SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/15/2017
9:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 7:1-16
Message of the
verses: We pick up by talking more
about the famine and look at what Jacob did found in verse 12 “But when Jacob
heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. 13
“On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s
family was disclosed to Pharaoh.” Now as
we compare this to the people of Israel as to when they will recognize their
Messiah that will only happen just before He comes the second time to planet
earth, not at the rapture, but at the end of the tribulation period when what
Paul writes in Romans 11:26 will be fulfilled “All Israel will be saved.” In my study of the book of Revelation I have
been taught, and this may or may not be the time when Israel will recognize
Jesus Christ, will be after a very severe earthquake that will happen in
Jerusalem and after that earth quake we read “the rest of the city gave glory
to God.” This comes from Revelation 11:13
and it happens right after the two witnesses were raised from the dead and
returned to heaven. Now when we study
Revelation we have to understand that it is not in chronological order and it
is believed that the two witnesses will work in the last half of the
tribulation period and so this happens near the end of the tribulation period
even though it is recorded in chapter eleven.
Now I want to look at Zechariah 12:1-13:1; and 13:14 for more comparison
as to when Israel will recognize their Messiah.
“10 “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. 11
“In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of
Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 “The land will mourn, every family by
itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by
themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by
themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by
themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by
themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself and their
wives by themselves. 1 "In that day a fountain will be opened for the
house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” “14 all the families that remain, every
family by itself and their wives by themselves.” Once again we are comparing the life of
Joseph with what will happen to our Lord Jesus Christ.
14 "Then Joseph
sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him,
seventy-five persons in all Acts 7:14).” There is a difference between 70 and 75 as far
as the number who went down to Egypt that is recorded in Genesis, Exodus and
also in Deuteronomy, but if you look at the Septuagint text of Genesis 46:27
you read “And the sons of Joseph, who were born to
him in the land of Egypt, were nine souls; all the souls of the house of Jacob
who came with Joseph into Egypt, were seventy-five souls.”
In John
MacArthur’s commentary he quotes a man named Gleason Archer who talks about the
different ways the number 70 and 75 were calculated, but I don’t think that it
is necessary from me to use this quote in this SD.
15 “And
Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died.” 16 “From there they were removed to Shechem
and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the
sons of Hamor in Shechem.” John
MacArthur writes: “Verse 16 presents two
difficulties. First, Jacob was not
buried in Shechem but in Abraham’s burial plot in Machpelah (Gen. 50:13). Because of that, the antecedent of ‘they’ in
verse 15 is to be restricted to the fathers (Joseph and his brothers) only, and
does not include Jacob. According to
Joshua 24:32, Joseph was buried at Shechem; Stephen here informs us that Jacob’s
other sons were also buried there.
“A more
serious difficulty lies in Stephen’s statement that Abraham purched the tomb
for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. According to Joshua 24:32, it was Jacob who
bought the plot at Shechem. Many explanations
have been offered, but two seems most reasonable. First, it is entirely possible that Abraham
made the orginal purchase ‘from the sons of Hamor’ (the people, or tribe to
which he belonged) ‘in Shechem.’ He
built an altar there (Gen. 12:6-7) and quite likely purchased the plot of
ground on which he built it. Abraham did
not settle there, however, and over time the site may have reverted to the
occupying people of Hamor, thus necessitating Jacob’s repurchase of it (Archer,
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties).
“A second
possible explanation is that Stephen telescopes the accounts of Abraham’s
purchase of the Machpelah site and Jacob’s acquisition of the Shechem
site. That would be consistent with his
telescoping of the two calls of Abraham in verse 2 (Bruce, Book of Acts).
“It would
be rash to charge either Stephen or Luke with an error based on our limited
knowledge. It is utterly inconceivable
that someone as steeped in the Old Testament as Stephen would have made such an
obvious historical blunder. Further, the
may have had a definite purpose in mind referring to Shechem, since in his day
that city lay within the territory of the hated Samaritans. (For a discussion
of Stephen’s theological motives for mentioning Shechem, see Rex. A. Kolvisto, ‘Stephen’s
Speech). Nor is it plausible that a
careful and divinely inspired historian such as Luke (cf. Luke 1:1-4) would
have erroneously recorded Stephens’s speech.
“To charge
either Luke or Stephen with an error has serious implications for the doctrine
of inspiration. To do so is either to
affirm that the Spirit of Truth inspired error, or to deny that all the Bible
is inspired. The former is absurd to the
point of blasphemy; the later contradicts 2 Timothy 3:16. And if all of Scripture is not inspired, who
decides what is and is not inspired?
Fallible human reason is certainly not qualified to sit in judgment on
the Word of God. The problem, then, lies
with the veracity of neither Stephen nor Luke, but only with our lack of
complete information.”
I know
this has been a rather long quote, but I believe necessary to understand what
looks like a difference in Stephen’s speech and what is found in the Old
Testament.
What
Stephen was doing in these first sixteen verses was defend himself against the
charge that he was blaspheming God.
Stephen only affirms the great covenant work of God through Abraham and
the patriarchs. We move on next to look
at how Stephen defends himself against blaspheming Moses.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful that there are people in Christianity
that work on things like we have been reading about in order to confirm the
accuracy of the Bible. My thoughts are
that because it was the Holy Spirit who used men to write the Word of God, it
has always been my belief that the Holy Spirit can keep the Word of God pure so
we can read His Word and be satisfied that it is accurate.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will allow my
father-in-law to enjoy his 100th birthday today.
Memory verse:
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is
honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
of good repute, if there is any excellence, and anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “He was crucified on a cross” (Matthew
27:35).
Today’s Bible question: “Who said ‘the voice is Jacob’s voice, but the
hands are the hands of Esau’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/15/2017 10:53 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment