Latest / Reformed Thinking / Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: The Savior, the Wise Men, and the Vision of Isaiah

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Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: The Savior, the Wise Men, and the Vision of Isaiah · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking, where we take a stack of your
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sources and extract the most striking Nuggets of knowledge.
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Yeah, and today we have a really fascinating stack of material to
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go through. We do.
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We are bypassing the superficial stuff today and getting straight
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to the core. So welcome.
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It is great to have you with us for this deep dive.
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Absolutely. We are looking at some rigorous
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academic treatises today. They analyze the birth of Jesus
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specifically focusing on the narrative in Matthew chapter 2,
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verses one through 12. Right.
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And pairing that with the prophetic vision of Isaiah 60
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verses one through 7. Yeah, and the central thesis of
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these texts is, well, it's pretty eye opening.
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They argue that to really understand the nativity, you
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have to look at it through a very specific dual lens.
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OK, lay that out for us well. First, there is a Middle Eastern
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cultural lens, like understanding the actual
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geographical and political realities of the 1st century.
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Not the fairy tale version. Right, no.
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And 2nd, a strict confessional reformed framework, which means
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we are looking at the sovereignty of God, human
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depravity and the specific offices of Christ as mediator.
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And so the mission of this deep dive is to basically strip away
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that sanitized, nostalgic Christmas card version of the
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Nativity. Yeah, you know the one.
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I do the quiet snowy night, the polite farm animals just looking
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on, the three kings and pristine robes standing around a wooden
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Manger. Right.
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It's very peaceful. But the sources argue that this
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cultural myth completely obscures the highly
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confrontational reality of the incarnation.
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So our goal today is to see how the arrival of the Messiah
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upended secular paradigms, challenged political authority,
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and enacted a total realignment of divine glory.
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We really have to start with the historical context, because the
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sources paint a picture of 1st century Judea that is incredibly
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raw. Raw in what way?
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Well, the sheer level of exhaustion among the Jewish
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people of that era is it's hard to overstate.
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When we read the biblical text, we have to reconstruct that
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bleak, intense geopolitical landscape.
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Because Israel had been ground under the iron heel of
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successive Pagan empires for centuries at this point, right?
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Yes, centuries they endure. The Babylonians who destroyed
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the first Temple, then the Persians, then the Greeks.
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And the Greeks tried to completely eradicate Jewish
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culture. They did, and finally, by the
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1st century, they found themselves under the cold,
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administrative, ruthless machine of the Roman Empire.
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I think we tend to view that subjugation as, you know, a
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distant, abstract political concept, Like it was just
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something the elites discussed in a forum or something.
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Oh no. The sources stressed that this
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was a daily grinding economic reality for the average person.
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We are talking about severe agrarian distress.
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Break that down for us. What is that agrarian distress
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actually look like on the ground?
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So the economic reality is central to understanding the
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mood of the era. The text detail how vast
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ancestral agricultural lands have been systematically
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confiscated. And confiscated by the Romans.
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Well, under Roman occupation and through the administration of
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their imperial collaborators at local client rulers, the
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traditional Jewish land ownership system was basically
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decimated. Right, because in the Old
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Testament the land was a covenantal inheritance.
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Yeah, it was tied to families and tribes.
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It wasn't supposed to be sold off permanently, but by the 1st
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century you have foreign elites and wealthy collaborators
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acquiring massive estates. Which means the covenant family
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of Abraham is reduced to being destitute.
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They are exploited tenant farmers working their own
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ancestral land. Yeah, just imagine the
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psychological toll of that. You know you are working the
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soil that your grandfather and great grandfather owned, but now
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you are turning over the lion's share of your crop to a Roman
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tax collector. Or an absentee landlord living
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in luxury. It creates A volatile
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resentment. This massive fiscal exploitation
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is the direct catalyst for the desperate catastrophe Jewish
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revolt that happens later in the 80s, sixties.
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So the region is literally a powder keg.
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It is. The taxation system was designed
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to extract maximum wealth to fund the Roman military machine
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and the lavish lifestyles of the ruling class.
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Wow. So when you have an entire
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population pushed to the brink of starvation, their theology of
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hope becomes extremely localized and extremely political.
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It is like a pressure cooker ready to explode.
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Yeah, I mean, think about the psychology of a 1st century
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farmer. In that situation, you are
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watching a foreign military occupy your land, tax you into
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poverty and brutalize your neighbors.
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Yeah, it's horrific. When people in that specific
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situation hear the word salvation, they are not
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picturing abstract theological concepts.
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Not at all. They're picturing a military
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general arriving to violently overthrow their oppressors.
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They want vengeance. That is the atmosphere spheric
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tension the sources are trying to highlight.
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The vocabulary of salvation had been completely politicized by
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the 1st century. Which wanted liberation, not a
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sermon. Right.
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Their hope was forged in the fire of texts like Isaiah 47,
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which exalted in the violent humiliation of Babylon, or Psalm
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137, which speaks of judgement on their captors.
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So for an occupied community, the suggestion that they
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themselves were the primary problem, that they were sinners
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in need of salvation from their own moral corruption, that would
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be a tough pill to swallow. Oh, it was met with immediate
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hostility. They perceive their own moral
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failures as completely insignificant compared to the
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monstrous systemic atrocities committed by the Roman
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overlords. And this brings us to a massive
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linguistic shock in the text right at the very beginning of
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the New Testament. Yeah, the angelic announcement.
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Right, the sources breakdown the angelic announcement to Joseph
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and Matthew 1.21, which says he will save his people from their
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sins. There's a word play happening
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here that completely redefines the mission of Messiah, and
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honestly, we miss it in the English translation and even in
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the Greek. OK, unpack that word play for
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us. To grasp this we have to look at
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the Hebrew and Aramaic vernacular of 1st century
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Palestine. The New Testament is written in
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Greek and the Greek name for Jesus is ayesus.
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Right? But I use this is just a direct
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transliteration of the Hebrew name Yeshua and that name is
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derived from the Hebrew root Yasha.
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Which means. It literally means to save or to
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deliver. So if you are hearing this
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announcement in the original language, there is a very
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deliberate resonant pun happening.
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Yeah, the original audience would have heard it like this.
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You shall call his name Yeshua, because He will yasha His people
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from their sins. Wow, so the name itself is a
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functional description of the mission?
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Yes, but the shock comes from the object of that salvation.
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The identity of the Messiah is defined not by political
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conquest, not by military deliverance from Rome, but by
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his role as the sovereign savior of his elect from their
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spiritual transgressions. Let me push back on this for a
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second, putting myself in the shoes of that original audience.
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If I am that oppressed, starving for century farmer we just
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talked about, doesn't hearing that I need salvation from my
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sins rather than from the Romans feel like a massive slap in the
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face? It feels dismissive, like I am
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starving a Roman centurion. Just requisition my last bag of
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grain and you are telling me my biggest problem is my own
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internal Guild? That reaction is entirely
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natural and the sources confronted directly.
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Yes, it is a massive theological offense to human pride.
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How so? The text diagnosis the primary
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human crisis as internal rebellion against a holy
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sovereign God rather than external oppression by human
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empires. So the root issue isn't Rome.
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Right Christ does not enter human history as a political
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instigator. He does not come as a social
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activist designed to liberate a single geopolitical entity from
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temporal bondage. He comes to deal with the root
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disease. Which is sin?
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The texts argue that political and economic systems are
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corrupted, yes, but they are symptoms.
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The terminal disease is human rebellion against God.
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Yeah, because if you overthrow the Romans, you just replace one
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group of sinners with another group of sinners.
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Wow, that's a sobering thought. The texts point out that by
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prioritizing spiritual salvation over geopolitical liberation,
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Scripture demands that all human beings recognize their mutual
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bankrupt state before the bar of divine justice.
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Regardless of their social status.
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Right, whether they occupy the seat of the oppressor or the
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prison of the oppressed, the Roman centurion and the Jewish
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tenant farmer both stand equally condemned under the moral law of
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God. So the salvation Christ brings
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is far more radical than a regime change.
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Far more He is coming to satisfy the wrath of God and secure
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eternal justification for His people.
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So if the King's mission is completely misunderstood by his
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own people because his own occupied nation wants a military
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leader, the text takes this dramatic pivot.
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It does. It shifts focus entirely.
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Because the local establishment misses the point entirely, the
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narrative turns to the most unlikely outsiders to recognize
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his true identity. Which brings us to the second
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major section of our source material.
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The shocking identity of the Arabian match act.
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Yes, we really need to dismantle a very prominent Western myth
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here, because the popular conception of the nativity has
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completely obscured the historical reality of who these
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men were. Yeah, you mean the three kings
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riding camels through the snow following a star while wearing
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these elaborate mismatched crowns?
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That is the one Western foreign culture frequently assumes these
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wise men were Persian or Babylonian astrologers coming
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from the far, Far East. This idea has been popularized
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by centuries of art and tradition, but the sources point
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us to a rigorous Middle Eastern cultural and linguistic analysis
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that tells a very different story.
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What does the? Text actually say.
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The Greek phrase used in Matthew is magoo E APO anatolene, which
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translates to wise men from the East.
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And the sources clarify that in 1st century Judea, the East did
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not mean distant Persia or India.
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The geography of that specific phrase is much closer to home.
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Right in the geopolitical vocabulary of 1st century Judea,
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the East specifically referred to the contiguous Arab Nabatean
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Kingdom, located just across the Jordan River.
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OK, so a neighboring nation. Yes, this was a powerful,
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wealthy Arab civilization. They control the lucrative
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incense route, which was a massive trade network running
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for the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula all the way up
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to the Mediterranean ports. So when Matthew says they came
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from the East, a 1st century reader immediately thinks of the
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Arabian Kingdom's bordering Judea, not a distant Asian
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empire. Precisely, and the sources
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provide historical corroboration for this going back very early
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in church history. Like who?
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They cite Justin Martyrs dialogue with Trifo written
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around AD 160. Justin Martyr lived in
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Palestine. He knew the cultural geography,
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and he repeatedly states in that document that the Magi
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originated from Arabia. He presents it as common
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knowledge. He argues this as a known
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historical fact. Furthermore, the specific nature
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of the gifts they brought, gold, frankincense and myrrh, strongly
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supports this. Let's talk about those gifts in
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a geographic sense before we get to their theological meaning,
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because the sources point out that these aren't just random
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valuable items, they are regional commodities.
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Yeah, frankincense and myrrh are botanical products indigenous
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exclusively to the southern regions of the Arabian
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Peninsula, primarily modern day Yemen and Oman.
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They don't just grow anywhere. No, the resin is harvested from
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specific trees that only grow in that climate.
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The gold of that region, often referred to in antiquity as the
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gold of Ophir or Sheba, was also legendary.
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So, combining the linguistic use of the East, the early Church,
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historical witnesses, and the botanical origins of the gifts,
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the sources conclude that we are looking at Arabian gentile
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nobility. Yeah, and this is where we need
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to unpack the ethnic scandal of the narrative, because this
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isn't just a fun geographic fact for a trivia night.
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Right, there is a massive theological weight to who these
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men are genealogically. These Arabian travelers were the
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physical descendants of Ishmael and Kedar.
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If you go back to the book of Genesis, you see the fracturing
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of Abraham's family. The family drama.
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Exactly. You have Isaac, the child of
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promise, from whom the nation of Israel descends, and you have
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Ishmael, the child born of Hagar, who is sent away into the
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wilderness of Arabia. So historically, the tribes
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descending from Ishmael and his son Kedar were characterized by
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perpetual conflict with the covenant people of God, Israel.
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Yes, centuries of bad blood. Think of an analogy for this.
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This is like a nation's most bitter historical rivals showing
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up uninvited to inaugurate its new head of state.
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That's a great way to put. It they cross the border, they
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completely bypass the local government, they ignore the
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local religious authorities, and they declare that they are here
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to worship the new king. It is scandalous to the Jewish
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establishment. It is the ultimate display of
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God's sovereign electing grace. The narrative demonstrates that
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God is gathering a multicultural assembly.
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Bringing in the outsiders, right?
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It proves that the Abrahamic covenant, the original promise
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in Genesis 12, that in Abraham all the families of the earth
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would be blessed, is actively breaking national boundaries.
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These traditional ethnic and religious outsiders, the
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descendants of the rejected line of Ishmael, are bypassed around
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the corrupt Jewish establishment and brought directly to the feet
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of the King of Kings. And they didn't just wander in
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by accident because they saw a shiny object in the sky.
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This is where the sources tie Matthew to directly to the
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prophetic blueprint of the Old Testament.
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Specifically Isaiah 60, right? The convergence of geography and
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prophecy here is staggering. Matthew is not just recording
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history, he is proving that ancient promises are coming to
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pass. If we look at Isaiah 60 verses
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one through 7, we see a majestic post exilic prophetic Oracle.
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The prophet Isaiah is painting a picture of a restored cosmic
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Zion. OK, what does that look like?
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In this vision, the nations of the earth, the Gentiles, stream
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toward the light of God, carrying the immense wealth of
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the Pagan world to offer it in worship.
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And the specific geographic markers in Isaiah's Hebrew text
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are undeniable. When you read Isaiah 60, the
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prophet names very specific regions, Midian, IFA, Sheba,
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Kedar, and Nabiah. All of which are historically
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documented to tribal territories of the Arabian Peninsula.
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Isaiah says that a multitude of camels will cover the land.
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The young camels of Midian and IFA.
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He says all those from Sheba shall come bringing gold and
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frankincense. He says all the flocks of kedar
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shall be gathered together and the Rams of Nabiath shall
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minister to the Lord. So the very regions that
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represented the wild Pagan margins of the ancient world are
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sovereignly summoned by God to bring their wealth to the true
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King. Yeah, so Matthew was
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intentionally adopting this specific prophetic vocabulary.
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He is showing that the promise dawn has finally broken.
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The Gentiles are bringing the gold and the frankincense, just
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like Isaiah said. But Matthew introduces a massive
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literary twist here, a massive theological shift, because in
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Isaiah 60, the physical city of Jerusalem is the object of the
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nation's pilgrimage. Right, the text says.
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They will come to the brightness of Jerusalem's rising.
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They're walking toward the physical city.
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But in Matthew 2, the physical city of Jerusalem is bypassed
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entirely. The Magi go to Jerusalem first,
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assuming the king would be born in the capital, but they do not
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find him there. Because he isn't there.
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Exactly. The light of God's glory does
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not rest on Herod's grand architectural temple in
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Jerusalem. It rests upon a peasant child in
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a humble, nondescript house in Bethlehem.
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The irony is crushing. I mean, Jerusalem has the
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history. They have the physical temple
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which Herod has expanded into this massive gleaming wonder of
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the ancient world. They have the scrolls of the
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prophets. They have the priestly
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establishment, the daily sacrifices, all the
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infrastructure of religion, but they are entirely in the dark.
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The tree Temple is no longer a building.
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The true temple is now the physical person of Jesus Christ.
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The earthly Jerusalem is in that moment de absolutized.
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The sources refer to this as a temporary apostasy of the
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physical earthly Zion. The wealth, the worship, and the
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glory are redirected away from the physical city and
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concentrated entirely upon the physical person of the Lord
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Jesus Christ. He is himself the light of the
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world. He is the manifestation of the
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glory of God. The institutions of Jerusalem
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have become an empty shell because they have rejected the
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very God they claim to worship. So the arrival of this light
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instantly exposes the darkness of the existing earthly
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authorities. When the Magi arrive and start
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asking about a newborn king, it sends shock waves through the
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Capitol. All massive panic.
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The sources detail 3 distinct reactions to the true king in
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Matthew 2, and we need to walk through each one, starting with
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the reaction of the political state, Herod's paranoia.
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Herod the Great possesses the political title of King of the
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Jews, but his claim to the throne is highly illegitimate in
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the eyes of the Jewish people. Because he's backed by Rome.
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He is a client ruler, kept in power solely by the backing of
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the Roman military. Furthermore, he is an Idamean,
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an Edomite. He is a descendant of Esau, not
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a true Davidic king from the line of Jacob.
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And the conflict between Jacob and Esau goes all the way back
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to Genesis. The idea of an Edomite ruling
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over the Promised Land was deeply offensive to Jewish
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sensibilities. Oh, they despised him.
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Herod knew they hated him, which explains his constant anxiety.
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His entire reign was characterized by paranoia and
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violent insecurity. He executed his own wives and
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sons because he suspected them of treason.
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That is just brute. It is.
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He initiated massive building projects, including his
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legendary expansion of the Jerusalem Temple, primarily to
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pacify the Jewish populace and legitimize his rule.
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But no amount of architecture could conceal his illegitimacy.
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So when these wealthy Arab nobility arrive in his capital,
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asking where is he who has been born king of the Jews, Herod
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doesn't see a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
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No, he sees a direct political rival to be eliminated.
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He gathers the religious leaders to find out where the Christ is
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to be born, and then he secretly summons the wise men.
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He tells them to find the child so that he too may come and
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worship him. The texts note that his false
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worship conceals murderous rebellion.
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It is a stark warning that religious language, the
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vocabulary of worship, can frequently cloak an intense
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hostility toward the absolute authority of Christ.
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Right. Herod represents the secular
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state attempting to crush the sovereignty of God to maintain
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its own temporal power. And then you have the second
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reaction, which the sources suggest might be the most
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chilling part of the entire narrative, the dead orthodoxy of
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the religious elite. This part is crazy to me.
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When Herod is troubled by the news of the Magi, he calls
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together the chief priests and scribes of the people.
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These are the men whose entire their vocation is the study of
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the Hebrew Scriptures. They possess perfect theological
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accuracy. Right when Herod asks them where
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the Messiah will be born, they do not hesitate.
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They immediately cite the prophet Micah chapter 5, verse
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2, pinpointing Bethlehem as the exact birth place of the
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shepherd ruler. But look at the geography here.
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Yes, let's stop and think about the geography.
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They know the exact location. Bethlehem is only 5 miles South
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of Jerusalem 5. Miles.
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It is basically a 2 hour walk. They have wealthy foreign
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dignitaries telling them that the cosmic sign of the Messiah
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has appeared. They know exactly where he's
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supposed to be, and yet they stay put.
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They don't move. Why Is it just fear of Herod's
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volatility? Like if they go will Herod have
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them killed or is it something worse?
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The sources argue it is something far worse than fear.
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While it is true that Matthew records all, Jerusalem was
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troubled alongside Herod largely because they knew a paranoid
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Herod was a dangerous Herod. Right, you don't want to make
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him mad. But the scribes failure to make
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a five mile trek reveals A fatal spiritual apathy.
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Matthew is presenting A devastating indictment of
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handling truth without submission.
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They are professional theologians with cold hearts.
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Exactly. They have the Bible, they have
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the ordinances, they have the correct theological vocabulary,
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but they have no saving faith. They can parse the Hebrew verbs
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of Micah's prophecy. They can debate the nuances of
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the law. But when the Word becomes flesh
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5 miles down the road, they cannot be bothered to go and
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worship. Him they can quote the chapter
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and verse perfectly, but they refuse to bow the knee.
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Knowledge without adoration leaves them condemned.
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It is a terrifying picture of nominal religion.
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And this starkly contrasts with the third reaction, right?
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Yeah, the joyful obedience of the Gentile Magi.
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The Magi have far less covenant privilege.
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They don't have the physical temple.
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They don't have the priestly lineage.
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They haven't spent their lives memorizing the Torah.
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But they follow the Providence of the star and the revelation
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of Scripture to find the child. Their response is characterized
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by exceedingly great joy when they see the star stop over the
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house. The Greek text highlights their
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overwhelming emotion. They enter the house, they see
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the child with Mary, his mother, and they fall down to offer
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absolute adoration. They don't just admire the child
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as a historical curiosity, they recognize his supreme worth.
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They offer the kind of buscuno, the kind of worship that is
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reserved for God alone. Which brings us to the physical
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manifestation of that adoration, the gifts.
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The famous gifts. Yeah, the sources spend a lot of
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time on the gifts as theological declarations.
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Because imagine I don't just bring standard, culturally
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appropriate baby gifts, they bring exotic treasures that act
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as a precise theological map of the child's future.
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The sources explained that these gifts align perfectly with the
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Reformed doctrine found in the Westminster Confession,
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specifically Chapter 8. OK, unpack that connection for
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us. Well, that chapter outlines the
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mediatorial work of Christ, stating that He executes the
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offices of A prophet, a priest, and a king in his estates of
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both humiliation and exaltation. And the gifts of the Magi
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visually represent these offices and estates precisely.
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Let's break those down one by one.
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First, the gold. Gold is the undisputed tribute
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fit for a supreme king. It represents wealth, power and
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permanence. So by presenting gold to a
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peasant infant in a nondescript house, the Magi are
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demonstrating his absolute legal and cosmic sovereignty over the
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nations of the Earth. They're acknowledging that this
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child is the long-awaited king of Israel and the King of kings.
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It points to his estate of exaltation.
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Then we have the frankincense. The Greek word used is labanos.
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Let's explain how this was used in the ancient world.
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Because it wasn't just a pleasant perfume.
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No, Frankincense was a highly valuable resin, but in the
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context of biblical worship it had a very specific function.
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It was the pure aromatic incense used exclusively by the
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Levitical priesthood in the holy place of the Tabernacle and the
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Temple. Oh wow.
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It was blended according to a strict divine recipe and burned
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on the altar of incense before the veil.
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So presenting this specific gift to Jesus identifies him with the
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priesthood. It identifies him as the Supreme
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High Priest. The book of Hebrews tells us
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that Christ does not enter a sanctuary made with hands, but
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into heaven itself, appearing in the presence of God on our
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behalf. He is the one who will make
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intercession for his people. Yes, the frankincense declares
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that he is both the priest making the offering and the
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altar itself. Ascending is a sweet smelling
23:19
savour to the Father. And then we get to the third
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gift, Myrrh. The Greek word is Smyrna.
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This is a bitter spice also derived from tree resin, but its
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primary use in the ancient Middle East is staggering when
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you put it in the context of a birth narrative.
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Myrrh was used extensively in the ancient world for embalming
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the dead. It was a primary ingredient used
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to prepare bodies for burial to mask the scent of decay.
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I mean, think about how shocking this is.
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Try to visualize the scene. You are attending a baby shower
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or visiting a newborn and you bring a bottle of embalming
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fluid. It is highly anomalous.
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It borders on the grotesque in any normal cultural context.
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But in this the logical context, it bluntly declares the purpose
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of the incarnation. It declares that this child is a
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sacrificial savior. He was born for the explicit
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purpose of substitutionary death.
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This gift points directly to his estate of deep humiliation, his
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death on the cross, and his burial in a borrowed tomb.
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It's just incredible foreshadowing.
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In the Gospel of John, we see Nicodemus bringing a mixture of
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myrrh and aloes to prepare the body of Jesus after the
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crucifixion. In the sovereign design of God,
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the Magi's gifts mapped out the entire trajectory of Christ's
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redemptive work. He must be embalmed with myrrh
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before he is crowned with gold. The shadow of the cross falls
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over the Manger. That's a profound way to look at
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it. Let's transition to how the
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sources apply all of this history to the modern day,
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because the authors of these treatise do not just leave this
24:47
analysis in the 1st century. They definitely do not.
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They argue that these historical and theological realities create
24:54
a surgical reputation of several modern philosophical frameworks.
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Now I want to note explicitly for everyone listening that we
25:01
are impartially reporting the arguments made in these academic
25:04
treatises. Right.
25:05
We are walking through their critiques to understand the
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author's perspective on how the biblical text intersects with
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modern sociology. Exactly.
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So what is their main critique? The texts provide a severe
25:16
theological critique of secular victimhood frameworks.
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They specifically mentioned ideologies like critical race
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theory and liberation theology. OK.
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And what is their issue with those frameworks?
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The sources argue that these ideologies divide humanity into
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the simplistic, moralistic binaries, namely categorizing
25:35
people strictly as guilty oppressors versus innocent
25:38
victims based entirely on their position within social and
25:41
political power structures. And the sources argue, these
25:44
ideologies seek external systemic solutions, right.
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The premise is that human suffering is primarily caused by
25:50
corrupt structures, and therefore salvation comes
25:53
through dismantling those structures of power.
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Correct. The modern ideological framework
25:57
suggests that the oppressed are inherently morally superior or
26:02
innocent by virtue of their suffering, and the oppressors
26:05
are inherently guilty by virtue of their power.
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But to support their critique of this view, the texts bring in a
26:11
fascinating analysis of Jesus's ministry in Luke 13, verses one
26:16
through 5. Yeah, we have to look.
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At that text set the scene for us in Luke 13 because it is a
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highly charged political moment. A crowd approaches Jesus with an
26:24
atrocity story. They tell him about an event
26:27
where Pontius Pilate, the ruthless Roman governor, had
26:30
slaughtered a group of Galilean worshippers in the Temple,
26:33
mingling their blood with their sacrifices.
26:36
That is a horrific instance of state sponsored terror by the
26:39
oppressor class against an oppressed religious minority.
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So the crowd brings this to Jesus, fully expecting him to
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respond with politically charged outrage.
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They want him to validate their status as innocent victims and
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condemn the Roman oppressors. They want him to take up the
26:55
mantle of liberation theology. Instead, Jesus rejects the
26:59
victim centric theology entirely.
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His response is shocking. He says to them, Do you think
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that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other
27:07
Galileans because they suffered in this way?
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No, I tell you, But unless you repent, you will all likewise
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perish. So the authors of the sources
27:17
are asserting that the oppressed are fully capable of oppression,
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that suffering does not equal moral innocence, and that both
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the Roman oppressors and the Jewish victims were equally dead
27:27
in their sins. Right.
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Both groups require justification by faith alone.
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The argument is that which cannot be remedied by just
27:38
rearranging political power structures.
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The texts argue that whether you are pilot wielding the sword or
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the Galilean bleeding on the altar, your most urgent need is
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repentance before a holy God. Let me clarify this to make sure
27:51
we are capturing the author's argument accurately, because
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this is a very sensitive topic. The authors are not saying
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political injustice is irrelevant or that we shouldn't
27:59
fight against tyranny, right? Not at all.
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They're saying that dealing with political injustice without
28:03
dealing with spiritual guilt is like treating the symptoms of a
28:07
disease while ignoring the fact that the disease itself is
28:10
terminal. That is the central thesis.
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The angelic announcement in Matthew 1.21 says he will save
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his people from their sins. The texts argue that any
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philosophical framework that minimizes the universal tyranny
28:23
of sin in favor of a purely systemic external diagnosis is
28:28
fundamentally at odds with the Gospel.
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It offers a false salvation. If you liberate a man
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politically but leave him dead in his trespasses and sins, you
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have not saved him. And what I found really
28:38
compelling is that the sources do not just apply this critique
28:41
to secular political movements. They turn the gun around and
28:44
apply it to the church itself. Specifically targeting modern
28:48
seeker sensitive church growth movements.
28:50
Yes, the texts are equally critical of modern pragmatic
28:53
church movements. They liken these movements to
28:56
the corrupt religious establishment of 1st century
28:59
Jerusalem. The critique is that many modern
29:01
churches seek to make the message palatable by hiding the
29:04
offensive demands of unconditional repentance.
29:07
They try to market Jesus as a life coach or a therapeutic
29:11
additive to an already comfortable life.
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They prefer a comfortable status quo over bowing to a sovereign
29:16
king who demands absolute submission.
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The scribes in Jerusalem knew the theology, but they didn't
29:22
want a king who would disrupt their comfortable institutional
29:25
power. And the sources are saying
29:27
modern churches do the same thing when they water down the
29:30
gospel to fill seats. The Magi did not traverse
29:33
hundreds of miles of hostile desert looking for therapeutic
29:36
moralism. They came to fall on their faces
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before the Cosmic Lord. The sources stressed that true
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spiritual seekers are drawn by the raw, majestic manifestation
29:46
of the light of Christ, the absolute truth of who He is, not
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by pragmatic gimmicks, fog machines or cultural conformity.
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Let's shift gears and talk of the future, specifically the
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future of Jerusalem. We talked earlier about how the
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physical city of Jerusalem was bypassed at the Incarnation.
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Right. The light of God's glory rested
30:04
on Jesus in Bethlehem, not on the architectural temple in
30:07
Jerusalem. So what happens to all those Old
30:10
Testament promises about the literal physical city of
30:14
Jerusalem being a light to the nations?
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Are they just cancelled? This brings us to a crucial
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dispensational correction presented in the text.
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The source addresses the work of a scholar named Kenneth Bailey,
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who proposes what is called a de Zionizing thesis.
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Hold on, let me act as the advocate for the listener who
30:33
doesn't have a seminary degree. Breakdown some of these terms
30:35
for us. What is a dispensational
30:37
correction and what is a de Zionizing thesis?
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Certainly. The de Zionizing thesis suggests
30:42
that when the New Testament writers apply Old Testament
30:44
prophecies to Jesus, they are permanently spiritualizing the
30:48
physical promises regarding the geographical city of Zion or
30:51
Jerusalem. So Jerusalem as a physical place
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is just done. Bailey argues that the physical
30:57
city is rendered obsolete forever and that the New
31:00
Jerusalem is entirely a spiritual metaphor for the
31:02
church. A dispensational approach,
31:04
however, argues that God still has a future literal plan for
31:07
national Israel and the physical land.
31:10
So Bailey is saying Jerusalem's time is over.
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It's all spiritual now, but the sources we are reading push back
31:16
against that heavily. They do.
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The texts argue for a literal hermeneutic.
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And a hermeneutic is just a method of interpretation, right?
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The rules you use to read a text.
31:25
Yes. A literal hermeneutic means you
31:27
interpret the text according to its plain historical grammatical
31:31
meaning, unless the text explicitly tells you it is an
31:35
allegory. OK, so how does that apply here?
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The sources assert that while Christ typologically fulfills
31:41
the dawning of the light in His first coming meeting, He
31:43
inaugurates the promises and gives us a preview of the glory.
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The full physical and literal fulfillment of Isaiah 60 will
31:50
occur in the future during the Millennial Kingdom.
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So it is not an either of situation.
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It is an already, but not yet. The Church currently experiences
31:58
a spiritual foretaste of this cosmic glory, but that glory
32:02
will eventually be localized geographically once again.
32:05
That is the premillennial hope articulated in the texts.
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The belief is that Christ will physically return to earth
32:12
before a literal 1000 year reign, the Millennium.
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He will establish a physical Kingdom in a restored Jerusalem.
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The physical city is not permanently discarded in the
32:21
plan of God. Rather, the ultimate fulfillment
32:24
awaits the second coming of the king, when he will literally sit
32:27
upon the physical throne of David in Jerusalem, and the
32:30
nations will literally bring their wealth into that physical
32:32
city, just as Isaiah prophesied. So what does this all mean for
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us today as we pull all these historical, linguistic, and
32:39
theological threads together? Let's recap the true nature of
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the Nativity as presented in these sources.
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It is not a quiet pastoral fairy tale.
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No, it is a historical and theological earthquake.
32:50
The sovereign king of the cosmos bypassed the dead religious
32:53
elites of his own nation to draw the ultimate historical
32:56
outsiders, the descendants of Ishmael, into his saving light.
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And in doing so, he diagnosed humanity's deepest, most
33:04
terminal disease as internal sin rather than political
33:07
subjugation or economic disadvantage.
33:10
He provided a cure through his own future substitutionary
33:13
death, mapped out by the gift of myrrh.
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Which forces you, the listener, to reflect on your own reaction
33:18
to the true King. When you look at the landscape
33:21
of your own life, do you demand a savior who just fixes your
33:26
external circumstances? A savior.
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Who acts like a cosmic Butler to adjust the political, social or
33:32
financial structures around? You or do you fall down to
33:34
worship the one who cures your internal rebellion against a
33:37
holy God? The narrative demands a total
33:40
reassessment of what we believe our primary crisis actually is.
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If we misdiagnose the disease, we will reject the cure.
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I want to leave you with a final thought to ponder.
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Building on everything we have discussed today, consider the
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massive, crushing irony of the geography in Matthew 2.
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The five miles versus the desert.
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Yes, you have Arabian men, Gentiles outside the Covenant,
34:03
who traveled across treacherous, exhausting deserts.
34:05
They recognized the lead of the world instantly.
34:08
They saw the star, they followed the ancient texts, and they fell
34:11
on their faces in absolute worship.
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And then you have the religious scholars in Jerusalem, the men
34:16
who dedicated their entire lives to studying the exact scrolls
34:19
predicting his birth, who lived a mere 5 miles away, and yet
34:23
they remained entirely in the dark.
34:25
It prompts A sobering question. Does your knowledge of the truth
34:28
lead to action, or does it keep you comfortably anchored in the
34:31
dark? Proximity to the truth does not
34:33
equal the possession of spiritual life.
34:35
You can know the exact coordinates of the Savior and
34:38
still perish in your sins if you refuse to go to Him.
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The map is still torn. The nativity isn't a neat, clean
34:45
diagnosis of societal problems with a simple structural fix.
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It is a radical, absolute cure for the human heart.
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive on reformed
34:54
thinking. Keep reading, keep questioning,
34:56
and we will catch you next time.