King Zedekiah wants to know what the Lord has to say. He is afraid of the Babylonians as well as
the men of Judah who have done as Jeremiah said, surrendered to the
conquerors. Jeremiah doesn't sugar coat
the word, there is only one course of action you must take to avoid being
killed, surrender to the Babylonians. I can't
truly imagine how it must have felt to receive those words. The city of God was going to be destroyed by
these pagans and the only act of true leadership left to Zedekiah was to walk
away and let them have it. The Lord
wasn't coming to help His people keep the city, it was going to fall. The temple was going to be destroyed, the city
was going to be razed, nothing would be left but rubble. The vision, the glory, the presence of the
Lord, all was going to be gone. The memories,
the promises, the future, all destroyed by these invaders and the Lord was
giving His blessing to it. What next?
This passage truly interests me because modern commentators
differ so from ancient commentators. Today,
commentarists generally assume that John is in doubt. He is in prison, likely to die for standing
up to Herod and his wife for their marriage that broke Jewish law. They see him as struggling with his situation,
doubting what he had preached concerning Jesus.
Their assumption is that he is looking for a word from Jesus that he
will be released from prison, he will be rescued. Jesus quotes the messianic passage from
Isaiah but leaves out the release of the captives, John's particular
predicament. John must have faith
without receiving what he wants. Ancient
commentators see this as John sending his disciples to Jesus that they might
transfer their faith from John to Jesus, that John believes so much that he
wants his disciples to have the same faith, no matter their or his
circumstances. Who is right? Who can know for certain from our distance in
time? To me, I see John as a consummate
man of faith who had always been willing to sacrifice for truth. Did he get the time horizon wrong on his
prophetic message of the coming in judgment?
Yes, it seems he did, but I don't personally see John wavering thus.
Paul's call to the Corinthian church is to stand firm in
faith, don't waver just because the fulfillment of the promise is delayed. His message is simple, it sounds very much
like what we confess about Jesus in the Nicene Creed each week. He affirms the truth of the story by pointing
to the witnesses to whom Jesus revealed Himself, finishing with the revelation
to Paul in the vision on the road to Damascus.
This revelation was no less real for being non-corporeal in Paul's
eyes. Paul knew himself to be unworthy
of the revelation or the call but they are both of God and from God so whether
he is worthy or not is of no consequence.
He lived a prophet's life, always opposed by the leaders, mistreated,
persecuted, reviled and despised, and yet he marvelously persevered to the end
of his life in spite of it all. His greatest
joy was to see his people, the ones to whom he had preached, preserving in
faith as well.
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