They Seek Darkness

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/11/2022 10:02 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  “They Seek Darkness”

 

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 will begin this SD with the words that I wrote at the end of our last SD which is something that usually try to do, which is quote from MacArthur’s outline of his chapter.  “In this brief passage we see four characteristics of those whose spiritual blindness will never end:  they seek darkness, they curse the light, they regress still deeper into darkness, and finally they are abandoned by God.”

 

            So the first characteristic is seen in the fact that the Pharisees and Sadducees came up to Jesus together.  I think that from what I have read about these two groups of spiritual leaders of the Jewish people is that they didn’t get along and actually had different beliefs.  The Sadducees did not believe in any kind of miracles, while the Pharisees did.  So it is their hatred for their Messiah that brought these two groups together.  One could say that actually what brought them together was their love for spiritual darkness.

 

            For the most part the Sadducees were aristocratic, and they traditionally boasted the high priest and chief priests among their numbers.  They used their power to make a lot of money by operating the lucrative Temple concessions of money changing and the selling of animal sacrifices.  Now the Pharisees on the other hand, were generally from the working class, and many of them like Paul as seen in Acts 18:3, made their living from a trade.  Scribes and priests were found in both parties. 

 

            We can say that the Pharisees were the more conservative and fundamental of the two, but their problem was that they held rabbinic tradition to be of equal authority with Scriptures, similar to what Catholics do today in thinking that what the Pope has to say goes along with Scripture, in fact adds to it. “The Pharisees were strongly separatistic, continuing the zealous protection of Judaism from Gentile influence that was begun several centuries earlier by the Hasidim in their resistance to the Hellenization campaigns of Antiochus Epiphanes,” writes MacArthur.

 

            The Sadducees cared nothing for rabbinic tradition and had no compunction about making religious, cultural, or political compromises.  Their cardinal principle was expediency.  Although they did claim to believe Scripture, their interpretations were so spiritualized that all significant meaning was lost.  The Sadducees were thoroughly liberal and materialistic, not believing in angels, immorally, resurrection of the dead, or anything else supernatural as I have already mentioned.

 

            There is a story in the book of Acts where Paul was on trial and both the Pharisees and the Sadducees were the ones who were trying him.  Paul noticed this and said that he was on trial for the resurrection of a dead man who had raised from the dead, Jesus.  This divided the court and he then went back to jail where later on was allowed to more to another town for his safety.

 

            MacArthur concludes this section:  “Matthew’s use of a single article (the) suggests that the Pharisees were the main group, with Sadducees intermingled among them; and from Mark 8:11 we learn that the Pharisees took the lead in confronting Jesus.  Those ‘blind guides of the blind’ (Matt 15:14) enlisted the support of men who, if anything, were more spiritually blind than themselves.  Instead of coming to Jesus for spiritual sight, they confirmed their love of blindness by making league with other ungodly men contempt for Jesus.  That is always the way of those who are willfully, sinfully blind.  Their common trust is in themselves and in their own good works, and therefore their common enemy is God and His sovereign grace.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can say that I was once blind, but by the grace of God I can now see, and for that I will be eternally thankful.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust the Lord to give me the grace to live a life pleasing to him.

 

8/11/2022 10:39 AM