Tonight we will conclude our study of Matthew Chapter 22 by reading verses 23-46.
In verses 23-33, the Sadducees try to trap Jesus in another quandary. Jesus easily rebukes them as before but this time His rebuke takes on a somewhat different tone than the others. Jesus had easily reasoned with them in the past, revealing spiritual truths through His divine knowledge as God’s Son. In this instance, Jesus rebukes them by indicating to them that there is still so much that they do not understand. By saying that God is the God of the living, He indicates that when we die, we surely do not really sure as eternal beings, but we simply continue on in a new form. By revealing this truth to them, Jesus shows them that their query about who will be married to whom in the afterlife is not as important as understanding the full truth of what happens when we die. Our existence as it continues after death is shrouded in more mystery for us than we might at first think; God is too big, and His plans for His followers are too far beyond our understanding in this present life.
In verses 34-46, Jesus answers a question from the Pharisees and then in turn asks them a question to silence them for good. Jesus’s answer about the greatest commandment is not one that they might have expected, and thus it did silence them because there was no way they could use His answer to trap Him. While Jesus has them off-balance, He uses the time to ask them a difficult question that He knows they cannot answer truthfully:
“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “ The Son of David.” He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”
The Pharisees wanted to pigeonhole Jesus and having Jesus pronounce himself as part of David’s lineage was a good way to satisfy this desire of theirs. Jesus knew this and thus set this trap for them. But as we read in the dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees, Jesus again lets them in on the fact that they understand so much less than they think they do.
Jesus did come through the lineage of David, but He was not a descendant of David in the spiritual sense because Jesus was the Son of God while David was a mere man. David was a great and faithful man, but still just a man. So Jesus wanted to show them this truth as well, that He was not just another man or prophet, but that He was the Son of God, a divine figure sent to seek and save the lost souls of the earth.
Tonight I urge you to expand your thinking about who or what God is. However we imagine Him, remember that when we do try and imagine God in heaven we are doing so using a brain that God made for us. He knows our limits; we do not know His. He knows our plans and our hearts; what we know of God’s plans has been revealed to us in the Bible.
God is ever so much bigger than we think He is!
Monday Night Bible Study 
After I read this lesson, I was reminded of Psalms 8:3-4. “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The,moon and the stars, which You have,ordained; What is man that,You take thought of Him, and the son of man that You care for him?”
I am always amazed that the Lord values us as He does. He gives us so much beauty and blessings here on earth, but what He has waiting for us in heaven is beyond anything we,can,imagine!
Thank you, Cory for another good,lesson.
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The concept of God is difficult for those who have not read other parts of the Bible. He is the almighty, whom we will meet after the time of reckoning. For now we must remember he is the one and only. He has a plan and only he knows what it is.
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