SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2023 7:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Pt-3 “The Illustration”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
21:33-39
Message of the verses: “33 "Listen to
another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL
AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to
vine-growers, and went on a journey. 34 “And when the harvest time approached,
he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. 35 “And the vine-growers
took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 36 “Again
he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same
thing to them. 37 “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will
respect my son.’ 38 “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among
themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and seize his
inheritance.’ 39 “And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and
killed him.”
Well it’s Sunday morning and I am up early in order
to get my devotions done before I go to teach our Sunday school class, and
today it is on the seventh verse of the first chapter of Zechariah. Zechariah is a difficult book to understand,
but it is a great book to learn from, things like comfort, and mostly learning
about Jesus Christ. Yes Jesus Christ is
a theme in the book of Zechariah as He is the theme of the entire Bible, but
Zechariah has much to say about Him in this next to last book of the Old
Testament.
Let
us now go on and talk about the cold blooded murder of the son in our verses
from Matthew 21. Yes it was a cold
blooded murder, a planned murder by the tenant farmers in order to seize the
vineyard from the owner. The owner had
no other children to give it to. These
growers did not mistake the son for another slave but knew exactly who he
was. As stated it was the very reason
that he was the son that they planned his murder in order to seize his
inheritance.
MacArthur writes “By the end of this startling and
dramatic parable, the interest of the Jewish leaders and the many bystanders
was thoroughly piqued (upset). The story
generated great pity for the betrayed, grieving owner and resentful rage at the
heartless, brutal growers.
“In
fact, the patience of the owner and the brutality of the growers are so
absolutely astounding, so unrealistic and abnormal, that some critics say Jesus
overdrew the story or that the gospel writers exaggerated His original version.
But these extremes are essential to the parable’s point. It was the very uncommonness of the owner’s
patience and of the growers’ wickedness that Jesus wanted His hearers to
notice.”
7/16/2023 8:11 AM
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