Friday, September 25, 2020

PT-1 "Teaching of the Old Testament" (Matt. 5:43b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/25/2020 9:22 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “Teaching of the Old Testament”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:43b

 

            Message of the verse: “You shall love your neighbor.”

 

            This statement was first seen in Leviticus 19:18 “’You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”  This command was then seen also in the NT:  (Matt. 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8).  “Love for others, shown in sympathetic concern and actual care for them, had always been God’s standard for human relations” writes John MacArthur.  I have to say that at times this is hard to understand and harder to do and I suppose the reason has to do with the old nature, and also perhaps the way people were brought up while living at home.

 

            We are told in Deuteronomy that the children of Israel were to take care of a lost animal until the owner came to recover it.  Likewise, a countryman was to be helped with an animal when it fell down as seen in Deut. 22:1-4.  Now we want to look at Exodus 23:4-5 for info on what is to be done with an enemy:  “4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. 5 "If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “As in all the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking here about personal standards of righteousness, not civil law.  The ‘enemy’ spoken of in Exodus 23 is not the enemy soldier met on the battlefield, but an individual—whether fellow countryman or foreigner—who in some way or another is antagonistic.  God has never had a double standard of righteousness.  His ‘commandment is exceedingly broad’ (Ps. 119:96), and in the fullest sense an Israelite’s ‘neighbor’ was anyone in need whom he might come across in his daily living.”  The answer to the question of who is my neighbor is seen in Luke 10:30-37, a familiar passage to most who even read the Scriptures in a casual way.

 

            Job tells us the following in Job 31:29-30 “29 “Have I rejoiced at the extinction of my enemy, Or exulted when evil befell him? 30 “No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin By asking for his life in a curse.”  Job did nothing when he heard of an enemy of his dying, nothing at all.  He was neutral and did nothing.  Job did more than simply refrain from doing others harm; Job gave them help as seen in verses 31-32 “31 "Have the men of my tent not said, ’Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat’? 32 “The alien has not lodged outside, For I have opened my doors to the traveler.

 

            It is good to remember the time when most experts believe that Job lived in and that was during the time o the patriarchal period.  Job certainly had not seen any of the Law of God that was given by Moses and yet Job lived a life that one could say came under the laws of God and as we read Job 1:1 we see that “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”  Lord willing we will look at some of the things from the life of David as we begin our next SD.

 

9/25/2020 9:47 AM

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment