Tuesday, March 28, 2023

PT-3 "Jesus: The Culmination of History" (Acts 13:17-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/20/2018 9:15 AM

My Worship Time                                            Focus:  PT-3 “Jesus:  The Culmination of History”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:17-22

            Message of the verses:  “17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. 19 “When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance-all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. 20 “After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ’I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’”

            I have to say that this section has taken longer for me to complete that I thought it would have, but when studying the Word of God you have to be sure that you are open to what the Spirit of God is doing in your heart and so sometimes the short sections take longer than the longer sections.

            One only has to read through the book of Judges to find out how Israel had sinned and continued to sin against the Lord.  Towards the end of the book of Joshua we read “31 Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the LORD which He had done for Israel.”   It was the second generation that was the ones who served the Lord and then after that we find that in the book of Judges it was an up and down service of the Lord by the people with the general direction down.  In my study of the seven churches in the book of Revelation we see the same thing happening in the church age as it began with the church at Ephesus losing their love for the Lord which began the downward spiral and when you take out the two churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia who Christ had no condemnation you can see the other five churches in a downward spiral.  You end up with the church at Laodicea where you actually find Christ on the outside of the Church asking to come in. 

            Paul then talks about the two kings that Israel first had, Saul and David.  Saul was the king that the people wanted and he turned out to be a bad king, and then David was the king that God chose for the people and he was a man after God’s own heart.  When the people cried out to Samuel the prophet for a king it broke his heart as he did not want to ask God to give them a king because he knew that the Lord was their king, but the people wanted to be like the nations around them as they wanted a king who would solve all their problems, but in reality it caused more problems for them.  In the 17th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy Moses writes the following about Israel wanting a king:  “14 "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ’I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15  you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. 16  "Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ’You shall never again return that way.’ 17 “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. 18  "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel (Deu. 17:14-20).”  God knew this would happen as it was actually His plan because once David became king of Israel God made a covenant with him that the Messiah would be born through his line which of course Jesus was which is what Paul is leading up to in this sermon. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God knows everything and God has a plan for the people on planet earth and I believe that plan centers around His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord’s plane for my life even though at times it is not what I would choose for my life.

 Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Amos”

Today’s Bible question:  “How old was Moses when he first appeared before Pharaoh to deliver the children of Israel?

Answer in our next SD.

2/20/2018 9:57 AM

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