THE THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
He who dies with the most toys…DOES NOT win!
“16 Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. 17 Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”
Proverbs 15:16-17 (KJV)
Matthew 27:32 – 66
The King allows man to bear His cross
Matthew 27:32 (KJV), “And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.”
In this symbolic event, Jesus shows us that we too must bear our cross as well to signify our fear of the Lord and a prerequisite to eternal life
Matthew 16:24 (KJV), “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
When a person carried a cross in Jesus’ day, no one thought of it as a persistent annoyance or symbolic burden. To a person in the first century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only: death by crucifixion. To carry a cross was to face the most painful and humiliating means of death human beings could develop.
John 19:17 (KJV), “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.”
Jesus’ command to “take up your cross and follow Me” is a call to self-abasement and self-sacrifice. One must be willing to die in order to follow Jesus. Dying to self is an absolute surrender to God
With inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew recognized the symbolic nature of the dividing of garments and casting lots
Matthew 27:35 (KJV), “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.”
Psalm 22:18 (KJV), “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”
Unknowingly, the chief priests also fulfilled scripture prophecy
Matthew 27:43 (KJV), “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.”
Psalm 22:8 (KJV), “He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”
More scripture fulfilled
Matthew 27:46 (KJV), “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Psalm 22:1 (KJV), “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”
Why did the chief priests demand guards secure the grave for three days?
Matthew 27:62-63 (KJV), “62 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.”
So the unbelieving Jews could not deny that Jesus had truly been dead and three days is what Jesus Himself prophesied
Hosea 9
Israel had already been condemned by God so no sacrifices would be worthy
Hosea 9:4 (KJV), “They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.”
Proverbs 15:8 (KJV), “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.”
Harsh words
Hosea 9:15 (KJV), “All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.”
Brown-Driver-Briggs – 2. subject ׳י; object perverse Israel. God hated the perversity of Israel.
Jeremiah 43
God had told Judah, through Jeremiah, NOT to go to Egypt and escape Babylon but they did not believe Jeremiah and fled anyways
Jeremiah 43:7 (KJV), “So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.”
They did not …
Proverbs 3:5 (KJV), “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
But they did …
“and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
So, God brought Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) to them in Egypt
Jeremiah 43:10 (KJV), “And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.”
Proverbs 15
Tree of life
Proverbs 15:4 (KJV), “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.”
The significance here of the tree of life is eternal happiness with God
The tree of life, mentioned in the books of Genesis and Revelation, is a life-giving tree created to enhance and perpetually sustain the physical life of humanity
Genesis 2:9 (KJV), “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Revelation 2:7 (KJV), “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
More details concerning the tree of life come AFTER Adam and Eve’s sin
Genesis 3:22 (KJV), “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.”
Eating from the tree of life gives man eternal life. If man would have eaten from that tree instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would have had sinless eternal life of heavenly happiness. God placed the cherubim in front of the garden to now prevent man from entering and eating of the tree of life. It seems access to the tree of life would have prolonged Adam’s physical life indefinitely, dooming him to an eternity in a cursed world.
Our Almighty Savior will come back and then make available the tree of life again
Revelation 22:2 (KJV), “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Ezekiel 41
Dimensions of the Sanctuary
Grow in the Word of the Lord 