SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2022 9:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “They
Curse the Light”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
16:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 And the
Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Him asked Him to show them a sign
from heaven. 2 But He answered and said to them, "When it is evening, you
say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 "And in the morning, ’There will be
a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern
the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? 4 "An evil and adulterous generation seeks
after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah."
And He left them, and went away.”
I want to begin by talking about the liberal theologian,
but I think it best to just quote that paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary so
we all can better understand it. “The liberal
theologian does not prefer the speculations of philosophy or psychology because
these are more provable or persuasive than the truths of Scripture but because
he prefers man’s wisdom to God’s. And,
contrary to his claim, the agnostic does not refuse to believe because he
cannot know about God but because he will not know about Him. The person who turns to rationalism,
evolution, skepticism, or simply to himself for meaning and purpose do so
because of lack of evidence about God and Christ but in spite of it. The person who turns to manmade religion does
not do so because no light about the true God is available but because he
despises that light and that God.”
The
following are some things that men can turn to, things like acts of penance, to
self-affliction, to confessionals, and to every other human resource to try to
expiate particular sins; but they will refuse to deal with the root in their
hearts, their basic sinful nature with which they do not want to part.
We
know as we have talked about that the true intent of the Pharisees’ and the
Sadducees’ of demanding a heavenly sign was to discredit our Lord, He answered
and said to them, "When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair
weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 “And in the morning, ’There will be a
storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’” MacArthur adds that “these sayings correspond
to the age-old mariner’s ditty, ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning.’ For many hears of observation men learned
that a red sky in the evening is usually followed by good weather, whereas a
red sky in the morning is often followed by a storm. The religious leaders who confronted Jesus
accepted the reliability of that folk meteorology without question.” I can only say one thing about this and that
this certainly is not true of those of us who live in Northeast Ohio, for the
city of Cleveland, Ohio gets the second most cloud cover in the entire Untied
States, and it is very depressing to me.
Jesus
then asked them “Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but
cannot discern the signs of the times?”
We know that both the Pharisees and Sadducees were proud of their
religious heritage and that they considered themselves experts on the things of
God. However despite their religious
training and their positions, their primitive and limited knowledge of weather
was far superior to their knowledge of God.
Perhaps Jesus was saying to them, “Your sensitivity to weather makes a
mockery of your insensitivity to God’s kingdom.
You have no idea of what God is doing in the world. You are oblivious to the times in which you
are privileged to live, the very times of redemption by God’s own Son, before
whom you now stand.” The truth is that
these Jewish leaders and many of the Jewish people longed for what we call the
messianic age, which will now also be called the millennial Kingdom. The truth is that they were better weathermen
than knowing the signs of the times in which they lived in. These Jewish leaders were blind guides of the
blind as only a few would receive what it takes to one day enter into the millennial
Kingdom, and when these go into it they will have a new body and will help rule
in that kingdom.
8/13/2022 10:23 AM
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