Saturday, September 26, 2020

PT-2 "Teaching of the Old Testament" (Matt. 5:43b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2020 9:20 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Teaching of the Old Testament”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:43b

 

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

 

            As we closed the SD from yesterday I stated that we will look at what David has said and we will begin with Psalm 7:4-5 “4 If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, 5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.”  We can see from this Psalm that David knew that it was wrong to do something bad to someone who wronged either friend or enemy.  (Again we are not talking about times of war.)  Let us move onto Psalm 35:12-15 “12 They repay me evil for good, To the bereavement of my soul. 13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, And my prayer kept returning to my bosom. 14 I went about as though it were my friend or brother; I bowed down mourning, as one who sorrows for a mother. 15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; The smiters whom I did not know gathered together against me, They slandered me without ceasing.”  MacArthur adds “David grieved over and prayed for his enemies when they were sick and in need, despite that fact that they repaid him ‘evil for good’ and rejoiced when he himself was in trouble.”

 

            We have look a lot at David in some of the SD’s that I have written and we know that those were not mere words for David, because we know he lived out that spirit of love.  Remember when Saul was seeking to kill him, David had and easy opportunity to take Saul’s life.  This happened when Saul went into a cave to relieve himself, but David would not kill Saul, David knew that even though he was his enemy that he was still the king at that time and David had no right to kill him.  There were other times that were similar after David became king that he would not take the life of some of Saul’s family as seen in 2 Sam. 16:5-10.

 

            In the book of Proverbs we read, “He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished,” the writer of Proverbs is saying that even though an enemy dies we are not to rejoice over it.  I have to say that I had a friend of mine whose wife had died last Saturday the day after one of the Supreme Justices died and my thought was that my friends wife was rejoicing with the Lord in heaven while the other person was not one who was pro-life now.  Proverbs 24:29 “Do not say, ‘Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me, but “If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (2 5:21).  Paul would use these verses in the book of Romans later on.  MacArthur concludes “Throughout the Old Testament, God’s standard for His people was to treat even their enemies like their friends and families.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Sometimes it is hard to be willing to remember that the Lord is the One who gives out justice.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember when this world is about to be burned up that God’s justice will prevail.  9/26/2020 11:30 AM 

No comments:

Post a Comment