SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/6/2021 11:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Analogy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:16a
Message of the
verse: “"Behold,
I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves;”
We want to look at the word “behold” first, and this
words indicates that Jesus wants the apostles to pay attention to what He is
about to say to them. In the ninth
chapter of Matthew and verse 36 we read “Seeing the people, He felt compassion
for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a
shepherd.” We want to focus in on the
phrase “sheep without a shepherd.” This
phrase speaks of unbelieving multitudes.
In Matthew 10:8 we see that Jesus delegated miraculous powers to the
Twelve “8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the
lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give.” “Now based on such impute it could have
seemed to the apostles that they were destined to be powerful wolves who would
go out with invincibility to conquer the defenseless, unbelieving sheep of the
world. However that is not the case as
the Lord here made it clear that the world’s “sheep” are not really defenseless
and that the apostle’s powers—divinely endowed and marvelous as they were—would
not prevent them from suffering from the hands of men. They, and the rest of
His followers until He returns again, would be the real sheep. In that paradoxical truth Jesus graphically
pointed up the tensions between our vulnerability and our invincibility—between
our weakness in ourselves and our strength in Him, between the power of hateful
persecution and the power of loving submission, and between the worldly power
of the flesh and the supernatural power of the Spirit” writes John MacArthur.
I
suppose that if you look at all the animals in the world one could say that
sheep are the most dependent, helpless, and stupid of them all. If you want to get a better understanding of
sheep there was a man from New Zeeland who wrote a couple of books on sheep
which were things that he learned as a sheep farmer. “A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23” is the name
of one and then he did another on the 10th chapter of John. W. Philip Keller is the authors name and I
believe that he may at this time be with the Lord in heaven.
The
greatest enemies of the sheep were predators, the worst of which in Palestine
and in many other parts of the world has always been wolves. The Palestinian shepherds understood the
nature of sheep and also the danger of wolves.
They knew how difficult the task of the shepherd was simply to keep his
sheep alive, much less healthy and contented.
During
this time period most shepherds did not own the sheep they were taking care of
but were working for the owner. In case
a sheep was killed on their watch the shepherd was required to bring back a
piece of its torn flesh or some other part of its body to prove it had been
killed by a wild animal rather than stolen by a thief or perhaps sold by a
dishonest shepherd.
Lord willing we will continue with this
in our next SD.
10/6/2021 11:51 AM
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