SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/23/2019
10:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Grace of
God seen in the History of Three Eras
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 1:17
Message of the
verse: “So
all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David
to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation
to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.”
We will have another rather short SD
today as we look from Matthew’s summary of the genealogy of Jesus Christ we
will see God’s grace at work in three periods, or perhaps eras of Israel’s
history.
This first period of history is from
Abraham to David and this is a part of what we call in the Bible, the history
part of the Bible. There were many
things that went on during this period as it began in the 12th
chapter of Genesis when God called Abram to begin the nation of Israel, and it
goes all the way through the life of David.
We see in this section the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and how
at the end of the book of Genesis there is a family of around 70 people who
ended up in Egypt where God, through much difficulty would take this family and
make them a nation. We see Moses and
Joshua and then the judges in this period too, and then towards the end of the
judges we see the story of Ruth and how the Lord used this Moabite woman to be
the great grandmother of David.
The second time period is from David
to the deportation into Babylon and this is what we call the period of the
monarchs, that is all the kings of Judah as at this time the children of Israel
demanded to have an earthly king which God gave to them, one like they wanted
and then gave them David a man after God’s own heart. After David’s son Solomon died the kingdom
was divided between the kingdom of the North and South, which is where the
genealogy of Jesus would follow. As we
read through this time period we see that both the north and south kingdoms had
the exact number of kings, however there was not one good king in the North and
only a few in the Southern kingdom beginning with David. It was during this time period that Jerusalem
and the temple in Jerusalem were destroyed and at the end the people were taken
to Babylon.
The third period goes from the
deportation to Babylon up to the time when Christ was born. This time period began in 586 BC and so we
can see that it lasted a little over 586 years as we have to take into account
that Jesus was born in 0 AD. As we read
through this group of names there are not too many that we know a lot
about. This was a very dark time in the
history of Israel as even though they went back to their land they were never
in control of it, never owned it until May of 1948 when as Ezekiel prophesied
Israel would become a nation again.
John MacArthur concludes: “Nevertheless, God’s grace was at work on
behalf of His people through all three periods.
The national genealogy of Jesus is one of mingled glory and pathos,
heroism and disgrace, renown and obscurity. Israel rises, falls, stagnates, and finally
rejects and crucifies the Messiah that God sent to them. But God, in His infinite grace, yet sent His
Messiah through them.”
Today’s
quotation from “Love in Action” is David Jeremiah’s commentary on Genesis
2:21-25 which we looked at yesterday.
“Eve was taken
from Adam’s side, not molded from the ground as was her husband. She was taken from Adam so that he was
naturally incomplete without her. Ish could not be complete without Isha.
When God was finished with the creation of Eve, he brought her to Adam and
the first wedding too place. The Living
Bible says that when Adam first saw Eve, he said, “This is it!” There is great excitement in his heart! When God’s blueprint for marriage is followed,
it is one of the most wonderful, encouraging experiences one can know while on
this earth. We can begin now to create a
zone of encouragement at home. Genesis 2
includes some enduring principles that can mature, strengthen, and breathe new
life into our marriages.”
11/23/2019
11:28 AM
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