SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2023 8:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 24:1-3”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 And Jesus came
out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out
the temple buildings to Him. 2 And He answered and said to them, "Do you
not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left
upon another, which will not be torn down." 3 And as He was sitting on the
Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us,
when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and
of the end of the age?’”
I want to keep you up on a couple of things as I
continue on with this introduction to Matthew 24:1-2. First the title in John MacArthur’s
commentary for this chapter is “The Signs of Christ’s Coming –part 1 The
Background.” Next, we begin today
looking at a sub-section entitled “PROPHETIC EXPECTTATIONS IN JUDAISM.”
“PROPHETIC
EXPECTATATIONS IN JUDAISM”
I
want to say that I have read over this chapter in the gospel of Matthew many
times and have always had a problem understanding this first paragraph of the
chapter, which is what we are looking at in these Spiritual Diaries for some time.
John
MacArthur addresses this problem that I am having as he begins this section on
prophetic expectations in Judaism which I will quote from his commentary in
order to best understand what is needed to understand from the disciples
question to Jesus. Let me explain further, and that is it is my goal for people
who read my blogs to understand the truth of the Word of God, and so when I
come to sections like this one at the beginning of looking at the introduction
of Matthew 24:1-3 I will usually quote the entire section so that those who
read this will understand what is needed to understand as a background into the
passages. This will take a few days in
order to get through this introduction, but it is necessary in order to
understand this very important chapter that we are beginning.
“In
order to understand better the disciples’ question on this occasion it is
necessary to know something of the basic hopes and aspirations of the Judaism
of that day. As always, the historical
setting is an important key to the context.
Throughout history people have had a strong desire to know the future,
and few societies have been without their seers, mediums, fortune-tellers, and
other prognosticators. By various means,
all of them deceitful and many of them demonic, such futurists have offered
gullible inquires purported revelations of what lies ahead. Although the Mosaic law strictly forbade
consulting mediums and soothsayers (Deut. 18:9-14), Israelites had frequently
fallen prey to them, the most prominent instances being that of King Saul’s consulting the medium of Endor (1 Sam.
28:3-25; see also 2 Kings 21:6).
“There
is no evidence that many Jews of Jesus’ day were guilty of Saul’s offense, but
they did have an intense interest in the future. They were tired of being under
the domination of pagan oppressors and were eager for the divinely promised
deliverance of their Messiah. The Jews
were a noble, highly intelligent, and highly gifted people who, humanly
speaking, were entirely capable of competent self-rule. Yet for many centuries that had been subdued
by one foreign tyrant after another. The
northern ten tribes had been conquered by Assyria in 722 B. C., and the
southern two tribes fell to Babylon in 586 B. C. Following that were conquests by the
Medo-Persian, the Greeks, and finally the Romans.
“In
their own minds, however, the Jews had always been their own people and had
never truly been subjugated to any foreign ruler. It was that abiding and sometimes arrogant
spirit of independence even in the midst of oppression that induced some of the
Jews to declare before Jesus in the Temple, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and
have never yet been enslaved to anyone” (John 8:33). They knew all too well, of course, that
outwardly they were indeed enslaved, and freedom from that enslavement was the
overriding passion of most Jews.
Although the majority of them were not associated with the militant
Zealots, they all yearned for Rome to be overthrown and for Israel to become a
free nation once again.
“The
Jews knew intimately the many Old Testament promises of future blessing,
deliverance, and prosperity. They knew
God had promised to vanquish all the enemies of His chosen people and to
establish His eternal kingdom of righteousness and justice on earth. They knew that the Lord’s Anointed One—His Messiah,
or Christ—would come and establish the rule and reign of David again on earth,
a reign of peace, prosperity, and safety that would never end. Their great longing was to see that day when
God restored the kingdom as He had promised.
“The
Jews therefore had great hope for the future.
They exulted as they read, “For a child will be born to us, a son will
be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name
will be called Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Eternal Father, Prince of
Peace. There will be no end to the
increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his
kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from
them on and forevermore. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will accomplish this” (Isa. 9:6-7). They thrilled at the promise that “a shoot
will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear
fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will
rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
strength, the spirit off knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Isa. 11:1-2).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have to say that I was right where the
disciples were in wanting to know the future when the Lord reached down and
used the preaching of a man name Hal Lindsey to open up the truth of the gospel
to me, to help me understand what was going to happen in the future with this
world that I am living on. This all
happened on the 26th of January 1974.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is and has always been my desire to tell
others what happened to me on that day in January almost fifty years ago, to
tell them the truth of the gospel which will then cause them to be born-again
and thus making them citizens of heaven.
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son
of God, so that you may know
that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
To know where you are going after you leave this earth is so very
important, and certainly affects the way that you live your life.
11/20/2023 9:49 AM
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