SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2017
9:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Specific Fulfillments”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
19:17-18, 23-25a
Message of the
verses: “17 They took Jesus,
therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the
Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. 18 There they crucified
Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. 23
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and
made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was
seamless, woven in one piece. 24 So they said to one another, "Let us not
tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be"; this was to
fulfill the Scripture: "THEY DIVIDED MY OUTER GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR
MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS." 25 Therefore the soldiers did these things.”
We left off in our last SD stating that in this SD we
will be looking at things that were fulfilled in the death of Christ on the
cross by looking at different verses of Psalm 22 and perhaps we will also look
again at Isaiah 53. We have mentioned
that the gospel writers did not go over the physical pain that Christ endured
but that David wrote about what the Messiah would go through when he wrote
Psalm 22, and so we see more of what Christ endured physically there than in
the NT accounts.
14 I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out
of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me (Psalm 22:14).” The first part of this verse speaks of Christ’s
great exhaustion. Next we see that the
unnatural position of His body while on the cross caused His bones to be out of
joint, and having His bones out of joint put pressure on His heart as we see
from this verse “My heart is like wax.”
My Online Hebrew/English Dictionary says the following about the word “wax”
“wax (always figurative ‘of melting’).”
“15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my
tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death.” This verse speaks of failing strength along
with raging thirst.
“16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has
encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.” I learned a long time ago that when we see
the word “dogs” it speaks of Gentiles, and Jesus was surrounded by Gentiles
while on the cross. This verse also
speaks of having his hands and feet nailed which is a part of crucifixion.
“17 I
can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me (Psalm 22:17).” “"I will pour out on the house of David
and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me
whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for
an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over
a firstborn (Zech. 12:10).” John
MacArthur writes that these two verses peak of His taut, emaciated body.
“18 They divide my garments among them, And for my
clothing they cast lots (Psalm 22:18).” “23
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and
made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was
seamless, woven in one piece. 24 So they said to one another, "Let us not
tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be"; this was to
fulfill the Scripture: "THEY DIVIDED MY OUTER GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR
MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS (John 19:23-24).”
Mark tells us that the soldiers cast lots to see who would get Christ’s
seamless tunic.
Leon Morris writes “Once again we see his [John’s]
master-thought that God was over all that was done, so directing that His will
was accomplished, and not that of puny man.
It was because of this that the soldiers acted as they did.”
One more thing we have not looked at and that is that
Jesus was not crucified alone as our text tells us “There they crucified Him,
and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.” Matthew tells us that these men were robbers,
and perhaps they were accomplices of Barabbas.
Let us look as Isaiah 53:12 “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with
the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out
Himself to death, And was
numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.”
John MacArthur concludes this section by writing “But
despite the injustice meted out to Him, John in magnificent irony reveals not a
humiliated Christ dying with criminals, but an exalted Christ fulfilling
prophecy. God used the most wicked,
sinful act in history to bring about the greatest good—the redemption of lost
sinners. And the first trophy of grace
won by Christ on the cross was one of the very men crucified alongside Him
(Luke 23:39-43).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have heard the
story of Christ’s crucifixion since I was a little child, and for the majority
of my life, even after I became a believer, I have been afraid to get into it
and study what it was that Christ did for me as He hung on the cross. I knew it was all true, but thinking about
what He went through for me, suffering and dying a horrible death for me, a
death that I will never have to die as He did has been emotional for me
studying it as we looked at it through the eyes of the eyewitness, John. I have a book that was written by Hal Lindsey
which I bought in December of 1974 as I noted when I bought it and he teamed up
with an artist to paint pictures of Christ’s life as it was fulfilled in
Scripture. The pictures of the
crucifixion are very life-like as you can see the anguish and pain on the face
of Christ, and He did it all for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Help me Lord to tell others of what Christ
did for them.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Matthew and Acts.”
Today’s Bible
question: “On his second trip to Sinai,
what did Moses take with him?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/12/2017 10:43 AM
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