SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/5/2023 8:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Intro to Matthew 23:34-36”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 23:34-46
Message of the verses: “34 "Therefore,
behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you
will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues,
and persecute from city to city, 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, whom you murdered between the temple
and the altar. 36 “Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this
generation.”
It is my desire to finish this introduction today as
it has taken longer than I have expected, but as I mentioned this is a very,
very important chapter in Matthew’s gospel as it shows us that Jesus is giving
up on Israel, giving up on them because they have rejected Him as that their
Messiah, but not giving up on saving people out of the children of Israel as
there will always be a remnant of them being saved in the church age.
We
can see that truth in what I just wrote as I quote a paragraph from MacArthur’s
commentary. “The scribes and Pharisees,
and with them most of Israel, were about to fill up the limit of their
sin. When man irrevocably rejects God,
God irrevocably rejects him, giving him over to his own willful wickedness. When men ‘did not see fit to acknowledge God
any longer, Paul says, “God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those
things which are not proper,…and, although they know the ordinance of God, that
those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same,
but also give hearty approval of those who practice them’ (Rom. 1:28, 32). Because Pharaoh had irrevocably hardened his
heart against God, God confirmed that hardening (Ex. 9:34-35; cf. 4:21; 7:3,
13; 10:1). When Judas had irrevocably committed
himself to betraying Christ, Jesus told him, ‘What you do, do quickly’ (John 13:27),
not approving what Judas had determined to do but divinely confirming that
decision.”
These
are very hard truths to understand, but nonetheless they are all true because
they are found in the Word of God.
As
one looks at the history of the world they will see that right from the
beginning when Cain killed Able that as long as there are righteous men in the
world that there have been persecutors and murders of righteous men. It will continue to go on until the end of
time that is time on this earth which will end at the end of the millennial
kingdom, and the reason is that we were all born wrong as a friend of mine once
said. Whenever a society has the
opportunity to express its hatred or righteousness, which reflects its hatred
of God, it will abuse and, if possible, destroy the righteous people who belong
to God.
MacArthur
concludes his introduction: “After Jesus
finished His series of seven curses against the scribes and Pharisees (vv.
13:33), He added another word of warning, declaring that their judgment was
both inevitable and imminent.” Lord
willing we will begin looking at the topic of “Judgment Was Inevitable,” from
verses 23:34-35 in our next SD.
11/5/2023 9:23 AM
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