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    Pathway to the Stable
    Pathway to the Stable
    Pathway to the Stable
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Pathway to the Stable

    By Ivor Thomas Rees

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    About this ebook

    Ideal for individuals or groups seeking a deeper understanding of the Christmas story and its links with the Hebrew Bible, Pathway to the Stable offers a twenty-first century introduction to the people and places central to the story of the birth of Jesus, with reference to the promises of the Old Testament and its setting in the contemporary Jewish and Roman worlds. 'In this rich and rewarding series of studies, Ivor Rees has taken us deep into the biblical world in order to show us once more the glory of the coming of Our Lord, the nativity and childhood of Jesus Christ.' Revd. D. Densil Morgan, Professor of Theology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Hunt Publishing
    Release dateSep 28, 2018
    ISBN9781785358616
    Pathway to the Stable
    Author

    Ivor Thomas Rees

    Ivor Rees was born in the Rhondda Valley, the son of a Welsh coal miner. A retired minister of the United Reformed Church, Ivor was appointed by the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon to serve as Ecumenical Adviser of the first College of Saint Mary. He continues to preach in Welsh and English, and has published several books and many articles, drawing on his experiences spent travelling and preaching around the world. Ivor lives in Swansea, Wales.

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      Book preview

      Pathway to the Stable - Ivor Thomas Rees

      XXIII

      Chapter One

      Belonging

      In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

      (Genesis 23.18)

      It has been said that when one meets an Englishman, if he asks a question it will be about the nature of one’s work or business. My own experience tells me that, though this can be the case, it is far from being a universal truth. Television drama suggests that perhaps the aristocracy is more concerned with family and blood. Members of other nations, including the Welsh, will begin with Where are you from? followed by Who do you belong to? This concern for relationship is to be found too among the Jews and other ancient peoples. Thus, Paul describes himself as a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of the Hebrews. Kinship was important and each family needed to know and declare its ancestral pedigree for such knowledge was the basis of all social relationship.

      Matthew sets out the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph’s line, a chapter rarely read but deserving of better treatment. In beginning with the phrase book of the generations, Matthew is following a pattern to be found in the Book of Genesis. Chapter 5 opens with the list of the descendants of Adam and its list of generations leads to Noah, a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Noah was God’s agent of the new beginning for the human race after the flood and thus a prototype of the Saviour who was to come. Matthew’s account sets out the generations: from Abraham to David with a list of patriarchs, David to the Exile, listing kings, and the Exile to Christ, giving the names of individuals, suggesting that the revelation of God’s plan of redemption continues through each epoch. The call of Abraham marks a new beginning after Babel and reaches its climax in David. Then come the events leading to the Exile. The return from Exile is another new beginning, reaching its climax in the coming of Christ. Three kings are omitted from the list – Ahaziah, Joseph and Amaziah – these were not of the house of David, indeed, they were opposed to it.

      Surprisingly, there are four women: Tamar (Genesis 38. 11ff), Rahab the harlot (Joshua 6. 17, 22-25), Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth) and Bethsheba (2 Samuel 11-12), wife of Uriah the Hittite. These are not only female but also foreign and the relationships of all four were unusual. What is stressed is that each of these women either kept the Covenant or entered into it by an act of faith. God’s kingdom is based on his covenant of grace and is open to women and foreigners on equal terms, to pagans and prostitutes alike.

      Matthew is concerned to tell his readers, Jewish Christians, that Jesus is the anointed King, of the royal line of David and Israel’s promised Messiah. Jesus is too the descendant of Abraham, the Father of the People, by whom all the nations of earth are to be blessed. This evangelist is concerned to explain why Gentiles are to have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore among God’s people on earth. He is preparing the way for his record of the denunciation of the Pharisees and Sadducees by John the Baptist (3.7-10): ‘Do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our ancestor, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham,’ as well as the declaration by Jesus in the story of the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8.5-13) that many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. Matthew is concerned to stress that the news he records is the fulfilment of the eternal purposes of God. So, in 1.22-23, he quotes Isaiah 7.14: Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel." On at least three other occasions in the first two chapters he refers to Scripture to confirm what he is claiming. There are, too, close resemblances between the flight into Egypt and its return with the story of Moses (see Chapter 12). Christ sacrifices relationship with God, family and the respectable for the sake of

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