PT-2 "The Inadequate Answer" (Matt. 22:42b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2023 9:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “The Inadequate Answer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 22:42b

 

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

 

            In our last SD we looked at a number of verses from the Old Testament about David that were saying that there was a greater Son of David coming, and ended up by looking at Ezekiel 37:21-25. 

 

            MacArthur writes “Starting at the millennial kingdom and sweeping into eternity, David’s greater Son, often called David by extension of the ancestral name, will rule and everlasting kingdom.  “When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch,” the Lord said, “He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.  In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness’” (Jer. 23:5-6).”

 

            As we have been studying the gospel of Matthew we have noticed that Matthew focuses on Jesus’ being the Son of David.  Matthew begins with an abbreviated genealogy that establishes Jesus’ direct lineage from David (1:6; cf. Luke 3:31).  Matthew reports Jesus’ frequently being hailed by various individuals and groups as the Son of David.  An example comes from the two blind men in Galilee who cried out to Him, “Have mercy on us, Son of David” (9:27), and this clearly acknowledges Him as the promised Messiah, the Christ.  In Matthew 20:30 we see two more blind men that Jesus runs into as He was leaving Jericho, and they say to Him in a plea “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.”  Another story comes from Matthew 12:23 which involves the healing off the demon possessed man who was also bind and dumb, “all the multitudes were amazed, and began to say, This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?.”  What they were really asking “Can this man be the promised Messiah?  So we can see that the multitudes had acclaimed Jesus as the Son of David that the religious leaders we so indignant, because He was being hailed as the Messiah and would not renounce the acclaim that was given to Him.  “9 The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:9).  “15  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant 16  and said to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?" (Matthew 21:15-16).

 

            I will end this SD and this section with two paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary on Matthew.  “It was partly because Jesus’ lineage from David was incontestable that the Jewish authorities were so distressed.  Until the Temple was destroyed in A. D. 70, meticulous genealogical records of all Jews were kept there.  That information not only was essential to establish levitical and priestly lineage, for the men as well as for their wives, but for many other purposes as well.  No one could hold a position of responsibility in Israel whose genealogy was unverified.  It is therefore certain that the authorities had carefully checked Jesus’ genealogy and discovered that His descent from David was legitimate.  Otherwise, they would simply have exposed Him as having no claim to Davidic heritage and all discussion about His possible messiahship would have ended.

 

            “Yet true as it was that the Christ would be the Son of David, that answer was partial and inadequate.  Rather than that title’s being too great for Jesus, as the Jewish leaders contended, it was much too limited.  As He proceeded to explain, the Messiah had a claim to greatness that far exceeded His descent from David.”

 

            A couple of things that I want to say and the first is the next section we will look at from Matthew 22:43-45 will help us better understand that the greater Son of David was indeed the Messiah, and the Messiah would be both David’s Son and David’s Lord.  Next it was mentioned that all the records that were found in the Temple were destroyed in A. D. 70, and yet when we look at the book of Revelation we find that there will be 144,000 Jewish evangelists, 12,000 from each tribe of Israel who will be preaching during the tribulation period.  I can only say that God knows the genealogy of the people of Israel even though it was destroyed in the destruction of the Temple in A. D. 70.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that God knows the beginning from the end and even more thankful that I am His child, bought with the blood of Jesus Christ the true Son of David as He died on the cross to bring redemption for me, and for all who will be saved.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to work in my heart to do the things that He has planned for me to do from eternity past.  Trust the Lord to keep me from sin, and to serve Him each and every day.

 

9/15/2023 10:28 AM