“the king granted him all he requested,” 7:6)! To go before such a powerful monarch and his counselors and powerful princes (7:28) and ask for such extravagant provisions for a subject people whom the king easily could have exterminated, took some courage! The source of Ezra’s strength is stated: “Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of the Lord my God upon me” (7:28).

Thus we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and yet at the same time, it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13). God’s blessing involves and requires our working, and yet it goes far beyond anything that we can do. I covet for my life, for my children and grandchildren, and for my ministry that God would work far beyond my effort, ability, or expectation. I hope that each of you will do the same. All of us should seek His blessing on our lives. But, how does that blessing come?

2. God’s blessings come to those who study and obey His Word.

I realize that Ezra was specially gifted for the role of teaching God’s Word, and that not all are so gifted. But whether you are gifted to teach in a formal way or not, you are nonetheless required to learn God’s Word so that you know how He wants you to live. Every Christian wants to live in a manner pleasing to the Lord. To do so, you must grow in your understanding of His Word.

Concerning Ezra’s emphasis on God’s Law, Derek Kidner (p. 62) says, “indeed it was he, more than any other man, who stamped Israel with its lasting character as the people of a book.” Kidner also observes about verse 6 that it does not share the doubts of modern critics about the antiquity (Moses) or the authority (the Lord) of the law, “nor does it see Ezra as a reviser or compiler. He is concerned with it as something given” (p. 62, italics his). Modern critics sit in judgment on God’s Word. The proper order is to allow the Word to sit in judgment on us!

Bible scholars believe that Ezra wrote the great Psalm 119, which extols God’s Word for 176 acrostic verses. Ezra 7:6 says that he was “skilled in the law of Moses.” The word “skilled” means “swift” or “ready,” implying that Ezra was quick to understand and put together the various parts of God’s Word. While giftedness has something to do with it, skill also requires effort and practice. Ezra had “set his heart to study the law of the Lord” (7:10). It was a deliberate decision on his part to spend time in God’s Word.

Even if you are so gifted, studying God’s Word will not happen automatically and spontaneously. You have to discipline yourself to do it, and the minute you let up, other things will crowd out the Word. We all lead busy lives. We all have the same number of hours in our day. We all must make decisions about how we spend those hours. Will I read the paper, watch TV, play computer games, or get into God’s Word?

When you do spend time in the Word, make sure that your bottom line is obedience. Ezra “set his heart” not only to study God’s Word, but also “to practice it” (7:10). It is nonsense to say that you want God’s blessing while you are knowingly living in disobedience to His Word. The goal of Bible study is not to fill our heads with facts, although facts are important. It is to change our hearts and lives into conformity to Jesus Christ. Note, by the way, that Artaxerxes trusted Ezra’s character and integrity to the extent that he gave him enormous material resources and told him to use it for the temple. If anything was left, he told him to do with it according to the will of his God (7:18)! Ezra’s obedience was obvious to this pagan king. Our obedience should be obvious to those in the world who know us.

3. The study and obedience of God’s Word are the foundation for teaching it to others.

Again, not everyone is gifted to teach in a public setting. But whatever you have gleaned from God’s Word and incorporated into your daily life ought to be passed on to others whom God puts in your circle of influence. If you teach others what you know in your head but do not practice in your life, you become like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day—hypocrites. This does not mean that you must be perfect before you teach God’s Word, but it does call for the integrity of admitting your shortcomings and the honest effort to apply it to yourself.

One of the occupational hazards of preaching God’s Word each week is that I can easily fall into the trap of studying the Word so that I can tell everyone else how they should live, but not applying it to myself. I often think of what John Calvin said, “It would be better for the preacher to break his neck going into the pulpit than for him not to be the first to follow God” (cited by J. I. Packer, in a sermon in Anaheim, California, 3/5/86). Or, as Charles Spurgeon put it, “If any man’s life at home is unworthy, he should go several miles away before he stands up to preach, and then, when he stands up, he should say nothing” (The Soul Winner [Eerdmans], p. 174).

Thus we all should seek God’s blessing above all else. His blessings come to the ones who study and obey His Word. Such study and obedience are the foundation for imparting the Word to others, whether personally or in public settings. Finally,

4. The final end of God’s blessing should be our glorifying God for His abundant mercy.

After Ezra cites the incredible letter from King Artaxerxes, he breaks forth in praise to God (7:27-28): “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart … and has extended lovingkindness to me…. Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of the Lord my God upon me….” Ezra didn’t take credit for devoting himself to studying God’s Word or for his bold presentation to the king. He gave all the credit to God for His abundant mercy. Any good that appears in anyone’s heart, whether in a believer’s heart or in the heart of a pagan king, comes from God who deserves all the glory. When God blesses us, our response should be to bless God for His great mercy in using such imperfect vessels as we are.

Conclusion

It is remarkable that God is pleased to be known in the Bible as the God of Jacob (Ps. 46:7, 10). Jacob was a man with many shortcomings and faults. He connived his brother out of the birthright. He bargained with God at Bethel, promising to follow Him if He would take care of him and bring him back safely to the land (Gen. 28:20-21). After his many years of trying to out-maneuver Laban, he returned to the land full of fear about what Esau might do to him. The night before he was to meet Esau, the Lord met him and wrestled with him, dislocating his hip so that Jacob always walked with a limp after the encounter.

But before dawn, the angel of God said to Jacob, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” Jacob gave this great reply, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen. 32:26). The Lord did bless Jacob, the conniver, by changing his name to Israel, one who has wrestled with God and prevailed. The greatness of Jacob was not related to the strengths and abilities of Jacob. It was due to God’s hand of blessing resting on Jacob.

I hope that you will join Jacob and me in praying, “God, I won’t let You go until You bless me.” His blessing comes to those who study and obey His Word with a view to imparting what they have learned to others, all to the glory of God. May the hand of the Lord our God be upon you for His name’s sake!

Discussion Questions

1. What does “God’s blessing” mean? Why is it crucial to define this concept biblically?
2. Is it selfish to seek God’s blessing? How do His blessing on me and His ultimate glory fit together?
3. Are all Christians required to be students of God’s Word? What about illiterate people or those who aren’t inclined toward book learning?
4. In what sense are those who are not gifted as teachers nonetheless required to teach others?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Only twice in over 25 years of ministry have I seen a man weep genuine tears of repentance over his sin. One situation was a retired man in my church in California who worked part time as a janitor. He confessed to me how he had impulsively stolen a small item from a desk in the office he cleaned. Then he broke into tears over the sinfulness of his own heart.

I fear that in our decadent society, even we in the church have grown so used to sin that it doesn’t shock us anymore. C. H. Spurgeon (Autobiography of C. H. Spurgeon [Banner of Truth], 1:160) warned his fellow pastors of the danger of dealing with sin and sinners professionally, so that we lose our dread of evil. What at first shocked us becomes commonplace and routine. As Alexander Pope perceptively observed (Essay on Man, line 217, in Familiar Quotations, John Bartlett [Little, Brown, & Co.], 13th ed., p. 317):

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Because we are so desensitized toward sin, we fail to have the proper response toward it, whether it is our own sin, or sin in others. We minimize it, justify it, or ignore it and go on our way unaffected by it.

If we see someone reacting in a godly way toward sin, we think that he is a bit carried away or extreme. He is judgmental or intolerant. How dare he cast stones at others! Does he think that he is without sin? And so, by casting our stones at him, we justify our sins and go back to business as usual, wondering why God doesn’t bless our lives more than He does.

Our text relates Ezra’s reaction to the sin of the exiles who had returned to Israel after the Babylonian captivity. About four and a half months (7:9, cf. 10:9) after he led a remnant back to the land, it was reported to him that many people in Israel, including many priests, Levites, princes, and rulers, had sinned by taking pagan wives.

Ezra did not take the news in stride, chuckling, “Well, people will be people.” Rather, he tore his clothes, pulled some hair from his head and beard, and sat down appalled and speechless until the time of the evening offering. By then a number of godly people had gathered around him. Ezra arose, then fell to his knees, lifted his hands to the Lord, and confessed the great sin of his people, identifying himself with them, although he had not sinned in this regard. His prayer, which ranks with Nehemiah 9 and Daniel 9 as one of the great prayers of confession in the Bible, shows us the godly reaction to sin:

The godly reaction to sin is to recognize it from Scripture, to mourn over it, and to confess it without excuse to the God of mercy.

How a person reacts to the news of sin tells a lot about that person. If we hear about adultery and get a subtle thrill reading the juicy details, it reveals that we do not hate that sin and are vulnerable to it ourselves. While I confess that I have never reacted as strongly against sin as Ezra did (I can’t afford to pull out my hair!), and while part of his reaction may be culturally explained, we still can learn from him that we need to abhor sin so that we do not become desensitized to it. The first step is:

1. The godly reaction to sin is to recognize it from Scripture.

How do we know what is right and wrong? A popular song (supposedly Christian) a few years ago asked, “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?” I hope that most Christians know that feelings are not a solid basis for determining right and wrong. Yet I’ve had young ladies, purporting to be Christians, tell me that they are going to marry a non-Christian man because they have prayed about it and feel a peace about it. Never mind that the Bible strongly forbids entering such a marriage! It’s how you feel about it! I’ve had Christian spouses tell me that they feel a peace about divorcing their mates for unbiblical reasons. The peace they feel is the relief of escaping from a difficult relationship, not the peace of God. But they often act on feelings, rather than on God’s Word.

Some say that we should follow our consciences, but the conscience is only reliable to the degree that it has been formed by Scripture. For example, I ask couples who want me to marry them to fill out a questionnaire. One question asks about the couple’s level of physical involvement, and the next question asks how they feel about their level of involvement, with the choices: Good, Concerned, Guilty, or Trapped. Sometimes I get couples who report that they have sex often and they feel good about it! That tells me that this couple doesn’t have a clue about what God’s Word says about sexual purity before marriage. Their sense of right and wrong has been formed more by the culture than by Scripture.

A. Scripture reveals to us what sin is.

Ezra was appalled when he heard about these Jews marrying pagans because he knew that God’s Word condemns it. He laments (9:10), “For we have forsaken Your commandments,” and he goes on to cite God’s prohibition against intermarriage with the pagans of the land. His citations are not an exact quote, but rather a summary of passages such as Exodus 34:11-16 and Deuteronomy 7:1-4. The reporting of this sin to Ezra (9:1) reflects the biblical language, in that these are the people groups that inhabited the land before the conquest under Joshua. Only the Ammonites, Moabites, and Egyptians were still extant. But the point is, Ezra and the leaders who reported this sin to him knew that it was sin because God’s Word declared it to be sin.

When the princes reported that the holy seed had been intermingled with the peoples of the land (9:2), their concern was not racial corruption, but rather, moral corruption. In the original command, God explained the reason for the prohibition: “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods” (Deut. 7:4; see Exod. 34:16). God knew the tendency of fallen hearts. Rather than influencing their mates to abandon their idols and follow the one true God, the Israelites would be prone to mingle pagan idolatry with their worship of God.

This is called syncretism, and it always has been a major problem for God’s people. We don’t blatantly deny Christianity. Rather, we add to our faith the beliefs and practices of the world, so that in a short time, we are virtually indistinguishable from the world in our thinking and in the way we live. Because of this propensity, God forbade intermarriage and He even prohibited the Jews from seeking the peace and prosperity of the pagans in their pagan ways (Deut. 23:6; contrast Jer. 29:7). There had to be a clear separation of God’s people from the pagans or God’s people would be drawn into the pagan practices.

Blending in with the world rather than being distinct from it has plagued the church down through the centuries. Monasticism was an attempt to escape worldly influence by withdrawing from the world. I was surprised a few years ago to read some leading evangelicals who were suggesting a revival of monasticism as a way to stem the current flood of worldliness in the church! The problem with monasticism is that Jesus wants His followers to be in the world as salt and light, but not to be of the world (Matt. 5:13-16; John 17:14-18). He calls us to go into the world with a distinct mission, to reach the world with the gospel. But to do that effectively, we must remain unstained from the world. The way we think and the way we live must be shaped by Scripture, not by the world.

James 4:4 bluntly says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” First John 2:15 is no less strong: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Or, as Paul puts it with regard to seeking worldly riches: “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:9-10).

Since we have so many college age people in our church, and since our text specifically warns about intermarriage with pagans, I want to underscore that application. I have seen many Christian young people fall in love with unbelievers and consequently either fall away from their faith or have their zeal for the Lord greatly diluted. If you know and love Jesus Christ, the most important thing to look for in a mate is a person who loves Christ and is devoted to following Him. A believer and an unbeliever have totally different values and goals. An unbeliever is living for pleasure and the things of this world. A believer lives to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. To join the two is a built-in formula for conflict and misery in the home. Your children also will suffer.

Be on your guard! Satan uses the tool of an unbelieving or worldly mate to ensnare many Christian young people. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:14)!

B. Scripture reveals to us what sin does to people.

Satan always sugarcoats sin to make it look appealing. We mistakenly think that sin will get us what we want, but it always leads to bondage and ruin. Ezra’s prayer reveals where the nation’s sins had led them (9:7): “… on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder and to open shame .…” Four times he refers to the people as an escaped remnant (9:8, 13, 14, 15), showing how the formerly strong nation had been decimated. He repeatedly uses words like “slaves,” “bondage,” and “ruins” (9:8-9) to describe the condition of the people. He acknowledges that if they do not repent, God may destroy them so that no remnant survives or escapes (9:14).

God’s Word plainly warns that sin not only enslaves and eventually destroys the sinner; it also takes a toll on others. Marvin Breneman (The New American Commentary, Ezra Nehemiah, Esther [Broadman], p. 149) writes, “Christians who adopt a life-style that negates Jesus’ commands are sacrificing both the future of the church and that of the peoples it should be reaching with the gospel.” If we blend into the world, lost peoples will not hear the gospel through our witness and our support of missionaries. Our children will grow up thinking that Christianity has nothing to do with how we live, and they will reject the faith altogether.

Thus we must steep ourselves in God’s Word so that we instantly recognize sin in ourselves and can turn from it. And being in the Bible more than we are in TV and other worldly media will keep us aware of the devastating toll of sin.

2. The godly reaction to sin is to mourn over it.

When Ezra heard of this sin of God’s people, he tore his garment and robe, pulled some hair from his head and beard, and sat down appalled for hours. His reaction probably seems extreme to us, and in part it may be culturally determined. But, as Edwin Yamauchi observes, “Rare is the soul who is so shocked at disobedience that he is appalled (Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 4:664). R. W. Dale said, “It is partly because sin does not provoke our own wrath, that we do not believe that sin provokes the wrath of God” (cited by R. C. Sproul, The Cross of Christ Study Guide, p. 35).

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). In his sermon on that text, Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the Church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin” (The Sermon on the Mount [Eerdmans], p. 55). He goes on to say that the reason so many professing Christians lack joy is that they have never experienced a real, deep conviction of sin, which is the essence of the gospel. He says (ibid., pp. 55-56),

They have failed to see that they must be convicted of sin before they can ever experience joy. They do not like the doctrine of sin. They dislike it intensely and they object to its being preached. They want joy apart from the conviction of sin. But that is impossible; it can never be obtained. … Conviction is an essential preliminary to true conversion.

C. H. Spurgeon saw the same thing in his day. (In the following quote, he mentions “revivalism,” which refers to those who used the new methods of Charles Finney, calling people to a “decision” for Christ by going forward. It was a man-centered approach to evangelism that denied the necessity of God’s sovereign power in the conversion of sinners. See Revival & Revivalism, by Iain Murray [Banner of Truth] for an excellent treatment of this.) Spurgeon wrote (source unknown),

A very great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing, because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery; restoring the prodigal to the Father’s house, and never making him say, “Father, I have sinned.” How can he be healed who is not sick, or he be satisfied with the bread of life who is not hungry? The old-fashioned sense of sin is despised…. The consequence is that men leap into religion, and then leap out again. Unhumbled they came to the church, unhumbled they remained in it, and unhumbled they go from it.

In his great work, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards rightly argued, “True religion [he meant genuine Christianity], in great part, consists in holy affections” [= emotions] ([Banner of Truth], 1:236). When God changes our hearts through the new birth, He gives us new desires for holiness and a hatred toward sin. These emotional qualities (and many others) will increase over time. But a distinguishing mark of a true Christian is that he mourns over sin, both his own sins and the sins of others.

Ezra was so steeped in God’s Word and the history of God’s ways with His errant people that he knew that God’s severe discipline would fall again if the people did not repent. Even though Ezra himself had not committed this particular sin, he identified himself with the sin of the people and mourned over it.

What would you think of a doctor, who upon discovering that you had cancer, gave you a hug and said, “Take two aspirin and you’ll be just fine”? How about a fireman who responded to a report of a house on fire by saying, “It will burn itself out soon”? How about a policeman who arrived at the scene of a robbery, shook his head and said, “Boys will be boys”? In each case, the response is inappropriate to the situation.

A Christian’s response to sin, whether his own or the sin of other believers, should be to mourn. That attitude stems from trembling at the words of God (9:4). The godly reaction to sin is first to recognize it from Scripture, and then to mourn over it.

3. The godly reaction to sin is to confess it without excuse to the God of mercy.

Ezra’s prayer is a model of confession. It has four elements:

A. Confession acknowledges the absolute righteousness of God in all His dealings with us.

Ezra affirms God’s righteousness in His past punishment of Israel by sending them into captivity: “O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous” (9:15). In 9:13 he acknowledges that God has given them less than their sins deserve. The implication of 9:14 is that if God were to give them what they deserved now, He would totally wipe them out. Ezra exonerates God, while accepting the blame for what the people have done.

B. Confession submits to God’s righteous dealings without complaint or excuse.

There is not even a hint of complaint on Ezra’s part that God has not been fair. He does not point to any extenuating circumstances. Perhaps there was not an adequate supply of Jewish women for these exiles to marry, which led them to marry foreign wives. Perhaps the men rationalized by saying, “But our wives promised to worship at the temple with us.” But Ezra laid aside any and all excuses. Rather than complaining about God’s judgment, Ezra readily acknowledged that God would be justified to inflict much more punishment than He had.

Ezra’s identification with the people, in spite of his own innocence in this sin, shows that he knew the evil that lurked in his own heart. If he had been self-righteous, he would have prayed, “Lord, these people of Yours are obstinate and wicked. You are righteous to judge them. But I’m not like they are.” But instead, he included himself when he confessed the sins of the people.

Many years ago, a correspondent of the London Times was reporting on many of the same problems that we now have. He ended every article with the question, “What’s wrong with the world?”

G. K. Chesterton wrote a brief reply: “Dear Editor, What’s wrong with the world? I am. Faithfully yours, G. K. Chesterton.” Biblical confession doesn’t excuse oneself.

C. Confession agrees with God concerning His view of our sin.

We are prone to minimize our sin by calling it a shortcoming, a fault, a tendency, or other benign terms. Ezra admits his shame because “our iniquities have risen over our heads” (9:6). In other words, “We’re drowning in a flood of our sins.” He refers to their “great guilt” because of their iniquities that led to the captivity (9:7). He admits to forsaking God’s commandments by joining with the uncleanness, abominations, and impurity of the peoples of the land (9:10-11). He refers again to their “evil deeds” and “great guilt” (9:13) for breaking God’s commandments and committing these abominations (9:14). He does not gloss over their sins as no big deal. He calls it what it is.

D. Confession casts the sinner on God’s undeserved mercy, based on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Ezra’s prayer makes no petition, but rather, he implicitly casts himself and the nation on God’s undeserved mercy. He acknowledges that the current return from exile and the building of the temple are a gracious “little reviving” from God (9:8-9), which those who have sinned have ungratefully disregarded.

Ezra made his prayer at the time of the evening offering (9:5). Perhaps the smell of the sacrifice encouraged his heart that God has made a way for sinners to be reconciled to Him, namely, through the shedding of the blood of a substitute. The Old Testament sacrifices pointed ahead to the shed blood of God’s perfect and final sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ’s blood applied to our hearts, we can draw near to God for cleansing from all our sins.

Conclusion

J. C. Ryle said, “Christ is never fully valued, until sin is clearly seen” (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], on Luke 20:9-19, p. 326). Thus our first reaction to sin must be to see it clearly from the Scriptures. Then, realizing that it put our Savior on the cross, we should mourn over it. Finally, we should confess it without excuse to the God of mercy, appropriating His cleansing for our consciences, that we might be renewed to serve Him in purity.

C. S. Lewis observed, “When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less” (cited by Nathan Hatch, Christianity Today [3/2/79], p. 14). As we grow in godliness, with Ezra we will react more strongly to our own sins and to the sins of God’s people. We will dwell more consistently at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, where God’s mercy flows to repentant sinners.

Discussion Questions

1. Why is it essential that we go to the Bible as our only authoritative source of right and wrong?
2. Why do we need to keep before us the Bible’s picture of the devastating effects of sin?
3. Some argue that confession does not involve feelings, but only faith. Why is this unbiblical? What should we do if we lack the proper emotional reaction to sin?
4. To what degree should we mourn over the sins of others? Are we supposed to go around depressed all the time?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

UBS4	NKJV	NRSV	TEV	NJB
The Parable of the Marriage Feast	The Parable of the Wedding Feast	The Marriage Feast	The Parable of the Wedding Feast	Parable of the Wedding Feast
22:1-14	22:1-14	22:1-10	22:1-10	22:1-14
		22:11-14	22:11-13
			22:14
Paying Taxes to Caesar	The Pharisees: Is It Unlawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?	Paying Taxes to Caesar	The Questions About Paying Taxes	On Tribute to Caesar
22:15-22	22:15-22	22:15-22	22:15-17	22:15-22
			22:18-19a
			22:19b-20
			22:21a
			22:21b
			2:22
The Question About Resurrection	The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?	Question About the Resurrection	The Question About Rising From Death	The Resurrection of the Dead
22:23-33	22:23-33	22:23-28	22:23-28	22:23-33
		22:29-33	22:29-32
			22:33
The Great Commandment	The Scribes: Which is the First Commandment of All?	The Great Commission	The Great Commandment	The Greatest Commandment of All
22:34-40	22:34-40	22:34-40	22:34-36	22:34-40
			22:37-40
The Question About David's Son	Jesus: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?	David's Son	The Question About the Messiah	Christ Not Only Son but Also Lord of David
22:41-46	22:41-46	22:41-46	22:41-42b	22:41-46
			22:42c
			22:43-45
			22:46

READING CYCLE THREE (from "A Guide to Good Bible Reading")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph

2. Second paragraph

3. Third paragraph

4. Etc.

 

CONTEXTUAL INSIGHTS FOR 22:1-14

A. This is the last of three parables that Jesus addressed to the religious leaders in Jerusalem (cf. Matt. 21:23). The parables are found in the context of Jesus' cleansing the Temple (cf. Matt. 21:12-17) and cursing the fig tree (cf. Matt. 21:18-22), both of which are signs of God's rejection of the Jewish leadership, rabbinical Judaism, or the nation.

 

B. One of the major questions one must answer in interpreting these parables is to whom do they refer and apply?

1. Jewish leadership Matt. 22:Jewish common man (cf. Matt. 21:31)

2. Jews Matt. 22:Gentiles (cf. Matt. 21:41, 43; 22:3-5, 8, 9, 10)

3. Unrepentant and apathetic people Matt. 22:repentant humble people

 

C. There are possibly two parables in Matt. 22:1-14. This is because:

1. The term "parables" in verse 1 is plural.

2. There seem to be internal and contextual problems between Matt. 22:1-10 and 11-14, especially relating to the wedding garments.

 

D. There is also the related question of how many speakers are represented in verses 1-14:

1. obviously, the king

2. obviously, the king's servants

3. possibly the Gospel writer himself in Matt. 22:7

4. possibly Jesus Himself commenting in Matt. 22:14

 

E. The three parables in this literary context are possibly related:

a. The first parable is the rejection of God's messenger, i.e., John the Baptist.

b. The second parable is the rejection of God's son, the Messiah.

c. The third parable is the rejection of God's grace.

 

F. It is possible that verses 1-10 relate to God's undeserved, unmerited grace toward fallen humanity, while verses 11-13 relate to human responsibility after experiencing the grace of God. The parable is too ambiguous to build doctrine at this point, but the same truth is reflected in Eph. 2:8-9, 10. This would then emphasize the truth that salvation begins with the grace of God, but must continue with initial and life-long repentance and faith. We are not saved by works, but we are saved unto good works.

 

G. This parable is similar in several ways to Luke 14:16-24. Critical scholarship has asserted that it is two accounts of the same teaching session. Jesus used the same teaching stories in many different contexts. The Gospel writers did not have the freedom to put words in Jesus' mouth. They did have the freedom, under inspiration, to select from, combine, and summarize His teachings. A good example would be Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount," (cf. Matt. 5-7) when compared to Luke's "Sermon on the Plain" (cf. Luke 6).

 

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: MATTHEW 22:1-10
 ¹Jesus spoke to them, again in parables, saying, ²"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. ³And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. ⁴Again he sent out other slaves saying, "Tell those who have been invited, 'Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. ⁵But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, ⁶and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. ⁷But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. ⁸Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.'¹⁰Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests."

22:1 "in parables" Note the plural, which can mean one of three things

1. Matthew has combined several parables of Jesus

2. Jesus used the same stories at different times to express different truths

3. Jesus was simply speaking to them in parabolic fashion (cf. Mark 4:10-12)

 

22:2 "the kingdom of heaven" This topic was a recurrent theme in Jesus' teaching and preaching ministry (see Special Topic at Matt. 4:17). It is both a current reality and a future hope. Basically, it is the reign of God in men's hearts now that will one day be consummated over all the earth. This phrase was synonymous with "the kingdom of God" in Mark and Luke. Matthew, writing to Jews, is more reluctant to use the name of God.

▣ "a king. . .his son" Although it is inappropriate to turn parables into allegories, it does seem that this royal motif is related to God. It is also interesting that in all three parables in Matt. 21:28-22:14 " a son" plays a part in the story. It is true that it is a minor part in this parable, but it is still present. One is tempted to see God as the King and Jesus as the royal son. The wedding feast then becomes an allusion to the Messianic banquet (cf. Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:29; 14:15; 22:16; Rev. 19:9,17).

22:3 "those who had been invited" This was literally " call the called." It was customary in the Ancient Near East for two invitations to be given: an original invitation and an announcement that the feast was ready.

▣ "but they were unwilling to come" This imperfect tense implies a repeated refusal.

22:4 "I have prepared my dinner" The term referred to the first of two daily meals (cf. Luke 14:12). In this time and culture, there was a meal at mid-morning (9 a.m.-12 p.m.) and one at twilight (3 p.m.- 6 p.m.). This meal would have begun a feast which lasted several days.

22:5 "But they paid no attention" This implied an apathy or indifference to the royal invitation. There is an easy and obvious transition to fallen humanity's attitudes toward the gospel.

▣ "one to his farm, another to his business" This is similar to Luke 14:18-19. Their actions were not wicked, but indifference to God's call in Christ is a serious mistake.

22:6 The violence of this verse is shocking. One is surprised by this type of reaction in response to the rejection of an invitation to a wedding feast. To refuse a king's invitation to anything in the Middle East was considered an inexcusable insult. This is probably a literary technique showing a relationship to the previous parable (cf. Matt. 21:35). Some ignore God's call; some are violent in their rejection (i.e., Saul of Tarsus).

22:7 The reaction of the King also seems out of place. Many have assumed that a rejection of the royal invitation was really rebellion against the King. Some commentators have noted the similarity of verse 7 to the historical destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 by the Roman General, and later Emperor, Titus. Some have asserted that Matthew added this to Jesus' parable. I feel uncomfortable with this extension of Matthew's freedom in dealing with the words of Jesus. Although I would allow the Gospel writers the freedom to select, adapt, rearrange, and summarize the teachings of Jesus under inspiration, I cannot allow them to put words in His mouth which He never spoke.

22:8 This, too, is similar to Luke 14:21-23.

22:9 The King wanted his son's wedding feast to be well attended. Those who should have come refused. From the context and verse 15, the Jewish leadership realized Jesus was addressing them.

22:10 "and gathered together all they found, both evil and good" The question has always been, "To whom does this refer?" In context it seems to refer to the ostracized Jewish poor. The terms "good and evil" would then refer to their willingness and ability to keep or not keep the oral traditions of the elders (i.e., Matt. 15:2). The obvious implication is that God freely accepts sinners. Some recognize their need and some do not! The invitation has been issued, now who will respond?

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: MATTHEW 22:11-14
 ¹¹"But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,¹² and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?'And the man was speechless. ¹³Then the king said to his servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen."

22:11 "wedding clothes" Through the years many commentators have noted the problems between Matt. 22:9-10 and 11. It does not mention banquet preparation in 9-10, but demands it in Matt. 22:11. Augustine, following some limited historical evidence, assumed that the host provided a special party garment. This would mean the man refused it or entered in an inappropriate way. The inappropriately dressed man seems to recognize his position by his lack of response in Matt. 22:12.

22:13 As earlier in Matt. 22:6 and 7, Matt. 22:13 is a shocking statement. Possibly all of these verses are meant to be Oriental overstatements (hyperboles); however, the severity of the punishment fits the crime of rejecting God's gracious offer (cf. Matt. 22:6-7) and refusing to walk in God's grace (cf. Matt. 22:13).

▣ "throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" This was a common idiom used often in Matthew to describe the condition of humans who reject God (cf. Matt. 8:12; 13:42,50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). It implied a current (cf. Luke 16:19-31) as well as eschatological setting (cf. Matt. 24:51).

22:14 This is a difficult verse to interpret. Many say it relates to Matt. 22:2-10, but not 11-13. It seems to focus on God's gracious gift extended to all (i.e., John 1:12; 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:4; 4:10; Titus 2:11; 2 Pet. 3:9). However, fallen mankind must respond appropriately. God does choose, but He has chosen that mankind must respond by repentance and faith (cf. Mark 1:15; Acts 3:16,19; 20:21) to the gospel of Jesus mediated through the wooing of the Holy Spirit (cf. John. 6:44,65).

This verse may relate to God's revelation to the children of Abraham (cf. Acts 3:26; Rom. 1:16; 2:9). They rejected God's offer in Christ, so the gospel was given to the Gentiles who eagerly embraced it (i.e., Romans 9-11). This entire context expresses the truth that the expected outcome in spiritual matters was going to be reversed (cf. Matt. 19:30; 20:16)!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.

1. How is this parable related to Matthew 21?

2. How many parables are there in verses 1-14?

3. To whom does the phrase "invited guests" in verses 3-5 refer?

4. To whom does the phrase "both the good and bad" of verse 10 refer?

5. How do you explain the presence of such violence in verses 6, 7, and 13?

6. How does verse 14 relate to verses 1-14?

 

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: MATTHEW 22:15-22
 ¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. ¹⁶And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. ¹⁷Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" ¹⁸But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax." And they brought Him a denarius. ²⁰And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" ²¹They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's." ²²And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.

22:15 "Pharisees" See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: PHARISEES

▣ "plotted together" This term is used by Matthew to document the numerous times and ways that the religious leaders gathered together to plan to thwart Jesus' ministry (cf. Matt. 12:14; 22:15; 26:4; 27:1,7; 28:12).

In this instance Pharisees even consulted with Herodians to trick Jesus. They hated each other, but they both felt threatened by Jesus and His teachings. Hate makes strange "bedfellows"!

22:16 "Herodians" See Special Topic at Matt. 2:1.

▣ "Teacher" This group of religious leaders is trying to flatter Jesus in order to trick Him (cf. Matt. 22:15). Notice how they characterize Him.

1. we know You are truthful

2. we know You teach the way of God in truth

3. we know You defer to no one

4. we know You are not partial to any (lit. "do not lift the face")

If these Pharisees and Herodians really believed these statements, why did they reject His teachings?

22:17 "Is it lawful" This meant according to the oral traditions which interpreted the Mosaic Law (i.e., "traditions of the elders," 15:2). Jesus changed the question from an "either/or" to a "both/and" (cf. Matt. 22:21).

▣ "poll-tax" This was a Roman tax that went directly to the Emperor. It was levied on every male 14-65 years old and every female 12-65 years old who lived in the imperial provinces.

22:18 "testing" This Greek term had the connotation of "to test with a view toward destruction." See Special Topic at Matt. 4:1. These Jewish leaders knew that the Jewish population was not in support of this tax. If Jesus answered one way He would be in trouble with the Roman authorities; if the other, the Jewish population.

▣ "hypocrites" This compound term meant "to judge under" (cf. Matt. 6:2,5,16; 7:5; 15:7; 16:3; 23:13,15,25,26,27,29; 24:51). It referred to people who acted one way while truly living or feeling another.

22:19 "Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax" This coin was a "denarius." It was a day's wage for soldiers and laborers. On the front was a picture of Tiberius with the saying, "Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine Augustus." On the back was a picture of Tiberius seated on a throne and an inscription, "Highest Priest." Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire from a.d. 14-37. Coinage was a symbol of who was in governmental control. See Special Topic: Coins in Use in Palestine in Jesus' Day at Matt. 17:24.

22:21 "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" The Bible is clear that believers are to pray for and support the governmental authority they live under regardless of its form unless it usurps the place of God in the life of the believer (cf. Rom. 13:1ff.; Tit. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:13). Jesus changed the word "pay" of Matt. 22:17 to "pay back."

▣ "and to God the things that are God's" The government, although ordained by God, cannot demand allegiance as a divine power. Believers must reject all ultimate claims of authority, for God alone is the ultimate authority. We must be careful of basing our modern political theory of separation of church and state on this passage. The Bible does not clearly speak on this issue, but western history does!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.

1. Can you list and define all the religious and political groups within Judaism of Jesus' day mentioned in the NT?

2. Why were these groups trying to trick Jesus?

3. What is the implication of Jesus' statement in verse 21 for our day?

 

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: MATTHEW 22:23-33
 ²³On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him, ²⁴asking, " Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.'²⁵"Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; ²⁶so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷Last of all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her." ²⁹But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. ³¹But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ³²'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." ³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

22:23 "Sadducees" See Special Topic at Matt. 2:4.

▣ "questioned Him" This question also was meant to force Jesus to deal with a controversial topic, and thereby, alienate Himself from a segment of the Jewish population.

22:24 "Moses said" This is a reference to Deut. 25:5-6.

▣ "if" This is a third class conditional sentence, which meant potential future action.

▣ "his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife" This dealt with the concept of "Levirate marriage" (cf. Deut. 25:5-6; Ruth 4:1-2). This term comes from the Latin term for " brother-in-law." In ancient Israel the land was a major theological emphasis (cf. Gen. 12:1-3). God had divided the land by lot under Joshua into tribal allocations. When a male descendant died without an heir the question arose about the fate of his land. The Jews developed a way for the widow to have a child, if possible, by a near relative so that the deceased man's property would go to an heir. This child would be considered the child of the deceased brother (cf. Numbers 27 and Ruth 4).

22:25 "seven brothers" This shows that the Sadducees did not really want theological information but grounds for accusations! No doubt they had used this theological argument many times to confuse and embarrass the Pharisees.

22:29 "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God" This accusation must have really embarrassed these religious leaders (cf. Matt. 21:42)! However, it is uncertain to which OT Scripture Jesus was referring to provide this information.

22:30 "For in the resurrection" Jesus was asserting His agreement with the Pharisees concerning a future resurrection (cf. Dan. 12:1-2 or possibly Job 14:7-15; 19:25-27).

▣ "they neither marry nor are given in marriage" This was a new truth not disclosed elsewhere in Scripture. It implies that sexuality is only an aspect of time. It was part of God's will for creation (cf. Gen. 1:28; 9:17), but not for eternity! This seems to imply that the wonderful one flesh fellowship between a man and wife will be superseded by an even closer fellowship between all of God's children in eternity.

▣ "but are like the angels in heaven" This states that angels do not have a sexual aspect to their existence. They do not reproduce themselves in this way. Many commentators have used this verse to interpret Gen. 6:1-4 as not referring to the sexual activity of angels, but rather a special group of angels mentioned in Jude 6 and possibly 1 Pet. 3:19-20, who are kept in prison (Tartarus, which was the name for the wicked part of hades).

22:32 "I am the God of Abraham" Jesus was using a rabbinical word play on the implied present tense of the supplied Hebrew verb "I Am"of Exod. 3:6 to assert that God was and is still Abraham's and the Patriarchs'God. Abraham still lives and God is still his God! Jesus used a text from the Pentateuch (Genesis - Deuteronomy) in which the Sadducees claimed to be authoritative.

22:33 They were astonished because Jesus used the OT without reference to the rabbinical traditions (cf. Matt. 7:28; 13:54). He was His own authority (cf. Matt. 5:21-48).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: MATTHEW 22:34-40
 ³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. ³⁵One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ³⁶"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" ^37*And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'³⁸This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'⁴⁰On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

22:35 "a lawyer" Matthew usually called these legal experts "scribes." He never used this term "lawyer" anywhere else in his Gospel. This term may have been an assimilation by a copyist from Luke 10:25. Luke used the term often (cf. Luke 7:30; 10:25; 11:45,46,52; 14:3). It is not found in the parallel in Mark 12:28. However it is present in almost all ancient Greek manuscripts. Jewish religious lawyers developed during the Babylonian exile. Ezra typified this group (cf. Ezra 7:10). In many ways they took the place of the local Levites. Basically they answered practical questions related to the written Law and the oral law (Talmud) as they applied to common life.

▣ "testing Him" This verb (peiraze), rendered alternately "tempt," " try," " test" or "prove," has the connotation of "to test with a view toward destruction" (see Special Topic at Matt. 4:1, cf. Matt. 4:1; 16:1; 19:3; 22:18, 35; the noun in Matt. 6:13; 26:41).

22:36 "which is the great commandment in the Law" The rabbis had asserted that there were 248 positive and 365 negative commandments in the writings of Moses (Genesis - Deuteronomy) for a total of 613 commands.

22:37-38 The greatest commandment is stated in Deut. 6:5. There is a slight difference between the Masoretic Hebrew text and Jesus' quote, but the essence is the same. This verse is not concerned with the dichotomous (cf. Heb. 4:12) or trichotomous (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23) nature of man but rather deals with a person as a unity (cf. Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:45): a thinking and feeling, physical and spiritual being. It is true that because humans are earthly animals they depend upon this planet for food, water, air, and all the other things animal life needs to survive. Humans are also spiritual beings who relate to God and the spiritual realms. However, it is a false interpretation to build theology on these different descriptions of human nature. The key to this verse is the thrice-repeated "all," not the supposed distinctions between "heart," " soul," and "mind."

By quoting this central affirmation of the oneness of God, Jesus is inseparably linking the OT and NT understanding of God. The NT is the fulfillment of the OT. YHWH is now revealed as a Triune Unity. Oneness has been redefined! NT believers fully assert monotheism, but with a footnote. Apparently the NT writers did not see the implication of Ps. 110:1 as a contradiction (cf. 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:5; Phil. 2:11). There is surely mystery here! See the Special Topic: The Trinity at Matt. 3:17.

22:39 The second commandment was not requested by the scribe, but it does show that a balance between believers'love for God and their love for their fellow human must be maintained. It is impossible to love God and hate people (cf. 1 John. 2:9, 11; 3:15; 4:20). This is a quote from Lev. 19:18.

22:40 Jesus was asserting that the OT has an integrating center (i.e., covenant love, cf. Matt. 7:12; Mark 12:31; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14). These two OT commands are obviously applicable to NT believers. Love for God expresses itself in being like God, because God is love (cf. 1 John 4:7-21).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: MATTHEW 22:41-46
 ⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: ⁴²"What do you think about Christ, whose son is He?" They said to Him, "The son of David." ⁴³He said to them, "Then how does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,'saying,
 ⁴⁴'The Lord said to my Lord,
  Sit at My right hand,
  Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet'?
 ⁴⁵If David then calls Him 'Lord,'how is He his son?"
 ⁴⁶No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.

22:41-42 The Jewish leaders had asked Jesus several questions trying to test Him, now He asked them a question that showed their lack of spiritual understanding (cf. Matt. 21:24-27).

22:42 "What do you think about Christ, whose son is He" This question basically dealt with the lineage of the Messiah. Jesus had accepted the OT Messianic title "son of David." This was a common Messianic title in Matthew (cf. Matt. 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30; 21:9,15). Jesus was clearly asserting His own messiahship. The Jews of Jesus' day were not expecting a divine incarnation but a divine empowering like the Judges. Jesus used Ps. 110 (cf. Matt. 22:44) to show the human lineage and divine lineage of the Messiah.

22:44 This same Messianic use of Ps. 110 is found in Matt. 26:64. The Hebrew text of Ps. 110:1 was a play on the term YHWH (Lord) and Adonai (Lord). The first would represent the God of Israel; the second would refer to the Messiah.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.

1. What is the central theme of the parable in Matt. 22:1-14?

2. How do you explain the harsh words of Matt. 22:13?

3. Do verses 15-22 speak to the modern issue of the separation of church and state?

4. List and characterize the political and religious groups in Palestine in Jesus' day.

5. Why were these groups trying to "trap" Jesus? (Matt. 22:15)

 

Copyright © 2013 Bible Lessons International