SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/14/2024 9:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Fickle Wicked”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
27:39-40
Message of the verses: “39 And those
passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying,
"You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three
days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
MacArthur writes the following, and to me this is a
very important paragraph to not only help us understand what these fickle
wicked were doing but what people are doing in the world today.
“But although they were
grateful for His miracles and awed by His preaching, they had no desire for Him
to cleanse them of cherished sins or to give Him control of their lives. They had expected Him to be their kind of
Messiah, a Messiah who would overthrow Rome and establish Israel as sovereign
over the Gentile world. The fact that He
had allowed Himself to be arrested, mocked, beaten, scourged, and tried before
the pagan Pilate while offering no verbal, much less miraculous, defense was
proof enough in their minds that He was not the Messiah whom they, and most of
Israel, wanted and expected.”
What
Jesus went through in dying on the cross was predicted in the Old Testament,
and there were some in Israel who knew about this because they knew about what
time that the Messiah would come for this can be seen in the OT writings of
Daniel, Nehemiah, Isaiah, and other places like the Psalms. Daniel chapter nine has one of the most fascinating
prophecies found in the Old Testament and the first part of the chapter is
Daniel’s prayer for he knew that the time of Israel’s captivity in Babylon was
about to end and wanted to know what would happen in the future. He begins by praying and asking the Lord to
forgive his sins, (although there is no sin of Daniel found in the Word of God,
but he knew all sinned), and for this sins of his people Israel. He did not get to even end his prayer as seen
beginning in the 20th verse of Daniel nine: “20 Now while I was speaking and praying, and
confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my
supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, 21
while I was still speaking in prayer,
then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my
extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 22 He gave me instruction
and talked with me and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you
insight with understanding” (Dan. 9:20-22). This
highlighted 22nd verse is very important to set the stage for what
Gabriel would tell Daniel about the future.
I have written on this prophecy in my Spiritual Diaries many times, but
it seems to fit for what was going on with Jesus and those who did not believe that
He is the Messiah then. In the remaining
verses in the 9th chapter of Daniel Gabriel tells Daniel about a
prophecy that would be a total of 490 years.
Now you have to understand that these years are lunar years which have
360 days in them. Let me tell you how
many days there are in 490 years, 176400 days.
The following tells us when this prophecy would begin: “1 And it came about in the month Nisan, in
the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I
took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his
presence. 2 So the king
said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing
but sadness of heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king,
"Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city,
the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed
by fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What would you
request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 I said to the king, "If
it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to
Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it" (Neh.
2:1-5). Once again notice the
highlighted section as once Nehemiah got the permission to go and rebuild the
city of Jerusalem, the gates and the walls, that this would begin this prophecy
of 490 years. Let us now again look at
Daniel chapter nine to show that this was what would happen to begin this prophecy. “24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your
people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin,
to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal
up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 25 “So you are to know and discern that
from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the
Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be
built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress” (Dan
9:24-25). The first thing that we have
to understand that the seventy weeks are weeks of years which as mentioned are
490 years. Now notice the highlighted
section of verse 25 which gives us the starting point of these years “from the issuing of a decree to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be
seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
Seven weeks means 49 years and 62 weeks is 434 years, with a total of
483 years. Now let us go on and look at
what will happen after these 483 years from Daniel’s prophecy. “26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the
Messiah will be cut off
and have nothing,” (9:26a). Cut off (highlighted)
means to die. So from the time that
Nehemiah was given permission to go and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, the
walls, and the gates there will be 483 years or 173,880 days. Now when did this prophecy end, that is when
did the 483 years end, and that can be seen from the 19th chapter of
Luke as we read “37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the
Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully
with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting:
"BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest!" 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to
Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." 40 But Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these
become silent, the stones will cry out!" (Luke 19:37-40). This section describes what is commonly called
Psalm Sunday, where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, but as Luke describes
it we can see that this day ends the 483 years of Daniels prophecy because
Jesus was rejected by Israel at this time and as we see in our verses for today
Jesus is on the cross. Notice the
highlighted portion of verse forty and what Jesus said for if the people had
not said what they said in verse 38 which was only to be said when the Messiah
came, and that is why the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke His disciples, but
then in the highlighted part of verse 40 Jesus answers by telling them if this
portion of Ps 118:26 Blessed is the one
who comes in the name of the
LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.” This verse was only to be said when the
Messiah came and the Pharisees knew it and that is why they told Jesus to
rebuke His disciples.
There
is more to this prophecy from Daniel chapter nine as we look at the end of the
26th verse “and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy
the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to
the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27 “And he will make a
firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will
put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will
come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is
decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate’ (9:26b-27).” Briefly this last verse and a half describes
what will happen during the last seven years of this great prophecy, and that
is that the Antichrist will arise from the people who destroyed the temple in
70 A. D. and this last seven years is what is called the Tribulation
period. Matthew 24-25 describes this and
we have already gone over that.
Revelation chapters 6-19 gives a great description of what will take
place during this period. I have to say
that with what is going on in the Middle East at this time certainly could
bring about a man who could stop this war that is going on at this time and
people would then want him to rule the world which is what all these prophecies
from Matthew and Revelation speak of along with Daniel 9:26b-27.
Ok
I got off on a rabbit hole, as sometimes it seems to me that these rabbit holes
are what the Lord wants me to write about.
I can say with assurance that I love the people of Israel and desire for
them to come to know their Messiah before the end of the church age which ends
with the rapture of the church, for after that what is described in Revelation
6-19 will come about along with Matthew 24-25 and this will be the worst time
to be alive on planet earth.
8/14/2024 10:28 AM
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