Reading for Today:
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2 Chronicles 23:1
Chapter 23 1 And in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into covenant with him.
–24:27
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Psalms 83:9-18
9 Do thou unto them as unto Midian, As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon; 10 Who perished at Endor, Who became as dung for the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; Yea, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna; 12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession The habitations of God. 13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust; As stubble before the wind. 14 As the fire that burneth the forest, And as the flame that setteth the mountains on fire, 15 So pursue them with thy tempest, And terrify them with thy storm. 16 Fill their faces with confusion, That they may seek thy name, O Jehovah. 17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever; Yea, let them be confounded and perish; 18 That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 84 For the Chief Musician; set to the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
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Proverbs 21:2-3
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; But Jehovah weigheth the hearts. 3 To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to Jehovah than sacrifice.
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Acts 18:1-28
Chapter 18 1 After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. 2 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome: and he came unto them; 3 and because he was of the same trade, he abode with them, and they wrought, for by their trade they were tentmakers. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks. 5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was constrained by the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6 And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook out his raiment and said unto them, Your blood `be' upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. 7 And he departed thence, and went into the house of a certain man named Titus Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. 8 And Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. 9 And the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace: 10 for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee: for I have much people in this city. 11 And he dwelt `there' a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment-seat, 13 saying, This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked villany, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: 15 but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; I am not minded to be a judge of these matters. 16 And he drove them from the judgment-seat. 17 And they all laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment-seat. And Gallio cared for none of these things. 18 And Paul, having tarried after this yet many days, took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila: having shorn his head in Cenchreae; for he had a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. 20 And when they asked him to abide a longer time, he consented not; 21 but taking his leave of them, and saying, I will return again unto you if God will, he set sail from Ephesus. 22 And when he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and saluted the church, and went down to Antioch. 23 And having spent some time `there', he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples. 24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John: 26 and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he was minded to pass over into Achaia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him: and when he was come, he helped them much that had believed through grace; 28 for he powerfully confuted the Jews, `and that' publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Notes:
2 Chronicles 23:3
3 And all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said unto them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as Jehovah hath spoken concerning the sons of David.
as the LORD…said. This is one of the most dramatic moments in messianic history. The human offspring of David have been reduced to one—Joash. If he had died, there would have been no human heir to the Davidic throne, and it would have meant the destruction of the line of the Messiah. However, God remedied the situation by providentially protecting Joash (2 Chr. 22:10–12) and eliminating Athaliah (1 Chr. 23:12–21).
2 Chronicles 24:15
15 But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days, and he died; a hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.
,16 Jehoiada. This man was the high priest of Athaliah’s and Joash’s reigns (2 Chr. 23:1–24:16), who championed God’s cause of righteousness during days of evil by: 1) leading the fight against idols; 2) permitting the coup against Athaliah; and 3) granting the throne to Joash to bring about the subsequent revival.
Psalms 83:18
18 That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 84 For the Chief Musician; set to the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
know…Most High. The purpose of the maledictions against the hostile nations is neither personal nor national, but spiritual: that the nations may know and glorify God. whose name alone is the LORD. “Alone” should precede “are” in the next phrase. The Gentile nations need to know that the God of the Bible is the only God.
Acts 18:1
Chapter 18 1 After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
Corinth. The leading political and commercial center in Greece. It was located at a strategic point on the isthmus of Corinth, which connected the Peloponnesian peninsula with the rest of Greece. Virtually all traffic between northern and southern Greece had to pass through the city. Because Corinth was a trade center and host to all sorts of travelers, it had an unsettled population that was extremely debauched. It also housed the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. One thousand temple priestesses, who were ritual prostitutes, came each evening into the city to practice their trade.
Acts 18:8
8 And Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue. The conversion of this respected leader must have sent shock waves throughout the Jewish community.
Acts 18:13
13 saying, This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.
contrary to the law. While Judaism was not an official religion, it was officially tolerated in the Roman world, and Christianity was viewed as a sect of Judaism. The Jews in Corinth claimed that Paul’s teaching was external to Judaism and therefore should be banned. Had Gallio ruled in the Jews’ favor, Christianity could have been outlawed throughout the empire.
DAY 14: How did Aquila and Priscilla help Apollos?
In
Acts 18:24
24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the scriptures.
, Apollos came to Ephesus and clearly was an Old Testament saint and follower of John the Baptist (v. 25). He came from Alexandria, an important city in Egypt located near the mouth of the Nile. In the first century, it had a large Jewish population. Thus Apollos, though born outside of Israel, was reared in a Jewish cultural setting. It states that he was “mighty in the Scriptures,” referring to Apollos’s knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures. That knowledge, combined with his eloquence, allowed him to crush his Jewish opponents in a later debate (v. 28).
He had been instructed in “the way of the Lord” (v. 25).This did not include the Christian faith (v. 26). The Old Testament uses the phrase to describe the spiritual and moral standards God required His people to observe. “He knew only the baptism of John.” Despite his knowledge of the Old Testament, Apollos did not fully understand Christian truth. John’s baptism was to prepare Israel for the Messiah’s arrival. Apollos accepted that message, even acknowledging that Jesus of Nazareth was Israel’s Messiah. He did not, however, understand such basic Christian truths as the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the church as God’s new witness people. He was a redeemed Old Testament believer (v. 24).
Fortunately, Aquila and Priscilla completed Apollos’s training in divine truth by instructing him in the fullness of the Christian faith (v. 26).After further instruction, he became a powerful Christian preacher. His ministry profoundly influenced the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:12). Aquila and Priscilla were a husband and wife team who became Paul’s close friends and even risked their lives for him (Rom. 16:3, 4).
From The MacArthur Daily Bible Copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson Bibles, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc, Nashville, TN 37214, www.thomasnelson.com.
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