30 January 2011

30 January 2011

Psalm 24, 29; Isa. 51:9-16; Heb. 11:8-16; John 7:14-31

The prophet begins by praying to the Lord to come and comfort His people. One of the marks of a true prophet is that he/she cares for the people of God. The prophet may announce God’s judgment on the people but they must also be willing and able to intercede on behalf of the people. They must care chiefly about God’s honor but also for the people who have gone astray. Isaiah asks the Lord to remember both who He is and who His people are. The Lord’s response is first to gently rebuke them for their fear and forgetting. They have fear of man because they have forgotten who their God is. He reminds them of both His power and His lovingkindness. The same One who established the heavens and laid down the foundations of the earth is the One who says to Israel, you are my people.

The people were confused about Jesus and for good reason. Where indeed did He get this learning? To teach in the temple courts was a privilege and honor and that was typically reserved for those who had studied under the best rabbis, at the Ivy league rabbi schools, and they knew that Jesus hadn’t studied under any of these rabbis, in fact He hadn’t studied under anyone at all. Jesus says they were to examine the teaching in light of truth and whose glory was being sought by the teaching. He then asks, “Why are you trying to kill me?” The question seems relatively out of the blue except that they were trying to kill him although no one had brought it up here. They continue to focus on the wrong thing, where does Jesus come from and they think they know the answer to that question. Not once does Jesus ever point to His origins, He always points to what He is doing.

Our lives tell the story of our desires. By faith Abraham left everything behind in search of what the Lord promised. By faith the disciples left behind everything to follow Jesus. Every time He calls anyone they are required to walk away from their life as it was to come follow Him. We tend to keep one eye on the world and one eye on God and the demands of the world are more immediate, more clamorous and the eye we have on God gets turned away. We have to be more concerned with where we are going, where He is leading than on anything else if we want to see Him.

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.