SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/20/2024 11:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Setting the Time”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:17-19
Message of the verses: “17 Now on the
first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked,
"Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?" 18 And
He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher
says, "My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house
with My disciples."’" 19 The disciples did as Jesus had directed
them; and they prepared the Passover.”
Now I have heard a lot of theories as to what day of
the week all of the things that happened to Jesus that were a part of the last
days of His life and to be honest most of them seem like that they could be
right. John MacArthur believes that
Psalm Sunday actually took place on Monday and because I have been following his
outline I will stick with that timetable.
So it was probably early Thursday morning that the disciples came to
Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the
Passover?" Now we have already
talked earlier about the lamb was already selected before this verse was
spoken, probably several days earlier, but the disciples had numerous other
preparations to make. The disciples
would have taken care of slaughtering the lamb by having a priest at the Temple
do this “which, as explained below, could be done only between the hours of
three and five in the afternoon. If they
had not already done so, they would have to buy unleavened bread, wine, bitter
herbs, and the dip for the Passover meal” writes John MacArthur. I have to say
that this all sounds to me to be fairly complicated, but that is the way that
God had set this up all the way back when Israel was about to leave Egypt many
years before.
I
will continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary in order to help me and
those who read this understand more about what was going on. “Each part of the meal was symbolic of some
aspect of the deliverance from Egypt.
Just as lambs had been slaughtered that long-ago night in Egypt and
their blood sprinkled on the door posts to protect the firstborn from the death
angel, so lambs were not slaughtered and their blood sprinkled on the
altar. Likewise, the lamb was cooked and
fully eaten the same evening, just as in Egypt.
The four cups of wine served during the meal symbolized God’s four
promises to His ancient people just before their deliverance from Egypt: “I will bring you out from under the burdens
of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched
arm and with great judgments. Then I
will take you for My people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:6-7).
“The bowl into which the unleavened bread, the
bitter herbs, and sometimes the bare hands were dipped (see Matt. 26:23)
contained a paste called charoseth, composed
of finely ground apples, dates, pomegranates, and nuts. That thick, brownish mixture was perhaps
symbolic of the mud and clay used in the making of bricks for the
Egyptians. Sticks of cinnamon,
representing the straw used for the brick making, were also sometimes added to
the charoseth. Into this mixture the
bitter herbs would be dipped and eaten, as reminiscent of the bitterness of
bondage coupled with the sweetness of deliverance.” I may seem a bit unusual that I am writing
about the Passover when that is what is being celebrated today by the Jews
everywhere today.
“The
Passover lamb was to be slain at “twilight” (Ex. 12:6), which translates a
Hebrew term literally meaning ‘between the two evenings.’ Josephus explains that time as being between
the ninth and eleventh hours of the Jewish day, which would be between three
and five o’clock in the afternoon. After
being slaughtered by the priest in the Temple court and having had some of its blood
sprinkled on the altar, the lamb would then be taken home, roasted whole, and
eaten in the special evening meal with the unleavened bread, bitter herbs,
charoseth, and wine. Any of it that was
not eaten before morning was to be burned (Ex. 12:8-10).
“It
is likely that by this time, that is, Thursday morning, the disciples would
have bought the herbs, fruit, nuts, unleavened bread, and wine. But they did not as yet have a place to eat
the meal, which had to be done within the city limits of Jerusalem. For obvious reasons, rooms suitable for
eating a Passover meal were at a premium.
Perhaps thinking that Jesus already had arranged for a room, the
disciples asked Him “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the
Passover?"
“Jesus’ answer no doubt was more than a little
perplexing to the two disciples, identified by Luke as Peter and John (Luke
22:8; cf. Mark 14:13), who were sent to take care of the matter.
“First
of all they were to go into the city and find a certain man, obviously someone
they did not know. From the other two
synoptic gospels we learn that the man would be carrying a pitcher of water
(Mark 14:13; Luke 22:10). That would
have set him apart noticeably for identification, because it was highly unusual
for a man to carry such a domestic article.
“When
the man was found, the disciples were to say to him, ‘The Teacher says,
"My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My
disciples." The man carrying
the water pitcher was probably a servant
in the house where the meal was to be eaten.
Therefore when Peter and John followed the servant home, they repeated
Jesus’ words to the owner, who then showed them ‘a large upper room furnished
and ready’ (Mark 14:14-15).”
I have over four more pages to quote from this
event, and so I will just continue doing this over the next few days beginning
with tomorrow.
4/20/2024 12:20 PM
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