Matthew 27:62-66 Sealed and Guarded by Rome
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: September 25, 2019 Matthew 27:62-66
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
(Understanding the Text) The next day would be Sabbath. The chief priests and Pharisees used the Sabbath day to go to Pilate, a Gentile, on business. They were technically breaking the Sabbath, which they claimed to honor, just as they had killed the God that they claimed to honor. They must have been getting fearful. They remembered that Jesus had said that He would rise again. The disciples did not remember or believe, but Jesus’ enemies remembered and while they claimed not to believe, part of them feared and rationalized it by thinking that the disciples would use trickery. Satan must have been prompting them, but in spite of Satan’s intent, God used their natural reactions to accomplish His own goal. There was a Roman guard and a Roman seal on the stone to give the Jewish people evidence that the disciples were not responsible for the disappearance of Jesus’ body.
People can rationalize away so many truths while embracing fallacies. They do not realize that they are doing so because they are prompted by demons. There is life, and there is the masquerade that overlays life to try to make us see one thing when reality is another. In fact, nowadays there is overlay after overlay of masquerade so that just when you think you see through one level to reality, you are really seeing a second layer of lies underneath the first. This is why the Laodicean church is blind. It is not because they chose to be blind. It is because they do not avail themselves of the only method of seeing through the falsehoods to the reality. They are not blind in the sense of no sight. They are blind in the sense of obstruction of their sight. They look around and see things, so they think that they can see. What they do not understand is that they are seeing a mirage rather than reality. The only way to cut through the devil’s delusions is through the Holy Spirit. If we have rejected the Holy Spirit’s prompting and stubbornly followed our own ways, then we will never have a method to see reality. The priests and Pharisees had been rejecting God’s leading for so long that they did not see any inconsistency in their fears of Jesus’ resurrection and their claim that Jesus had no power from God. Instead, they accepted a convenient excuse to explain their fear. Guzik’s commentary says “What were they really afraid of? They couldn’t have been afraid of the disciples. They knew they were terrified and in hiding. They knew they were gone from the crucifixion scene. Their intelligence sources and informants let them know the disciples were terrified. What were they really afraid of? The power of Jesus.”
(Application / Revelation of God) My application for myself is that it may seem that the world has gone out of its way to bind God’s will and keep it from happening, but even the world’s actions can be used for God’s purposes. He does not direct those purposes, but He incorporates them into His own actions and plans. When God moved, nothing could keep His will from going forward.
Guzik’s commentary says something similar after describing the security measures which were put into place to assure that Jesus’ body stayed inside the tomb. “f. Sealing the stone and setting the guard: This describes the measures taken to secure the tomb of Jesus. i. The tomb was secured by a stone, which was a material obstacle. These stones were large, and set in a slanted channel. It was a real obstacle. For sure, the stone could not be rolled away from the inside. The disciples, if you had enough of them, could roll away the stone – but not quietly. Besides, they would have to work together to roll it away, and that didn’t seem likely. ii. The tomb was secured by a seal, which was an obstacle of human authority. The seal was a rope, overlapping the width of the stone covering the entrance to the tomb. On either side of the doorway, there was a glob of wax securing the rope over the stone. You could not move the rock without breaking the seal. It was important that the guards witness the sealing, because they were responsible for whatever was being sealed. These Roman guards would watch carefully as the stone was sealed, because they knew their careers, and perhaps their lives, were on the line. The Roman seal carried legal authority. It was more than yellow tape barricading a crime scene; to break a Roman seal was to defy Roman authority. That stone was secured by the authority of the Roman Empire. iii. The tomb was secured by a guard, which was an obstacle of human strength. A typical Roman guard had four soldiers. Two watched while the others rested. This guard might have had more. The soldiers would be fully equipped – sword, shield, spear, dagger, armor. We should also remember that these were Roman soldiers. They didn’t care about Jesus or Jewish laws or rituals. They were called to secure the tomb of a criminal. To them, the only sacred thing at this tomb was the Roman seal, because if that were broken their careers were ruined and they might be executed themselves. Soldiers cold-blooded enough to gamble over a dying man’s clothes were not the kind of men to be tricked by trembling disciples, or would not jeopardize their necks by sleeping at their post. iv. None of these obstacles mattered. Material obstacles don’t stand before the resurrected Jesus. Human authority doesn’t stand before the resurrected Jesus. Human strength doesn’t stand before the resurrected Jesus. It all falls away before Him!”
(Prayer) Teach me to see that You are working even in apparent defeat. Give me hope in times of trouble and humiliation. Let me see You instead of my own mistakes, fears, and insecurities. Give me hope and joy in all situations.