SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2020
8:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Right Place”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
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.’”
In
our SD for this morning we continue to look at the region of Galilee and as
mentioned this is where our Lord spent much time while He was on planet
earth. We want to look at a brief
history of this region which goes back to when the Lord gave different tribes
of Israel different parts of what we call the Holy Land. This region was given to three different
tribes, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali as seen in Joshua 19:10-39. There was a problem after Zebulun and Naphtali
as they failed to expel all the Canaanites from their territory. You see once Israel came into the land Joshua
led the tribes to take over the lands that God had given to each tribe and then
these tribes were told that it was up to them to rid their land of the
Canaanites who were then living in the land.
I have written about this in the past as it is a picture of what happens
to a believer when they first become saved.
God saves us and then we still have different sins in our lives that
just as the tribes of Israel had to do, and that was rid their land of those Canaanites,
and if they did not do this then those Canaanites would led them into the
worship of their gods, which is what happened to Israel. As believers we, through the power of the Holy
Spirit are to do the same things with the sins that we still have problems
with, and we don’t want to end up like what happened to Israel.
It
was in the eight century B. C. that the Assyrians under their leader
Tiglath-pileser took away a large part of those tribes as captives as seen in 2
Kings 15:29, and then they were replaced with Assyrians and others who were
non-Jews. Later on it was temporarily
liberated by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B. C. The region of Galilee was largely
under foreign control and it was even populated by non-Jews. Then there came another Jewish leader,
Aristobulus who re-conquered Galilee in 104 B. C. He tried unsuccessfully to
establish an entirely Jewish nation by forcibly circumcising all male
inhabitants. One might imagine that
through those disrupting centuries, the Jews that remained in Galilee were
greatly weakened in both their biblical and traditional Judaism, and this gives
us greater understanding why we read in verse fifteen “Galilee of the Gentiles.
It
is a shame that persons from another part of different countries are looked
down upon by others who think that they are superior to them. This is something that is going on in our
country today as many, including me are called deplorable. It was no different when our Lord was born
and began His ministry and the Jews in Jerusalem said in John 7:41 “Others were
saying, "This is the Christ." Still others were saying, "Surely the Christ is not going
to come from Galilee, is He?”
These so called Bible scholars missed the part about Jesus being called
a Nazirite, coming from Nazareth.
As
we move on in our study of these verses from the 4th chapter of
Matthew we see that there is a very large portion of this section quoted from
Isaiah and it comes from 9:1-2 which we will not look at. “1 But there will be no more gloom for
her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the
land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious,
by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The
people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark
land, The light will shine on them.”
John MacArthur writes “The fact alone that Jesus so accurately and
completely fulfilled Old Testament prophecy should be enough to convince an
honest mind of the Bible’s truthfulness and authority. Just as Isaiah had predicted eight centuries
earlier, the despised, sin-darkened, and rebellious Galileans were the first to
glimpse the Messiah, the first to see the dawning of God’s New Covenant! Not might and beautiful Jerusalem, but the
mongrel, downcast, nontraditional mixed multitude of Samaria and Galilee had the
great honor. To those who were neediest, and who were most
likely to recognize their need, Jesus went first.”
If
I were to bring something similar that is going on in our country today with what
went on in Israel when our Lord walked their I would have to compare Jerusalem
at that time with what we call the swamp today that lives in Washington
DC. The middle of our country is what
some call the fly-over people and deplorable are like those who lived in
Galilee during the times when Christ ministered there, with the exception that
in the end they too rejected the Messiah as Jesus put a curse on different
cities in the area including Capernaum, and there is only two building there
today according to John MacArthur as a result of the curse that Jesus put on that
city. Jesus was sent to be “a light of
revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel” as spoken by
both Isaiah first and then Simeon who actually quoted Luke 2:32 from Isaiah
42:6-7.
I
will finish this rather long section with a quotation from John MacArthur as he
finishes up his comments on this section:
“It was in and around Galilee that Jesus had spent all but a small part
of His childhood and early manhood, and it was there that His ministry first
developed and began to spread. As the
new day of the gospel dawned, the first rays of light shined in Galilee. Into
this land of oppression, dispersion, and corrosive moral and spiritual
influence—and impending death at the word of divine judgment—Jesus came and
with words and deeds of mercy, truth, love, and hope: ‘To those who were sitting in the land and
shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Where would we be without light today? Good question, but the most important answer
to this question speaks of the Light of our Lord Jesus Christ, for without His
Light we would be in total darkness eternally.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I am thankful for the Light of the gospel to
be given to me some 46 years ago last month.
I desire to better love the Lord, to continue to gain humility, and to
continue to have joy as I study the Word of God each day.
2/21/2020 9:16 AM
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