SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/12/2021 9:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Persecution by Religion”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:17a
Message of the
verse: “for they will deliver you up
to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues;”
As we ended our last SD we looked at the different ways that
people will be persecuted and the first way was that it will happen in their
religious places of worship, and in this case Jesus talks about their
synagogues. As one goes through the
different places in the Bible they will see that even while the Jews were under
captivity that they were allowed to settle most disputes among themselves,
including many civil issues. It was for
this purpose that they had developed a detail systems of courts in which
various cases were adjudicated. Every
Jewish village and town, as well as every Jewish settlement of any size in
Gentile countries, had a synagogue, which simply means a gathering place or a
congregation. If memory serves me
correct there had to be at least 10 men to be able to start a synagogue.
It was in these places that Jews would try, convict and
even punish (scourge) fellow Jews in their own religious courts, which were a
part of their synagogues. A Jew accused
of breaking the Mosaic law or a rabbinic tradition would be brought before a
tribunal of judges, who would decide the verdict, determine the sentence, and
meted out their punishment, and many times it would be scourging.
We read in the NT times that the scourging would be
thirty-nine lashes with a whip, and this was one less than the maximum of
forty-stripes which was allowed by Mosaic law as seen in Deut. 25:3 “"He may beat him forty times but no more, so
that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is
not degraded in your eyes.”
Now as the apostles preached and ministered in our Lord’s
name, they could be sure of being brought before and punished by such Jewish
courts. It was before his conversion,
that Saul of Tarsus was engaged in just such persecution. Many years latter Paul the apostle would be
on the other side of the court room and would receive the thirty-nine
lashes. “Five
times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes” (2 Cor. 11:24). It is believed
that each of these times had happened in a synagogue.
John MacArthur writes “William
Barclay comments that ‘the man with a message from God has to undergo the
hatred and enmity of a fossilized orthodoxy.’
Jesus Himself was accused tried, and convicted by religionists. Until the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D.
70—and with it the destruction of the temple, the priest hood, and the
sacrifices—virtually all persecution of Christians was by Jews. Though there remains personal hostility among
Jews, after that time Jewish persecution of Christians virtually ceased, and it
has never recurred to any significant degree since then.” There will be great problems when a son or a
daughter in a Jewish home becomes a believer.
At times the family will conduct a funeral service for their live
offspring even though they are more alive then than ever. 10/12/2021 10:13 AM
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