SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/19/2014 8:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Jews Rejection of God’s Word
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 2:15a
Message of the
verses: When we comes to verses
15-16 we see a shift in what Paul was writing about and it is as if when he
began to start writing about the Jews that he could not help but write about
the things that they have done to him and his companions while they were out trying
to spread the gospel. Paul always made
it a practice to go to the Jews first when possible, for in some of the cities
that he spoke in there were not enough Jewish men to begin a Synagogue so he
could not go to them first. This was
true in Philippi. In John MacArthur’s
commentary on this section he sites different passages in the book of Acts that
speak of how the Jews were hindering the work of the Lord and then at the end
of his introductory commentary on this section he writes: “Knowing that the Jews’ hateful attitude had
not changed but rather had intensified since their original hostility in the
early days at Thessalonica, Paul made a strong statement about their spiritual
condition. His statement consists of
three reasons they are a people to be sad for:
they rejected God’s Word, they hindered the saint, and they faced
punishment in suffering. These three are
in direct contrast to the reasons Paul was joyful over the Thessalonians.” We will take the next three SD’s to look at
these three issues that cause us to be sad for the Jews.
“Who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and
drove us out (1 Thessalonians 2:15a).”
I continue to think of John 3:36 as I go through this
portion of Scripture in 1 Thessalonians and the reason that I think about it is
that in that verse John the Baptist states that there are only two kinds of
people who live on planet earth: the saved, those who believe in Jesus Christ
as their Savior and Lord, and the lost those who have rejected Jesus Christ as
their Savior and Lord. Jesus spoke while
on the earth about how families would be divided over him, and I have seen this
first hand in my extended family. There
is a division between these two kinds of people and when there is a division
there is conflict and Paul is describing this conflict in these two
verses. Those that love the Lord are
those in the church as Thessalonica, and those who do not know the Lord are the
unbelieving Gentiles and the unbelieving Jews who are bringing persecution to
the believing Thessalonicans.
We see in this first contrast between the believing
Thessalonicans and the unbelieving Jews is that the Thessalonians loved the
Word of God and the Jews rejected the Word of God. The Word of God was given to the Jews to
record it and most of them did not believe in it. What they did believe in was the traditions
that others made up from reading the Word of God and we saw this in our study
of Mark, and it was this reason, among others why Jesus was executed. There is undeniable truth in the Old
Testament about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to planet earth and not
only about His birth, but also about His life, and His death and also about His
resurrection from the dead. The Jews
should have been looking for the coming of the Messiah, for in the book of
Daniel, the ninth chapter is a road map of time that tells when the Messiah
would come and also tells that He would die, but not for Himself. However they were so steeped in their
tradition that they missed His coming altogether as they did not believe that
Jesus was the Messiah and therefore took part in His death. (I used the writings of Warren Wiersbe to
explain whose fault it was that Jesus was killed in my previous SD.)
Paul records in this verse how the Jews had killed not
only the Lord, but also the prophets.
Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 23:31-35 “31 “So you testify against
yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 “Fill up,
then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of
vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 "Therefore, behold, I
am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill
and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the
righteous bloodshed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the
altar.’” Jesus follows this up with a
parable in Matthew 21:33-46 and this parable vividly reveals their murderous
acts toward the prophets and the Lord.
“33 "Listen to another parable. There was a
landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS
IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a
journey. 34 “When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the
vine-growers to receive his produce. 35 “The vine-growers took his slaves and
beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 36 “Again he sent another
group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. 37
“But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ’They will respect my son.’ 38
“But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ’This is
the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 “They took him,
and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 “Therefore when the owner
of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?" 41 They
*said to Him, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will
rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at
the proper seasons." 42 Jesus *said
to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, ’THE STONE WHICH THE
BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE
LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’? 43
"Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 44 “And he who falls on
this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter
him like dust." 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His
parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. 46 When they sought
to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a
prophet.”
John MacArthur writes on the statement that Paul makes in
this verse “Jews killed the Lord Jesus.”
“The Romans executed Him, but only at the instigation of the Jews (John
19:12-16). Obviously it is not all Jews
of all time who were responsible for killing Christ. However, the apostate Jewish mob that
insisted Pontius Pilate should carry out the crucifixion of Jesus was guilty of
murdering Him. Those Jews represented
the historic apex of their people’s unbelief and opposition to God’s will (Acts
2:22-23; 36; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39). Thus
Paul’s strong words in verse 15 are without doubt in harmony with God’s
centuries-old disapproval of the Hews who apostatized (cf. 2 Kings 17:13; 2
Chron. 15:1-2; 36:16; Jer. 25:4; Lam. 2:9; Ezek. 3:19; Matt. 23:35-58).”
Now as far as the killing of the prophets we do not see
how each individual prophet was murdered, but we do read about how Zechariah’s
murder in the portion of Matthew we have already quoted where Jesus spoke of the
Jews killing the prophets and sited that they had killed Zechariah.
One more quote from John MacArthur on the words “drove us
out:” “The verb rendered ‘drove us out’
refers to the hunting down of an animal with the intention of killing it. Such stubborn and overt Jewish rejection of
God’s Word profoundly saddened the apostle’s heart (cf. Rom. 9:1-5;
10:1).” You can see from the verses in
Romans that Paul felt sad for the Jewish people, and that he had a great love
for them, but at the same time he was very upset with those who were doing the
ungodly things that they were doing. I
believe in my heart that we are near the time in history where Paul’s statement
in Romans will come true where he writes that all the Jews will be saved. I believe that this will happen during the
last part of the tribulation period and from the looks of things in this world
today I don’t think that it is too far off.
I have mentioned that I am not a date setter, but just as the Jews were
responsible for knowing the time when Christ came the first time, I think that
believers today are responsible for knowing the times that we are living in and
how they reflect what the Bible teaches us about the end times, and the most
important event that speaks of this is the nation of Israel being reborn in May
of 1948.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I want to
continue to have a love for the Jewish people and continue to pray for their
leaders each day of my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: 22 The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never
cease, For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is
Your faithfulness.”
Memory verse for the
week: Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with
Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself up for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Calvary” (Luke 23:33).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who were the twin sons of Isaac
and Rebekah?”
Answer in our next SD. 4/19/2014 9:58 AM
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