Looking Back Looking Forward

The Scriptures have some depth that I often overlook. I've read chapter 3 of Matthew many, many times. And I've even taken a cemetery course on it (or did I mean seminary? I can't remember). There are things I just miss. However, I love when I do wake up to something that has been there all along. Today was one of those times.

Matthew was written to a Jewish audience. In other words, Matthew was writing to a group of people who knew Genesis - Deuteronomy very well (and the other books of the Hebrew Scriptures...but we know they knew the Torah VERY well). One of the foundational stories for the Jewish people was the Exodus. The story of the Israelites, their ancestors, in captivity, led by Moses out of slavery, through the Red Sea. Yet, they were stubborn and ended up in the desert for 40 years. So salvation (in one sense) came to the Jews through Moses, but the people didn't fully step into a life with God. In Matthew 3, we read of Jesus going down to the river (I wonder if John the Baptist lived in a van down by that river?) to be baptized by the John the Baptist. Matthew definitely ties these stories back to some of the foundational Jewish stories. Do you think Matthew could be tying this story back to the Exodus so that the Jewish readers would come to know Jesus as the true salvation? Jesus in the Jordan River to the Israelites in the Red Sea? If so, it would seem that the next story in the story would be Jesus heading to the desert like the Israelites did. The Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. I wonder what chapter 4 will hold tomorrow. I wonder if we'll see the number 40 there.

Like I mentioned above, the depth of God's Word is amazing. And even though we read it over and over, it seems to me that God's Spirit can continue to teach us and guide us and shape us. May that happen to you and to me as we read.