Luke 20:39 ¶ Then certain
of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said. 40 And after that they durst not ask him any question
at all. 41 And he said unto them,
How say they that Christ is David’s son? 42
And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 43 Till
I make thine enemies thy footstool. 44
David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son? 45 Then in the audience of all the people he
said unto his disciples, 46 Beware of
the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the
markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at
feasts; 47 Which devour widows’ houses,
and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation.
Psalm 110:1 ¶ « A
Psalm of David. » The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
LORD, all uppercase
letters, from the Hebrew, is from Jehovah, one of the over 6500 times God’s
name is translated from Jehovah, which means, according to Strong’s dictionary,
‘The Existing One,’ or, as God Himself put it in Exodus 3:14, I AM THAT I AM. The second Lord in Psalm
110 is from Adonai.
From Greek as here in
Luke both are from Kurios. What is the point Jesus’ is making? The Messiah was
understood to be the Son of David, a descendant of the king.
Luke 18:38 And he cried,
saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me.
David wrote that
Jehovah God said to his Lord, the Messiah, to sit at His right hand until
Jehovah God made Christ’s enemies His footstool. How can the Messiah be called
the Son of David if he is David’s Lord? Christ, as God, was David’s Lord, his
ruler, benefactor, and owner, and yet, as a man, was his descendant or son.
Here, we have the two natures of Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God,
expressed in one passage.
Revelation 22:16 I Jesus
have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the
root and the offspring of David, and
the bright and morning star.
He was teaching in the
temple, was confronted by the religious elite, suffered spies to try to trip
Him up with the Romans, faced the Sadducees and was not confused by their
attempt to trip Him up on religion and the resurrection they did not believe
in, and now He warns the people to beware of these imposters who love the
preeminence and have no problem taking all that a widow has to sustain herself
in the guise of giving to God.
They are not so
different than many Christian ministers, parading their Doctor of Theology or
Divinity as Dr. Whosit, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Whoville, having
graduated from the seminary of Doubt and Uncertainty, loving the worship of
their congregation. Also, I know of widows how gave thousands and thousands of
dollars to Jim and Tammy Baker and other TV preachers sincerely wanting to make
themselves useful in furthering the Lord’s work but being fleeced the whole
time by con artists.
I have heard many long
prayers that these leaders make that are truly just preaching to the
congregation rather than talking to God. Jesus warned about long-winded
prayers, in our case, using phrases like, “Father God,” at the beginning and
end of every sentence or some such similar phrase while a preacher begins or
continues his usually politically minded sermon.
Matthew 6:7 But when ye
pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Those of us who teach
and preach bear a great responsibility to do our best not to deceive or
manipulate or get puffed up and believe we are something we are not.
So many times Jesus has
declared His Messiahship, His identity, in different ways. The religious
leadership must have been very uncomfortable with Him moving about freely and
teaching, as is evident by several passages.
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