SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/22/2022 10:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Setting”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 15:21
Message of the
verse: “21
And Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and
Sidon.”
Let
us look at another verse in Matthew which causes some interpreters of the Bible
to say that Jesus actually not gone into Gentile territory. “24 But He answered and said, "I was
sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Jesus actually said this verse while talking
to the Gentile woman. I don’t agree with
those who think that Jesus did not go into Gentile territory. Let us look at what Mark 7:24 says “Jesus got
up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a
house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice.” Now Mark 7:31 “31 Again He went out from the
region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region
of Decapolis.” John MacArthur writes “It
is true, however, that the Lord did not go to this area to minister but to
rest, just as centuries earlier the Lord had sent Elijah to the same region to
rest at the home of the widow at ‘Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon’ (1 Kings
17:9).”
We
learned from Mark 7:24 that Jesus “wanted no one to know of it; yet He could
not escape notice” (Mark 7:24b).
MacArthur quotes Archbishop Trench: “Like perfume betrays itself, so He
whose name is perfume poured out cannot be hid.” Jesus did not purposely expand
His ministry into Gentile territory, but many people of that area had heard of
Him and had already had gone into Galilee to see and to hear Him in order to be
healed as seen in Matt. 4:24-25; Mark 3:8.
MacArthur
writes “In His omniscience Jesus was not surprised at being discovered or of
being drawn into ministry. Many Gentiles,
illustrated by the Roman centurion, were more humbly receptive than the Jewish
multitudes, who often too Jesus’ healings as a matter of their rightful
heritage. In their thinking, the Messiah
belonged exclusively to Israel, and He was obligated to serve, heal, and
liberate His fellow Jews. It was that
proud and self-righteous attitude that drove the multitude to try to force a
crown on Him (John 6:15).”
The
Gentiles were less “religious” than the Jewish people, and in a sense that was
good because the Jews of Jesus’ day were not following what the Old Testament
had to say as I am learning in my study of Hebrews that they were actually
involved in a cult during the time when Jesus was on earth, trying to get to
God by their own works and efforts which is something that God will never
accept because He is the One who has provided salvation through His One and
only Son, and so works to get to God were totally out, but works after becoming
a believer is what God desires. Notice
the following familiar verses “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast. 10 For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” These three verses
describe how we are saved and then what we are to do after we are saved and you
dare not get the cart before the horse for that will not work. For the Jews and many others today their “religion”
got into their way of becoming a true believer in Jesus Christ.
7/22/2022 10:30 AM
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