SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/4/2019
10:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to “Fools and Wise Men”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
2:1-12
Message of the verses: “1 Now after Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from
the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who has been born King of
the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him." 3
And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4
And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began
to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 And they said to him,
"In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, 6 ’AND
YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF
JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER, WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE
ISRAEL.’" 7 Then Herod secretly called the magi, and ascertained from them
the time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go
and make careful search for the Child; and when you have found Him,
report to me, that I too may come and worship Him."9 And having heard the
king, they went their way; and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east,
went on before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was. 10 And
when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And they
came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down
and worshiped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of
gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned by God in a
dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another
way.”
Just
as in chapter one of Matthew, he continues his thrust to establish Jesus’ right
to Israel’s true and final kingship in chapter two as he will give three
additional evidences of Jesus of Nazareth’s legitimate , unique, and absolute
royal right to the throne of David. We
saw in chapter on Jesus’ the evidence of Jesus’ royal genealogy and we also saw
His virgin birth. Now as we move to
chapter two we will see the testimony of the magi as they came to bring homage
and gifts to the infant Jesus. I believe
that they came from ancient Persia which is modern day Iran. We will probably talk more about this in
later SD’s but these people called magi were actually king-makers. As I listened to a sermon yesterday from John
MacArthur, mostly a history lesson he went into the details of who the magi
were, where they began, and where they came from, and why they came to see
Jesus.
As
we continue to introduce the 2nd chapter of Matthew we will also see
more evidence of Christ’s kingship, but in a negative, or reverse way, and this
comes through the antagonism and hatred of Herod. Herod knew that the magi were king makers and
he feared them. They came to Jerusalem
with a military presence and Herod’s army was out of town, and so this was
another reason why he feared them. Herod
was known as king of the Jews but that was false and illegitimate, as it came
from the Romans, and he certainly was not in the line of David. I believe that Herod was from the people that
King Saul was to destroy, but did not do it and thus his disobedience to the
Lord was still causing trouble for the Jews.
John
MacArthur writes “The third evidence of Christ’s kingship given in chapter 2 is
presented through four fulfilled messianic prophecies. Some three hundred thirty Old Testament
predictions concern Jesus Christ. In
chapter 2 Matthew points out four of those prophecies that were fulfilled
during Jesus’ infancy. There is no
reasonable possibility that even those four—much less all three hundred thirty—could
have been fulfilled accidentally in the life of a single individual. The fact in itself is overwhelming evidence
of God’s sovereign control of history and of the utter reliability of His Word.
“Matthew
uses the four prophecies as a literary framework around which he presents the
events recorded in this chapter. Each of
the predictions is directly related to a geographical location closely related
to Jesus’ birth and early childhood. The
four locations are Bethlehem, Egypt, Ramah, and Nazareth.
“The
present passage—built around the prediction of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem—focuses
on the coming of the magi to worship Jesus, the One they somehow knew had ‘been
born King of the Jews.’ Within this
story we also see the reaction of Herod and the chief priests and scribes to
that same news. In this brief text we
see examples of three basic responses that men made to Jesus when He was on
earth. Some, like Herod, are hostile to
Him; some, like the chief priests and scribes, are indifferent to Him; and some
like the magi, worship Him.” I guess the
question is which are you like?
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Knowing that God controls history give me
comfort, especially looking at the things that are going on around the world
and in our own country.
My Steps of Faith for Today: As the year soon comes to a close I can say that
I am thankful for the things that the Lord has taught me about humility.
Our quotation from “Love in Action”
comes from Colossians 3:21.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
lest they become discouraged.
12/4/2019 11:03 AM
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