Monday Morning

We had sixteen members that ventured out for our regular Monday meeting.  Jan Krug had a “Happy Buck” for Del’s upcoming heart surgery.  Prayers are welcome for Del’s speedy recovery.  John Cooper drew the Nine of Diamonds in the 50/50 Raffle, not a winner. Next week’s drawing will have 37 cards with seven pay cards and a pot of at least $195.

Dan Leeds – Christmas Prophecies

Dan Leeds is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church and Kiwanis of Fabulous Fond du Lac member. His presentation of Christmas prophecies focused on the gospel of Matthew. The gospel of Matthew was written with the agenda of proving to the Jews that Jesus was their Messiah, their promised King.  The man Matthew was familiar with the Scriptures:

• approximately 50 direct quotations from the Old Testament

• about 75 allusions are made to Old Testament events

• 25 different Old Testament are mentioned or referred to by Matthew

• 16 times Matthew writes “might be fulfilled” and most of those times the reference is about Christ

• nine times Matthew said “it is written”

Dan then talked about two broad areas that helped to frame Matthew’s prophecies regarding Jesus’ birth.  First was “The Virgin Birth”.  Much of this discussion was based on Matthew 1:21-23 and Isaiah 7:1-16 and discussed God’s attempt to convince King Ahaz of Judah not worry about Syria and Samaria attaching Judea.

The second area was Herod’s order to kill all boys two and under in and around Bethlehem. For this area of discussion reliance was placed on Matthew 2:17-18 and Jeremiah 31:15.

Dan’s presentation of the scriptural background provided a very interesting perspective on Matthew’s prophecies regarding the birth of Christ.