PT-2 Question of Authority (Mark 12:1-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2012 9:58:15 AM

 

My Worship Time                                             Focus:  Question of Authority Part Two

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                          Reference:  Mark 12:1-12

 

            Message of the verses:  Earlier in the month we looked at the first part of “Question of Authority” from the end of the 11^th chapter of Mark, and now I want to finish this section from the first twelve verses of Mark 12.  The story actually continues on and I suppose this is one of the reasons that we know that the scholars who put into the Bible the different chapters were not always correct in where they put them, but that is what we have and so we will go on with the story in this SD.

 

            We need to remember that Jesus is in the last week of His life here on planet earth as He will be crucified by the Romans, and die for our sins exactly when the passover lamb was to be slain, for John the Baptist said of Jesus when he saw Him, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  It was not the desire of the religious rulers of Israel, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes to kill Jesus on the day of the Passover because they feared the people.  This was God’s plan all along to have His Son to die at this exact moment in time and so nothing these people could do to stop it.  Isaiah wrote that it pleased God to slay Him “Isa 53:10  But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”  This being said the Romans, the Jews, and Judas were responsible in having Jesus killed and they will have to answer for it. 

 

Now we will pick up the story we began a few weeks ago by looking at the first twelve verses of Mark twelve.

 

“1 ¶  And He began to speak to them in parables: "A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. 2  "At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. 3  "They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4  "Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5  "And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. 6  "He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ’They will respect my son.’ 7  "But those vine-growers said to one another, ’This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ 8  "They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9  "What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10  "Have you not even read this Scripture: ’THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; 11  THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?" 12  And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.”

 

Before we begin to look at the parable in this section I want to review what Dr. Wiersbe wrote about parables and why Jesus taught in parables.  He writes, “A parable begins innocently as a picture that arrests our attention and arouses our interest.  But as we study the picture, it becomes a mirror in which we suddenly see ourselves.  If we continue to look by faith, the mirror becomes a window through which we see God and His truth.  How we respond to that truth will determine what further truth God will teach us.”  Before I go on with the rest of this quote I want to state that the window of opportunity for these false teachers of Israel was about to shut for at the end of this parable we will see only a couple of more times that Jesus will teach anything to them and that will be because they send people to trick Him.  The sad thing is that there will come a time in a person’s life when the Spirit of God will stop working in the life of an unbeliever and they will then be lost.

 

“Why did Jesus teach in parables?  His disciples asked Him that very question (Mark 4:10-12; and see Matt. 13:10-17).  A careful study of His reply reveals that Jesus used parables both to hide the truth and to reveal it.  The crowd did not judge the parables; the parables judged the crowd.  The careless listener, who thought he knew everything, would hear only a story that he did not really understand; and the results in his life would be judgment (see Matt. 11:25-30).  The sincere listener, with a desire to know God’s truth would ponder the parable, confess his ignorance, submit to the Lord, and then begin to understand the spiritual lesson Jesus wanted to teach.” 

 

The parable that we have before us would reveal where the sins of these leaders was heading.  These leaders had already permitted John the Baptist to be killed and shortly they would be a part in the killing of God’s Son as this parable will show us.  The parable begins with a quote from the fifth chapter of the book of Isaiah, “1 ¶  Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2  He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3  "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4  "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? 5  "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6  "I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it." 7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”

We see from these first seven verses in Isaiah chapter five that the Lord calls Israel His vineyard.  The people of Israel would plant things like wheat on the flat land and then on the hills would plant the vineyards.  There is a lot of rocks in Israel and so before planting the vines they would did up all the rocks and pile them up around the edges of the vineyard.  This would protect the vines from the animals and thieves as they would also in some large vineyards would actually have gates where people could stand and protect their vineyards.  Now it takes a while for the vines to produce fruit and as we look at the parable and also the section from Isaiah we can see that God expected for Israel to begin to produce fruit, but all they were producing was sour grapes or as the NASB puts it “worthless grapes.”  All of Israel knew that the Messiah was to come, and if they would have understood the prophecy from Daniel 9:24-27 they could have all figured out that this was the time period that He should arrive and some did, for even foreigners knew of the time of the birth of Jesus.  Many believe that these “kings” came from Babylon or around there because of Daniel’s teaching.  There were two people in the temple who knew who Jesus was when He was just born, so people could know it was His time.  He had taught three years and would expect to have fruit from His teaching, but generally there was not much from the people of Israel.  Imagine having the very Son of God walking around teaching and preaching for three years and few people knew that He was God’s Son.

Dr. Wiersbe writes that “In order to retain his legal rights to the property, the owner had to receive produce from the tenants, even if it was only some of the vegetables that grew between the rows of the trees or vines.  This explains why the tenants refused to give him anything: they wanted to claim the vineyard for themselves.  It also explains why the owner continued to sent agents to them; it was purely a question of authority and ownership.

“If Mark 12:2-5 covers the three years when the fruit was not used, then it was in the fourth year that the beloved Son was sent.  This is the year when the fruit was devoted to the Lord (Lev. 19:24), and it makes the sending of the Son even more meaningful.  If the tenants cold do away with the heir, they would have a clear claim to the property; so they cast him out and killed Him.  (See Hebrews 13:12-13), ‘12  Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13  So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.’”

We better begin to name who the participants of this parable are.   We have already stated that the vineyard was Israel and the owner of the vineyard is God.  The ones that were sent to collect payment from the tenants were the prophets.  The tenants were the spiritual leaders of Israel. The son was the Son of God.

The spiritual leaders had miss used the teachings of the Scriptures and thus set up a false religious system for Israel, and Jesus spoke of this to them on many occasions. 

When we see the passage from Isaiah five we know that it was written for the Jews who lived in Israel before the captivity of them by Babylon, but now this parable speaks of the time when Jesus was there and the coming Roman invasion of Israel that would cause the Jews to be dispersed all around the world as spoken of in the 28 chapter of Deuteronomy.  “De 28:68  ‘The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ’You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.’”  This is exactly what happened to them after the Romans destroyed the temple and killed many people in 70 A. D.

There is one more quotation from the OT in this parable that we need to look at and that is from Psalm 118: 22-23 which says, “22  The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. 23  This is the LORD’S doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.”  Earlier when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the cold of a donkey His disciples quoted another section from Psalm 118, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.” 

Dr. Wiersbe states that “The Stone’ was a well known symbol for the Messiah (Ex. 17:6; Dan. 2:34; Zech. 4:7; Rom. 9:32-33; 1Cor. 10:4; and 1Peter 2:6-8).  The Servant-Judge announced a double verdict: they had not only rejected the Son, but they had also refused the Stone!  There could be only one consequence—judgment (Matt. 22:1-14).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Understanding and putting into practice the things we learn from the Scriptures comes from the Holy Spirit of God who lives within the believer.  As I come upon problems in my life I desire to have the Spirit of God teach me solutions from His Word so that when I am tempted by these problems I can remember the Word of God and that will help me overcome these problems and temptations. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  In writing this above I know that it takes contentment from the Lord as I learn from His Word and it also takes being transformed by the renewing of God’s Word.

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 130:1-2 

 

            1 Out of the debts I cried to You, O LORD.  2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

 

10/31/2012 11:35:37 AM

Trust God for His Bountiful Blessings from Psalm 132:13-18

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2012 10:01:30 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 132 PT-3

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                             Reference:  Psalm 132:13-18

 

            Message of the verses:  We will look at the last section from Psalm 132 in Today’s Spiritual Diary.  We will be looking at the last responsibility that the children of Israel had to the Lord that is spoken of in this psalm.

 

Trust God for His Bountiful Blessings (vv. 13-18) 

 

            “13  For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. 14 “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. 15 “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy with bread. 16 “Her priests also I will clothe with salvation, And her godly ones will sing aloud for joy. 17 “There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. 18 “His enemies I will clothe with shame, But upon himself his crown shall shine.’”

 

            We see some more evidence that God had chosen David’s line to bring forth God’s Anointed one in this section and we also see that God had chosen Zion or Jerusalem for the place where His throne (ark) would dwell.  We have already spoken about the fact that God would not allow David to build the temple, but there were two sinful acts that David did that had to do with the building of this temple, and through these two sinful acts we can see the grace of God along with the plan of God for the building of the temple.  David was a man who confessed his sin when confronted by God that he had sinned, and the two most famous sins that are recorded in the Scriptures the murder of Uriah and the adultery with Bathsheba which would eventfully produce Solomon who would be the next king after David and it was he who would build the temple.  Next the numbering of the people would cause the death of many innocent people in Israel but when God was about to move His discretion into Jerusalem He stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.  “David bought the threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite and he offered a sacrifice to the Lord on that place and the Lord consumed the sacrifice with fire.  “Then David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the LORD and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.”  (1Chron. 21:26)  “2Ch 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”  We see here that the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite was on Mt. Moriah and this is where the temple was built by Solomon.  “Ge 22:2 He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’”  So we see in this verse from Genesis 22:2 that the Lord had chosen this mountain to have Abraham offer Isaac as a burnt offering to the Lord, but we know that because of the faith that Abraham had God provided a lamb to be offered in his place on Mt. Moriah.  Years later the temple was built there, and years after that on this same mountain, the mountain where the city of Jerusalem is, God offered His Son for our sins, for He was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.

            We see in verses 14-18 of Psalm 132 that God is reaffirming His covenant with the children of Israel that He made with them in Lev. 26 and also in Deut 27-30.  If the people and the kings of Israel wanted to be blessed by God that means they must obey him, “12 ‘If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I will teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever.’”

 

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that “two special images are seen here—the lamp and the sprouting horn (v. 17) –and both refer to David and to the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.  The burning lamp symbolized the king (2Sam. 21:17), the preservation of life (Psalm 18:28-30), and the perpetuation of the royal dynasty (1Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2Kings 8:19; 2Chron. 21:7).  The sins of some of David’s successors deserved radical punishment, but for David’s sake, the Lord allowed them to reign from David’s throne.  A horn is a symbol of power and strength, and the sprouting of the horn of David is a picture of the coming of the promised Messiah.  The Hebrew word for ‘sprout’ is translated ‘branch’ in Isaiah 4:2, Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15, and Zechariah 3:18 and 6:12, and refers to Messiah, ‘the Branch.’  The word translated ‘flourish’ or ‘shine’ in verse 18 can also mean ‘to blossom,’ and is used that way in Numbers 17:8, the blossoming of Aaron’s rod.  This, too, is a Messianic image.  So, the psalm ends by pointing to Jesus Christ.” 

Dr. Wiersbe also points out that this psalm points to David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, and also His covenant with the Church.  The Ark of the Covenant points to Jesus Christ for the Ark was made of wood, and I learned from a book that I was reading that the word for wood that was used to build the Ark was a word for carpenter.  We see the wood of the Ark as the humanity of Jesus Christ, and then we see the gold that the Ark was overlaid with as His deity.  We have already spoken of the rod of Aaron that budded, and there was also inside the Ark the Ten Commandments along with a jar of manna speaking of Christ as the “Bread of Life.”  So there is much that pictures Christ in this psalm.  We know that at this time Jesus Christ is sitting on the Throne of God next to His Father in the Holy of Holies in heaven, so we see that this psalm pictures the heavenly Zion “22  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is so wonderful to live on the side of the cross that I am living on knowing what the Bible teaches about it.  My Lord is now in heaven after His triumphal defeat over the world, the flesh, and the devil.  He has conquered death and is the first fruit of all who believe in Him as their personal Lord and Savior. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to work on being content and to having my mind transformed by the Word of God from the inside out.

 

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 130:1-2

 

            1 Out of the debts I have cried to You, O Lord.  2 Lord, here my voice!  Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

 

10/30/2012 11:40:56 AM       

Remind God of His Faithful Covenant (Ps. 132:10-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2012 11:03:10 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 132 PT-3

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                            Reference:  Psalm 132:10-12

 

            Message of the verses:  We continue to look at Psalm 132 in Today’s Spiritual Diary beginning with verse 10.

 

Remind God of His Faithful Covenant (vv. 10-12)

 

            “10  For the sake of David Your servant, Do not turn away the face of Your anointed.

11 The LORD has sworn to David A truth from which He will not turn back: "Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne. 12 “If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I will teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever.’”

 

            I think that it best to go back in the life of David in order to see how it was that God promised him to have the Messiah come through his line.  When one follows the “seed” as it goes through the Old Testament they will see that it actually begins in Genesis 3:15, and in that verse we see something unique, and that is the seed is called the “seed of the woman,” and that is the only time we see that in the Bible.  What is God speaking about in this verse?  “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.’”  The background to this verse is that sin had just entered into the human race by the disobedient of Adam and Eve, who were tempted by Satan.  God is speaking to Satan here telling him that He would put enmity between him and the woman, and also between her seed and Satan’s seed.  The reason that this is significant is that this is the first mention of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ for although the seed is passed on by men it will eventually be the seed of the woman that Jesus Christ will come through.  The verse goes on to speak of Satan bruising the heel of our Lord, but our Lord will bruise the head of Satan. 

 

            Now as we follow the “seed” from there it goes to Adam and Eve’s son Seth and from there it will eventually go through Abraham, and then through Isaac, then through Jacob, then Judah, and David is a relative of the tribe of Judah and then in the seventh chapter of second Samuel we have the story of God telling David that the Messiah will come through him.

Back to the verses in this psalm where we see that the blessing is upon David, and for David’s sake the Messiah would come through his line.  Let’s look at Isaiah 55:3, “"Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.’”  It is God who is speaking through Isaiah the prophet and He is speaking at the end of this verse about the “faithful mercies shown to David,” which is what the psalmist is speaking of in Psalm 132.  It is in this psalm that the psalmist is reminding God about His covenant with David.  While listening to a sermon by John MacArthur from the Gospel of Mark in which the topic of prayer is the subject and MacArthur states that the first thing that we are to remember when praying for something is to remember the history of answered prayer, and that is what the psalmist is doing in this section when he reminds the Lord about His covenant with David.  God had not forgotten about His covenant with David, but it was good that the psalmist did not forget about it either.  I have a book in my library entitled “All the Promises of the Bible,” which is written by Dr. Herbert Lockyer.  The book is filled with the promises that are found in the Bible, promises that we as believers should know.  The book has close to 350 pages in it, so that must mean that there are a lot of promises in the Bible for us to learn about and at times claim.

 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “If David’s successors wanted the blessing of God, they needed to obey the law of God, and many of them did not.  Believers today are united with the Lord in a new covenant that Jesus made in His own blood (Matt. 26:26-30; Heb. 12:24), and He will never break that covenant.  The psalmist used David’s name when he prayed to the Lord, but we pray in the name of Jesus (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-26).  The Father is faithful to His Son, and the Son is faithful to the covenant He made in His own blood.”  When we pray in the name of Jesus we have to realize that it has to be in the will of Jesus.  We remember the prayer that Jesus prayed in the garden, “Not my will be done, but Your will be done,” and we can get a better idea of this, for it is not just tacking on the name of Jesus at the end of our prayer, although that is fine if our prayers are prayed in and for His will.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life:  I desire to pray things in the name and in the will of Jesus Christ, and one of the ways that I can do better at this is to know the promises that He has given to us in His Word.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Contentment, and also to be transformed are two steps of faith for today.  To be transformed from the inside out and by the Word of God through the Spirit of God.

 

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 130:1-2

 

            1 Out of the debts I cried to You, O LORD.  2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

 

10/29/2012 12:02:58 PM

Express to God Your Joyful Worship (Ps. 132:6-9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2012 7:28:10 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 132 PT-2

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 132:6-9

 

            Message of the verses:  We will continue to look at Psalm 132 in Today’s SD.  Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following at the end of his introductory commentary, “The completion of the temple was no assurance of God’s blessing on Israel, for the important thing was that the people fulfill their responsibilities toward the Lord.”  We looked at the first responsibility in yesterdays SD. 

 

Express to God Your Joyful Worship (vv. 6-9)

 

            “6 Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah, We found it in the field of Jaar. 7 Let us go into His dwelling place; Let us worship at His footstool. 8 Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. 9 Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let Your godly ones sing for joy.”

 

            I wrote in yesterday’s SD a limited history of the Ark of the Covenant, but it has always been a mystery to me as to what happen to the Tabernacle itself, for it seems the last time we saw it in Shiloh where the wicked sons of Eli “ministered” until they decided to take it out to be a good luck charm in a battle with the Philistines and then the Ark was lost for a short time.  At any rate when the temple was built by Solomon we read that there were new articles built to go with it that were like the ones that were in the tabernacle that was built in the wilderness.  Things like the lampstands, the brazen altar, and things like that. 

 

            It seems like the children of Israel had almost forgotten about the Ark while it was at the house of Abinadad who lived just eight miles from Jerusalem at Kirjath Jearim (city of woods).  It may have been that the people of Bethlehem encouraged David to go and bring the Ark to Jerusalem, where it also seems like that David had very a desire to do so as he had prepared a tent for it in Jerusalem where he would go to worship the Lord.  We also know that once Solomon built the temple that the Glory of the Lord moved into the temple in a similar way that He had done in the tabernacle in the wilderness once it was completed and this must have been some kind of a sight to see.  However we as believers have the Spirit of God living in our hearts and so that makes us the temple of the Holy Spirit so we do not have to go to Jerusalem and be in a temple in order to worship the Lord.

 

            Charles H. Spurgeon writes the following about “His footstool,” The Lord’s “footstool" here mentioned was either the Ark of the Testimony itself, or the place at least where it stood, called Debir, or the Holy of Holies, towards which the Jews in their temple used to worship. The very next words argue so much: "Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength"; and it is plain out of 1Ch 28:2, where David saith concerning his purpose to have built God an house, "I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God," where the conjunction and is exegetical, and the same with that is. According to this expression the prophet Jeramiah also, in the beginning of the second of his Lamentations, bewailed that "the Lord had cast down the beauty of Israel" (that is, his glorious Temple), "and remembered not his footstool" (that is, the Ark of the Covenant), "in the day of his wrath"; as Isa 60:7 64:11 Ps 96:6.”

 

            Dr. Wiersbe points out “That the statement in verse eight is taken from Numbers 10:33-36 and reminded the worshipers of God guidance and power exhibited in the days of Moses. 

As we look at the prayer in verse nine we see the answer in verse 16, “"Her priests also I will clothe with salvation, And her godly ones will sing aloud for joy.’”

 

            After many years of wondering around the wilderness and the nation of Israel the Lord could now rest in a temple built for Him in Jerusalem.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I read Psalms 120-134, the psalms of ascent, I realize how much time and effort that it took the Jews to worship the Lord at His temple.  I am happy that I do not have to go through this in order to worship the Lord, but I am also at times disappointed in myself to think that far too many times that I don’t take advantage of the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in me and that I can worship the Lord at any time in any place.  D. L. Moody wrote after hearing a preacher state “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”  Moody then thought to himself, “He said ‘a man.’  He did not say a great man, nor a learned man, nor a rich man, nor a wise man, nor an eloquent man, nor a smart man, but simply ‘a man.’  I am a man, and it lies with the man himself whether he will or will not make that entire and full consecration.  I will try my uttermost to be that man.”  Well we know the history of what Moody did as he was a great man of God, and to this very day there are people working around the entire world that are still affected by D. L. Moody because he answered the call of God, and because he chose to be “that man.”

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my desire to be “TRANSFORMED” by the Lord from the inside out by the renewing of my mind through the Word of God.

 

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 130:1-2

 

            1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord.  2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.       10/28/2012 8:28:55 AM

 

 

Give God His Rightful Place (Ps. 132:1-5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2012 10:46:03 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  Psalm 132 PT-1

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Psalm 132:1-5

 

            Message of the verses:  We begin to look at Psalm 132 in Today’s Spiritual Diary by looking at several introductions from this psalm.

 

“David bound himself to find a place for the Lord, for the ark, the token of God’s presence. When work is to be done for the Lord, it is good to tie ourselves to a time. It is good in the morning to fix upon work for the day, with submission to Providence, for we know not what a day may bring forth. And we should first, and without delay, seek to have our own hearts made a habitation of God through the Spirit. He prays that God would take up his dwelling in the habitation he had built; that he would give grace to the ministers of the sanctuary to do their duty. David pleads that he was the anointed of the Lord, and this he pleads as a type of Christ, the great Anointed. We have no merit of our own to plead; but, for His sake, in whom there is a fullness of merit, let us find favour. And every true believer in Christ, is an anointed one, and has received from the Holy One the oil of true grace. The request is that God would not turn away, but hear and answer their petitions for his Son’s sake.”  (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

 

“A joyful song indeed: let all pilgrims to the New Jerusalem sing it often. The degrees or ascents are very visible; the theme ascends step by step from, "afflictions" to a "crown," from "remember David," to, "I will make the horn of David to bud." The latter half is like the over arching sky bending above "the fields of the wood" which are found in the resolves and prayers of the former portion.

“Our translators have rightly divided this Psalm. It contains a statement of David’s anxious care to build a house for the Lord (#Ps 132:1-7); a prayer at the removal of the Ark (#Ps 132:8-10); and a pleading of the divine covenant and its promises (#Ps 132:11-18).”  (Charles H. Spurgeon)

 

“It is not likely that this is a post-exilic psalm.  The ark is mentioned (v.8), and after the destruction of the temple, the ark disappeared from the scene.  Also, the writer referred in verse 10 to a king from David’s dynasty, and there was no Davidic king after Zedekiah, until Jesus came to earth.  Nobody in post-exilic Jerusalem was anointed as king.  Since verses 8-10 are quoted by Solomon in his prayer at the dedication of the temple (2Chron. 6:41-42), perhaps this psalm was written for that occasion.  It could well have been a litany, with the worship leader opening (vv. 1-5) and the people responding (vv.6-10).  The leader then quoted God’s words to David (vv. 10-12), and the people or a choir closed with a recital of God’s promises to Israel (vv. 13-18).  Note especially the references to David in Solomon’s prayer (2Chron. 11, 15-17).  Psalm 132 also parallels Psalm 89 but is more optimistic in outlook.  Note in 89 the use of anointed (v.20; 132:10), enemy (vv. 22-23; 132:18), horn (v. 24; 132:17), and throne (v.29). (For other ‘Zion psalms,’ see 24, 48, 68, and 89.)  The completion of the temple was no assurance of God’s blessing on Israel, for the important thing was that the people fulfill their responsibilities toward the Lord.”  (Dr. Warren Wiersbe)

 

            Give God His rightful Place (vv. 1-5)

            “1 A Song of Ascents:  Remember, O LORD, on David’s behalf, All his affliction; 2  How he swore to the LORD And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, 3  "Surely I will not enter my house, Nor lie on my bed; 4  I will not give sleep to my eyes Or slumber to my eyelids, 5  Until I find a place for the LORD, A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.’”

 

            As we begin this section we will look at a brief history of the Ark of God.  Whenever we read the book of Exodus we find that after God took Israel out of Egypt by those ten plagues that He gave to Egypt so that Israel eventually ended up at Mt. Sinai and stayed there for about one year.  During this time Moses went up on the mountain two times and while He was up there God gave him the plans to build the Ark of the Covenant along with the Tabernacle of God.  Once this was completed and set up the Israelites were again on the move towards the Promised Land.  Forty years later they arrived in the Promised Land and begin to conquer the sinful people who lived there.  Dr. Wiersbe writes that “it is possible that the ark was temporarily at Bethel (Judges 20:7), and then Mizpah (Judges 21:5), but it finally rested at Shiloh (1Samuel 1-3).  The wicked sons of Eli used the ark as a ‘good luck charm’ and took it into battle against the Philistines.  The Philistines captured the Ark but after some miracles done by the Lord they returned the ark to the Jews, and for twenty years it rested in the house of Abinadad in Kirjath Jearim (1Sam. 6:1-7:2).”  After this David tried to move it to Jerusalem, but failed at his first attempt because they did not follow the procedure that God had set up to move the Ark and instead of having the Levites carry it they put it on a cart and it was about to slip off the cart and Uzzah took hold of it and the Lord killed him.  This angered David and I suppose that after he realized that it was not being carried in the right way he got over his anger and had it carried in the correct way.  The Ark went into a tent that David had prepared for it and stayed there until the day that Solomon finished the temple and it was moved into the temple.  It stayed there until the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, but when the new temple was built it was returned to the new temple and was there until the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 70 A.D by Titus. 

Where is the Ark now?  This is a good question.  When the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1948 there was a scroll in them called the “Copper” scrolls and in that scroll there was suppose to be directions to where the Ark was to be found.  In the 1980’s there was a man whose last name was Jones who along with some college students were looking for the “Ashes of the Red Heifer” and he believed that according to the Copper Scrolls thought that the Ark was in the same place.  The next part of the story is kind of funny, but true as I used to have the video that showed Mr. Jones standing outside a cave where they were looking for these articles and he had a hat on his head as he was talking about what he was doing there.  Well some Hollywood producers saw him there and that is the background for the “Indiana Jones” movies.

 

            Back to Psalm 132 as we want to look at the phrase “The Mighty One of Jacob.”  But his bow remained firm, And his arms were agile, From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel).”  This verse is Genesis 49:24 and it is spoken by Jacob and this is the first time we see this written in the Scriptures, but this is an ancient word for Jehovah. 

 

            David had two desires and the first one was to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and then to build a temple for the Lord.  He accomplished the first one, but God would not allow him to accomplish the second, but did allow his son to build it.  David had the plans for the temple and had all the provisions for the temple, even the land for the temple.  God told David that He would build a dynasty from Him that would bring Messiah to the earth, and He did in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Dr. Wiersbe writes the following that I will use for this part of my SD:  “Unless God is on the throne of our lives, not enterprise we attempt can be really successful.” 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have been using the word “contentment” in this section, and still desire to learn contentment, but now I want to use another word that we have looked at in past SD’s.  The word is “transformed,” and this being the first time I used this I will give the definition of it from the Greek/English Dictionary.

“1) to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure

1a) Christ appearance was changed and was resplendent with divine brightness on “the mount of transfiguration.

This word means to change from the inside out as Christ did on the mount of transfiguration, and that is what believers are to do.  How is this accomplished?  Romans 12:2 says that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, and that has to be done by the Word of God, for the only way to have our minds renewed is to have the Lord do it as we read, study, listen, memorize, and meditate upon the Word of God.

 

Memory verses for the week:  1Cor. 13:1-13  (Since this is the last time for these verses to appear on my SD before I began my next series of verses I want to do all of them this one time.)

 

            1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant 5 does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.  9 For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away.  11 When I was a child, I use to speak like a child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child; when I became a man I did away with childish things.  12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.  13 But now, faith, hope, love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

 

10/27/2012 12:51:21 PM

 

 

 

 

"Humility-Accept God's Wil" and "Hope-Anticipate the Future" (Ps. 131:2-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2012 7:36:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Psalm 131 PT-2

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Psalm 131:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following at the end of his introductory commentary on Psalm 131:  “In this brief psalm, he tells us the essentials of a life that glorifies God and accomplishes His work on earth.”  We looked at the first essential in yesterday’s SD and will continue looking at the next two in today’s SD.

 

Humility—Accept God’s Will (v.2)

            2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.”

 

            In yesterday’s SD we looked at honestly accepting yourself, and in today’s SD we will look at humbly accepting God’s will and then the hope we have in accepting the future.

David speaks of the weaning of a child in verse two, and the way that this was when he wrote this psalm from the land of Israel is much different than the way that it is in the United States today.  Although it may be that more and more mothers are breast feeding their children today, I don’t think that the majority of women are breast feeding their children until age three or four today as was the custom when David wrote this psalm.  It is different and so in order to understand this verse we have to understand the times when this psalm was written.  David begins this verse by speaking of being composed and being quiet.  The word speaks of the calming of the sea or the leveling of the ground after it is plowed.  This kind of emotion would happen to the child from feeding from the mother, as opposed to having emotional highs and lows.  When a baby is born there is a crisis from the birth and feeding at the mother’s breast is a calming experience for the baby, but there would come a time when this had to end and this would again be a difficult time for the young child.  This could be described as a painful loss for the child.  Now we will look at this in the light of several different short Bible stories that Dr. Wiersbe has included in his commentary in order to help us understand this in terms of grownups.  “Abraham had to leave his family and city, send Ishmael away, separate from Lot, and put Isaac on the altar.  Painful weaning!  Joseph had to be separated from his father and brothers in order to see his dreams come true.  Both Jacob and Peter had to be weaned from their own self-sufficiency and learn that faith means living without scheming.  The child that David described wept and fretted but eventually calmed down and accepted the inevitable.”  Later Dr. Wiersbe goes on to write, “Successful living means moving from dependence to independence, and then to interdependence, always in the will of God.  To accept God’s will in the losses and gains of life is to experience that inner calm that is so necessary if we are to be mature people.”

I have to say that as I read the commentary from Dr. Wiersbe that there are times when things seem to jump right off the page with meaning for me.

 

Hope—Anticipate the Future (v. 3)

            3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.

            I suppose that we have all heard from our parents or said to our children when something we have to do is painful that it is four our own good, and this is the case of the weaning child in this psalm for when they were weaned they were set free in able to meet the future and to make the most of it.  Some people have a hard time in making changes, but when we look at our growth in our walk with the Lord there always have to be changes made.  Paul writes the following to the Corinthians, 2 Co 3:18  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”  Being transformed from one glory to another means that the Spirit is working inside our hearts to cause us to become more mature in the Lord.  We have looked at this word “transformed” in earlier SD’s, and it is a word that we get the word metamorphoses from where an ugly worm turns into a beautiful butterfly.  The word is also used in Romans 12:2, “2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  We also see the word when Jesus when up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John and He was transformed so that they could see His glory. 

            There are times in our lives when we desire not to change, but as Dr. Wiersbe puts it, “When we fret over a comfortable past, we only forfeit a challenging future.”  He concludes his commentary by writing, “Like the child being weaned, we may fret at our present circumstances, but we know that our fretting is wrong.  Our present circumstances are the womb out of which new blessings and opportunities will be born.  (Romans 8:28)”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Changes that seem to be bad are changes that I have a hard time with even though they are in the will of God.  This is where faith has to come in believing what Romans 8:28 teaches us, “Moreover we know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good (Phillips).”  I’m sure that from age seventeen to age thirty-three that Joseph had a hard time believing that the dreams that he had when he was a child would still come true.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Contentment is something that means that I know that God is always in control of my life in spite of going through difficult circumstances.

 

Memory verses for the week:  1Cor. 13:8-13

 

            8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.  9 For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away.  11 When I was a child, I use to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man I did away with childish things.  12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now we know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.  But now faith, hope, and love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

 

10/26/2012 8:35:38 AM