MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/24/2026
9:45 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Zachariahs’s Song of
Salvation –Part 3 The New Covenant”
Bible
Reading & Meditation
Focus: Luke 1:76-80
Message of the verses: “And you, child, will be called the
prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His
ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of
their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from
on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And the child continued to grow and to become
strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public
appearance to Israel.” (NASB)
I continue to quote from the introduction of John
MacArthur’s commentary on these verses above.
“In his farewell address to the
nation nearly forty years later as the wilderness wandering ended, Moses
described the blessings that would come from Obedience (Deut. 28:1-14),and
warned of the consequences of disobedience (vv. 15-68). As an object lesson, Moses commanded that
after Israel entered the Promised Land, half the tribes were to recite the
promised blessings of obedience from Mount Gerizim and the other six pronounce
the threatened curses for disobedience from Mount Ebal (Deut. 27:11-26). After the conquest of the land of Canaan,
Joshua, like Moses, also challenged Israel to obey:
“If it
is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today
whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were
beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Josh. 24:15) (NASB)
In
response ‘the people answered and said, ‘Far be it from us that we should
forsake the Lord to serve other gods’’ (v. 16).
When Joshua further cautioned them, ‘If you forsake the Lord and serve
foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done
good to you’ (v. 20) they protested, ‘No, but we will serve the Lord…We
will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice’ (vv. 21, 24).
“Again, those good intentions were not enough to keep
the people slipping into apostasy. ‘The
people served the Lord all the days of
Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all
the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel’ (Judges 2:7).
But after
10 And all that generation also were gathered to
their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know
the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in
the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. 12
And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought
them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods
of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked
the LORD to anger. 13 They abandoned the
LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14
So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them
over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their
surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
15 Whenever they marched out, the hand
of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD
had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.” (Judges 2:10-15) (ESV)
“Israel’s situation thus seemed hopeless. Were they never to receive the promised
blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants? Could they somehow be forgiven for violating
the Mosaic covenant and granted the means to obey? What they desperately needed
was for God to provide another covenant that would provide both forgiveness and
the power to obey. That really
underscores the need for the New covenant—the personal work of God to forgive
sin, cleanse the heart, and provide spiritual power.” Now if you are looking for more detail
exposition of the theological aspects of the New Covenant see the commentary
that John MacArthur wrote on 2 Corinthians pages 93-117.
“Zacharias, a true believer in the
Lord God, and a student of the Old Testament Scripture, understood the
covenants and their fulfillment through the Messiah to come. His response to the announcement of a son to
be Messiah’s forerunner was to break out in praise for the inevitable
fulfillment of the Messianic covenants.
He had already referred to the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants.” We already
looked at that when we looked at verses 67-75 in earlier SDs. “God would end four centuries of revelatory
silence. John’s ministry would be to go
before the Lord to prepare His ways, in fulfillment of God’s promise
through Malachi, ‘Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear
the way for Me’ (Mal. 3:1; cf. 4:5).” “5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”
“He was ‘the
one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in
the wilderness, ‘make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!’’’
(Matt. 3:3). John’s mission was to
prepare the people for Messiah’s arrival.
To that end he ‘preach[ed] a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins’ (Luke 3:3), and his uncompromising message was that people
should ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matt. 3:2). John also challenged the legitimacy of
some of his hearers repentance:
“7
¶ But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We
have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to
raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even
now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (vv. 3:7-10” (ESV)
“John’s message ran counter to the popular conception
of the Messiah. The people were looking
for a conquering hero, who would defeat their enemies, establish his throne,
and usher in the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic
covenants. That is why the crowd wanted
to make Jesus king after He miraculously fed the five thousand (John 6:14-15).”
“14 When the people saw the sign that
he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the
world!” 15 ¶ then that they were about to come and take
him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” “But before realizing the blessings of
those covenants they needed to face the reality of their sin, repent, and seek
the forgiveness provided only in the New covenant, already in operation,
through ratified by our Lord on the cross.
In God’s timeless, eternal view He applied the death of the Savior
through all redemptive history to those who repented and sought His salvation
by grace.” This ends the introduction to
these last verse found in the first chapter of Luke chapter one, and as I have
copied the commentary from John MacArthur it surely brings back great memories
to me, and has taught me new things.
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: To remember the cost that God gave
to me through the death, burial and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord to help me to
live a life that is very pleasing to Him, who has given me salvation through
Jesus Christ my Lord as He suffered and paid for my salvation on the cross,
then was buried and three days later arose from the dead to show that what He
did pleased God. For this I am very
thankful!!
3/24/2026
10:56 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment