SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2020
10:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Right Place”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
4:12b-16
Message of the verses: “He withdrew into
Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by
the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill
what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, 15 “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND
THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE
GENTILES- 16 “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND TO
THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT
DAWNED.’”
As
we look at the last section of verse 12 we see that Jesus withdrew into
Galilee. Jesus did not go from Judea,
through Samaria, and into Galilee because He was forced to do so by Herod or by
the Jewish leaders and He did not do this because He had nowhere else to
go. So what did He do this? He left Judea because His work was finished
for that period of His ministry, and He went through Samaria in order to bring
light to the half-Jew, half-Gentile Samaritans.
After that He then withdrew and John MacArthur writes on the word
withdrew “anachoros, used often to
convey the thought of escaping danger.”
So He went into Galilee because that was the next place where His divine
plan scheduled Him to minister. This happened
by divine determination as Jesus went to the right place at the right
time. I have said often that God created
time, but did not wear a watch. What
Jesus did while on planet earth was all from the divine plan that God had for
Him to do that goes back to the 2nd Psalm where we find out that the
Father was going to give His Son a Kingdom and chose the people who would be in
that Kingdom and it would all happen in the perfect time of God’s plan for it
to happen. Jesus was never in a hurry
but Jesus was never late.
Jesus
feared no man or other being as Jesus created all that has been created, so He
did not leave Judah and then go to Galilee because of fear of Herod. He did not do this because He wanted to
escape trouble either, for if that were the case He would not have gone to
Galilee because that, too, was under Herod’s control.
There
is a year gap as far as what the Lord did after His baptism and time of
temptation in the wilderness as I mentioned earlier and that gap can be seen in
the gospel of John as far as what Jesus did during that first year of
ministry. I will quote a paragraph from
John MacArthur to help us better understand this point of what went on during that
first year of ministry.
“We
again find additional information in John’s gospel. ‘When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees
had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John,…He left
Judea, and departed again into Galilee’ (John 4:1, 3). Jesus left the lower Jordan region for
Galilee because of the Jewish leaders, particularly the Pharisees, and not
because of Herod. Though Jesus had not
yet begun preaching, His close association with John the Baptist mad Him
suspect to the Pharisees and Sadducees, whom John had scathingly rebuked (Matt.
3:7). Those religious leaders had come
to hate John, but did not dare take action against him because he was so highly
regarded by most of the people. Even
several years after John’s death they would not speak ill of him for ‘fear [of]
the multitude’ (Matt. 21:26). They were
therefore greatly pleased when Herod did to John what they themselves wanted,
but were afraid, to do. When they learned that Jesus was gaining a larger
following even than John, their hatred would soon turn against Him as
well. Jesus had no fear of their hatred,
but it was not yet time for that hatred to be unleashed against Him.”
Neither
John the Baptist nor Jesus were afraid of the Pharisees as we can see that both
of them called the Pharisees a brood of vipers, and I think that this might
reference Satan. There would be a time
when Jesus would allow their hatred of Him to put Him on a cross, and even then
He was in control of when that happened as it would happen on the day of the
Passover as Jesus, the Lamb of God would die precisely the time that the
Passover Lamb would die, and this was not what the Pharisees wanted to happen,
but it was God’s plan and it happened the way He wanted it to happen.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Timing is something that at times causes
trouble for me and sometimes things happen to me that cause me to wonder why
they happen, but in the end I know that God is in charge of my life and all I
must do is to trust Him for the things that come into my life.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
trust the Lord to bring joy to me, and also teach me humility as I study His
Word. The following is a quote from my
son who said this at his grandpa’s funeral ““If you can’t forgive you
can’t love. If you cont’ love, you can’t
mourn, and if you do not mourn you will never heal.” Love is something that I need more of.
2/19/2020
11:18 AM
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