SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2022 9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Proof of His Divine Knowledge”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 14:24-25
Message of the verses: “24 But the boat
was already many stadia away 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.”
We have been looking at the different time periods
that have been talked about in this section of Matthew’s gospel and we can see
that Jesus waited a fairly long time before He came to rescue His disciples in
the boat. One thing for sure I don’t
think that they were thinking about what their role would be if Jesus were made
King as the crowd wanted Him to be.
Think about another time when Jesus seemed to wait a very long time
before performing a great miracle, that of raising Lazarus from the dead as He
waited several days before He came to Bethany.
It would have been that in both instances that Jesus could have taken
care of the problem much sooner than He did, and in both of these instances He
could have performed the ensuing miracle without even being present which we
have already looked at an example of this in Matthew 8:13 as He had healed the
centurion’s servant from a distance.
Speaking of these two instances of Lazarus and also the disciples on the
sea in a storm we can see that in our Lord’s infinite wisdom He purposely
allowed Mary and Martha and the disciples to reach the extremity of need before
He intervened. Jesus knew everything
about all of them, and had known it since before they were even born, and so He
knew infinitely better than they did what was best for their welfare and for
God’s glory. Waiting for something very
important has always been a problem for me, but waiting teaches me patience,
something that I still need to learn more of.
John
MacArthur writes the following: “The
disciples should have been rejoicing with David that, ‘If I make my bed in
Sheol, behold, Thou art there. If I take
the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there
Thy hand will lead Me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me’ (Ps.
139:8-10). The Twelve should have
remembered that ‘the Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a
stronghold in times of trouble’ (Ps. 9:9), that the Lord was their rock of
refuge (Ps. 18:2), and that He would keep them safe even as they walked ‘through
the valley of the shadow of death’ (Ps. 23:4).
They should have remembered God’s word to Moses out of the burning bush:
‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have
given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their
sufferings’ (Ex. 3:7). They should have
remembered that, just before Abraham would have plunged the knife into Isaac’s
heart, the Lord provided a ram to take Isaac’s place (Gen. 22:13).”
Now
I have never been out on a lake or a sea in the circumstances that the Twelve
were that night, but I don’t think that I can blame them for not being reassured
from the Scriptures that MacArthur just mentioned. They forgot these promises because of what
they were going through that night and they forgot the Lord’s power as they had
seen Him do many wonderful powerful miracles.
The truth is that they had little confidence that the Lord, who had
known all about the suffering of His people in Egypt and did not forsake them
was relevant in that storm writes MacArthur.
He goes on “They saw no relation between their plight and the fact that
God had provided a substitute for Isaac when he faced death.
“The
disciples had even forgotten Jesus’ own assurance that their heavenly Father
knew all their needs before they asked Him (Matt. 6:32) and that not even a
single sparrow ‘will fall to the ground apart from your Father’ and that ‘the
very hairs on your head are all numbered’ (10:29-30). All they could think of was their danger and
all they could feel was fear.”
Now
as we continue to think about these two verses one thing is for sure that Jesus
had not forgotten the disciples, and came to them through the very danger that threatened
to destroy them, walking on the sea.
Jesus actually used the trial as His footpath. Physically Jesus could not really see them
from the mountain that He was praying on or through the stormy darkness, but He
knew exactly where they were. Now think
about that as the Sea of Galilee was a pretty large body of water and Jesus knew
exactly where to walk to on it to find the troubled disciples. Conclusion is that God’s vision is not like
ours because “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and
the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Then Hebrews
4:13 tells us that “There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things
are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think that far too many times that I forget
the power and the promises of the Lord from His Word in the troubles that I am
facing, and it is because of His great love for me that He has reminded of
these things in my study of this section of Matthew 14.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to come to me on the waters of
my trial and to take care of it like He did for His disciples.
6/23/2022 10:29 AM
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