SPIRITUAL DIRY FOR 9/24/2023 7:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Description of False
Spiritual Leaders”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
23:1- 7
Message of the verses: “1Then Jesus spoke
to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees
have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe,
but do not do according to
their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them. 4 "And
they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves
are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. 5 “But they do all
their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and
lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 “And they love the place of
honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 and respectful
greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi.”
It is plain to see who Jesus was speaking to as verse
one tells us that Jesus was “speaking o the multitudes and to His disciples.” The religious leaders were also listening to
Jesus and in particular the scribes and the Pharisees.” They were in earshot of what Jesus was
telling the crowd.
Here
is an important quote from John MacArthur:
“When the Jews returned to Palestine after the seventy years of
captivity in Babylon, the Scriptures for a while regained their central place
in Israel’s life and worship, humanly speaking due largely to revival under the
godly leaders Nehemiah and Ezra (see Neh. 8:1-8). Ezra was one of the first Jewish scribes in
the sense in which the title was used in Jesus’ day.
“An
ancient Jewish saying held that God gave the law to angels, angels have it to
Moses, Moses gave it to Joshua, Joshua gave it to the elders, the elders gave
it to the prophets, and the prophets gave it to the men of the synagogue who
were later called scribes. Over the
course of the years, those synagogue scribes became responsible no only for
copying and preserving but also for teaching and interpreting God’s law. There were no more prophets after the Exile,
and the scribes inherited the primary role of spiritual leadership in
Israel. In Jesus’ day scribes were found
among both the Pharisees and Sadducees but were more commonly associated with
the Pharisees.”
The
story gets very interesting, as I listened to the sermon that goes along this
section in MacArthur’s commentary. Lord
will we will continue to look at and try to complete this interesting story in
our next SD.
9/24/2023 8:08 AM
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