The Word Made Flesh — The Foundation — Bible Study

(My personal thoughts: One sentence in Micah 5:2 holds both ends of this whole study. This ruler COMES FORTH out of a small town. Coming forth out of a small town is a beginning, at a place a person can walk to. This ruler's GOINGS FORTH are from of old, from everlasting. Goings forth from everlasting is no beginning at all. Micah states both truths in the same sentence. Micah does not soften either truth.)

(My personal thoughts: Read Isaiah 53:9 and then Isaiah 53:10 again, in order. Isaiah 53:9 says the servant was DEAD and buried in a rich man's grave. Isaiah 53:10 says that after the servant's soul is made an offering for sin, the servant will SEE his seed and PROLONG his days. Those two statements cannot both be true of a man who stays dead. The resurrection is written into this chapter of Isaiah. The resurrection is written into this chapter seven hundred years before the resurrection happened.)

(My personal thoughts: This is an honest question, asked out loud by a man who had never heard the answer. The question is: who is the prophet talking about? The answer is not Philip's private opinion. Philip started at that exact verse in Isaiah 53. Philip preached Jesus from that verse. The apostles' own reading of Isaiah 53 is written down for us. Nobody has to guess at the apostles' reading of Isaiah 53.)

(My personal thoughts: Look at the order of the two verbs in Isaiah 9:6. The two verbs are not the same verb. The two verbs are not in that order by accident. A child is BORN. A son is GIVEN. Being born describes how the child came into the world. Being given describes what happened to a Son who already existed. Now consider the names given to this child. Isaiah 9:6 does not say the child will be like the mighty God. Isaiah 9:6 says "his name shall be called The mighty God." The first name on the list, Wonderful, is pele (H6382). Pele shares the same root as the answer Manoah received in Judges 13, when he asked for a name and could not have it. In Isaiah 9:6, the name is given.)

(My personal thoughts: God spoke Genesis 3:15 to the serpent in the garden, at the time sin entered the world. Genesis 3:15 is the first promise of a rescuer in the whole Bible. Notice whose seed this verse names. Through the rest of Scripture, the family descent is traced through the men. Examples are the seed of Abraham and the seed of David. Here, once, at the very beginning, the descent named is the seed of the WOMAN. Notice also the two wounds in this verse, which are not the same size. The heel of the woman's seed gets bruised. The head of the serpent gets crushed.)

(My personal thoughts: Galatians 4:4 says God SENT FORTH God's Son. Galatians 4:4 then says the Son was MADE OF A WOMAN. The sending is named first in the sentence. The birth is named second in the sentence. That order matters. A person is not sent from a place unless that person already existed in that place.)

(My personal thoughts: The difference between the two accounts is the teaching. Isaiah 7:14 says SHE shall call the child's name Immanuel. Matthew 1:23 says THEY shall call the child's name Emmanuel. One mother names her baby in Isaiah's account. Everybody names Jesus in Matthew's account. Matthew also does something no reader has to guess at. Matthew stops and translates the name for the reader, inside the Gospel of Matthew text itself. No reader in any century can miss what the name Emmanuel means. Emmanuel means God with us. Matthew also does not say the birth of Jesus merely reminded Matthew of Isaiah's prophecy. Matthew says all this was DONE so that Isaiah's prophecy might be FULFILLED.)

(My personal thoughts: Mary's question in Luke 1:34 is a sensible question. People still ask the same question Mary asked. The answer given to Mary is not an argument. The answer given to Mary is an announcement of what God is about to do. Notice the throne named in Luke 1:32: "the throne of his father David." This is the same throne Isaiah 9:7 said the child would sit on. This is the same royal house Psalm 110 was written about.)

(My personal thoughts: John 1:1 gives three statements in one line. Every one of the three statements is needed. The first statement is "the Word was in the beginning." The Word, a title for the Son of God before he took on a human body, did not have a starting point. The second statement is "the Word was with God." The Word is not simply another name for God the Father, because a person cannot be with himself. The third statement is "the Word was God." The Word is not a lesser being standing next to God. Removing any one of the three statements produces a different sentence than the sentence John wrote.)

(My personal thoughts: The Greek word John uses for "dwelt" in John 1:14 is skenoo (G4637). Skenoo means to pitch a tent and live in that tent. In ancient times, God told the people of Israel to build a tent so God could live among the people of Israel. The people of Israel built that tent out of skins, wood, and gold (Exodus 25:8). In John 1:14, the same picture returns, but the tent is a human body. The tent in the desert was an early picture of the truth John describes. The tent in the desert pointed forward to the body of Jesus Christ. The New Testament identifies the tent in the desert as a shadow, a picture that points to Jesus Christ, only after the New Testament reveals what the shadow pointed to. John states this truth about the body of Jesus Christ plainly in John 1:14.)

(My personal thoughts: Jesus said this in John 5:39-40 to men who knew the Scriptures better than almost anyone alive at that time. These men could recite the Scriptures. Jesus told these men that the whole body of Scripture these men had memorized was pointing at him. Jesus told these men that these men still would not come to him to get life. Knowing the words of Scripture is not the same as knowing the person the words are about. There is no other place to look for life. Jesus did not say search your feelings. Jesus said search the scriptures.)

(My personal thoughts: Luke 24:44-45 gives the answer to the question this whole study is asking. This answer comes from the mouth of Jesus, after Jesus rose from the grave. Jesus named three sections of the Old Testament: the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. These three sections together are the whole Old Testament. Jesus said all of the Old Testament had things in it about him. Jesus did not say only some of the Old Testament had things in it about him. Jesus then did two separate things for the disciples. Jesus opened the SCRIPTURES to the disciples. Jesus opened the UNDERSTANDING of the disciples. A person needs both of these things. A person can hold the whole Bible in that person's hands and still need Jesus to open that person's eyes to see Jesus in the Bible. Read the Bible. Ask Jesus to open the Bible to you. Keep reading the Bible.)

(My personal thoughts: John lists the senses on purpose in 1 John 1:1: heard, seen, looked at closely, and touched with our hands. John is not describing a feeling or an idea. John is describing a person he ate meals with. In the same sentence, John calls that person "that eternal life, which was with the Father." The person the apostles touched with their hands is the same person who was with the Father before the beginning. That is the whole claim of 1 John 1:1-3. John states that he is a witness to this claim, not a theorist about this claim.)