SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2023 7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Appropriation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 19:10-12
Message of the verses: “10 The disciples said
to Him, "If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is
better not to marry." 11 But He said to them, "Not all men can
accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 “For
there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there
are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who
made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able
to accept this, let him accept it.’”
We continue to talk about the response that Jesus’
disciples had over what He had just said to the Pharisees, and stated in our
last SD that this goes against everything that the disciples had been taught
about marriage and divorce and then re-marriage. As we look at the response of the disciples
we can say that it was well thought out, as it shows that they rightly understood
what Jesus was saying. They realized that
what the Lord was saying was declaring that marriage was for a lifetime; a
lifetime commitment that can legitimately be broken only by death of continued
adultery, and that even adultery does not require getting a divorce. The idea of “for better or worse” was more
than they could accept. Before they
thought, not to marry at all.
The disciples really had a difficult
time in accepting the idea of a lifelong marital commitment because of the
existing shallow and unbiblical view of marriage that they had been taught all
their lives. The problem is that they
had not really paid attention to what the Scriptures said about marriage
compared to the traditions that the Pharisees had said. Let us look at Matthew 15:5-6 at this time “5 "But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or
mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to
God," 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated
the word of God for the sake of your tradition.’” (Notice the highlighted portion of verse
six.)
What the disciples were missing, along with the Pharisees is that God instituted
marriage as the epitome of pleasant, joyful, and fulfilling human
relationships. Proverbs 5:18-19 speaks
of this: “18 Let your fountain be
blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth. Verse 19 As a loving kind and a
graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always
with her love.” It was in this same book
of Proverbs that they read in 18:22 “He who finds a wife finds a good thing And
obtains favor from the LORD.” One more
from Proverbs “House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudent
wife is from the LORD” (Proverbs 19:14).
We conclude this SD with a quotation from MacArthur’s
commentary: “Like most people of both
sexes today, many Jewish men in the New Testament times looked on marriage only
as a means of gratifying their own lusts and of fulfilling their own
purposes. Marriage was the accepted
means of sexual indulgence and of procreating children, and it also provided a
convenient cook and housekeeper. Unlike
modern people, however, most Jewish men appear to have been little concerned
about romance.”
2/19/2023 8:21 AM
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