SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/27/2019
12:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Return to Nazareth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
2:19-23
Message of the verses: “19 But when Herod
was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
saying, 20 "Arise and take the
Child and His mother, and go into the
land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead." 21 And he
arose and took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22 But
when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he
departed for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and resided in a city called
Nazareth, that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He
shall be called a Nazarene.’”
In
our last SD we looked at some terrible things that Herod did, and I mentioned
that in today’s SD we will look as some terrible things that his son Archelaus
did as it seems to me that the apple did not fall far from the tree. First we will quote from MacArthur’s
commentary about what Herod did and then what Archelaus did: “In one of his numerous acts of brutality
shortly before he died, Herod had executed two popular Jewish rabbis, Judas and
Matthias, who had stirred up their disciples and other faithful Jews in
Jerusalem to tear down the offensive Roman eagle that the king had arrogantly erected
over the Temple gate. The following
Passover an insurrection broke out, and Archelaus, reflecting his father’s
senseless cruelty, executed three thousand Jews, many of whom were Passover
pilgrims who had no part in the revolt. “
So
we have learned that Joseph desired to return to Nazareth because during this
time period in Israel Jews were not safe so Joseph took his family to
Galilee. Not only was the best idea to
take his family, but it also fulfills another prophecy of the King. MacArthur adds “Matthew focuses on two features
through all of this narrative: (1) divine revelation as indicated by angelic
instruction for every move, and (2) the fulfillment of a divine plan revealed
in the Old Testament.”
He
goes on to write “The specific statement that the Messiah would ‘be called a
Nazarene’ does not appear in the Old Testament.
Some interpreters have tried to connect ‘Nazarene’ with the Hebrew neser (branch) spoken of in Isaiah 11:1,
but that idea is without etymological or other support, as is the idea of
trying to tie the prophecy to the ‘shoot’ of Isaiah 53:2. Because Matthew speaks of ‘the prophets,’
plural, it seems that several prophets had made this prediction, through it is
not specifically recorded in the Old Testament.”
This
is not the only occasion where someone spoke of events unrecorded in the Old
Testament that were nevertheless quoted or referred in the New Testament. Let us look at Jude 14-15 “14 And about these
also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied,
saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones. 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to
convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an
ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken
against Him.’” This is not mentioned in
Genesis or any other OT book, but we have to remember that not everything that
we see quoted from the OT in the NT was written in the OT. The Holy Spirit is the divine author of
Scripture and that is good enough for me.
In the book of Acts, which Luke wrote through the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit we see something that Jesus said “It more blessed to give than to
receive,” and yet this is not recorded anywhere else in the NT, not even in the
book of Luke. John states near the end
of his gospel record that there were many more things spoken by Jesus that are
not recorded. “And there are also many
other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose
that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written”
(John 21:25).
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
comes from David Jeremiah’s comments from 1 Sam. 22:2.
“Saul considered David his bitter
enemy. He hated him. He hunted him. David fled to escape Saul’s jealous
wrath. As the young giant-killer’s life
became more and more like the adventures of the Fugitive, he gathered around
him a band of rag-tag warriors who were the off scouring of Israel. Eventually David and his new ‘army’ fled
across Israel’s border into Philistia, hoping to find safety among the Philistines. They thought Saul would never look for them
there.”
12/27/2019 1:29 PM
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