SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2023 9:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Abomination of Desolation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 24:15
Message of the verse: “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),”
Yesterday when I was walking my five miles I
listened to John MacArthur’s sermon on this verse. At the beginning of his sermon he did a
review of what he had been teaching before this verse, but then took the
remaining time to talk only about this verse.
I had thought of just quoting what he said in that sermon, but perhaps
it is better to just quote from his commentary what he has to say about this
verse. I do like the idea of a review
and so perhaps it would be good to quote that part of his sermon today, and
then quote from what he has written in his commentary beginning tomorrow. I have mentioned before that it is my desire
to get the truth out of what I am studying in the Bible, and if that means
quoting from people I trust so be it since that will get the truth out to those
who read these Spiritual Diaries on my blogs.
I begin part way into MacArthur’s sermon to get the
review he spoke of.
“Now,
what brought about this sermon? Why is He preaching this sermon and
to whom is He preaching it in chapter 24? Let me tell you
why. Jesus has entered into the last week of His earthly
life. Friday He will die. So He doesn’t have much time
left. He spent all day in the temple. He cleansed it on
Tuesday, threw out the money changers and the buyers and sellers and
purged it outwardly. And once He had cleansed it on
Tuesday, then He could go back to it and not be defiled by
it. So He did that. He took His disciples and He taught all
day. The teaching was public, to begin with, as He taught the
multitude that teemed into the place because of the week of the
Passover. But after some of His teaching, the leaders of Israel
were upset so they stopped Him in His tracks and they started to ask Him
questions. The first of which was: By what authority do You do
these things? Who gave You permission to teach the way You’re
teaching and to do what You’re doing? And that engaged Him in a
dialogue that went on for the rest of the day with these false Jewish
leaders.
“The
result of that dialogue, basically, was an opportunity for Him to
articulate the fact that God was now setting Israel aside. For centuries,
the nation Israel had been the custodian of God’s Word, the custodian of
God’s truth. But all of that was going to change because
God was going to take the kingdom away from them and give it to a
people who were more worthy than they. In fact, He said that in
chapter 21 verse 43 as explicitly as it could be said. “The kingdom
of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits of it” – “a people bringing forth the fruits of it.” He
was saying to the Jewish religious leaders, “You are no more to be called
God’s people in the national sense. You are no more to be custodians
of God’s truth.” Now, as we learn in Romans 11, this was
only a temporary setting aside, but nonetheless a real setting
aside. He says to them, “The kingdom will be given to a people
who bring forth the proper fruit.”
“And
then in chapter 22, remember, also in His encounter with the
leaders, He gave them a parable about a wedding feast held by a king for
his son, and all the invited guests – who symbolize Israel – refused to
come. And verse 7 says: “When the king heard that” –
chapter 22 – “he was angry, sent out his armies, destroyed those
murderers, and burned up their city.” In other words, God is
going to move out in judgment against a people who refused to come to the
wedding feast of His Son. And then, in verse 9: “He told his
servants; Go to the highways and as many as you find, bring them to
the marriage.” And so a new people is brought in to be the
special custodians of God’s Word and God’s truth. And Ichabod,
the glory has departed, is written for a time on the nation Israel.
“The
sum of it comes at the end of chapter 23 in verse 37, in Jesus’ last
public sermon, His last message to the populous of Israel. His
final word to the religious leaders: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets and stonest them who are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under wings and you would not. Behold your house is
left unto you ruined, desolate.” Empty waste. That is the
final statement of judgment on Israel for the rejection of the
Messiah. That is it. He has indicted them, indicted their
leaders, and by indicting the leaders, indicted all the people who followed
the leaders. And now says their house is left desolate –
Ichabod, the glory is departing. God is moving away to another
people from Israel.
“But
I’m so glad the sermon didn’t end with verse 38. In verse 39 He
said: “For I say unto you, you shall not see Me henceforth until you
shall say, ‘Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’”
That’s a Messianic epithet. When Jesus rode into the city and they
cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they said: “Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That is a Messianic
affirmation. And He says to them, “You’ll not see Me again until you
recognize Me as your Messiah.
“That’s
very hopeful, isn’t it? Because that tells us that even
though Israel is laid waste and even though the nation is desolate
because of the rejection of Messiah, there will come a day when indeed
they will recognize their Messiah and say: “Blessed is He that comes
in the name of the Lord.” It’s what Zechariah saw when he said: “They
will look on Him whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as for an only
son.” So yes, the house of Israel is desolate, but yes, there
is a future time when they will recognize their Messiah.
“Now,
you have to imagine the disciples at this point because they’re listening
to all of this. They hear the sermon, which devastates the
system of religion in Israel. They see Jesus cleanse the
temple, and they know He’s bringing to an end that evil, hypocritical
system. They hear Him talking about destruction in chapter 24 verse
2, how that the temple is going to be razed – R-A-Z-E-D – to the
ground, and there won’t be one stone left upon another, but the whole
thing will be thrown down. That’s exactly what happened to the very
letter. And so they see Him come sweeping in with all of these
statements about devastation and destruction. Does this bother
them? Not really. Because as we pointed out in our previous
study, you remember, that if any disciple was a student of
Scripture, he would know that in the great kingdom of Messiah, there
was going to be a new temple, the temple of Ezekiel 40 to
48, that glorious temple. Not this temple built by a
non-Jew, Idumean king by the name of Herod but a temple that had the
qualities of that glorious temple seen in Ezekiel 40 to
48. So they would not have had a problem with Him razing the temple
to the ground. They would not have had a problem with Him
devastating the hypocritical religion – the prophets said that was going
to happen. The prophets said the nation had to be purified.
“So
when they hear Jesus say, “This temple is coming down, and you’re not
going to see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name
of the Lord.’” Their idea is that He’s going to knock that
temple down very soon and be back in full Messianic presence to set up His
kingdom because, you see, they see no gap between the first and second
coming. The Old Testament prophets didn’t delineate a first
coming, a long time, and then a second coming; they just bunched it
all into one thing. That’s why the time in between is known as the
mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. They didn’t see that
there was a first coming, going back to heaven, thousands of
years, then a second coming. No, they saw it all at once. Their
eschatology said Messiah comes, Messiah judges His enemies and the
ungodly, Messiah cleanses Israel, He purges the temple, He gathers
the elect, and He sets up His kingdom. And so they could see
all of this happening in days or weeks.”
It
looks like I will have to finish this quotation in my next SD.
12/19/2023 9:58 AM
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