SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/30/2023 8:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Ignorance of Scripture”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
22:31-32
Message of the verses: “31 "But
regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken
to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I AM THE GOD
OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of
the dead but of the living.’”
The first thing that I want to talk about is that
these next two SD’s, especially tomorrows will be pretty short, and that is ok
as this week seems to have many things that I have to get done, including the
preparation of my Sunday school class, going to grandson’s soccer ball games,
and visiting my sisters and daughter for lunch, something that I have been
doing once a month for a few months now.
God is good!!
Now
in an earlier SD I talked about how the Sadducees did not take a lot of stock
in the Old Testament books past the first five books of Moses, and therefore
they did not see anything about the resurrection of the dead in those books
they did not believe in it. Jesus is not
going to show them that the resurrection is talked about in the Pentateuch as
Jesus reminds them of a statement spoken…by God that is recorded numerous times
in the book of Exodus. I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
“The dead
are raised, even Moses showed,” Jesus first
told the doubting Sadducees in Luke 20:37.
37 “But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that
the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ (Luke 20:37 NKJV).” As Moses was about to begin his last 40 years
of ministry to the Lord he was staying with his in-laws helping with the sheep
and saw a “strange” sight as he saw a bush burning but not burning up. This is where the Lord first spoke to Moses
telling him that “"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look at God” (Ex. 3:6). It
just came to me that it just took two chapters to read about the first eighty
years of the life of Moses and the last forty years took the rest of the Pentateuch to see the rest of Moses’
life. Now it was hundreds of years later
that the Lord had declared to Jacob, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham
and the God of Isaac” (Gen. 28:13) long after Abraham had died.
MacArthur
writes “Jesus’ excellent exegetical argument is based on the emphatic present
tense of the I am used in that passage from the Pentateuch. After Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were long
dead, the Lord was still their God every bit as much as when they were alive—in
fact, in many ways even more so, because they had become perfectly sinless and
their souls were experiencing the fellowship of His eternal presence.
“These
three patriarchs are singled out, and each is specifically related to God suggesting
His unique personal intimacy with each one.
Whether the genitive preposition of refers to God’s belonging to the
patriarchs or to their belonging to God, both meanings are true.
“The
present tense is used because God is not the God of the dead but of the living,
and if He is presently the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then those men
obviously are still alive in another realm.
They would also still have to be living so that God could fulfill His
promises to them which were not fulfilled during their lifetimes.
‘13 All these died in faith, without receiving
the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and
having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those
who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they
went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they
desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them’
(Heb.11:13-16).”
The conclusion of this section shows that Jesus had accomplished what the wisest Pharisee or scribe had never been able to do and what He did was unequivocally prove the resurrection even from the Pentateuch. And the end result was “He had put the Sadducees to silence” (Matt. 22:34).
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Whenever I
get down because of what is going on at this time in our country all I have to
do is remember this section in Matthew 22 in which Jesus refers to God being
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, knowing that He is not the God of the
dead, but of the living.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to put in my heart the things that
He wants me to teach this upcoming Sunday in our class.
8/30/2023 8:52 AM
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