SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2020 9:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Authored by God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:17
Message of the
verse: “17
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish
but to fulfill.”
We
begin looking at the first section today and will probably take two days to get
through it. Notice the highlighted word “the”
which is the definite article that Jesus used to make clear to His Jewish
audience exactly what “Law” that He was talking about, which is the Law of
God. Let us go back and look at Exodus
20:1 which is where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. “Then God spoke all these words, saying.” As we continue to look at verses 2-6 of
Exodus we will see that God gave the law personally and directly: “2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before
Me. 4 "You
shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above
or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not
worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those
who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” These highlighted words and phrases show us
that the law was personally given by God.
MacArthur writes “The
law given there is the only law because the Lord is the only God. The Lord does not change (Mal. 3:6), and His
law does not change. It does not change
to meet the whims of society or even of theologians. It was not given to be adapted and modified
but to be obeyed. It was not given to
suit man’s will but to reveal God’s.”
The
Jewish people of that day referred to the law in four different ways. In the most limited sense it was used of the
Ten Commandments. Then in a broader
sense it was used as in the Pentateuch which are the first five books of the
Old Testament, written by Moses. Then is
a still broader sense it was used to speak of the entire Old Testament, which
was all that the hearers of Jesus had.
There
is another, a fourth as mentioned and that is what was thought of during the
days when Jesus visited the earth and that referenced to the rabbinical,
scribal traditions which were the thousands of detailed and external
requirements that obscured the revealed Word of God as the traditions were
supposed to interpret what was written in the Old Testament, but was surely not
accurate. This is the kind of world that
Jesus came into. Jesus, being God in
flesh was certainly upset about what the Scribes and the Pharisees did to His
Law and therefore would collide with them telling them that what they were
teaching was tradition and not the truth of God’s Word. 4 "For God said, ’HONOR YOUR FATHER AND
MOTHER,’ and, ’HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ 5
"But you say, ’Whoever says to his
father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to
God," 6 he is not to honor his
father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for
the sake of your tradition. 7 "You
hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 ’THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT
THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 9 ’BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS
DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN’" (Matthew 15:4-7). MacArthur adds “On the surface it seemed that
the traditions made the law harder, but in reality they made it much easier,
because observance was entirely external.
Keeping the traditions demanded a great deal of effort, but it demanded
no heart obedience and no faith in God.”
In
Isaiah 29:13 we learn that God’s law had always required inward as well as
outward obedience: “Then the Lord said,
"Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their
lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for
Me consists of tradition learned by rote.” Let us look at this verse in
the NKJV “Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw
near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their
hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of
men.” As we look back at when the Jews
were exiled from their land and then brought back later on and also during the interestamental
period is when many of these traditions appeared, and the law was not followed.
It
was during this time that the rabbis would look through the Scripture to find
various commands and regulations, and to those they would add supplemental requirements. For instance to the command not to work on
the Sabbath they added the idea that carrying a burden was a form of work. Imagine how Jesus must have felt when He saw
the traditions of the Law that He had given to the Jews on Mt. Sinai, as it must
have not only made Him angry, but also must have broken His heart. Next the
Jews would try and figure out what consisted of a burden that they were not to
carry, and on and on it went to where you just may as well stay in bed all day
on the Sabbath, which is certainly not what God wanted to happen on the
Sabbath. John MacArthur writes of this “burden”
“They decided that a burden is food equal to the weight of a fig, enough wine
for mixing in a goblet, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put on a
wound, oil enough to anoint a small member of the body, water enough to write
two letters of the alphabet, reed enough to make a pen, and so on. To carry anything more than those prescribed
amounts on the Sabbath was to break the law.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: One of
the key verses on the reason for the law was written by Paul in Romans 5:20, so
think about this verse “The Law came in so that the transgression would
increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” God is saying that you cannot keep my law
perfectly so give up and put your trust in My So who kept it perfectly for you.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I realize that all that is going on in our
country is being allowed by God and is headed up by Satan, and will in the end
give glory to the Lord, so there is no need for me to be angry over it, but to
pray that God will, in His own time stop it, and will use this to bring many
souls to the Savior!
7/6/2020 9:46 AM
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