SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/16/2019
10:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Scribes”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 2:4-8
Message of the verses: “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.’"
These
unbelieving, politicized, self-serving Jewish leaders actually recognized that
God’s Word said that there would come, a literal, personal Messiah who would be
an historical figure, born in Bethlehem in Judah who would come to rule over
Israel. After Jesus began His ministry
He would run into the same situation as the “swamp” would still be there and
would hate Jesus enough to kill Him, which they did because they “did not want
this Man to rule over them,” they did not want to give up their power.
These
chief priests and scribes had a far different idea of what the Messiah was
going to do when He arrived, and because of that even the disciples of Christ
did not understand that Jesus came to die.
Not until after He rose from the dead would they understand fully.
Now
when it came to the magi they had much less knowledge of the true God than did
the Jewish leaders however they knew of Him they believed and followed, which
was much better than the Jewish leaders.
MacArthur writes “The Jewish leaders had the letter of God’s Word,
which, by itself, kills because it judges and condemns those who know it but do
not know and accept the One who has given it.
The Gentile magi, on the other hand, had little of the letter of God’s
Word but were remarkably responsive to God’s Spirit, who ‘gives life’ (2 Cor.
3:6).
We
will now look at three typical responses to Jesus Christ that men have made
throughout history. First: Some like Herod, are full of hatred towards Jesus
and want to kill Him. (In the cases
today they want to kill His followers.)
Second: Like the chief priests
and scribes, they pay little, if any attention to God and His way. Jeremiah wrote of those in Lam. 1:12a “"Is
it nothing to all you who pass this way?”
Eventually this second group will join the first group. Third:
Like the magi from the east, there are those who accept the Lord when He
comes to them. Perhaps they have little
light at first, but because they know it is His light, they believe, obey, and
worship, and live.
Now
we move onto Herods plan as seen in verses 7-8 “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.’”
Herod
did not want to know the meaning of the star when he secretly asked the magi
when it first appeared, and he surely did not want to go and worship the Lord,
he wanted to kill Him as we have already talked about. We will look at that
later on as we continue our journey through this 2nd chapter of
Matthew where we will see that Herod will fulfill prophecy.
Quotation from “Love in Action” today is
David Jeremiahs comments from Luke 24:17.
“They answered 9paraphrase), ‘You must
be the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know about these things. Where have you been, Mister, that you don’t
know what’s going on?’ Then Jesus
inquired: ‘What things?’ These two disciples had believed everything
except the essential thing. They
believed Jesus was a good man, a prophet, a redeemer, a miracle worker. Ye He said He had to rise from the dead, and
they did not know that He had done that very thing! I think Jesus was giving us, the future
readers of this account, an example of how to deal with people steeped in
disbelief. He naturally walked with
them, easily conversed with them, and only at an appropriate moment opened the
Scripture to them.”
12/16/2019 11:06 AM
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