Wednesday, August 14, 2024

PT-2 "The Fickle Wicked" (Matt. 27:39-40)

 

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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