Have you noticed threads that connect different parts of the Bible? There are so many that I often visualize scripture like a matrix of connected points, like a spider web where the intersections are the common themes or occurrences that are found in different sections. The mind of western people, and most of us are influenced by this kind of thinking, views time as a continual stream. But in other cultures and periods of history, people saw time as a cyclical phenomenon with repetition of events or other points of connection. Sometimes we want to forget the past. But what was important in the past remains important because it is likely to be repeated, at least in part.
Our message series for October, 2020 connects prophecies in the book of Isaiah with parables and lessons that Jesus teaches in the Gospel of Matthew. These texts were written seven hundred years apart, yet are connected in their themes and lessons that we can learn. What God declared through the prophet Isaiah was important for the people he was speaking to and about. But his words were about more than the immediate situation of Judah and Jerusalem. Specific prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. Other lessons were repeated or expanded by the Lord. And the core truth in those lessons is still true today.
We won’t look at every example from Isaiah – we could do that for a long time! But in this brief series we’ll see how the words of a prophet of God were important hundreds of years later in the time of Jesus. And we will recognize how those lessons, repeated, clarified, and/or emphasized by Jesus are still important in our time and for our lives.
You’re encouraged to be in worship to learn from these prophecies and parables.