Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas
12 Then bthey returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to cthe upper room, where they were staying, dPeter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simonethe Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these fwith one accord gwere devoting themselves to prayer, together with hthe women and Mary the mother of Jesus, andihis brothers.3
15 In those days Peter stood up among jthe brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, kthe Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, lwho became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For mhe was numbered among us and was allotted his share in nthis ministry.” 18 (Now this man oacquired a field with pthe reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong4 he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called qin their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
r“‘May his camp become desolate,
s“‘Let another take his office.’
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during tall the time that the Lord Jesusuwent in and out among us, 22 vbeginning from the baptism of John until the day whenwhe was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us xa witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called yBarsabbas, who was also called zJustus, and aMatthias. 24 And bthey prayed and said, “You, Lord, cwho know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place indthis ministry and eapostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
So, there is one thing that stands out to me about this passage, and its in the awareness of fulfilling scriptural prophecy. I find it a little odd when Jesus or the disciples or others have a distinct awareness of prophecy that needed to be fulfilled, in this case the replacement of Judas. The way this reads to me is that the disciples were aware that this prophecy must be fulfilled and replaced Judas for that reason, rather than replacing Judas for other reasons and in so doing, they fulfilled prophecy. For some reason it doesn't hold as much weight, for me, when the goal seems to be to fulfill the prophecy itself.
ReplyDeleteAfter this passage the Bible makes little to no mention of Matthias, and I recently learned this is because Paul is thought to actually have fulfilled the scripture in this matter. To me this shows how even the disciples got it wrong at times, tried to force God's hand so to speak, instead of being patient. It also shows me that God chooses us (and on his time), we don't make that choice for him.
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