SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2019
11:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Agitation of Herod”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 2:3-8
Message of the verses: “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.’”
We
have been studying how it was that the magi were acting when they knew about
the Christ was to be born as they rejoiced, but when we look at Herod he did
the opposite as he was troubled. I
suppose that it is not hard to understand why Herod was trouble if you look at
some things that are known about Herod.
There were a lot of things going on in his life at this time. One thing is that he had driven the Parthians
out of Palestine, however he still had to fight against the Jewish zealots who
wanted their country to be on its own and not ruled by the Romans.
It
is fairly sure that Herod was thinking that these magi were Parthians or
closely associated with the Parthians, and this gave Herod special cause for
concern. John MacArthur has stated that
from his research the magi came into Jerusalem with a small army, and so this
was probably even more upsetting to Herod.
One more thing that we may have looked at earlier in our introduction
and that is that Herod was given the title of “King of the Jews” while in Rome
and then was told that he would be the leader in Palestine which is why he went
to war against the Parthians and defeated them, so having this title given to
him from Rome and then seeing the magi come into his town, knowing that the
magi were actually “king makers” and then having them tell Herod that they were
looking for the new born King of the Jews caused more distress in this man who
was already distressed.
We
will close with a quote from John MacArthur:
“The ruling body in the Parthian-Persian Empire at this time was much
like the Roman senate. They were the
king-makers in an almost absolute way, and were composed entirely of magi. They
had become discontent with the weak king that presently ruled them and were
looking for someone more capable to lead them in a campaign against Rome. Caesar Augustus was old and feeble, and since
the retirement of Tiberius the Roman army had had no commander in chief. The time was propitious for the east to make
its move against Rome.”
I
hope all that even though we are slowly
going through section of Matthew on the birth of Jesus Christ I can truthfully
say that I am learning much from this study.
Our quotation from “Love in Action” is
from David Jeremiah’s comments on John 14:6, although as I read over this then
it was a bit hard to understand how his comments went with John 14:6. “They believed He was the Messiah, the
fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies. ‘We were hoping that it was He who was going
to redeem Israel’ (Luke 24:21). All of
their dreams for the future had been crucified with Jesus. Yet now this One in whom they had invested
all of their hopes had been taken to a cross and crucified. For all they knew, He was still dead—despite the
rumors, despite the stories.”
12/12/2019 1:02 PM
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