(a) Bondage, bitterness and burdens.

(b) Deliverance through the Passover Sacrifice.

(c) Access through the Tabernacle ministry.

We have seen in the prophecy of Isaiah, the hope and foretelling of the Coming Deliverer. `The government

shall be upon His shoulder'. He, Who is both the Child born, and the Son given, is also at the same time the Mighty

God and the Prince of Peace. His name is most blessedly announced; it is Emmanuel, God with us, and this leads us

to the Gospel of Matthew.

THE FOUR GOSPELS

Three gospels, namely Matthew, Mark and Luke are called synoptic, i.e., having a common point of view. John

stands alone. The three Synoptics, however, have their own individual standpoint.

(a) Matthew sets forth Christ as King, the genealogy goes back through David as far as Abraham.

(b) Mark has no genealogy, it sets forth Christ as the Servant. Even the ascended Christ is represented as

`working with them' Mark 16:20).

(c) Luke sets forth Christ as the Man, the genealogy goes back to Adam and where Matthew says King, Luke

says Saviour (compare Matt. 2:2 and Luke 2:11).

The four Gospels have been likened to the cherubim:

Matthew

The Lion

The King

The Ox

The Servant

The Man

The Man

The Eagle

The Word

These four-faced creatures meet us in the book of the Revelation where the Authorized Version speaks of `four

beasts'. Space forbids an excursion into the typical meaning of the Cherubim, but the earnest reader will find help

in the booklet entitled The Four Gospels.

We come therefore without more ado, to the threshold of the New Testament, and take for our next reading:

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO

Matthew is most certainly the Gospel of the King. The genealogy with which it opens is divided in Matthew 1:1

into two parts (1) The son of David, (2) the son of Abraham. The original son of David was Solomon the King, and

the original son of Abraham was Isaac the offering (Heb. 11:17), but in this Gospel, David comes first.

Christ is set forth as `Born King of the Jews' (Matt. 2:2). In the second section He dies on the cross with the

same title over His head. The Sermon on the Mount, while it contains much that every Christian should emulate,

was originally a word of comfort to guide those who were looking for the King and the setting up of the earthly

kingdom, and who would, during the waiting period, be the object of much persecution and opposition.

The parables of Matthew 13, speak of the Kingdom of Heaven, not as it will be when it is set up at the advent of

the King, but as it will lapse and become during the period of departure and defection that followed His rejection by

the people of Israel; these are the mysteries or secrets of the kingdom of heaven.

A line can be drawn through the Gospel of Matthew at the sixteenth chapter:

`From that time Jesus BEGAN to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matt. 4:17).

`From that time forth BEGAN Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer

many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day' (Matt.