For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Matt. 2
How did God intervene to protect Jesus? I love how Matthew told Jesus’ story in parallel with what is now our Old Testament. He started with Jesus’ genealogy to trace the promise God gave to Abraham through the line of David right up to Jesus’ birth. He then told how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies for the virgin birth, the birth in Bethlehem, the escape to and return from Egypt, and the settling in Nazareth. This is, of course, Matthew’s purpose – to show his fellow Jews that Jesus IS the promised Messiah.
The correlation actually goes beyond the obvious fulfillment of prophecy that Matthew points out. The similarity to Moses’ story is pretty uncanny as well. Like Pharaoh, King Herod issued an order to kill baby Hebrew boys. And just as God handed Moses over to the Egyptians to raise him, so He sent Jesus to Egypt to likewise escape death. God spared both men so they could lead His people out of slavery. Moses’ story wasn’t direct verbal prophecy like the other quotes that Matthew uses. But it is a great example of how the entire Bible tells us about Jesus, God’s plan for the redemption of His world.
Num. 21-22
Compare the story of the bronze snake and Jesus (see John 3:14-15). I have often wondered why God used a snake – a symbol I tend to associate with evil due to the serpent in the Garden of Eden – to save His people in this story. The answer occurred to me this morning. The serpent, or snake, is indeed a symbol of sin from that first deception in the Garden. I see that thought reiterated in this story, as the snakes – a result of the people’s rebellion – brought death to them.
So when the people realized their wrong, they essentially asked Moses to pray that their sin, represented by the snakes, be taken away. Thus, by using a bronze snake lifted up on a pole, God showed how Jesus would become our sin so that it could be permanently removed from us. We need only to look to Jesus and see our sin on Him to begin our journey of faith. He took our sin to the grave and, by the power of His resurrection, gave us life in its place.