Smoodock's Blog

Matthew wants to present Jesus to his Jewish readers as the New Moses figure, who was predicted long ago, when God thundered from Mount Sinai, and the people were terrified. In fact, they were so frightened that they came to Moses, pleading with him to not permit God to speak to them. Instead, they wanted Moses to speak to God, after which he could tell them what God said, and they would obey (Exodus 20:18-19; Deuteronomy 5:23-27). Therefore, the Lord granted their request to have a human teacher come and teach them, instead of God speaking with them face to face (Deuteronomy 5:28-29). So, Moses told them that God would raise up a Prophet from among them, a man **like Moses,** and he would speak to them through that Prophet. However, whomsoever would not harken to that Prophet’s words, God would judge (Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Acts 3:23).

Remember, Matthew sees Jesus as the New Moses, the Prophet or Teacher, who should come (cp. John 6:14). Just as Moses come out of Egypt, so did Jesus (Matthew 2:15). Just as Moses parted the Red Sea to allow the children of Israel to escape, Jesus parted the heavens to provide a way for mankind back to God (Matthew 3:16). Just as Moses was in the wilderness for forty years, so Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days (Matthew 4:1-2). Finally, just as Moses went up the mount to bring the Law to the people, so Jesus went up a mount or hill and taught his disciples (Matthew 5:1-2).

The context of Matthew’s mention of Jesus going up the mount in Galilee is that he had been bringing the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven to the people for at least three weeks, vis-à-vis during the fall festivals that came in the seventh month of the Jewish Calendar. It was during the Feast of Tabernacles, when folks from all around Galilee, the Decapolis, from Jerusalem and Judea and beyond the Jordan (cp. Matthew 4:25), when Jews had come to worship the Lord by commemorating the time their ancestors had spent in the wilderness in temporary dwellings, that Jesus went up the mount (Matthew 5:1), and according to Luke he was there all night in prayer (Luke 6:12).[1] He went there to be alone, away from the multitudes that had come to him.

The word Matthew uses for multitude is ochlos in the Greek (G3793). These were a crowd of common folks, as opposed to the Jewish authorities. They were a confused lot, not knowing much and were intensely loyal to a particular man rather than a cause. In other words, they weren’t really interested in what Jesus had to say. It was the man they were curious about. They were easily led or influenced by men, especially charismatic men or men of authority.[2] It was these people, from whom Jesus wished to separate himself. They were people in the midst of celebrating national holidays, holy days, true, but commemorating their independence from gentile rulership, and they were ready for Jesus to lead them against Rome. The air was full of emotion, and thoughts of rebellion, because they misunderstood Jesus’ Messianic offer of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus’ disciples came to him (Matthew 5:1) when it was daylight, for he had called to them, and, according to Luke, it was at this time that he chose the Twelve out of the many other disciples who received him as their Messiah (Luke 6:13).

When all his disciples were assembled before him, he taught them about what it means to be in the Kingdom of Heaven. Surprisingly, from men’s perspective, this was quite unlike how the kingdoms of men operate, and very much unlike what the Jewish authorities and the multitude in the plain below the mount were expecting to occur, when the Messiah would come to save them, as Moses did when their ancestors were in Egypt (Matthew 5:2). Indeed, Jesus came upon the scene announcing the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the Lord’s intervention in men’s affairs, to rescue them from the evil they’ve brought upon themselves, through their rebellion (Genesis 3). Jesus had come, as the Lord’s Messiah/Prophet to restore the reign of God (Genesis 2), and bring mankind back to their original directive, vis-à-vis to be like God (Genesis 1:27; cp. Matthew 5:48).

_____________________________________________________________

[1] See my earlier studies in the Gospel of Luke: Jesus and the Jewish Lectionary System; Life in Adam and Life in Christ; The Sermon on the Plain.

[2] See Thayer’s Greek Definitions; Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary; and Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries.