Wednesday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, part 27

 

We are rushing towards the end of Matthew, and this week, Jesus askes three questions so rapid fire, I can put them all up in one shot:

Mat 26:51  And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
Mat 26:53  Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54  But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
Mat 26:55  At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.
Mat 26:56  But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples left him and fled. 

The first question is a very interesting one, if you go beyond the words- which the Disciples didn't.  You see, the reason they even had a sword with them we find in the version of the story in Luke 22:

Luk 22:35  And He said to them, When I sent you without a purse, or a wallet, or sandals, did you lack anything? And they said, Nothing.
Luk 22:36  Then He said to them, But now, the one having a purse, let him take it; likewise also a wallet. And the one not having, let him sell his garment, and let him buy a sword.
Luk 22:37  For I say to you that this that has been written must yet be fulfilled in Me: "And He was numbered with the lawless." Isa. 53:12 For the things concerning Me also have an end.
Luk 22:38  And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said to them, It is enough. 

So they took swords with them to Gethsemane, not realizing that Jesus was referring to after He left them- after He was numbered with the lawless, i.e. crucified between the 2 thieves.  The lesson in Jesus's question though, is this- for any Disciple willing to fight for Him, He had an army of angels at the ready.  And as commentator John Gill points out:

 and what is it that such a company of angels is not capable of, when a single angel slew in one night an hundred, fourscore, and five thousand men, (2Ki_19:35), wherefore had Christ had any inclination to have been rescued from the present danger, he stood in no need of Peter's sword.

God and Jesus have no need for defenders among men.  Our job is not to apologize for God's Word, to make excuses for it, or to force it on others, literally or figuratively, at swordpoint.  Ours is to learn and to teach.  

Second question points out that everything happening at this point had been predicted hundreds, if not thousands, of years before.  A few examples:

Mat 26:14  Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
Mat 26:15  and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
Mat 27:3  Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,
Mat 27:4  saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself."
Mat 27:5  And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.
Mat 27:6  But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money."
Mat 27:7  So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. 

From Zechariah, @520 BC...

Zec 11:12  Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.
Zec 11:13  Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.

Or...

 Mat 27:12  But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer.
Mat 27:13  Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?"
Mat 27:14  But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Mat 27:38  Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.

Mat 27:57  When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus.
Mat 27:58  He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
Mat 27:59  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud
Mat 27:60  and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

From Isaiah, @740 BC....

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Isa 53:8  By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
Isa 53:9  And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Or one last round...

Mat 27:35  And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 

Luk 23:35  And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!"
Luk 23:36  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine
Luk 23:37  and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" 

Joh 19:32  So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him.
Joh 19:33  But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
Joh 19:34  But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

From David, @ 1,000 BC:

Psa 22:7  All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
Psa 22:8  "He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"

Psa 22:14  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
Psa 22:15  my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

Psa 22:18  they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Psa 34:20  He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Psa 69:20  Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
Psa 69:21  They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

Not to mention that you can use the historical information described in Nehemiah do date the timeline in Daniel 9 to give an almost exact date of the Crucifixion- early April of 32 AD.

The third question shows that even His arrest was predetermined- not in the open, among the crowds, but here in an isolated spot in the middle of the night.  That this went against all Jewish laws reminds us of the lengths that evil will go to to prevent the works of God- excuses, lies, cheatings.  That we have such things now that so many believe in, from a 'bigoted and intolerant Bible' to evolution, UFOs, and the like, shouldn't be surprising.  I've asked the question before of atheists- "If you grant me a Satan actively trying to make people not believe in a God, what sort of things would he do?"  Atheists won't answer- 'it's beneath their intellect to respond'- but I just did.