SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2019
4:33 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “Magi
from the East”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 2:1-2
Message of the verses: “1 Now after Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from
the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 "Where is He who has been born
King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship
Him.’”
I
promised to let you know about the different words for star in both Hebrew and
Greek. John MacArthur writes: “Both the Hebrew (kokab) and the Greek (sater)
words for star were also used figuratively to represent any great brilliance or
radiance. Very early in the Old
Testament the Messiah is spoken of as a ‘star [that] shall come forth from
Jacob’ (Num. 24:17, and at the end of the New Testament He refers to Himself as
‘the bright morning star’ (Rev. 22:16).
It was surely the glory of God, blazing as if it were an extremely
bright star—visible only to the eyes for whom it was intended to be seen—that appeared
to the magi in the east and later guided them to Bethlehem. It was a brilliant manifestation of ‘the sign
of the Son of Man’ (see Matt. 24:29-30; Rev. 1:7). The Shekinah glory of God stood over
Bethlehem just as, centuries before, it had stood over the Tabernacle in the
wilderness. And just as the pillar of
cloud gave light to Israel but darkness to Egypt (Ex. 14:20), only the eyes of
the magi were opened to see God’s great light over Bethlehem.”
The
only purpose that these travelers from the east had come to Palestine was to
find the One ‘born King of the Jews” and to ‘worship Him. This word worship means among other things to
fall upon your knees in order to worship, and in this case the baby Jesus, born
King of the Jews.
At
the end of this section John MacArthur tells the story of one day ridding on a
plane, wishing that the man next to him would fall asleep so that he could get
some studying done. God had other plans
as the man asked MacArthur if he was a teacher, and he told him not a teacher
in the class room, but he did teach the bible.
To which the man asked him to explain how he could have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. The man
accepted Christ right there on the spot as he like the magi was looking for God’s
light and, like the magi, when he saw it he knew it.
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
comes from John 14:6.”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through Me.”
12/11/2019 5:33 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment