SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/9/2024 1:11 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Jesus’ Omniscience”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:31-32
Message of the verses: “31Then Jesus said
to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is
written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE
SCATTERED.’ 32 "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to
Galilee.’”
I want to begin by talking about the words “fall
away” and what it means in the Greek. It
“is a term from which scandal is
derived and has the literal meaning of setting a trap, snare, or stumbling
block. In Jesus’ day the word most often
was used metaphorically, as it always is in the New Testament. Jesus predicted that the disciples would soon
confront an obstacle that would make them stumble and fall away from their
loyalty to Him” writes John MacArthur.
Because
Jesus is omniscience He knew that all of the disciples would desert Him and that
they would be shocked and that they would be offended at His prediction of
their abandonment. Jesus knew that they
would fall away and the reason would be because of their fear of being
associated with Him, and that they would flee that very night, just as they did
as seen in verse 56 “56 ‘But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures
of the prophets.’ Then all the disciples left Him and fled.”
Jesus would face the cross with courage and valor
that were distinctly divine; however the disciples would be fleeing with
typically human fear and cowardice. Even
as Jesus faced sin, death, and Satan for them, they would risk nothing for
Him. In saying this I know something of
what they were going through as I believe all believers do at certain points in
their life.
MacArthur
writes “It was as if Jesus was seated at the control booth of a television
studio monitoring prerecorded events on a large bank of screens before Him and
determining which would be aired at a given time. Every event of that night, just as every
event of His entire life, was under God’s direct divine authority. No act was accidental and no word was
incidental. He not only knew exactly
what He Himself would do but what the disciples, the religious and political
leaders, the soldiers, and the multitudes would do. He could see every movement as if it had
already transpired and hear every word as if it had already been spoken.”
There
were those in that day, and even in our day that think that Jesus lost His
majesty and dignity by what He went through, but Matthew portrayal of Jesus not
loosing those things is seen in his writing about what really happened. I can say that Matthew came a very long way
from leaving his tax collectors booth and writing this wonderful gospel about
our Lord. It is good incentive for me
and should be for all believers to continue to grow in our walk with the Lord.
“Awake,
O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,’ Declares the
LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I
will turn My hand against the little ones.”
This is Zechariah 13:7 and it is the verse that Jesus is referring to as
this verse predicted the desertion that He had just mentioned. Now in
quoting the Old Testament prophecy Jesus assured the disciples that their
abandonment of Him, just as Judas’ betray, was part of the eternal plan of
God. I know that this statement is true,
and yet humaningly speaking it is very hard to understand.
I
will close this SD with a rather long quotation from MacArthur commentary on
these verses and then, Lord willing will finish this section in my next SD.
“Without
Jesus’ explanation, the Zechariah passage would have been impossible for the
disciples to have understood correctly.
Zechariah’s prediction was veiled, and its meaning could not have been
discerned apart from the Lord’s own interpretation. Zechariah was speaking about idolatrous false
prophets whom the Lord would remove from among His people, but some of whom would
renounce their deceitful practices (13:2-6).
But in verse 7 the attention turns abruptly to a man the Lord calls ‘My
Shepherd,…the man. May Associate.’ ‘The
man, My Associate’ could be rendered ‘the might man of My union’ or ‘the might
man equal to Me,’ clearly indicating that this person also was deity. It is against this divine Shepherd-Associate
that God commanded the sword to be struck:
‘Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered.’”
5/9/2024 1:57 PM
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