God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary to declare to her a glorious message:

“Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33).

A key statement in this message made known that the Lord God would exalt Mary’s Son by giving Him the throne of His father David (1:32c). The throne in view here is clearly not the throne of heaven because that throne was never David’s (and never could be). What throne then did Gabriel prophesy that God would give to Jesus of Nazareth?

The only throne that David ever occupied was his throne as the king over God’s kingdom people, the Jews. This promise to Mary about her Son, therefore, was a promise that one day Jesus would be enthroned as the King of the Jews.

During Jesus’ earthly life, He never sat on the throne of His father David. In fact, He was crucified for His claim to be the King of the Jews (John 19:14-22).

In Jesus’ future earthly rule from Jerusalem over the Jews (as well all other nations; cf. Zech. 14:9; 16-17), God will fulfill Gabriel’s prophecy as well as His promise to David that his throne would be established for ever (2 Sam. 7:16). Then the One who was “born King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2) will finally be given the homage that David wrote of as essential for all people to give to the LORD’s King whom He has set on His holy hill of Zion (Ps. 2:6, 12).

By establishing Him in that day in Jerusalem as the King of the Jews, the Father will vindicate His Son’s claim to be the One who was born to the end that He would be the King of the Jews (cf. John 18:33-37), which claim was rejected by the Jews and led to their clamoring for Him to be crucified (19:14-22). The full truth of the superscription of His Cross, “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS” (19:19) will then finally be acknowledged by the world!

“Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

The Bible records many shortcomings and failures in the life of the apostle Peter, including the following:

–Doubting Christ after He had enabled him to walk on the sea (Matt. 14:28-33)
–Reproving Christ concerning His going to the Cross (Matt. 16:21-23)
–Flawed statement to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:4-5)
–Cutting off the servant’s ear (John 18:10-11)
–Threefold denial of Christ (Matt. 26:69-75)
–Hypocritical practice that endangered the truth of the gospel (Gal. 2:11-21)

With such a record, it would be easy to understand why not a few people might have at least to some extent a negative predisposition toward Peter that would affect their receptivity to his apostolic preaching and teaching.

I believe, however, that this negative scriptural record does not provide warrant for us to have any negativity toward his apostolic preaching and teaching. In fact, I believe that the Scripture provides us with at least two good reasons why we must overcome all unwarranted negativity in this respect.

First, the record of the Jerusalem Council reveals that the Council gave priority to him and to God’s use of him to preach the gospel to Gentiles at Caesarea (Acts 15; see my post for an explanation of this point). Our understanding of gospel ministry will therefore suffer if we have negativity toward the various records concerning his apostolic preaching of the gospel in Caesarea (Acts 10; 11:1-18; 15:7-9; 14-17).

Second, the Holy Spirit’s choosing to inspire him to write two epistles shows that God deems it necessary that we have ministry from him to be all we are to be for the cause of Christ.

Any negativity, therefore, that we import into our reading of Petrine apostolic preaching and teaching is without validity and will deprive us of God-intended profiting of our lives.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

After he had gone through his intense period of testing and trial, God “turned the captivity of Job” (Job 42:10). The book then ends with a lengthy account of how the “Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning (42:12).

To understand how the Lord’s latter blessing was more than his blessing on him at the beginning, we compare the two accounts carefully:

“And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east” (1:2-3).

“The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. . . . So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-Happuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days” (42:10; 12-17)

The latter account thus states and delineates that God gave Job double the material blessings that he had at the beginning. Job’s latter blessing, however, did not include God’s giving him double the number of sons and daughter as he had before his testing. Instead, God gave him seven sons and three daughters, which was the same number of sons and daughters as he had before.

Interesting differences, however, concerning the information provided about Job’s daughters in the two accounts suggest another aspect of God’s blessing Job more in the latter end than before. Whereas Job’s first three daughters were not named or described concerning their appearance, both names and a description of their appearance are given for his second set of three daughters (42:14-15a).

Both the names (Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch) and the description of their appearance highlight their beauty.¹ Based on this data, the account of God’s greater latter blessing of Job seems to include strong emphasis on the physical attractiveness of his latter set of daughters.

In view of the teaching of Proverbs 31:30, is this aspect of God’s blessing of Job in the latter end “problematic” because it emphasizes that God gave him surpassingly beautiful daughters instead of saying that God gave him daughters whose fear of Him exceeded that of all the women of the land?

¹“Jemimah means ‘dove,’ Keziah means ‘cinnamon perfume’ . . . and Keren-Happuch means ‘horn of eyepaint’ (i.e, an animal-horn bottle for holding a dye used to make the eyelashes, eyelids, and eyebrows more attractive). These names speak of the girls’ striking beauty, for which they were well known.” (BKC: OT, 776).

See also Glorious Encouragement from the Glory of Ruth!

A Glorious Link Between First Corinthians 13 and Proverbs 31!

Glorious Hope for the Fallen: The Story of Rahab!

Why Christian Women Should Have Long Hair

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.