\u201cI had a church background, but the emphasis was on your sinfulness and your need to improve yourself. It was heavy-handed. It felt impossible and really didn\u2019t offer any hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent graduate was telling me how her life was impacted by a Bible study she joined with friends. \u201cFor the first time I was hearing about God\u2019s grace<\/strong>. I saw in the Bible that God isn\u2019t waiting for us to measure up. He loved us so much he gave his life to do for us what we can\u2019t do for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n She helps plan monthly events for international students because, she said, \u201cWhat people did for us was so valuable, I wanted to keep it going.\u201d For her, grace isn\u2019t a mere concept. It\u2019s the gift of God that motivates her to share it with others.<\/p>\n Her experience reflects the contrast of two \u201ckings of the Jews.\u201d Matthew writes that a delegation of Magi entered Jerusalem from the east and went to the ruthless King Herod to find the whereabout of the newborn king.<\/p>\n Incongruously, Herod calls in the religious leaders and asks where the Messiah was to be born. They quote Micah\u2019s prophecy that he was to be born in Bethlehem. He sends the Magi there, telling them to return and inform him once they have found the child. We later learn that Herod\u2019s intent was to kill Jesus. He proved it my slaughtering children in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n Herod had a long record of destroying anyone who might rival his control. He vividly represents those who seek power through deceit and violence<\/strong>. He sees foreign diplomats as pawns to use for his power-lusting ends. He uses religion in the same way, completely missing the Lord\u2019s message in Scripture.<\/p>\n What a contrast is the Jesus who builds his Kingdom by grace. Instead of seeing people as pawns, he sees them as lost sheep in need of a shepherd. Instead of manipulating through deceit, he reveals the truth. Instead of gaining influence through violence, he touches lives through healing, feeding, and cultivating new life. Instead of destroying, he lays down his life.<\/p>\n Matthew\u2019s whole Gospel shows that Jesus, in contrast to Herod, is the true King, the Lord of their history, the Savior for eternity.<\/p>\n But Jesus speaks his heavenly message in a world accustomed to Herod\u2019s way of doing things<\/strong>. As Joseph takes Mary and Jesus and flees to Egypt, it looks as if the Herods are always the winners, and the way of Jesus stands no chance.<\/p>\n When Matthew quotes the prophecy, \u201cOut of Egypt I called my son,\u201d he is reminding us that the LORD\u2014not Pharaohs, not the gods of nations, not Herods, but the LORD alone\u2014is the true Sovereign and Savior of his people.<\/p>\n (Copyright 2021 by David K Shelley, jackofalltribes.org, and International Students, Inc. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI had a church background, but the emphasis was on your sinfulness and your need to improve yourself. It was heavy-handed. It felt impossible and really didn\u2019t offer any hope.\u201d A recent graduate was telling me how her life was impacted by a Bible study she joined with friends. \u201cFor the first time I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltribes.com\/jackofalltribes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}