SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2019
10:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“The Agitation of Herod”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
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
can see from verse three that not only was Herod troubled, but “all Jerusalem
with him.” Probably those in Jerusalem
were troubled because they feared that these people may want to begin having a
war with them, and I have learned that Herod’s army was not in town at this
time, and also that when the magi came that they had a small army with
them. John MacArthur writes “The magi
had long been know as much for their politics as for their religion, and the
practice of worshiping the king or emperor was then common in both the east and
the west.”
Another
reason why the populace was upset, and this makes more sense to me, and that is
because they knew that Herod was disturbed and have seen things that he did and
thus were fearful of his outrages. When
we see later on of what Herod did to the children in Bethlehem we can understand
why they were disturbed by what Herod could do.
As
we follow the outline of John MacArthur what we could say is that we are
looking at an introduction to this section of verses and as I have stated in
many of my Spiritual Diaries we are looking at a “main-section” which in this
case will have two additional sub-sections in it.
The
first thing that Herod did was to call the scribes and also the chief priests of
the Jews to get more information as to what these magi could be talking about: “together all the chief priests and scribes
of the people” and “to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born.” We can be assured that Herod connected the
King of the Jews with the Messiah, the Christ.
Herod was not a Jew but he knew Jewish beliefs and customs rather
well. The belief at that time and in the
time of Jesus’ ministry was that the Messiah would be a military leader and not
a Savior, which is truly why He came the first time, and when He comes again it
will be like the Jews expected when He came the first time. Notice something that I read from Revelation
19 earlier this morning about what our Lord will do when He returns to a earth
that is about to collapse, and in the midst of the battle of Armageddon. “11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a
white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges
and wages war. 12 His
eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many
diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except
Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called
The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp
sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them
with
a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the
Almighty.”
Lord willing, in our next SD we will
look at the first “sub-section” entitled “The Chief Priests.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
It is my desire to know what the Bible has to say about the birth of my
Savior, and not just what tradition has to say about it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have been
talking about “humility” for this entire year and was wondering what the Lord
would lay on my heart for 2020, and it seems to me that that will be “joy,” joy
from the study of the Word of God as this brings true joy. “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within
you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to
God (Col. 3:16).”
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
comes from the short verse 1 Corinthians 15:17.
If Christ is not risen, your faith is
futile; you are still in your sins!
12/13/2019 11:01 AM
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