SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2017
10:59 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 Pilate’s Final Pronouncement”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
19:13-16
Message of the
verses: “Caesar." 13 Therefore
when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the
judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now
it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour.
And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!" 15 So they cried out,
"Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them,
"Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We
have no king but Caesar." 16 So he
then handed Him over to them to be crucified.”
Pilate heard the words that Jesus had just said to him
and then he brings Jesus out then in preparation for formally passing sentence
on Jesus he “sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, but
in Hebrew, Gabbatha.” The following is a
quote from my Online Bible Greek/Hebrew dictionary concerning the word “Pavement” “The word for "Pavement" is found
nowhere else in the NT, but its Hebrew equivalent occurs just once in the OT,
and it is evident that the Holy Spirit would have us link the two passages
together. In #2Ki 16:17 we read, "King Ahaz cut off the borders of the
bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the
brazen oxen that were under it and put it upon a "pavement" of
stones." In Ahaz’s case, his act was the conclusive token of his surrender
to abject apostasy. So here of Pilate coming down to the level of the apostate
Jews. In the former case it was a Jewish ruler dominated by a Gentile idolater;
in the latter, a Gentile idolater, dominated by Jews who rejected their Messiah!
(AWP) 5/5/2017 12:16 PM
The following is also a note from my
Greek/English dictionary about the word “Gabbatha” and it is written by John
Gill: “In the Greek was called
Lithostrotos, or the pavement of stones, as the Syrian version renders it: it
is thought to be the room Gazith, in which the Sanhedrin sat in the temple when
they tried capital causes; and it was so called, because it was paved with
smooth, square hewn stones: "it was in the north part; half of it was
holy, and half of it was common: and it had two doors, one for that part which
was holy, and another for that part that was common; and in that half that was
common the Sanhedrin sat." So that into this part of it, and by this door,
Pilate, though a Gentile, might enter. This place, in the language of the Jews,
who at that time spoke Syrian, was Gabbatha, from its height, as it should
seem; though the Syrian and Persian versions read Gaphiphtha, which signifies a
fence or enclosure. Mention is made in the Talmud of the upper Gab in the
mountain of the house; but whether the same with this Gabbatha, and whether
this is the same with the chamber Gazith, is not certain. The Septuagint uses
the same word as John here does, and calls by the same name the pavement of the
temple on which Israelites fell and worshipped God, #2Ch 7:3. (Gill)”
We will conclude with the following quote from John
MacArthur: “Ironically, Pilate rendered
judgment on the One to whom the Father had granted all judgment (John 5:22),
and who will one day pass eternal sentence on him.” I suppose that one could say that this is an
irony that tops all ironies.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: One of the best
studies that I have studied is concerning the attributes of God, and it is
because of this study, even though at many times I cannot grasp what all of His
attributes mean that the God I worship is so much bigger to me than when I
first became a believer. Understanding
the irony of the first part of this section tells me that this was all in the
plan of God and perhaps we could consider this a juxtaposing.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord that the things that I
have prepared for my Sunday school class are all true.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Locusts” (Exodus 7:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “In the Christian armor, what
is worn on the feet?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/5/2017 12:33 PM
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