The Living Bible (297 page)

Matthew
2

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.

    
At about that time some astrologers from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking,
²
 “Where is the newborn King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in far-off eastern lands and have come to worship him.”

    
³
 King Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, and all Jerusalem was filled with rumors.
*
⁴
 He called a meeting of the Jewish religious leaders.

    
“Did the prophets tell us where the Messiah would be born?” he asked.

    
⁵
 “Yes, in Bethlehem,” they said, “for this is what the prophet Micah
*
wrote:

⁶
 ‘O little town of Bethlehem, you are not just an unimportant Judean village, for a Governor shall rise from you to rule my people Israel.’”

    
⁷
 Then Herod sent a private message to the astrologers, asking them to come to see him; at this meeting he found out from them the exact time when they first saw the star. Then he told them,
⁸
 “Go to Bethlehem and search for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too!”

    
⁹
 After this interview the astrologers started out again. And look! The star appeared to them again, standing over Bethlehem.
*
¹⁰
 Their joy knew no bounds!

    
¹¹
 Entering the house where the baby and Mary, his mother, were, they threw themselves down before him, worshiping. Then they opened their presents and gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
¹²
 But when they returned to their own land, they didn’t go through Jerusalem to report to Herod, for God had warned them in a dream to go home another way.

    
¹³
 After they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up and flee to Egypt with the baby and his mother,” the angel said, “and stay there until I tell you to return, for King Herod is going to try to kill the child.”
¹⁴
 That same
*
night he left for Egypt with Mary and the baby,
¹⁵
 and stayed there until King Herod’s death. This fulfilled the prophet’s prediction,

“I have called my Son from Egypt.”
*

    
¹⁶
 Herod was furious when he learned that the astrologers had disobeyed him. Sending soldiers to Bethlehem, he ordered them to kill every baby boy two years old and under, both in the town and on the nearby farms, for the astrologers had told him the star first appeared to them two years before.
¹⁷
 This brutal action of Herod’s fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah,

    
¹⁸
 “Screams of anguish come from Ramah,
*

    
Weeping unrestrained;

    
Rachel weeping for her children,

    
Uncomforted—

    
For they are dead.”

    
¹⁹
 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and told him,
²⁰
 “Get up and take the baby and his mother back to Israel, for those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”

    
²¹
 So he returned immediately to Israel with Jesus and his mother.
²²
 But on the way he was frightened to learn that the new king was Herod’s son, Archelaus. Then, in another dream, he was warned not to go to Judea, so they went to Galilee instead
²³
 and lived in Nazareth. This fulfilled the prediction of the prophets concerning the Messiah,

“He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Matthew
3

While they were living in Nazareth,
*
John the Baptist began preaching out in the Judean wilderness. His constant theme was,
²
 “Turn from your sins . . . turn to God . . . for the Kingdom of Heaven is coming soon.”
*
³
 Isaiah the prophet had told about John’s ministry centuries before! He had written,

“I hear
*
a shout from the wilderness, ‘Prepare a road for the Lord—straighten out the path where he will walk.’”

    
⁴
 John’s clothing was woven from camel’s hair and he wore a leather belt; his food was locusts and wild honey.
⁵
 People from Jerusalem and from all over the Jordan Valley, and, in fact, from every section of Judea went out to the wilderness to hear him preach,
⁶
 and when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

    
⁷
 But when he saw many Pharisees
*
and Sadducees
*
coming to be baptized, he denounced them.

    
“You sons of snakes!” he warned. “Who said that you could escape the coming wrath of God?
⁸
 Before being baptized, prove that you have turned from sin by doing worthy deeds.
⁹
 Don’t try to get by as you are, thinking, ‘We are safe for we are Jews—descendants of Abraham.’ That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into Jews!
*

    
¹⁰
 “And even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised to chop down every unproductive tree. They will be chopped and burned.

    
¹¹
 “With water
*
I baptize those who repent of their sins; but someone else is coming, far greater than I am, so great that I am not worthy to carry his shoes! He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit
*
and with fire.
¹²
 He will separate the chaff from the grain, burning the chaff with never-ending fire and storing away the grain.”

    
¹³
 Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized there by John.
¹⁴
 John didn’t want to do it.

    
“This isn’t proper,” he said. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you.”

    
¹⁵
 But Jesus said,
“Please do it, for I must do all that is right.”
*
So then John baptized him.

    
¹⁶
 After his baptism, as soon as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God coming down in the form of a dove.
¹⁷
 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, and I am wonderfully pleased with him.”

Matthew
4

Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, to be tempted there by Satan.
²
 For forty days and forty nights he ate nothing and became very hungry.
³
 Then Satan tempted him to get food by changing stones into loaves of bread.

    
“It will prove you are the Son of God,” he said.

    
⁴
 But Jesus told him,
“No! For the Scriptures tell us that bread won’t feed men’s souls: obedience to every word of God is what we need.”

    
⁵
 Then Satan took him to Jerusalem to the roof of the Temple.
⁶
 “Jump off,” he said, “and prove you are the Son of God; for the Scriptures declare, ‘God will send his angels to keep you from harm,’ . . . they will prevent you from smashing on the rocks below.”

    
⁷
 Jesus retorted,
“It also says not to put the Lord your God to a foolish test!”

    
⁸
 Next Satan took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory.
⁹
 “I’ll give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel and worship me.”

    
¹⁰
 
“Get out of here, Satan,”
Jesus told him.
“The Scriptures say, ‘Worship only the Lord God. Obey only him.’”

    
¹¹
 Then Satan went away, and angels came and cared for Jesus.

    
^12-13
 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned home
*
to Nazareth in Galilee; but soon he moved to Capernaum, beside the Lake of Galilee, close to Zebulun and Naphtali.
¹⁴
 This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy:

^15-16
 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, beside the lake, and the countryside beyond the Jordan River, and Upper Galilee where so many foreigners live—there the people who sat in darkness have seen a great Light; they sat in the land of death, and the Light broke through upon them.”
*

    
¹⁷
 From then on, Jesus began to preach,
“Turn from sin and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
*

    
¹⁸
 One day as he was walking along the beach beside the Lake of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—out in a boat
*
fishing with a net, for they were commercial fishermen.

    
¹⁹
 Jesus called out,
“Come along with me and I will show you how to fish for the souls of men!”
²⁰
 And they left their nets at once and went with him.

    
²¹
 A little farther up the beach he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their nets; and he called to them to come too.
²²
 At once they stopped their work and, leaving their father behind, went with him.

    
²³
 Jesus traveled all through Galilee teaching in the Jewish synagogues, everywhere preaching the Good News about the Kingdom of Heaven. And he healed every kind of sickness and disease.
²⁴
 The report of his miracles spread far beyond the borders of Galilee so that sick folk were soon coming to be healed from as far away as Syria. And whatever their illness and pain, or if they were possessed by demons, or were insane, or paralyzed—he healed them all.
²⁵
 Enormous crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, and the Ten Cities, and Jerusalem, and from all over Judea, and even from across the Jordan River.