Interesting Facts and Personal Insight
into
Matthew:
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Matthew = "Gift of the Lord" aka "Levi" (preface of The Gospel According to Matthew, King James Version)
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Emmanuel = "God with us" AKA "Jesus" (Matthew 1:23)
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Before reading Matthew 2:1-15 (synopsis: An angel appears to Joseph in a dream to tell him to take his wife and son and flee to Egypt to save his son Jesus' life), I was reading Genesis 37:1-36 (synopsis: A "Joseph" from the Old Testament was trapped into a pit by his brothers, who planned to sell him to the Egyptians as a slave. He was Jacob's favorite son, and he had a dream in which he ruled over his brothers, the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars. The Midianites found him first (Midianite merchant men) and sold Joseph to the Egyptians as a slave to the captain of the guard to the Pharaoh). Both stories bring them to Egypt and in both stories the main character (Old Testament Joseph or New Testament Jesus...son of a different Joseph) are the true kings. Old Testament Joseph eventually becomes Pharaoh's right-hand man, given rule over the bounty of food in Egypt during a worldwide drought. Jesus, son of Joseph (a different one), was given rule over this world, universe, physicality in general through his death and resurrection by God.
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(Matthew 2:11) Frankincense and myrrh are gum resins used to make incense (something aromatic) offered to Jesus (God incarnate). Scripture and history tell us incense are offered to many different idols (aka "gods"), so are they (the writers of the Bible) telling us that to our Holy God, the earth (wicked and imperfect as it is) is a smelly mess, and offering incense is like spraying air freshener to make the stink seem less? Or more freshened/purified? Just another way to interpret the passage, and not the only one.
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Eastern/New Age Concept in the Bible: "God inside you" or "Spirit inside you" or the Krishna "your body is the temple of God"
Matthew 10:18-20: "18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought (do not worry about) how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not yes that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."
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Alcohol is okay to drink. (Matthew 11:18-19, cross reference Proverbs 23:20-21 as opposition to this notion, Psalm 104:v 15, and Colossians 2:16-23)
Matthew 11: 18-19: "18 For John (the Baptist) came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil (demon). 19 The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of (by) her children."
Definitions: (Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary)
-Winebibber = "wine"+"bibber"
-Wine = 1) The fermented juice of any of various kinds of grapes, usually containing 10-15% alcohol by volume. 2) Something that intoxicates or exhilarates.
-Bib = to drink: imbibe. To indulge in drinking: tipple.
-Bibber = a tippler
-Tipple = to drink alcoholic liquor, especially habitually.
-Tippler = drunkard
-Publican = tax collector (especially in the Roman Empire).
-Glutton = one who consumes immoderate amounts of food and drink. One with an inordinate capacity to undergo or withstand something. <a glutton for punishment>
Proverbs 23:20-21: "20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."
Psalm 104:v15: "And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart." (referring to the good things God has made for humankind, and wine is one of the numerous blessings God has made for us)
Colossians 2:16-23: "16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat (food), or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body (substance) is of Christ. 18 Let no man beguile (defraud) you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands (ligaments) having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. 20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh."
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Jesus' 2nd Coming...how will we know when? No one will know the exact hour, but the exact day or daypart is not out of the question. Here are some clues, as given by Jesus:
-Solar and lunar eclipse on the same day, during a meteor shower, immediately after the tribulation (the next day(s), week(s), etc) (End Times) (probably in August...an assumption made by me based on the fact that the earth travels through comet and space rock debris most heavily during the month of August - famous for meteor showers). Matthew 24:v29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken:"
-Soon after midnight. Matthew 25:6-10 "6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone (going) out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut."
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Repent = feel remorse. (moral anguish and bitter regret of past deeds. Compassion). Matthew 27:v3 "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented (felt remorse) himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,"
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Things that happened when Jesus died:
1) The temple veil dividing the Holy of the Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in 2 by an...(#2)
2) earthquake
3) Rocks tore apart
4) Graves (tombs) opened
5) Dead people came back to life, came out of the tombs, and went into the city, and appeared to many people.
Matthew 27:50-53 "50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost (he died). 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain (torn in two) from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose (the dead came back to life), 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."