Tuesday, October 9, 2018

The Jewish Leaders Interest (Acts 28:21-22)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/9/2018 10:32 AM



My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: The Jewish Leaders Interest



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 28:21-22



            Message of the verses:  21 They said to him, "We have neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren come here and reported or spoken anything bad about you. 22 “But we desire to hear from you what your views are; for concerning this

sect, it is known to us that it is spoken against everywhere."”



            I have to say first of all that this will be a very short SD as we are only looking at the comments, the first comments that the Jewish leaders of Rome are saying to Paul.



            I really can’t understand why it was that the Sanhedrin had not at least sent a letter to the Jewish leaders in Rome to tell them something about the charges that they had against Paul, but the Jewish leaders in Rome say that they have not heard a thing, no letters, and no one has come to see them.  Now we have learned the problems that Paul had on his way to Rome going by sea in the winter months, so possibly that is why no one from Jerusalem went to Rome to talk to their counterparts there.  John MacArthur sites another reason why they may not have heard anything, or at least did not want to get involved was because ten years earlier they were temporarily kicked out of Rome for clashing with Christians and so they probably did not want to get involved again with this “sect.”



            Once the Sanhedrin had heard that the Romans had exonerated Paul, then perhaps they did not want to peruse this case any longer.



            MacArthur concludes this brief section:  “Diplomatically they assured Paul of their ‘desire to hear from’ him ‘what’ his ‘views’ were.  Cautiously, noncommittally, they acknowledged the obvious:  ‘concerning this sect, it is known to us that it is spoken against everywhere.’  They were not completely ignorant of Christianity, which had been established in Rome for many years.”



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Many of these same problems still exist in the Jewish world today, as they still don’t want to hear much about Christianity even though many believers still love them and reach out to them.  I for one have a great deal of love for the Jewish people.  I have to say that I get excited when I look onto my blog each day to see what nation has looked at it and I find Israel as one of those nations.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  I continue to ask God to bless my Spiritual Diaries that go out across the word on the internet, that He would use them to bring glory to His Son.



Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Bathsheba” (1 Kings 1:11-21).



Today’s Bible question:  “Which book reveals the family of Judah through which the Messiah would come?”



Answer in our next SD.



10/9/2018 10:58 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment