SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/11/2018 9:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Consultation Regarding Paul’s
Testimony”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
25:13-22
Message of the verses: “13 Now when
several days had elapsed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and paid
their respects to Festus. 14 While they were spending many days there, Festus
laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, "There is a man who was left as
a prisoner by Felix; 15 and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the
elders of the Jews brought charges against him, asking for a sentence of
condemnation against him. 16 “I answered them that it is not the custom of the
Romans to hand over any man before the accused meets his accusers face to face
and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges. 17 “So after
they had assembled here, I did not delay, but on the next day took my seat on
the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought before me. 18 “When the accusers
stood up, they began bringing charges against him not of such crimes as
I was expecting, 19 but they simply had some points of disagreement with
him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to
be alive. 20 “Being at a loss how to investigate such matters, I asked whether
he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these matters. 21
“But when Paul appealed to be held in custody for the Emperor’s decision, I
ordered him to be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar." 22 Then
Agrippa said to Festus, "I also would like to hear the man
myself." "Tomorrow," he said, "you shall hear him."
John
MacArthur writes three paragraphs about the history of the “Herod’s” as he
begins his commentary on this section and so I thought that although I am sure
that there have been books written about the exploits of the Herods during this
time period, beginning with before Jesus Christ was born, this will give us
some insight into them.
“Several
days after Paul’s appeal to Caesar, King Agrippa (Herod Agrippa II) and his
consort Bernice arrived at Caesarea.
They had come to pay their respects to the new governor, Festus. The last in the line of Herods who figured
prominently in New Testament history Agrippa II ruled the northern part of
Palestine during the Roman occupation.
His father, Agrippa I, was the Herod who killed James, arrested Peter
and met an untimely end, being eaten by worms after failing to give God glory
(Acts 12:1-23). His great-uncle, Herod
Antipas, figured prominently in the gospels (Luke 3:1) as the ruler who
executed John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29), sought Jesus’ life (Luke 13:31-33),
and later tried Him (Luke 23:7-12). His
great-grandfather was Herod the Great, who ruled at the time of Jesus’ birth
(Matt. 2:1-19; Luke 1:5) and murdered the children of Bethlehem in an effort to
kill the newborn King.
“Agrippa’s
private life was scandalous; Bernice was not only his consort but also his
sister. (Their sister, Drusilla, was the
wife of the former governor, Felix.)
Their incestuous relationship was the subject of gossip in Rome (where
Agrippa had grown up). Bernice would
occasionally leave her brother and lover for another man (she had been the
mistress of Emperor Vespasian and later his son Titus), but she always
returned. They are inseparable in the
Acts narrative (cf. 25:13, 23; 26:30); she is, as some have suggested the
symbol of Agrippa’s vice.
“Although
he did not rule Judea, Agrippa had been granted control of the temple treasury
and the right to appoint the high priest.
The Romans considered him an expert on Jewish affairs, as did Paul
(26:3). Agrippa tried to prevent the
Jewish revolt, but when it broke out in A. D. 66, he sided with the Romans and
thus became a traitor to his people.”
Seeing
how we are on vacation at this time I am not writing very long Spiritual
Diaries, and so I suppose that it will take us three SD’s to get through this
first section that we will be looking at for several days.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jezebel” (2 Kings 9:30-36),
Today’s Bible question: “In the Old Testament, what man made up
riddles?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/11/2018 9:52 AM
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