SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2022 9:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Proof of His Divine Knowledge”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
14:24-25
Message of the verses: “24 But the boat
was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind
was contrary. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking
on the sea.”
Today we begin looking at the second proof of Jesus’
deity and this was His demonstration of divine knowledge as we can see in
verses 24 and 25. We talked about and
even wondered how hard it was for His disciples to obey Him after the people
wanted to make Him King, wondering if they perhaps argued with Him about
leaving, but leave they did as this is what the Lord wanted them to do. I suppose that it was easier to obey the Lord
whenever you were looking at Him and walking with Him as the disciples
did. So in obedience to His command the
Twelve had entered the boat and they headed for the other side of the Sea of
Galilee. It was soon after they left
that a violent wind erupted, and so they were caught a long distance from the
land. In the NASB the word “stadia” was
used and in the NASB95 it says a long distance, and so the definition of “stadia”
was about an eight of a mile, and in John’s account he states that they were
many stadia’s away from the land. So let
us just say that they were between three and four miles away from land.
In
a normal trip across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee the boat would not
have traveled more than a mile or two from shore, but this trip was anything
but normal as we see from our verses for no one walks on water except our Lord,
and I guess Peter too did it for a few steps.
So it was the storm that caused them to be on a much different course
than the “normal” cruse across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. We see at the end of verse 24 these words about
what the storm was doing to the boat as it was battered by the waves; for the
wind was contrary. This contrary storm
was pushing them a ways away from their destination, and closer and closer to
disaster. Now Mark tells us that the men
were “straining at the oars” (Mark 6:48) as they were straining for their lives.
John
MacArthur notes that “The disciples were already confused, frustrated,
disillusioned, and disappointed that Jesus had sent them away. Though they must hav wondered why He sent
them to certain death, the Twelve are to be admired for their obedience and
perseverance. Although the night was
dark, the sea stormy, and the situation apparently hopeless, they were doing
their best to do what the Lord commanded.
The worst part was that Jesus was not with them. During a similar storm, they had awakened Him
and He ‘rebuked the winds and the sea; and it became perfectly calm’ (Matt.
8:26). But now He was miles away. He probably heard the storm and was aware of
their plight, but there seemed no way He could get to them. If all the disciples together could not row
against the wind and waves, one man could never do it.”
Now
on thing is for sure and that is that Jesus knew of their situation long before
it even happened, after all He sent them out into this storm, and Jesus did not
have to rush away from prayer in order to be on time to help. I have said before that Jesus was always on
time, but He never wore a watch. This
storm and His disciples were equally in His hands, and He knew in advance
exactly what He would do with both.
We
spoke briefly about how the night was divided, as it was divided into four
watches, or we could call it shifts. The
first was from six to nine, the second from nine to twelve, and the third from
twelve to three, and the fourth from three to six. The fourth watch of the night, therefore
included the time just before dawn, indicating the disciples had been at sea
for at least nine hours, most of the time battling this windstorm, and so even
though most of them were seasoned fishermen they had to be very weary battling
this storm.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have been battling a different kind of
storm off and on during my walk with the Lord, and I can learn things from this
section of Scripture that I have never really noticed before to which I am
thankful.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to continue to teach me things
from the storm that I am battling, and will come walking to me so it will be
over.
6/22/2022 10:06 AM
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