SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/17/2016 9:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Contrary
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference:
John 7:41b-44
Message of the verses: “Still others were saying, "Surely the
Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? 42 “Has not the Scripture said
that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the
village where David was?" 43 So a division occurred in the crowd because
of Him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.”
A while ago
I mentioned that the study that I am now doing in Zechariah and this study in
the seventh chapter of John have some things that are similar in them. Both in Zechariah and also in John the Feast
of Tabernacles is mentioned and some of the things that Jesus does in John’s
gospel are fulfilled from the writings of Haggai who is a contemporary of
Zechariah. This morning I read through
Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on John 7:37-52 and it also mentions some similar
things that Haggai wrote about that are actually quoted in the book of Hebrews
and so I think that when we finish the our study on the 7th chapter
of John that I will quote from Wiersbe’s commentary which will be rather long,
but well worth the read. I still have a
desire to study more on how this event in John’s gospel has to do with
Zechariah’s writings and pray that the Lord will open my eyes to see this in a
better light.
We will be
looking at those who are skeptical of whether or not Jesus is who He claims to
be, and that is the same problem in our world today. We see that part of their skepticism is
because they don’t take the time to research more about who Jesus is and where
He came from, that is where He was born for they state “Surely the Christ is
not going to come from Galilee, is He?”
It runs in my mind that there is a prophecy in the OT that states that
Jesus would be called a Galilean. Well I
was a bit mistaken and in my research I came up with Matthew 2:23 which says “and
came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken
through the prophets: "He shall be called a Nazarene."” So I tried to find that word “Nazarene” in
the OT but could not find it so I looked at Warren Wiersbe’s commentary and found
the following “But perhaps Matthew, led by the Spirit, saw a spiritual
connection between the name ‘Nazarene’ and the Hebrew word netzer, which means ‘a branch or shoot.’ Several prophets apply this title to Jesus
(see Isa. 4:2; 11:1; Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Zech. 3:8; 6:12-13).” One more thing when Nicodemus is speaking
toward the end of this chapter he is asked by the Pharisees to search the Scriptures
to see if any prophet has ever came out of Galilee and there is no answer
given, but the prophet Jonah was born in Galilee and of course Nazareth is in
what is called Galilee. Ok I think we
will not follow this rabbit trail any further.
We know
from our studies in the OT that Jesus was indeed to be born in Bethlehem and
was to be a descendant of David which both Matthew and Luke show in the early
part of their Gospels. Matthew’s shows
the line of Joseph and Luke’s shows the line of Mary as both were descendants
of King David. When we compare these
lines we see that Mary’s line came through Nathan while Matthew’s line came
through Solomon.
Now there obviously
became a disagreement between these two groups of people as to who Jesus was
and this incident proves what Jesus stated earlier in other gospels that this
would happen, and it still happens today.
“51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; 52
for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against
two and two against three. 53 "They
will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against
daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and
daughter-in-law against mother-in-law’ (Luke 12:51-53).”
John
MacArthur concludes “For the third time since Jesus arrived in Jerusalem (cf.
vv. 30, 32), an unsuccessful attempt was made to seize Him. As was the case with the earlier attempt by
some of the crowd (v. 30), ‘no one laid hands on Him,’ because the time was not
right in God’s plan.” He writes this in
reference to verse 44: “Some of them
wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Once again I go way back into the early days
of my walk with Jesus as I listened to a talk by a Pastor that taught in the
church that my kids went to school at, as they had a Christian school there,
and to a Pastor that my mother used to listen to on the radio many mornings and
he was talking about how as we grow up in the Lord the importance of being able
to compare Scripture with Scripture to see greater truth in the Word of God as
you do that. A good concordance helps
this process too.
My Steps of Faith for
today: Learn more about Jesus, trust
Him to cause what I learn about Him to give growth in my walk with Him, and
learn to love Him more.
Memory verse for the week:
2 Corinthians 12:7 “7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from
exalting myself!”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “David” (2 Samuel
18:33).
Today’s Bible question: “Jesus predicted the destruction of
what unrepentant city in Matthew 11:23-24?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/17/2016 10:42 AM
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