PT-2 “The Contrast Between the Hypocrisy of Men and the Prophecy of God.” (Matt. 27:6-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2024 9:53 AM

 

My Worship Time      Focus: PT-2 “The Contrast Between the Hypocrisy of Men and the Prophecy of God.”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Matthew 27:6-10

 

            Message of the verses:  “6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood." 7 And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. 8 For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "AND THEY TOOK THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, THE PRICE OF THE ONE WHOSE PRICE HAD BEEN SET by the sons of Israel; 10 AND THEY GAVE THEM FOR THE POTTER’S FIELD, AS THE LORD DIRECTED ME.’”

 

            Let us begin by looking at verse seven as “they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers.”  This was a good will gesture to the public and also to pacify their own consciences.  These Jewish leaders, the priests and others came up with the idea of buying a field where potters had collected clay to use in their trade.  Perhaps the clay was depleted and the field was available for a rather cheap price.  Perhaps these religious leaders may have reasoned that they would use the defiled money to buy a defiled and useless field in which to bury defiled strangers, a term often used by Jews as a euphemism for Gentiles, the ones that they hated.  Or perhaps the field may have been used to bury any traveler who died while visiting Jerusalem, especially those who were indigent.

 

            It was for that reason that Matthew explains that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day, as seen in verse eight.  Now remember that Matthew’s gospel was written some 30 years after these events took place. By then the Potter’s Field had come t be called the Field of Blood, because it was common knowledge that it had been purchased with blood money.  And by that name, the entire city testified to Jesus’ innocence, acknowledging that He had been falsely accused, falsely condemned, and falsely executed.

 

            Now we move on to verses nine and ten “9 Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "AND THEY TOOK THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, THE PRICE OF THE ONE WHOSE PRICE HAD BEEN SET by the sons of Israel; 10 AND THEY GAVE THEM FOR THE POTTER’S FIELD, AS THE LORD DIRECTED ME.’”

 

            John MacArthur writes “The fact that this quotation comes from Zechariah 11:12-13 and not from the book of Jeremiah has caused some interpreters to accuse Matthew of error.  Others have tried to relate the quotation to sections of Jeremiah 18 or 19, although it clearly does not fit.  The explanation is found in the Jewish division of the Old Testament into three sections—the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets.  In the rabbinical order of the prophetic category was sometimes referred to as Jeremiah, just as the entire section of the Writings was sometimes referred to as the Psalms, its opening book.  Spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was therefore the equivalent of saying, ‘recorded in the prophetic books.’

 

            “Like every other incident in the life of our Lord, that one did not catch God by surprise but was a precise fulfillment of specific prophecy in His omniscient plan.  Even in Judas’s death, God’s Word was honored and the Lord Jesus Christ was glorified.”

 

7/17/2024 10:15 AM