Intro to Matthew 5:8

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2020 11:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                               Focus:  Intro to Matthew 5:8

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:8

            Message of the verse:  “’Happy are the utterly sincere, for they will see God!’”

            Let me begin by saying that the intro to the verse will be very short and will be quoted from MacArthur’s commentary and then we will move right into the first sub-section under the main section entitled “The Content.”

            “Here is one of those passages of Scripture whose depths are immeasurable and whose breadth is impossible to encompass.  This incredible statement of Jesus is among the greatest utterances in all of the Bible.

            “The subject of holiness, of purity of heart, can be traced from Genesis to Revelation.  The theme is infinitely vast and touches on virtually every other biblical truth.  It is impossible to exhaust its meaning or significance, and the discussion in this chapter is nothing more than introductory.”

            The first main section is entitled “The Context” and in this main section we will look at two sub-sections of which the first, “The Historical Context” will take us a few days to look at and then the last sub-section is only one or two paragraphs.

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

            We have written in earlier SD’s about the shape that the nation of Israel was in by the time that Jesus came on the scene, how Israel was in desperate condition, that is in their political, economically, and spiritual conditions.  If we go back to when Israel was defeated by the Babylonians we saw that Israel never owned the Promised Land from that time until May of 1948 when as Ezekiel prophesied Israel would return to their land.  This all had to do with sin, as Israel was defeated by Babylon because of their sin, and then as we move forward to 70 A.D. we see that Israel was defeated again because they had turned their back on their Messiah and Israel moved from one country to another as they were scattered in different places around the world.  At this point in history we see that the majority of Jews live in Israel, but man still live in other countries around the world including the United States. 

            As we look at when Jesus was on the earth we can see that Israel was not in good shape as they did not own the land they lived on as Rome took control of the Promised Land and the people had to pay a large amount of taxes to Rome.  These were the problems that every person could see and also feel.

            There were less obvious problems, and they were far worst.  This problem was unlike their political and economic problems as Israel had suffered spiritual weakness and faithlessness.  However this problem was not really recognized by many of the Jews.  The Jewish leaders thought that their religion was in great shape, and they believed the Messiah would soon solve the political and economic problems.  However when He came, His only concern was for the Spiritual problem, which was the problem of their hearts.  I have heard Warren Wiersbe write “The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.”  This was surely true of Israel during the time when their Messiah came to earth.

            We have talked earlier about who was the most influential religious force in Judaism at the time when Christ was on earth and that would be the Pharisees.  MacArthur adds “They were the chief managers and promoters of the pervasive legalistic and ritualistic system that dominated Jewish society.  Over the centuries various rabbis had interpreted and reinterpreted the Jewish Scriptures, especially the law, until those interpretations—known as the traditions of the elders—became more authoritative than Scripture itself.  The essence of the traditions was a system of dos and don’ts that gradually expanded to cover almost every aspect of Jewish life.”

            Most Jews who were conscientious realized that it was impossible to observe all the religious requirements that were in place at this time.  What really happened to these Jews was that because they couldn’t keep all the requirements that they ended up with a terrible guilty conscience.  They had as said feelings of guilt frustrations, and also anxiety, which are not good for anyone to continually have.  To these Jews their religion was their life, but they could not fulfill everything their religion demanded.  What happened next was something that was not good then and still not good now, and that is that the religious leaders devised te idea that, if a person could perfectly keep the law in just a few of the laws, that God would understand.  However when even that proved impossible, some even narrowed the requirements to one law perfectly kept. 

            This idea may have been in the mind of the lawyer who tested Jesus with this question from Matthew 22:36 “’Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’”  Perhaps this lawyer wanted to know which of the many laws would be the one to keep that would satisfy God, even if a person failed to keep the others.

            Lord willing we will continue to look at this first sub-section in our next SD as we begin to look at why many of the Jews flocked out to see John the Baptist.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that this subject is one of the more confusing parts of my Christianity that I deal with often.  I realize that Jesus kept the whole Law for me so that I don’t have to keep it, for that is impossible.  However there are times when I have a guilty conscience for not doing something right, and perhaps that is a good thing for after all God did give me a conscience to listen to.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be more content, be more humble, and continue to seek great joy as I study God’s Word each day.

5/12/2020 12:18 PM