THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
Lesson 19, Chapter 6
Our duty, and our hope, as followers of the Messiah Yeshua is to place our feet
into His footprints. The Sermon on the Mount is showing us the way. Matthew
recognizes how crucial Yeshua's speech is and so takes 3 full chapters to record
it, and we've completed only the first, which is chapter 5. So today we begin
Matthew chapter 6. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6.
READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 6 all
Verse 1 sets up the basic theme for the next several verses: motive. That is, why
we choose to do the things we do. The last half of the previous chapter (chapter
5), starting at verse 21, dealt with intent. A contrast is set up there, and here to
begin chapter 6, between the deeds and acts we do outwardly versus what we
harbor in our minds. And what we find is that what we think inwardly has
everything to do with how God sees and rewards us, including for the things we
do outwardly based on our motive for doing them. Paul picks up on this principle
of the inward versus the outward in Romans chapter 2 that injects this principle
even into the matter of our spiritual identity before the Lord. That is, despite what
we might display or want to project superficially, it's what on the inside that
counts most.
CJB
Romans 2:28-29
28
For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true
circumcision is not only external and physical.
29
On the contrary, the real
Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not
literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.
So even before we begin to delve deeper into what follows in Matthew 6, we
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understand the enormous value that God places on motive and intent.
Sometimes Christianity will use the term "heart" to mean our motive and intent.
Motive and intent are perhaps greater than the deed itself to the point that doing
a positive deed with an evil intent is a greater sin than doing a negative deed but
having a righteous intent (even if misguided in carrying it out). Let me say this
another way because I get questions nearly daily about how to live a Torah
directed lifestyle from people wanting to know specific do's and don'ts in various
situations they find themselves. Having a righteous intent (and I define that as
having a sincere intent to obey God as based upon His biblical commandments
and not on our own feelings, emotions, and sense of justice) but then our deed
winds up causing harm or offense is either not a sin or the sin is treated by God
with great mercy. However no matter how great a good that a deed might be,
without the intent to obey and the motive to please God, but rather it is done with
the intent to draw praise and recognition to ourselves, that is always a sin.
Verse 1, according to the CJB, speaks of doing acts of tzedakah. Although that
Hebrew word is not there, David Stern is correct in assuming that this must
necessarily be the Hebrew word that is in Matthew's mind as He is writing His
Gospel. What we find in the Greek Bible manuscripts is an attempted translation
of it: dikaiosune. It means righteousness in the sense of justice. And that's fairly
close to the mark. Literally tzedakah means righteousness. However it's usage in
Hebrew culture and language actually meant "doing righteousness". It is a verb; it
is an action that expresses doing a deed that more often than not was directly
connected to giving, whether it was a tithe or an act of charity. Therefore the
subject is righteous giving. Christ next follows-up with some examples and
instructions about exactly how to do that.
The first instruction is to not perform these acts of righteous giving in order to get
personal recognition or credit from people. Planned or spontaneous giving has
always been part of Hebrew society and the sincerely pious generally made it the
highest priority. But, we find in all eras that people will have ulterior motives for
giving, among which is praise from others and the outward appearance of piety
for purely personal benefit. Thus they expect to be publicly recognized and
admired, maybe even given honorary status, when their giving occurs. Jesus's
response to this is that while they may well receive what they'll hoping for from
their fellow man, they will receive nothing further from their Father in Heaven for
giving with such a wrong attitude. Motive. Intent. The deed itself was good, the
intent was wrong, and so a potentially good thing in the eyes of God was turned
into sin. Yeshua is cautioning His listeners that there is a stark difference that
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centers on the giver of the rewards; it is between the rewards we receive from
our fellow man versus rewards from Heaven.
I want you to pay attention to the fact that Christ is going to emphasize The
Father in the next several verses. That is, despite the implication within some
branches of the Church that the Father has taken a long vacation and turned
everything over to His Son, Yeshua dispels it all. It is not He, Jesus, who
determines and rewards; it is The Father.
Verse 2 begins with, "so when you do tzedakah....." This time the Greek word
chosen to translate it is eleemosune and it refers directly to the giving of mercy
in the sense of alms... charity to the needy. In Christ's day, other than what was
given to the Temple for offerings and tithes, when giving to the Synagogue the
money was used mostly for caring for the needy. No doubt some was kept for
upkeep and other legitimate expenses. At other times money was given directly
by people to some of the thousands of licensed beggars who often congregated
in certain places where there was lots of foot traffic. And Yeshua says when
someone makes a contribution trumpets shouldn't be blown (for the purpose of
drawing the crowd's attention to the giver).
A question often debated among Theologians and especially among Bible
historians is if this trumpet blowing was literal or if Yeshua used it metaphorically.
To date no Jewish document has been found to confirm that the blowing of
trumpets upon giving actually occurred in Jewish society. However since Christ
did say it, and there is no record of a standard Jewish expression of " blowing a
trumpet" (that would mean to try to gain recognition) then likely it did happen
occasionally. Yeshua had observed it and it upset Him, and so He used it as a
rather blatant example of what NOT to do when giving alms. I actually saw this in
action in a Synagogue that I visited some years ago. They had an offering time
and up on an elevated stage a bucket was placed for givers to get up out of their
sets, walk up to the front of the congregation and put their money into it. Each
time someone dropped their donation into the bucket, a trumpet was loudly blown
and the congregation applauded. What bothered me all the more was that this
was a Messianic Synagogue; a Synagogue of Believers. I can only suppose the
Rabbi never read this passage in Matthew 6. I've also seen techniques used by
the Church to give recognition so that congregation members would be most
conspicuous if they did NOT give. It goes without saying that anything along the
lines of what I just told you goes against the spirit of the instruction that Christ
uttered in this verse.
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Yeshua calls those that give in order to seek personal recognition from their
fellow Jews, hypocrites. While the Greek term is hypokrites, and it literally refers
to an actor who wears a mask as he plays a role in the theater, the overall idea is
of someone who is pretending to be something he isn't. Notice that Christ says it
is at the synagogues and in the streets where this practice occurs of making sure
one gets public recognition for giving charity to the poor. Thus the person doing it
is disguising his evil heart by doing something that looks wonderful and pious on
the surface. Jesus isn't advocating anything different than the norm. We have
much written evidence in the ancient Jewish writings of the same thought. For
instance in the Talmudic tractate Bava Batra, Rabbi Eleazar is quoted as
saying: "A man who gives charity in secret is greater than Moses our
teacher". In another passage from that same document we find: "Charity
(tzedakah) saves from death if the giver does not know to whom he is
giving and the receiver does not know from whom he receives."
Thus Yeshua says that the only reward that the hypocrite will receive is the one
he already has..... the admiration of those he preferred.... those who looked on as
he gave.
In verse 3 the crowd is told not to let their left hand know what their right hand is
doing. If this was a saying of the time, here in New Testament is the only Jewish
document ever found that contains it. So it may be a unique saying of Jesus. In
trying to understand the actual meaning as this would have expressed to a crowd
of 1st century Jews, we need to look to Jewish culture (and most Middle Eastern
culture of that era) whereby the right hand was perceived as the strong hand...
the best hand; it was the dominant and authoritative hand both symbolically and
actually (left hand dominant people were a rarity). Therefore the idea seems to
be that there is no need for other parts of one's body to know what the hand of
authority (the right hand) is doing (giving to charity). The left hand has no right to
question the actions of the right hand or to even know about it. This way the
giving will be done in secret; secret more meaning privately and without notice or
fanfare and perhaps without having second thoughts about it. This is righteous
giving; it is giving in the proper spirit. The good news is, says Christ, that the
Father knows all secrets anyway so He sees all that we do, and knows all our
hidden thoughts and motives, and knows if indeed our secret giving is about
compassion, loving our neighbor, and obedience.... or not. Therefore The Father
will be the source of whatever reward might be due to us. This of course sets up
the dynamic that we all must continually and without fail ask ourselves; "whom do
we choose to please?" If we have the inward motive of seeking humanity's
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admiration and praise by our giving, we automatically do not receive God's praise
or reward.
Perhaps this is a good time to say something that I, as head of Seed of Abraham
Ministries, have never said outside of our staff meetings but adhere to even
though it may be out of the norm. So many of you present here and out in the
internet world and on Television are the most gracious and generous supporters
of this ministry; I get a little emotional just thinking about it. Some have donated
substantial amounts. You received a heartfelt thank you letter; however what you
didn't receive was a gift depending on the level of your giving. You weren't
enticed to get a bigger gift if you give a bigger donation. You also weren't brought
up to this stage and thanked before the congregation for your large donation.
Why? For your sake. Because I don't want any part of tempting anyone to give in
the motivation of personal recognition, whereby that recognition causes you to
lose your reward in Heaven. I don't want you to exchange an eternal reward for a
fleeting one. And you know what? I've not had one person in the nearly 20 years
of this ministry's existence ask for a gift (or stop giving because they didn't
receive one), or ask for special recognition of some kind upon giving to us.
Honestly, I would have returned the gift if that was the condition. This tells me
that your giving is, and has been, in exactly the right spirit and intent and so your
praise comes not from me but from your Heavenly Father.
Next, having addressed the issue of money and giving, Christ turns to how we
ought to pray. Notice Yeshua says WHEN you pray, not IF you pray. Prayer was
a serious every day matter for Jews of that era. It was rather usual for pious Jews
to pray 3 times a day; something that seems to have begun during their exile in
Babylon perhaps as an example or even an instruction from Daniel. Praying in
public was normal because the spiritual was a natural part of everyday life. Sadly
that seems almost strange to us in the West, where our society generally expects
us to compartmentalize our faith and keep it quiet, subdued and out of sight. A
few years ago I was in a restaurant with my family, and as we held hands and
prayed I overheard a lady in a nearby table whisper to her dining companion: "is
that legal?" She was quite concerned and serious. However, just as there is a
proper attitude for the giving of charity and an improper one, there is always a
proper way to pray and an improper way. Yeshua cites the improper way first:
"Don't be like the hypocrites". Remember, the way the word hypocrite was taken
to mean at that time was someone who was masquerading as being someone
else; they were hiding who they really are. And how do they do this? Very
similarly to the hypocrites who give money to the poor; it is by praying very
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publicly, so that the public will acknowledge and admire them for their seeming
generosity and piety.
So Christ's crowd is told not to stand on street corners or even in the synagogues
where people will see them praying in some kind of way that I suppose you can't
not notice. I have to tell you; I think what Christ has said up to this point could be
taken as pretty severe; maybe even harsh. In fact, more than a few Bible
commentators say that what we are reading is Matthew's worldview and not
Jesus's because they can't see a passive, restrained, loving Jesus saying such
things. However this is neither the first nor the last time Yeshua will be blunt and
frank about the actions and insincerity that He has observed among His
countrymen in a number of settings for the purpose of a race to the top to see
who can be publicly seen as the most devout worshipper of God. Let me be clear
on this matter: is it wrong to pray in the synagogue? Is it bad to pray on a street
corner? Of course not. The issue is not prayer; it's the misuse of prayer in order
to get self attention. Motive. Intent. People who pray in this improper manner will,
like the givers to the poor who do it with the motive of self-recognition, get no
praise or any well-done from The Father.
So after telling the crowd what they should NOT do, He tells them what they
should do. They should go into their room, close the door, and pray to the Father
in secret. Although we're very early on in Matthew's Gospel, I can tell you that in
all the Gospel accounts we will never find Yeshua telling people to pray to Him. It
is always to the Father that Jesus says prayer and honor are to be directed. Even
more our praying should be in private, He says. Once more: is it wrong to pray
when we're outdoors in the public? No. Is it wrong to pray indoors (like in a
sanctuary) with others observing? No. What is wrong is to pray in the wrong
attitude, with the wrong motive, and perhaps to the wrong god in whatever
setting. So just like giving is to be done secretly.... more meaning giving without
drawing attention to oneself, or expecting something in return..... so is prayer to
be done secretly.... without the intent of drawing attention to oneself and instead
it should be with the intent of having a personal conversation and relationship
with the God of the Universe.
Many years ago, as I read this passage, it profoundly instructed and convicted
me. I am one who always had a hard time praying silently, which was my usual
way of prayer. It didn't take very long before my mind began to wander and soon
I was thinking about a matter at work or having to mow the lawn or something
else; I couldn't remember what I was praying. Interestingly, I don't think that we
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find the concept of truly silent prayer in the Bible; or at least silent prayer being
the norm. By silent prayer I mean that the mouth plays no role, and that the only
organ that is involved is our brain. Although now that I've said it I'm sure
someone will find an instance of silent prayer in the Bible and point it out to me.
Nonetheless, using one's mouth, whether in a nearly inaudible whisper or a
shout, was the customary manner of prayer (other than perhaps merely reading a
prayer, silently). The idea of sitting in my room, by myself, door shut and praying
out loud sounded odd to me. However, I tried it and suddenly I could pray without
my mind wandering. Hearing the words that were coming from my own mouth
caused me to pray in full, intelligible thoughts. Speaking to the Lord out loud
makes it feel much more intimate and real for me. This is not to say that this is or
should be every Believer's prayer experience.
So what is The Father's reward to us for proper prayer? The word in Greek for
reward is apodidomi. And it is usually translated to English as reward. The
Greek lexicons explain it means to restore, repay, or to recompense in proportion
to what was done good or bad. Clearly that last meaning is the appropriate one
for this situation. Therefore considering the context it can only be that God's
reward for proper prayer is that He responds to it in kind. That doesn't mean that
we always get what we want; rather it means that He will graciously pay attention
and consider our prayers as opposed to ignoring them. God sets conditions for
listening to prayer and answering them. Yeshua addresses that in a few verses.
But first I want to say something about prayer in general. Number one, there's no
trick to it. If you can talk, you can pray. Eloquence not required. And even if you
can't talk due to some physical problem, you can still communicate to God with
your mind and soul. Shortly we'll read an example that Messiah gives us about
the nature of a proper prayer. But as I zoomed around the web looking at what
various Christian and Bible websites had to say about it, they nearly all spoke
about it along these lines: God created us and knows infinitely more than we
know. He knows what is best for us, and what would not be good for us. If
you have children, when they were very small, sometimes they asked for
things that would not be good for them, or would harm them. For good
reasons sometimes parents do not always give their children what they ask
for, when they ask for it. Parents give them what is best for them.
Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? However that is decidedly not what proper prayer
is about. Notice the prodigious use of thought of "what is good for us" (what is
always best for us). Because of this modern tendency of Christians to think of
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God as a kind genie who grants our personal wishes, and Our Savior who is here
mainly for our hopes and dreams to be realized, then the theme of "God does
what is best for us" is practically universal. However comforting that might sound
to us, it is not biblical reality. God does what His purposes are. God does what
His will is. And that goes for answering prayers. Making us happy is not usually at
the top of the list. In fact, often God will answer a prayer in a way that isn't best
for us, personally, from almost any worldview we can think of it; but rather He has
another and greater purpose in mind that we may never know about (although
sometimes later on we might see the fruits of it).
The goal of prayer ought to be to discover how we can best fit into The Father's
plans, not how He should fit into ours. That is not to say that when we have
needs or even desires that we shouldn't go to Him in prayer. When we're ill or
injured we should pray for healing. If we're afraid, in dire straights financially, in
great danger, and scores more reasons our first response ought to be prayer.
Proper prayer. But any thought that His response is all about our earthly personal
best is incorrect, even though many times the thing we want so badly indeed
comes about. What we need to be more concerned about in our prayers is our
eternal best and that, says Christ, is to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
as opposed to being greatest on earth. And this greatness comes not from our
will being done, but from seeking His will and following His laws and commands.
Prayer first and foremost must be an act of our humility and submission. An act of
seeking, and not of instructing. Being a Believer gives us an audience before the
King; it doesn't guarantee the outcome we want.
One final thought: throughout the Gospels we find Yeshua seeking solitude when
He prays. So His instructions that we should pray "secretly" are no more nor less
than what He personally did when He was on earth.
In verse 7 Christ gives another negative instruction; what we should NOT do. We
should not babble on and on when we pray because, He says, that's what the
pagans do. Please notice: pagans pray, too. So in our time when we mostly think
of pagans as the godless (atheists) in fact pagan simply means those who do not
worship Yehoveh as their only god. There is no ancient record of any society
anywhere on earth that were atheist. Atheism was an invention of the academic
elite early in the 18th century in Europe. It ought to be instructional to everyone
everywhere that for however long one believes that humankind have existed,
whether that is 6000 or 6,000,000 years, only in the past 300 years has the
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notion of there being no god or gods been fabricated. In Jesus's day every one,
of every culture, had some means and intent of praying to their gods. And indeed
so did the occupying Romans.
In Christ's day the Holy Land was overrun with curious gentiles, and this was
especially so in Jerusalem where Herod's Temple was thought of as one of the
wonders of the world; so it was a must to visit. And then there were the 95% of all
living Jews who lived outside of the Holy Land and therefore among these same
gentiles. Knowing how the pagans prayed was common knowledge for the Jews.
And apparently a lot of pagan religionists believed that the longer and the louder
and the more public one prayed, their gods would hear them better and therefore
the worshipper would have a better shot at getting what he wants. Because the
Jews were surrounded by these gentiles it is human nature that some would take
on some of the customs and traits they witnessed happening because it seemed
good to them. And remember: few of the Jews in the crowd sitting before Yeshua
had much actual Torah knowledge. What they had was Tradition knowledge, and
so they followed whomever it was that was leading them in the synagogue.
Instead, says Jesus in verse 8, "don't be like them" and then tells us why we
shouldn't. Even this however was not a new instruction that Yeshua came up
with. It was long established biblically.
CJB
Ecclesiastes 5:1 (or 2) Don't speak impulsively- don't be in a hurry to
give voice to your words before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on
earth; so let your words be few.
It is because The Father already knows all our wants, desires and circumstances
that we don't need to go on and on in our prayers. He already knows what our
prayer is about before we pray it. It would be dishonest if I didn't confess that
every now and then I wonder if I should pray about something because The
Father already knows about it. And since His pre-knowledge of it is the case for
every instance, then it is not unreasonable to ask: so then why should we pray?
We pray for two reasons: first, because it is God's instruction and will that we
do..... Old Testament and New. Second, because prayer is therefore beneficial to
us and to the Kingdom. Prayer is part of the shalom.... the divinely given well-
being... that God affords His worshippers. By praying we are obeying the Lord.
By praying we are communing with God (a great privilege). And while
communing with God is something He wants, we and not He are the beneficiaries
of it. Thus biblically, regular prayer is a given. Yeshua is only reminding people
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what proper prayer looks like.
When we are especially nervous or anxious, we can tend to get long-winded in
our prayers. Nervousness and anxiety are the opposite of having stillness of
mind. And having stillness of mind is a very hard thing to come by especially if we
are in some kind of bad situation. However simplistic it may sound, the only
means to achieve stillness of mind is complete and sincere trust in God. And
therefore what comes next in Matthew is intended to be a means to achieve
stillness of mind, and to maintain it. It is a quite short prayer that for centuries has
been called The Lord's Prayer. It begins in verse 9.
We've already read it in the CJB, but I'd like you to hear it in a couple of other
versions. Not so much because they interpret what is said differently, but
because the words chosen for the interpretation can mean something a bit
different to us when we hear them.
KJV
Matthew 6:9-13
9
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11
Give us this day our daily bread.
12
And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13
And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
NAS
Matthew 6:9-13
9
"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
10
'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as
it is in heaven.
11
'Give us this day our daily bread.
12
'And forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13
'And do not lead us into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, forever. Amen .'
Because prayer is so crucial in the life of Believer and in our relationship with
God, we'll go through the example Christ gives us of what the elements of proper
prayer ought to look like.
The very first words are "Our Father". It cannot be said enough times, or strongly
enough, that due to the doctrines of modern Christianity never does Christ
instruct that we pray to Him. Always He instructs that we are to pray to The
Father. The implications behind this are many, and cause much debate within the
Church such that entire denominations are founded on the conclusions about
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these implications. And at the top of the list is about the nature of the Trinity.
I'm confronted often about this issue of the Trinity. People will ask me if I accept
the Trinity Doctrine and my response is always the same: which one? Folks of
every denomination have their own version of a Trinity Doctrine, which range
from rejecting the notion outright all the way up to deciding which of the persons
or attributes of God ought to be included. Among evangelical Christians, the most
common version is that God consists totally and only of 3 persons: The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And thus every manifestation of God that we learn of
in the Bible must be one of these 3 persons even when they are given different
names and characteristics. Further, this popular version of the Trinity Doctrine
declares that the 3 persons are co-equal. There is no hierarchy. And even though
there are 3 persons, they are yet but 1 God. Therefore they all have the same
power, the same purpose, the same wisdom and share the same knowledge.
Without addressing every one of these issue (and a few more), I'll only say this:
the Trinity Doctrine is manmade. Never is it stated in the Bible. The closest thing
to a direct statement comes in Matthew 28.
CJB
Matthew 28:19
19
Therefore, go and make people from all nations into
talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the
Ruach HaKodesh,
So all the rest of the definition of a Trinity Doctrine (or better, of the several
different Trinity Doctrines) is an interpretation and an amalgamation of several
Bible passages that arrives at a certain belief about the nature and substance of
God.
I can't get into defending or disagreeing with them all, and I probably am not even
aware of every one of the wide range of them. But I can tell you this with absolute
confidence: in the Gospels Christ never suggests anything but praying to the
Father. He Himself is found in several occasions praying to the Father, and it is
an absurdity to suggest that since (some believe) there is no divine hierarchy of
the 3 persons then He must be praying to Himself. According to Jesus's own
words the way, the manner and the person to whom prayer is to be directed
according to the example He gives us, The Lord's Prayer, is to the Father alone.
We'll stop for now to give the Lord's Prayer our fullest attention and study next
time.
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