PT-1 "The Inadequate Answer" (Matt. 22:42b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2023 10:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-1 “The Inadequate Answer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 22:42b

 

            Message of the verse:  “The said to Him, “The Son of David.”

 

            While I was on my walk yesterday I listened to a couple of sermons from the gospel of Mark on the things that I have been studying from the gospel of Matthew and one of the sermons had to do with the subject that we are looking at for the next couple of days, that is the answer that the Pharisees gave to Jesus, which is only partly true as we will see as we study this verse.

 

            It was to these Pharisees, as well as most Jews that this answer was obvious and simple, like I said it was only partly true.  The problem with the Jews was that they believed that the Messiah would be a man, a man only and not both man and God.  In the sermon that I listened to yesterday MacArthur stated that because David had many sons that there were probably still off springs of him around during the time that Jesus was on the earth.  I had never heard or thought about that before, but I suppose that this could be true.  The scribes had taught for a long time that “the Christ is the son of David” (Mark 12:35), a teaching that was perfectly true.  It was through the prophet Nathan, the Lord had promised David, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…My loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.  And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:12, 13, 15-16).

 

            Now please don’t think that this promise could have been applied to Solomon.  As we look back at what Solomon had done it is true that he did build a house for God in the form of the Temple, but his kingdom certainly did not last forever.  The truth is that none of the other descendant, ( not again 2 Samuel 7:12) of David claim an everlasting throne, and so if there were descendants of David still living when Jesus was on earth, they could not claim this prophecy for themselves as we will see when we go over the genealogy of Jesus Christ in both Matthew and Luke.  After Solomon, the Davidic kingdom was divided and has never been restored.  This is true as seen after Solomon that the nation of Israel was split and ten tribes remained Israel in name and two tribes, Judah and Bingham the Southern kingdom.

 

            Let us now look at some verses in Psalm 89 to see that it makes repeated references to the Messiah as the unique descendant of David.  This is a very long Psalm and so we will reference only verses that go along with our study.  “3 "I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, 4 I will establish your seed forever And build up your throne to all generations’” (3-4).” “20 "I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, 21 With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him” (20-21).  “24 "My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted” (v-24).  “27 “I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. 28 “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. 29 “So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven” (27-29).”

 

            Now we will look at Amos who prophesied in 9:11 “"In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old.”  Next Micah 5:2 “"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.’”

 

            These verses are all found in John MacArthur’s commentary and there is one more set of verses from the book of Ezekiel as God commanded him to write the following in Ezekiel 37:21-25.

 

                “21 “Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22  and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. 23 “They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

            “24 “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. 25  "They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever.”

 

            We will continue on this subject in our next SD, but I want to say that a long time ago, probably when I had been a believer a short time that while listening to sermons by Hal Lindsey, who was the only one that I would listen to after I became a believer for a long time, that he stated that when Israel became a nation in 1948 that their leader asked the question what shall we name out nation.  Now he asked that question because Israel was divided between the northern and southern kingdoms when they were destroyed.  Verse 22 was the verse that they looked at and thus named the nation Israel, and that is the name they have had since May of 1948.  Now let me say that, as we will look more to this truth in our next SD that this prophecy speaks of the millennial kingdom.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God will keep His promises and do it in His time no matter what people think, as God is in complete control.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  This comes from a SD that I just posted on my other blog, and it has to do with when Paul became a believer.  The Lord told Him that He had plans for him to do, and I stated that the Lord has plans for all of His children to do and it is my desire to do the plans that He has for me to do, and I believe that one of the plans that He has for me is to study the Word of God and put what I lean onto my blogs in order to bring glory to the Lord as others read them.

 

9/14/2023 11:22 AM