O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

the scriptures that even the great apostle Paul, who had “unbounded” trust in God attimes went hungry and at times had no place to stay (Hare 1992:75). Also, it is hasbeen observed that “birds do die from starvation, plants do wither in drought andhuman beings do die from lack of food and clothing (Davies 1993:63).”Dray’s (1998:80) response would be that the reader should consider Jesus teachingin Matthew 6 the same way one would approach OT wisdom literature. I.e. wisdomliterature makes observations about the world and then makes statements that aregenerally true but they are not “absolute rules,” and so cannot be applied to allcircumstances. Thus there will be times when God’s people are in want, but it will bebecause God has a greater purpose in mind.Jordan (1970:96-98) addresses the question as to where the provision comes from.I.e. how does God provide? His answer is that God’s provision comes from fellowmembers of the church. He points to the early church in the book of Acts thatseemed to live in generosity towards each other’s needs. However Jordan goesbeyond the text in addressing where the provision of needs comes from, and statingthat the provision would come from fellow believers, rules out the possibility of Godusing a non believer’s wealth to care for his own.5.2.3 Part Three – Matthew 6:34Part three is made up of a prohibition and two reasons (Talbert 2006:126). Theprohibition is found in verse 34a. It is here that Jesus says that His disciples are notto worry about tomorrow. Hagner (1993:166) says that Jesus here broadens thescope of His prohibition to include all things in life that may make disciples worryabout the future.Considering that Jesus has been very definite in the items related to worry up to thispoint, this thesis will not adopt Hagner’s (1993:166) view that Jesus is broadeningthe command not to worry, to include all things in life that cause worry. While it isacknowledged that Philippians 4:6 Jesus does expect as much from His disciples, itremains the opinion of this author that Hagner is going beyond the scope of the textat hand.64