SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/10/2023 8:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Judgment Was Imminent”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 23:36
Message of the verse: “Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.”
I
want to talk for a moment about what we looked at in the last verse, verse 35a
which says 35 that upon you may fall the guilt of
all the righteous blood shed on earth,
from the blood of righteous Abel
to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.” Now as we move to verse 36 and look at the
words “all these things,” this
is talking about the multiplied guilt and judgment that unbelieving mankind had
been accumulating since the Fall, which was about to come down upon the head of
this generation. MacArthur writes “There
is no reason to believe Jesus was speaking any way but historically when He
spoke of this generation. It would be
that generation who would experience the total destruction of Jerusalem and the
Temple less than forty years later, in A. D. 70, a time Jesus called the ‘days
of vengeance’ (Luke 21:22). He had in
mind not only those to whom He was then speaking but all other false leaders
and unbelieving Jews living at that time—in other words, the nation of Israel
as a whole. In a tragic chronicle, its
people have continued in suffering from then until now.”
In this section from MacArthur’s commentary he goes over
a lot of history of what happened to the Jewish people and certainly none of it
was good. From around 66 A.D. all the
way up to the Second World War the Jewish people have had many difficult things
happen to them, and millions of them were killed, and the reason was that they
had a chance to accept their Messiah, but instead killed Him. I realize that when you look at this as the
plan of God for Christ to die, but those who killed Him were still accountable
for this happening. I am not sure if
what I am about to write is something that I can prove to be true, but as I
look at the plan of God, and it was His plan for Christ to die, for that was
the only way that anyone could receive salvation as He paid it all in order for
a person to realize that they are a sinner, and realize that they can do
nothing about this on their own, and then realize that Jesus took their penalty
on Him during those three dark hours as He hung on the cross and received our
punishment from His Father so that we can have eternal life. Now as I said there is something that I really
don’t understand and that is that I believe that there is a difference between
the will of God and the plan of God. I
think that I will leave it at that so that whoever reads this can just think
about it.
Now
needless to say I am not going to go over all of the terrible history of the
things that happened to the Jews that began in 66 A. D. and then in 70 A.D. Titus
and the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem and burned down the Temple, something
that was prophesied in Deuteronomy 28. I
will begin with verse 64 and go to the end of the chapter. I will highlight some things that I want to
point out, and will write about them.
64 “Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples,
from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall
serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 “Among
those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for
the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart,
failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 “So your life shall hang in doubt
before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance
of your life. 67 “In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’
And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the
dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you
will see. 68 "The
LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to
you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for
sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no
buyer." This is exactly what happened to the Jews after
their city and Temple were destroyed as they went to Egypt to offer themselves
as slaves, but there were so many slaves on the slave market that no one would
buy them.
Lord
willing in the next SD we will look at “Jesus’ Last Words to Israel” from
Matthew 23:37-39. This is the last
chapter in the third commentary from John MacArthur which will end with this 23rd
chapter of Matthew, and then we will go over chapters 24-25 which are
prophecies of things that will come, mostly in the Tribulation period. I am looking forward to that.
On
the 16th of this month we will have completed four years in studying
the book of Matthew, with perhaps one more year to go before it is
finished. This is a very remarkable
gospel record and I have enjoyed studying it for this last four years. Thanks to all who have read different portions
of these Spiritual Diaries on Matthew.
11/10/2023 9:29 AM
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