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41 Matthew

Isaiah 41 maps into the first four chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. The matches begin with Abraham and cover stories like the temptation of Jesus.

Abraham

Matthew begins with mention of Abraham right of the bat. Jesus is shown to be descended from Abraham. The key is realizing the "righteous" one from the east is Abraham.

13 Isaiah 41:2-4
²Who has stirred up the righteous one from the east, and hurried him on? The nations will surrender before him, and kings will be confounded. He gave them as the dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow.
³He will pursue them, then make peace; and he will not pass that way on foot.
⁴Who has prepared and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahvah, the first and the last; I am he.

41 Matthew 1:1
¹The book of the genealogy of Jesus, anointed son of David, son of Abraham.

Note the way the Isaiah quote ends. The wording is interesting. It suggests not only that Yahvah is in control of the generations from beginning to end, but he is the guy mentioned at the end of the genealogy. Jesus.

Sons of Abraham

The Isaiah quote has some pieces here that I don't know how to map to Matthew. My guess is there's a story in the names in the genealogy. When we get the names translated we can see if the resulting narrative matches any of this quote.

13 Isaiah 41:5-9
⁵The islands saw it, and were afraid; and the ends of the land were afraid, and they drew near and came.
⁶Each helped his neighbor; and each said to his brother, Be of good courage.
⁷The carpenter encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer, him who strikes the anvil saying, It is ready for the soldering; and they fasten it with nails, that it should not be moved.

⁸But now, Israel, you are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the sons of Abraham my friend, whom I have strengthened.
⁹I have called you from the ends of the land and from among the prophets, and said to you, You are my servant; I have chosen you, and have not rejected you;

41 Matthew 1:17
¹⁷Therefore all the generations from Abraham down to David are 14 generations; and from David down to the Babylonian captivity are 14 generations; and from the Babylonian captivity down to this anointed, are 14 generations.

That said, we are back to Abraham, whose mentioned again at the end of his genealogy. The Isaiah passage also mentions the sons of Abraham, whic his all the guys in the genealogy. This is why it's reasonable to think Matthew's list of names correspond to this passage in Isaiah even if we can't see how yet. Given the way the nearby verses in Isaiah match tightly into Matthew these few verses must go here.

God With Us

The Isaiah passage goes on to say that God is with us. This is the name given Jesus at his birth, in fulfillment of prophecy, as mentioned in this passage of Matthew.

13 Isaiah 41:10
¹⁰do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your god; I have strengthened you, and have also helped you, yes, I will also uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

41 Matthew 1:22-23
²²All this happened, that what was spoken from master by the prophet might be fulfilled,
²³Look, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which is interpreted, god with us.

Perish

Isaiah says those who strive against you will perish. Matthew's next story is Herod trying to kill Jesus and Joseph being warned in a dream to flee to Egypt.

13 Isaiah 41:11-14
¹¹All those who disgrace you will be ashamed and confounded; they will be as nothing; and those who strive with you will perish.
¹²You will seek those who strive with you, but you will not find them; those who war against you will be as if they were nothing.
¹³For I am Yahvah your god, the strengthener of your right hand. I have said to you, Do not fear; I am your helper.

¹⁴Do not fear, helpless men of Jacob, remnant of Israel. I am your helper, says Yahvah, and your savior, the holy one of Israel.

41 Matthew 2:13-15
¹³When they had gone, the angel of master appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said to him, Arise, take the infant boy and his mother, and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is ready to demand the child to destroy him.
¹⁴Then Joseph rose up, took the infant boy and his mother in the night, and escaped to Egypt.
¹⁵And he remained there until the death of Herod, so that what was said from master by the prophet, might be fulfilled, I have called my son from Egypt.

Eventually Joseph returns with his family to find Herod has perished. The sense here is that Herod did not just die of natural means or old age. The sense is God has made sure this evil guy is out of the way. Isaiah does not say how, but just that God was on the job. Though somewhat unrelated, the other Herod, in Acts 12, was also taken out by God, suggesting there's a Scriptural pattern that goes along with this name.

Winnowing

The next story in Matthew is John's speech towards the religious leaders from Jerusalem. He references winnowing, the same theme that happens next in Isaiah 41.

13 Isaiah 41:15-16
¹⁵Look, I have made you as a new threshing instrument, a lord of teeth; a thing which tears and crushes to pieces; you will thresh the mountains and beat them small, and will make the hills as chaff.
¹⁶You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them; and you will rejoice in Yahvah and will glory in the holy one of Israel.

41 Matthew 3:11-12
¹¹I am baptizing you with water for repentance; but he who is coming after me is greater than I, the one whose shoes I am not even worthy to remove; he will baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire,
¹²whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he purifies his threshings; the wheat he gathers into his barns, and the straw he burns up in the unquenchable fire.

Each of these matches can be pondered to a depth that I find quite profound. This match is interesting because Jesus is the one John says will do the winnowing, but he's saying as much to the religious leaders, which suggests Jesus is going to do this winnowing to the religious leaders. Isaiah does not identify his subject directly, but given the parallel we know it's Jesus. So aligning passages like this actually answers other questions like who the prophet is speaking to or about and who is going to do the winnowing.

Hunger

The next story in Matthew is Jesus' 40 day fast in the wilderness. After not eating he becomes hungry, which is the theme that comes up next in Isaiah 41.

13 Isaiah 41:17-20
¹⁷When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is dried with thirst, I, Yahvah, will answer them, I, the god of Israel, will not forsake them.
¹⁸I will open rivers in the mountains and fountains in the middle of the valleys; I will make the wilderness pools of water, and the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹I will plant in the wilderness the cedars, the acacia tree, the myrtle, and the olive tree; I will set in the desert the cypress and the pine and the box tree together;
²⁰that they may see and know and consider and understand that the hand of Yahvah has done this and the holy one of Israel has created it.

41 Matthew 4:1-2
¹Then Jesus was carried away by the holy spirit, into the wilderness, to be tempted by the adversary.
²So he fasted 40 days and 40 nights; but at last, he was hungry.

41 Matthew 4:11
¹¹Then the adversary left him alone; and the angels drew near and served him.

Not only is the theme of hunger shared by these passages, but the theme of being in the wilderness. Isaiah also focuses on how God will supply water in the dry places and how he will plant trees. This may relate somehow to the angels who served Jesus after his 40 day fast. Perhaps water issued from rocks like at the Exodus. If so, this makes Jesus a tree, of sorts, but that's not a new idea, he's the branch of Jesse.

1st Temptation

The tempter draws near with his "counsels," but Jesus does not buy.

13 Isaiah 41:21
²¹Bring near your cause says Yahvah; bring near your counsels says the king of Jacob.

41 Matthew 4:3-4
³And the tempter drew near and said to him, If you are the son of god, tell these stones to become bread.
⁴But he answered and said, It is written, that it is not by bread alone that man can live, but by every word which comes from the mouth of god.

Even the reference to God as the King of Jacob at this point in Isaiah fits with the fact that Jesus refuses to turn stones to bread merely because he's hungry. That's what Esau would do, not what the King of Jacob would do.

2nd Temptation

Next the tempter takes Jesus to the top of the temple and dares him to jump and rely on the angels to catch him. The dare is in the same concept space as the passage in Isaiah, which is knowing what will come in the future.

13 Isaiah 41:22-23
²²Let them come near and show us the things that are to come; show us the former things, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us the things that are to come.
²³Show us the wonders that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good, or do evil, that we may relate it and look at it together.

41 Matthew 4:5-7
⁵Then the adversary took him to the holy city, and he made him to stand up on the pinnacle of the temple.
⁶And he said to him, If you are the son of god, throw yourself down; for it is written, that he will command his angels concerning you, and they will bear you up on their hands, so that even your foot may not strike a stone.
⁷Jesus said to him, Again, it is written, that you will not tempt master your god.

Notice also that the tempter is questioning whether Jesus is really the son of God. In Isaiah the same issue is at stake, since only God knows the future.

3rd Temptation

The final temptation is a direct plea to worship the tempter. The supposed deal is that if Jesus would worship him he would get all the kingdoms of the world.

13 Isaiah 41:24
²⁴Look, you are nothing, and your works are corrupt; choosing you is an abomination.

41 Matthew 4:8-10
⁸Again, the adversary took him to a very high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
⁹And he said to him, All of these I will give to you, if you will fall down and worship me.
¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, Go away, accuser, for it is written, You will worship master your god, and you will serve him only.

If you treat the term "worship" as meaning "to ascribe worth" you can quickly cut through the offer the tempter has placed before Jesus. The tempter is offering worth to Jesus, the kingdoms of the world, but Jesus must worship (ascribe worth to) him. The answer is that even the tempter is to ascribe worth to (worship) God, so he cannot be the holder of worth (worship) and his offer is found to be hollow. This is what Isaiah gets to so succinctly when it says the tempter is "nothing." Not too convoluted I hope.

Sunrise

The next thought in Isaiah and story in Matthew share the theme of a sunrise.

13 Isaiah 41:25-26
²⁵I have stirred up one from the north, and he will come from the rising of the sun, and will call on my name; and the princes will come, and will be trampled down like mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
²⁶Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, He is righteous? Yes, there is no one who shows, yes, there is no one who declares, yes, there is no one who hears your words.

41 Matthew 4:12-16
¹²Now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he departed to Galilee.
¹³And he left Nazareth, and came and settled in Capernaum, by the seaside, inside the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali,
¹⁴so that it might be fulfilled, which was said by the prophet Isaiah, who said,
¹⁵Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,
¹⁶the people who lived in darkness saw a great light, and those who settled in the country and in the middle of the shadows of death, light shone on them.

Also, the Isaiah version asks who foretold this and the Matthew version says Isaiah. I could have guessed that. The other piece that seems to be here is that Isaiah is adding a sense of what Jesus is doing or about to do in this otherwise well known story in Matthew. Jesus is fresh off an empowering time in the wilderness and he's about to start his public ministry. I think Isaiah is trying to add that he is doing so with a certain militancy. He's taking this next stage in his life very seriously. He's overcome the tempter so whose going to get in his way now?

Good News

The next thought in Isaiah is that God will give Zion one who shares good news. In Matthew Jesus begins immediately to preach the kingdom of the skies. Probably different vocabulary for more or less the same thing.

13 Isaiah 41:27
²⁷These things are the chief concern of Zion; look, I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good news.

41 Matthew 4:17
¹⁷From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of the skies has come near.

The slight difference in vocabulary is not a concern. The fact is we've been operating in a series, and continue to do so, and we're just hitting story and after story in Matthew as we work through Isaiah 41. So what matters here is that we're in the same concept space in the two passages, regardless of what words the translators used to translate the story.

Answer

The vocabulary is also a bit hard in this match, but these do work at the concept level. First compare the two qutoes.

13 Isaiah 41:28-42:0
²⁸For I looked, but there was no man who could meditate about these things, that I might ask him, and that he might give me an answer.
²⁹Look, they are all nothing; their works are vanity; their images are wind and vanity.

41 Matthew 4:18-22
¹⁸And while he was walking by the shore of the sea of Galilee, he saw 2 brothers, Simon who was called Peter and his brother Andrew, who were casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen.
¹⁹And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
²⁰So they immediately left their nets and went after him.
²¹And when he left that place, he saw 2 other brothers, Jacob the son of Zebedee and his brother John, in a ship with Zebedee their father, repairing their nets; and Jesus called them.
²²So they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

In Isaiah God is looking for someone he can ask who can give an answer. He's having trouble finding anyone. He also says their works are nothing, empty like wind. In Matthew Jesus begins to call the disciples. They answer the call by leaving their work (or works). Instead of wind on the high seas, as fishermen, they leave their nets to follow Jesus. They answer the call. This is a good match, but the vocabulary and tone makes it a bit harder to see at first.

What Isaiah seems to add to the story is that there really weren't many folks ready for the call from Jesus. In Isaiah he's having trouble finding his man. We don't know this direclty from the primary accounts, but perhaps Jesus really had to look to find the ones he ended up with. I doubt much has changed. Are you willing to leave your occupation or career to follow Jesus should he call? What will your answer be?

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Tuesday, Gad 11, 13001