Friday, October 14, 2022

PT-1 "The Promise Related" (Matt. 16:28)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/14/2022 10:15 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Promise Repeated”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 16:28

 

            Message of the verse:  28 “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.’”

 

            This is quite a promise that the Lord is giving to His disciples, “not to taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”  We have talked about how this last section in the 16th chapter of Matthew had to be so difficult on Jesus’ disciples as they were certainly a confused lot after hearing that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, as seen in Peter’s statement, and then that He was going to die, and now He is saying that some of them would not taste death before they saw His kingdom.  I suppose that because many of us who read these Spiritual Diaries know the truth of what is going to happen do not really understand what it would have been for the disciples of Jesus who have just spent the last two and a half plus years walking with the very God who created the universe, listening to His every word, thinking that He would take them out from the arm of the Roman Empire, and then they hear He was going to die, and that some of them will actually get to see a picture of His coming kingdom.  I have to say that I would have been confused too.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Taste death was a common Jewish expression that referred to drinking the cup of death, in other words, to dying.  Jesus assured the Twelve that, before death some of them would see Him coming in His kingdom.”

 

            Now if we are to understand correctly what Jesus meant, “it would be first of all helpful to know that basileia (kingdom) was often used as a metonym to mean “royal majesty” or “regal splendor”—in much the same way that scepter has long been used figuratively to represent royal power and authority.”  This word metonym is a word that John MacArthur is using.  Here is a definition that I found for it “What is a simple definition of metonymy?  metonymy, (from Greek metōnymia, “change of name,” or “misnomer”), figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original, as “crown” to mean “king” (“The power of the crown was mortally weakened”) or an author for his works (“I'm studying .”  I hope that helps out.  MacArthur goes on “Used in that way, baso;eoa would refer to a manifestation of Jesus’ kingliness rather than to His literal earthly reign.  His promise could therefore be translated, “until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingly splendor.”

 

            This passage has always been difficult for me to totally understand because as we will see when we begin the 17th chapter, at least to me that it does not really look like what I think that the millennial kingdom will totally look like.

 

10/14/2022 10:40 AM

 

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