Matthew 9--As in Ch. 8, Jesus calls himself "The Son of Man" when he is intentional about his role as Messiah. (9:6) "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...."
This is the chapter with the call of Matthew, along with the wonderful words that Jesus quotes (9:13): "Go and learn what this means,'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."
9:14ff--a spate of very fertile metaphors! wedding guests and bridegroom, unshrunken cloth, old and new wineskins.
9:27ff "According to your faith let it be done to you..." This is a scary verse for me, because I don't have very much faith.
Also note how the men are not supposed to tell (scholars call this theme "Messianic secret" and debate why Jesus insisted on quashing the desire of people he helped to share the good news).
At the end of these two whirlwind chapters, Jesus says as a sort of summary (9:37): "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
Psalm 9 If you pray the Daily Office, you will recognize v. 18: "for the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever"
9:8 is also familiar--judging the world with "righteousness" and "equity" and the peoples with "equity" or "truth" is a phrase that appears also in Psalm 96, Psalm 98, and Isaiah 11 and 42. This is obviously an important characterization of God!
Genesis 25-27.
Abraham, now a widower, marries Keturah and has a bunch of kids! (I've never read any "inspirational" commentary about this passage, or heard anyone preach on it.) It's troubling to me that there is such a difference between the way Abraham treats Isaac and his other sons (never mind his daughters, which I'm sure he must have had some of...)
Then Abraham dies and we get the story of the birth of Jacob and Esau.
And the development of the theme of the younger brother being favored (hinted at in the story of Cain and Abel).
This story is now just a "cracking good" story, as C.S. Lewis once said about some book he loved.
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