SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/7/2022 9:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Accusation was Prejudiced”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 12:27
Message of the verse: “27 “And if I by
Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently
they shall be your judges.”
In
our last SD we looked at first of all that Jesus showed His accusers that their
charge was a logical absurdity, and not in today’s SD we move to the second
thing that Jesus showed, and that is that the Pharisees’ accusation was also
prejudiced, revealing the corrupt, wicked bias of their hearts. I have to say that as I study these men that
they truly did have a wicked heart that must have been controlled by Satan,
whom Jesus says to them “"You are of your father the devil, and you
want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he
speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the
father of lies’ (John 8:44).” John
MacArthur writes “Sons was often used as an epithet for disciples or followers,
as in the common Old Testament expression ‘sons of the prophets’ (see, e. g., 2
Kings 2:3). Certain followers or sons of
the Pharisees cast out demons, and the Jewish historian Josephus reports that
they used many strange exotic incantations and cultic formulas in their rites.”
Let
us now look at a story from the book of Acts about a group of seven brothers,
as sons of a chief priest named Sceva, as he practiced exorcism. “13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists,
who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil
spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom
Paul preaches." 14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were
doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize
Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 And the man, in whom
was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:13-16). These men thought that a mere use of certain
words and names would accomplish the exorcism proves their magical orientation. We can see what happened to these men in this
story, and it seems to me that this is something that we need to stay away from
altogether.
We
see here that Jesus pointed out the Pharisees’ extreme prejudice by showing
that they approved the exorcisms that were attempted by their “sons” who were
part of their own religious establishment.
Again we can see that these men were afraid of Jesus, (with good
reason), as they did not want Him to cause them to lose their power over the
people, but in just 40 years they would be no more as Jerusalem and the temple
would be completely destroyed and over a million Jews would be killed and the
rest would offer themselves as slaves and just as prophesied in the 28th
chapter of Deuteronomy no one would even buy them as slaves.
Now
when these Jews practiced their false exorcism they would never have claimed
that those activities were ungodly, but we know that they were. Now when Jesus cast out demons, and He cast
out many demons while on earth, and also healed every known disease, they
accused Him of being in league with the devil.
MacArthur
writes “The Pharisees’ response reflects the basic response of every person who
intentionally rejects Jesus Christ. They
did not reject Him for lack of evidence but because they were biased against
Him. Their own deeds were evil and they
could not handle the intimidating reality of Jesus’ righteousness; they were
children of darkness and could not tolerate His light (John 3:19). They were not looking for truth but for ways
to justify their own wickedness and to destroy anyone who dared expose them.” These Pharisees seem to me like a certain
political party that is trying to take down our country.
Now
Jesus put His opponents further on the spot as He suggested that the Pharisees
let their exorcist sons be their judges.
This implied suggestion was that they ask those practitioners by whose
power that they used to cast out evil spirits. Now if they said, “By Satan’s power,” they would
condemn themselves and the religious leaders who supported them, but on the
other hand if they said, “By God’s power,” they would undercut the Pharisees’
accusation against Jesus.
2/7/2022 9:51 AM
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