A Different Look at Matthew 24 (February 3)

February 3 Bible Reading:
Genesis 25-26
Psalm 34
Matthew 24
**Click to read Christine Miller’s Bible study for today.

Good morning! Today is one of those days when the Scripture reading was packed with important things to point out. If you’ll scroll to the bottom of Christine’s Bible study, you’ll see a host of links on Genesis 25-26, so I won’t probably say too much else.

Just a couple things: <wink>

• My Bible translation says “Jacob was a mild man,” while Esau was a “skillful hunter” (Genesis 25:27). Growing up, I thought of Jacob as a bit effeminate, not very masculine, not a mighty hunter like Esau was. Sadly, that’s not the sense of the word mild at all, and I’m bothered that it was translated like this. The Hebrew word is tahm (Strong’s #8535), or mature, perfect, upright, complete, fully grown. The true idea being given is that Esau wants to go do fun, boy things, while Jacob had learned to do the manly, harder things. While Esau was off playing and hunting, Jacob was being responsible and caring for the vast family property and livestock.
• Notice that YHVH repeats His promises to Jacob, but He reminds Jacob why Abraham had been given those promises — he obeyed YHVH’s voice and guarded His commands. Please remind yourself that if you are one of Abraham’s descendants (whether by genetics/birth or by adoption/faith), if you would like to be a part of the promises, you must also fulfill your side of the covenant:

“Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Genesis 26:3-5).

Psalm 34 is another one of my favorite passages. (Yes, I have a lot of favorites.) It’s another passage I memorized when I was in high school, and I wrote an entire series of blog posts on it a few years back, so I’ll just link to those here.

I want to encourage you to also spend time in Matthew 24. I have a lot of strong opinions about this chapter. For instance, I think that the majority of this chapter has already been fulfilled, even though I’m aware of the fact that very few people agree with me. I was telling a friend yesterday that I’m pretty opinionated about my views of the future, even though hardly anyone else has the same views. She reminded me that it was okay to be bold here on my blog because, well, it’s my blog! 🙂 I’m allowed to speak my mind here! LOL!

I don’t believe in getting in arguments about interpretations of future events because they are future and I might yet be proven wrong. However, because it bothers me to see so many people worried about the future, I hope I can at least convince you to consider alternative views.

I made a video about Matthew 24 in 2015. It was one of the first videos I ever made, and I admit that the quality is poor, the audio is crackly, and I’m actually pretty boring. However, if you can see past all that, I hope you will be blessed by it!

Don’t hesitate to post comments or questions!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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To Study Further:

• Matthew 24, Three questions and three answers