SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2022 9:33 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “Jesus’s Response”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt 14:12-13
Message of the verses: “12 And his
disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported
to Jesus.
13 Now when Jesus heard it, He withdrew from there in a boat, to
a lonely place by Himself; and when the multitudes heard of this, they
followed Him on foot from the cities.”
Over the last six SD’s we have been looking at some
very gruesome scenes from some very horrible people. The story has come to a beautiful ending from
this ugly scene as John’s disciples came and took away the body and buried it. Gruesome things are very hard for me to take,
as it had to take a great deal of courage for John’s disciples to take his
decapitated body away and bury him, but this also showed how much love that
they had for their fallen leader. John
was a godly and a great man, who had been their friend and their teacher, the
one under whose fiery preaching they had confessed and forsaken their own sins,
and under whose inspiration and under his direction, they had perhaps led
others to repentance, and so now he is gone and they did the best they could
for his broken body.
I have to believe that John knew
that this would happen to him some day after he was taken to prison under the
evil king and his even more evil wife, and so perhaps he told his disciples to
tell Jesus whenever he would be killed which is exactly what they did as they went
and reported to Jesus what happened.
John was deeply loved by Jesus and when Jesus heard it, He withdrew from
there in a boat, to a lonely place by Himself.
MacArthur writes “As Mark explains in more detail, Jesus was by Himself with
His disciples, whom He asked to go with Him ‘to a lonely place and rest a while’
(For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time
to eat)’ (Mark 6:31).”
Some have suggested that Jesus left
the area because He was afraid of getting arrested by Herod. That is nonsense to me as Jesus was not
afraid of anything as seen what would happen to Him in a few months from
then. I have to believe that Jesus was
very sad for by what happened to John and needed to go and find a secret place to
morn over losing a close friend and relative (in the flesh) as John was His
cousin and also His forerunner, and so the loss was probably very difficult for
Him. Jesus Christ had feelings, and
sometimes we tend to forget that. He
probably had greater feelings over the loss of John than even John’s disciples
as what happened to John showed the sinfulness of the world, sinfulness that
Jesus would eventually die for in order to one day end all sinfulness
forever. I for one can’t wait for that
day to come, as Jesus will take down all the evil that is in this world and all
those who are following the demon world controlled by Satan, following them in
most cases not realizing they are doing it.
(Check out my SD’s from the 6th chapter of Ephesians on this
blog and on my other blog as I am repeating them with come corrections in
them.)
MacArthur writes “John the Baptist
was the first martyr to die for Christ, and it seems certain that Jesus took
this opportunity to further prepare His disciples for what lay ahead for
them. Christ Himself would be the next
to die, and all the other twelve (including Matthias, Judas’s replacement)
apparently suffered martyrdom, except for John, who died in exile.”
The following quotation from
MacArthur’s commentary was written perhaps 40 or so years ago. “Although Christians in most parts of the
world today have relative freedom to practice and propagate their faith, many
believers are suffering a fate like John’s.
When they convert to Christianity, their families disown them, declare
them to be dead, and sometimes even murder them. Countless thousands forfeit their jobs, their
freedom to worship, and even the right to teach their faith to their own
children. Many are imprisoned, tortured,
exiled, and publicly maligned. But like
John the Baptist, they will not deny their Lord to save their rights, their
freedom or their lives.” We know now
that things are even worse than they were years ago, and will continue to
get worse.
Lord willing we will begin to look
at John 14:14-21 which is the story of “The Miraculous Feeding,” something seen
in all four gospels.
6/7/2022 10:01
AM
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