SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/22/2019
9:04 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Slaughter at Ramah”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
2:16-18
Message of the verses: “16 Then when Herod
saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and
slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from
two years old and under, according
to the time which he had ascertained from the magi. 17 Then that which
was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, 18 "A VOICE
WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER
CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.’”
In
our study of Matthew we have seen a number of things. First Matthew was written to the Jewish
people when originally written, as all the four gospels were written to a particular
type of people. Second Matthew is about
Jesus Christ being King, King of the Jews and will one day be King of all those
who are believers as we will see when we get towards the end of Matthew. Thirdly we see that there are many OT
prophecies spoken of in Matthew and we will begin to look at the third
fulfilled prophecy that Matthew mentions in chapter 2 and that is of Herod’s
brutal slaughter in Bethlehem. We saw in
our last SD that Joseph gets a dream and then immediately leaves for Egypt as
the dream told him to do. It was Joseph’s
job to take care of Jesus along with Mary and eventually a number of other
children that they would have.
After
Joseph took Mary and the baby safety to Egypt then malevolent Herod, who was
enraged by the magi’s failure to report back to him as seen in verses 7-8 of
chapter two, he committed one of the bloodiest acts of his career, and
certainly it was the cruelest.
John
MacArthur writes “The Greek word empaizo
generally carried the idea of mocking, and is so translated in the King James
Version of this passage. The root
meaning is ‘to play like a child,’ especially in the sense of making sport of
or jesting. It is used to describe the
accusations and taunts of Jesus’ enemies against Him (Matt. 20:19; 27:41; Mark
15:20; Luke 22:63; 23:11; etc.) But the idea
in Matthew 2:16 is better rendered as ‘tricked.’ Either meaning, however, refers to Herod’s perception
of the motives of the ‘magi,’ not their true intention. It was not their purpose to trick or mock the
king but simply to obey God’s command ‘not to return to Herod’)v. 12). The king, of course, knew nothing of God’s
warning and saw only that they wise men did not do as he had instructed.”
We
know the reason that Herod wanted to have the magi report back to him, and that
was so that he could kill the baby Jesus as Herod was a terrible excuse for a
man or a ruler as Satan would use him to try and kill the child in a similar
reason, for Satan desired that Jesus be killed so that He would not be able to
go to the cross. Satan is one who loves
to rule and to be worshiped, but in the end his fate is determined by the Lord
as seen in the lasts chapters of Revelation.
Today
is Sunday and my SD’s are much shorter because of all that is going on, and one
thing that is going on in the life of our family is that my 102 year old father
in law, it seems, will not be with us much longer as his health is failing.
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
is David Jeremiah’s comments from 1 Cor. 15:57-58.
“As we consider the encouragement of
Christ’s resurrection, we should express our gratitude to our Father in
heaven. Think of it: Both victory and fruitful labor for us, all
because of the resurrection. Cleopas and
his friend enjoyed both benefits almost 2,000 years ago when Jesus broke bread with
them, and it changed their lives. The
same benefits are offered to us today, packing the identical life-changing
power. And all it takes is having you
eyes opened to the risen Jesus.”
12/22/2019 9:37 PM
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