Good morning! Today and for the next three months, we’ll be in the New(er) Testament, first reading four gospel stories of Jesus, then reading the stories of the early church before a final over-the-top picture of the end times in the book of Revelation. We’re jumping a few centuries since yesterday’s reading in Malachi. A great deal happens in the “intertestamental” period, and Karen Hansen posted a very helpful link yesterday to help us all figure out how things have changed since the temple’s reconstruction. Here are just a few highlights of what happened in Palestine: Greeks under Alexander the Great defeat the Persians and take over, Romans defeat the Greeks and take over, then Roman emperors install Jewish kings like Herod the Great as surrogate rulers. We’ll hear more about the implications of Roman rule as we go forward, but several immediate implications are that the Hebrew people disagree about whether to resist or accept Roman rule (and their hand-picked overlords), they have to pay exorbitant taxes to Rome via the local powers, and they live with Roman military forces occupying their country, acting at will. All this will influence what happens in the gospel stories of Jesus’ life, including Matthew, which we begin today.
Pastor Oby Ballinger 