Today’s Old Testament chronological reading is in Genesis 41 and 42.
The Psalms/ Proverbs reading is in Psalm 42.
The New Testament reading is in Mark 2.
Chiastic structures.
From Mark 1:1-15 and 2:23-3:6, that were not previously mapped:
Now after John was put in prison, Yeshua came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of the kingdom of God, and saying: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe the Good News. Mar 1:14-15
We tend to think that the Good News – the gospel that Yeshua preached – is the news of His substitutionary death on the cross, where, if we believe in Him, we receive forgiveness for our sins. And that is true, and good news!
But Yeshua did not preach the message of His death and resurrection. He preached the coming of the kingdom of God. He preached belief in the Good News – that the kingdom of God had come among them.
And what is the kingdom of God? We just finished Matthew, where the kingdom of God is mentioned five times:
But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Mat 6:33
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come to you. Mat 12:28
And again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Mat 19:24
Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to Him: The first. Yeshua said to them: Truly, I say to you, that the tax collectors and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. Mat 21:31
Therefore say I to you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits. Mat 21:43
A kingdom is that place over which a king reigns. A king issues a command, and his officers accomplish it. His people live by his rule. A good king, a wise king, rules to bless his people. The people who live within the borders of the kingdom, live peacefully and prosperously, because his just laws preserve peace and order in their society. As we learn from Romans:
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Will you then be unafraid of authority? Do that which is good, and you shall have his praise: for he is the minister of God to you for your good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil. Rom 13:3-4
If anyone steps outside his law and does that which harms another, the king bears the sword to execute judgment on that Out Law, on that one who lives as if he is outside the law. So the king preserves peace and prosperity within his kingdom.
The Good News is that God’s kingdom has come, with the coming of Messiah. It is not a message of living outside the Law, but of living inside the Law of the King. For too often rulers of men lord it over others, and abuse their people instead of bless their people. Then corruption, crime, and injustice prevails. But when God is King, righteousness prevails, justice prevails, peace prevails, and prosperity prevails.
In the kingdom of God, people are no longer beset by demons. Disease is banished. Compassion rules – not to break God’s law, but to apply it properly, as a light and easy yoke, not a heavy burden. And how does Yeshua accomplish this? The New Covenant provides for the Law of the King to be written within us, so that it is our nature to live by it, rather than only having it written without us, on two tablets of stone, so that it is contrary to our nature.
“Behold, the days are coming, says YHVH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says YHVH. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHVH: I will put My Law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know YHVH,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says YHVH. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jer 31:31-34
Links to previous studies.
Gen 41 and 42, Joseph, the Messiah type
Gen 41:1-37, The answer of peace
Gen 41:1-57, Understanding, discretion, wisdom
Gen 41:1-37 Chiastic structure
Gen 41:38-42:17 Chiastic structure
Gen 42:1-38, The brothers’ first trip to Egypt
Psalm 42, Taking comfort
Psalm 42 Paragraph divisions
Mark 1:14-2:22 Chiastic structure
Mark 2, The Son of God and man
Mark 2, Lord of the Sabbath
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