SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/21/2023 10:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Intro to “The God of the Living”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 22:23-33
Message of the verses: “23 On that day some
Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him, 24
asking, "Teacher, Moses said, ‘IF A MAN DIES HAVING NO CHILDREN, HIS
BROTHER AS NEXT OF KIN SHALL MARRY HIS WIFE, AND RAISE UP CHILDREN FOR HIS
BROTHER.’ 25 “Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and
died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; 26 so also the second,
and the third, down to the seventh. 27 “Last of all, the woman died. 28 “In the
resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married
her." 29 But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not
understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 “For in the resurrection
they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 “But regarding
the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: 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." 33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His
teaching.”
We begin this SD with a quotation from Benjamin
Franklin, who did not claim to be a Christian in the biblical sense, nevertheless
had the following epitaph inscribed on his tombstone:
“The
body of
Benjamin
Franklin, printer,
(Like
the cover of an old book,
Its
contents worn out,
And
stript of its lettering and gilding)
Lies
her, food for worms!
Yet the
work itself shall not be lost,
For it
will, as he believed, appear once more
In a new
And more
beautiful edition,
Corrected
and amended
By its
Author!
Benjamin
Franklin was not the only person who had the pull of the afterlife, as many
others have strange and unbiblical aberrations regarding the subject as men
feel the pull of the afterlife. The Jews
in Jesus’ day also had these thoughts about the resurrection, as in the Talmud
which is the ancient codification of Jewish oral and written tradition speaks
of the afterlife. Even the apocryphal
book of 2 Maccabees, written around 100 B. C. describes a Jewish elder named
Razis who greatly resented Greek oppression.
Rather than be executed by the hated Greeks, he decided to take his own
life. Standing on a rock in front of a
large crowd, he disemboweled himself with his sword and threw his entrails into
the crowd, in vain hope “calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give [his
discarded organs] back to him again” (14:46).
There
are other examples found in MacArthur’s commentary, but I think that we get the
point that many different cultures have their own unbiblical views of the
afterlife. However even in the Old
Testament we see some truths about the resurrection of the dead. “1 "Now at that time Michael, the great
prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And
there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a
nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found
written in the book, will be rescued. 2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of
the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and
everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:1-2). Job
also spoke of the resurrection in his book.
Another thing I want to mention comes from the 11th chapter
of the book of John which tells the story of the resurrection of Lazarus who
was in the grave for four days. The
reason I want to talk about this is because the New Testament letters had not
yet been written about the resurrection and so Martha and Mary did not know
about that, but they did know about the resurrection of the dead as we will
see: 21 Martha then said to Jesus,
"Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 “Even now
I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." 23 Jesus said to
her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to Him, "I
know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25 Jesus
said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me
will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never
die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:21-26).
I will conclude this introduction by quoting the
last two paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary. “Much more important and reliable than those writings,
of course, were the Old Testament Statements regarding life after death. David wrote, Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoices; my flesh and also will dwell securely. For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol;
neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay” (Ps. 16:9-10). Another Psalmist declared, “God will redeem
my soul from the power of Sheol; for He will receive me” (Ps. 49:15), and still
another that, “With Thy counsel Thou wilt give me, and afterward receive me to
glory” (Ps. 73:24). Hosea wrote, “Come,
let us return to the Lord. For He has
torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will receive us after two days; He will
raise us up on the third day that we may life before Him” (Hos. 6:1-2). In perhaps the clearest teaching of
resurrection in the Old Testament, the Lord promised through Daniel that “many
of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting
life, but the others o disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2).
“For the most part, therefore, Jews not only
believed in life after death but in the resurrection of the body. The one exception were the Sadducees, who in that
and other ways were at odds with the rest of Jewish theology and culture. It was representatives of that sect who asked
Jesus the second in a series of three questions designed to entrap Him (see
also 22:15-22, 34-40).”
Lord
willing we will begin tomorrows by beginning to look at “The Approach” (Matt.
22:23).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There is one hope, hope being a noun, and
that is that whether I go to be with the Lord alive, but changed at the Rapture
of die and go to be with the Lord right after death, and then receive my new
body at the Rapture, that is the great hope that I have, and again hope is a
noun and not a verb.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
be ready for the coming of the Lord each and every day.
8/21/2023 10:47 AM
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