EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/16/2026
8:54 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“The
Response”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke 7:16-17
Message of the verses: “Fear gripped them all, and they began
glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has
visited His people!” This report
concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.”
I can’t imagine seeing what these people who were
about to bury this young man thought when the Lord Jesus Christ raised him from
the dead. Let us look at the word “Fear”
which in the Greek is phobos; the source of the English word ‘Phobia.’ This fear gripped…all who had witnessed
it. These people were traumatized,
overwhelmed with terror at the manifestation of God’s presence and power. MacArthur then adds these verse references
(cf. Ex. 3:6; Judg. 13:20-22; Isa. 6:5; Ezek. 1:28; Matt. 17:1-6; Mark 4:41;
Rev. 1:17). In response, they began
glorifying God (cf. 2:13-14, 20; 5:26; 13:13; 17:18; 18:43) and affirming
that God had visited His people.
Now in the Old Testament, that phrase refers to God coming to help
His people (Ruth 1:6; 1 Sam. 2:21; Ps. 106:4; Zech. 10:3; cf. Luke 1:68,
78). The people of Israel had been
longing for such a visitation for four centuries, during which time God had
been silent. Now they realized that God
had indeed visited them, for only the creator can give life to the dead.
MacArthur writes “The point of the
miracle was to comfort this brokenhearted woman, not to garner publicity for
Jesus. Nevertheless this report (that
God had visited His people) concerning Him went out far (all over
Judea; representing here the entire land of Israel) and near (all
the surrounding district around Nain).
“But the sad reality is that they
missed the point that God was actually present in the person of Jesus
Christ. To them, He was nothing more
than a great prophet who had arisen among them, like Elijah and
Elisha, both of whom raised a dead person by the power of God (1 Kings
17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:18:15-18—the Messiah, God in human flesh.
“At the close of His earthly
ministry, Jesus lamented the opportunity Israel had missed by failing to
recognize who He truly is:
41 When He approached Jerusalem,
He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If
you had known on this day, even you, the conditions for peace!
But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 For
the days will come upon you [u]when your enemies will put up a [v]barricade against you, and surround you
and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will
level you to the ground, and throw down your children within
you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon [w]another, because you did not
recognize the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)
As a
result of Israel’s rejection, God took ‘from among the Gentiles a people for
His name’ (Acts 15:14), while Israel remains largely spiritually blind (Rom.
10:1-3; 2 Cor. 3:15).”
“In contrast to those who witnessed
the resurrection at Nain that day, Martha, Lazarus’s sister understood the
implication of her brother’s imminent resurrection. After Jesus declared, ‘I am the resurrection
and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who
lives and believes in Me will never die’ (John 11:25-26). Martha affirmed her conviction that He was
indeed the Messiah: ‘Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the
Son of God, even He who comes into the world’ (v. 27).
“That alone is the correct view of
Jesus Christ, that He is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity
incarnate, who came to earth ‘to give His life a ransom for many’ (Matt. 20:28)
and ‘save His people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21), who ‘was delivered over
because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification’
(Rom. 4:25). Those who reject that truth
will die in their sins (John 8:24), for ‘there is salvation in no one else; for
there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we
must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).”
8/16/2026
9:46 PM
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