Matthew’s Use of the Old Testament Scripture Essay Example

Matthew’s Use of the Old Testament Scripture Essay Matthew wrote his gospel with two purposes in mind: first, he wanted to prove that Jesus was the promised coming King-Messiah of the Old Testament, and second, he wanted to explain to his readers the kingdom program of God. The issues involved in the person of the Messiah are many during Matthew’s time. He had to deal with those concerns immediately in order for him to be able to prove his point beyond reasonable doubt (Constable 55).For one thing, the long-awaited Messiah had to be without question from the lineage of Abraham, and that, Matthew was able to establish in the very first chapter of his gospel. He not only had verified that Jesus came as a descendant of Abraham and therefore a bonafide Jew, but substantiated as well in the first chapter of his gospel, that Jesus also had descended from the ancestry of King David to show that Jesus was the Son of David, the coming King who would rule like David to restore Israel’s Golden Years under the reign of Davidâ€℠¢s descendant who is the Messiah (Escalona 2). Jesus, according to Matthew, has fulfilled through the testimony of His background and life the requirements that would support the conclusion that He was indeed the promised Messiah and King (Walvoord 12).These points were very important to emphasize, so Matthew started right away with these very aims in mind. With these understanding, the modern-day readers will be better off intellectually, as they approach the book of Matthew. The problems posed by Matthew chapter 1 would immediately be eliminated such as the question of â€Å"Why the drudgery of mentioning names (mostly unknown) all the way back to Abraham?† It may bear no relevance for people today, but for those people to whom Matthew was directing his message, the identity of Jesus – as far as his pedigree was concerned – was of utmost importance (Family Bible Notes 1). The Messiah had to be first of all a descendant of Abraham and of David. And the only thi ng that could possibly remove this doubt from the minds of his readers was an established proof of Jesus’ Abrahamic and Davidic lineages – which of course Matthew had established very well (Geneva Bible Notes 1).DiscussionThis paper deals with responding to the inquirer’s mind concerning Matthew’s use of the Old Testament. Its position is to establish first the Messiahship of Jesus as seen in the eyes of the apostle Matthew and then lengthily discuss the kingdom agendum or program of God.I. Jesus: The King-MessiahAnother way that Matthew has employed was his heavy use of the Old Testament scriptures – particularly, prophecies. In chapter two, specific fulfilments of prophetic pronouncements were fulfilled as to certain places and events. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which according to the writer was a specific fulfilment of prophetic scripture (Barnes 2).   When Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where the Christ/Messiah would be born,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: But   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel’.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Applications like these of certain Old Testament scriptures are notable in all of the four gospels. They relied a great deal on prophecies, and therefore their frequent references to them further concretized the fact of Jesus’ identity. In all four gospels, different aspects of the Christ’s Person were explored and thus, by the time the inquirer has finished reading all of the gospels, there have to be no more questions left. In fact, even one of the gospels is enough to convince anybody of the Messiah’s identity (John 20:31) ( Teacher’s Commentary 2).Matthew’s gospel is sufficient to present to its audience Jesus as their long-expected Savior. All of the circumstances surrounding His birth and childhood were clear realizations of Hebraic predictions. In Matthew chapters 3 – 4, Jesus’ royalty is presented. John the baptizer is here also introduced and for the said purpose – to introduce to Israel her King. During those times, it was customary for VIP’s or very important persons to have emissaries who would go before them to make preparations for their arrivals. Emissaries or forerunners would go and announce to designated destinations the royalty’s impending visit. Included to their task is to make sure that the place was in good condition to host the king. When there needs to be some repairs on infrastructure, sometimes those forerunners would go to such extent as do the work of â€Å"smoothing the highway† through which the king would take to reach his destination (Constable 56).John the baptizer prepared Jesus’ way and also proclaimed Him as a very important figure in that He was the most awaited person of the times – the coming King. When John announced that the kingdom of God was â€Å"at hand,† what he meant was that all or everything that were needed for the kingdom to be established among them (Israel) was to accept their King in Jesus. They rejected Him though. It was necessary for the predicted Messiah to be crucified for many Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled (Psalms 22, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, Zechariah 13). In Matthew 3:3, the writer identified God with Jesus as he quoted Isaiah 40:3. This clearly means that Jesus’ kingdom is also the kingdom of God. The two are not different but the same. This quote from Isaiah proves that Jesus is not a mere representative of God but more than a representative. Matthew’s point was Jesus is LORD. He makes his point very vivid by quoting from m any passages over and over from the Old Testament (Constable 55).Again, in Matthew 3:16-17, the narrative pointed to the fact that at that juncture of Jesus’ life (and it was before He started His ministry), the Holy Spirit anointed Him. This event denotes that Jesus as a man would be reliant to the power of the Spirit as also the Scripture has attested in Isaiah 42:1. Of course, at the very start of His life, He was already filled with the Spirit. He was even conceived through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). The descent of the Holy Spirit at His baptism stresses the fact that Jesus would be accomplishing His messianic ministry totally dependent on the Spirit’s power. It specifies a point for understanding that Jesus’ authority through which He discharges His ministry was through the Spirit. Hence, empowered by the Spirit, Jesus acted as the instrument of God and spoke as God’s mouthpiece. The term â€Å"Son of God† was very familiar in the prophet ic writings. It was used frequently to identify David’s descendant who would come after him to occupy his throne to become Israel’s king (2 Samuel 7:13-14, Psalms 2:7, 89:26-29). God’s approval and commendation of Jesus were both linked to the aspect of the Messiah’s work of saving His people from their sins as the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 42 53). â€Å"Son of God† is a messianic title (Clarke 1).II. God’s Kingdom ProgramThe first nine chapters of Matthew seemed to have shown not only the background of Jesus’ identity but also the pathetic condition of humanity as represented by those multitudes that followed Him. Thus, at this point, Matthew proceeded to lay out the program of the Kingdom of God. First, there is the need for workers in the field (Matthew 9:37-38). Jesus is shown here as one moved with compassion for the multitudes. It recalls for the readers the fact of God’s compassionate heart for His people. In the book o f Ezekiel 34, God is described as the true Shepherd of His people, whose compassion would not allow for His people to be taken advantaged of. The word â€Å"weary† is translated â€Å"distressed† (NASB) and â€Å"harassed† (NIV) in other translations of the Bible. These descriptions vividly depict the people of God – the Jews – as being intimidated and oppressed by their leaders. The people needed deliverance and there was no one able to deliver them. They’re as sheep without a shepherd (Constable 56).The Old Testament is replete with a description of God and the coming Messiah as the shepherds of His people. At this point in time (Matthew 9), Matthew presented the agenda or program of God for His kingdom. Jesus needed workers to continue on with the work which He has started (Barnes, 2001). There needs to be workers who would serve as workers for God’s harvest. But, first of all, the workers for the harvest must be sent by God. There fore Jesus commands prayer. â€Å"Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.† This is similar to what Apostle Paul has stated in his epistle to the Romans, â€Å"And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’† (Romans 10:15). Only at this juncture that the twelve disciples of Jesus are called apostles (Matthew 10:1). He chose the twelve probably to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The people who have spiritual sensitivity at that time must have detected that at Jesus’ appointment of the twelve He was launching them to execute His messianic programme (Barnes, 2001). The apostles were the first â€Å"sent out† ones. Although the title was exclusively theirs, they’re told by their Master to still pray for workers. During the time of the original apostles, God was continually hearing their prayers to send â€Å"workers† for the harvest. There was Barnabas (Acts 14:4), and Paul himself was designated as apostle and received his commission from Jesus directly. The primary agenda of the kingdom was to reach everyone in Israel with the message of the kingdom. Although the message had to be first proclaimed in Israel, it was to be later on extended to â€Å"all the nations† (Constable 56).Since the work had to be taken by them to all the â€Å"lost sheep of Israel,† and eventually to the â€Å"nations,† the Master foresaw its accompanying need in the part of the messengers. â€Å"And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food† (Matthew 10:7-1 0). The nature of the work is extensive; they had to â€Å"teach† their converts â€Å"to observe all things† that Christ had taught them. The kind of work that God calls His servants to is definitely a kind of work which proves as well what kind of â€Å"Lord† He is: that He is an excellent Master, able to see (â€Å"the God Who sees†) the needs of His servants or followers before they even feel the need. This means that when an individual becomes a partaker of Himself He also has become a partaker of all His benefits (Teacher’s Commentary 2).Men who become Jesus’ followers must be taught to know concerning things that are God’s or what are called divine things. Not only will they benefit best when they know what the things that are God’s, they also become instructors fit to impart the goodness and the mind of God. In addition, they are promised that what are needed will be sufficiently met and thus their own experiences of Go d’s faithful attention the promises He made to His followers, both spiritual and material needs. The servants of God then, are enjoined to be faithful as well to be able to deliver His message in adherence to the rightful message as Jesus taught and delivered as well to the apostles, the first Christians and the succeeding generations of faithful believers of the gospel (Clarke 1).Doubters and unbelievers look with disdain, cynicism and scorn when the discussion revolves around these words of Jesus and the gospel. When the faithful talk about the promises that the Old Testament Scripture holds out for the people and these Jesus reinforced as well in the New Testament, they see only myth, and delusions on the part of the believers (Robertson’s NT Word Pictures, 2001). That is because they don’t have the eyes of faith, nor were instructed of the thousands of year’s proof of the veracity of the Bible, and have not experienced the truth and reality of these S criptures in their lives. The effectivity of Matthew’s work is found in the millions of followers who had tested Jesus’ Messiahship not only in their spiritual faith but in the totality of their finite experience (Clarke 2).In conclusion, Matthew not only and merely was acting as an evangelist-historian, but as biographer par excellence, whose work was without a blend of his own opinion or views, which has undoubtedly established its internal credibility in the gospel itself. Other apostles like Paul, did not have to add anything to what Matthew said or wrote, but enlarged on what this gospel writer witnessed and chronicled in his experiences with Christ.