SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/29/2020 11:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Perversion by Addition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:43
Message of the
verse: “43
"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate
your enemy.’”
We move from omitting things to
adding things in our SD for today. We
are talking about love in this section and the addition to the scribes and
Pharisees is “and hate your enemy” which we do not find in the OT. This addition is even more perverse than
their omission; however it was the logical extension of their all-consuming
self-interest.
I find the following paragraph from
MacArthur’s commentary very interesting:
“It goes without saying that Gentiles were not considered
neighbors. A saying of the Pharisees has
been discovered that reads, ‘If a Jew sees a Gentile fallen into the sea, let
him by no means lift him out, for it is written, ‘Thou shalt not rise up
against the blood of thy neighbor,’ but this man is not thy neighbor.’ It is little wonder that the Romans charged
Jews with hatred of the human race.”
I don’t know if this is a good
excuse for the Jews to hate Gentiles, but it comes from what the Lord had told
the children of Israel to do to those “Gentiles” living in the Promised Land
when God told them to drive them out.
However if one looks at why the Lord had the Jews drive these nations
out of the Promised Land we see that they were a very sinful lot and God gave
them 400 years to repent while Israel the family became Israel the country
while living in Egypt. So this is not by
any means an excuse. The things that God
was doing through the children of Israel to drive out these heathen nations was
totally just as Dietrich Bonheoffer writes “The wars of Israel were the only
holy wars in history, for they were the wars of God against the world of
idols. It is not this enmity which Jesus
condemns for then He would have condemned the whole history of God’s dealing
with His people. On the contrary, He
affirms the Old Covenant.”
MacArthur brings up another reason
of why the Jews hated the Gentiles as he cites the imprecatory psalms that
David wrote. “May their table before
them become a snare; and when they are in peace, may it become a trap. May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot
see, and make their lions shake continually.
Pour out Thine indignation on them, and may Thy burning anger overtake them”
(Psalm 69:22-24).
We will, Lord willing give an
explanation for this in our next SD.
9/29/2020 11:51
AM
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