The Lord begins His indictment against Israel by remembering
the days of her youth, the time in the wilderness when they were simply His own
and He protected them and provided for them.
Those days were halcyon days in the nation as it turns out. The nation “grew up” and moved into its own
place, the Land that He gave to them.
When they did, they outgrew Him in their own eyes, they no longer had
need of Him because they could make their own way in the world in this
land. In the wilderness there was no
reason to ask “Where is the Lord?” because it was obvious where He was, in the
pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Once in the land, they no longer sought Him,
there was a temple and the presumption was that He was where the temple
was. Instead of seeking Him, they sought
other gods, such as no other nation had done.
His complaint is that they have done worse than nations whose gods are
no gods at all. They have exchanged the
living God among them for nothing at all.
Jesus says the people will not believe unless they see
signs. The “you” is plural, not referring
only to the official. The official is
not a synagogue official, but an official of the king, Herod, and as such would
not have been well thought of by the Jews of Galilee. Perhaps Jesus’ words were a challenge to
their prejudices against the man. To the
man himself they are something of a test.
He has come because he believed but does he believe enough to go in
faith at Jesus’ command? Indeed he does,
“The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.” His faith is rewarded when he arrives at home
and is told his son is well. Not
surprisingly, he also finds that the healing occurred at the very hour of his
encounter with Jesus. Where have you had
an encounter with Jesus that confirmed your faith in Him? When was the last time you took a step of
faith like this man?
Paul says that the Gospel is for everyone with one caveat,
it is from faith for faith. The one
thing required is to believe and that itself is a gift from God. If you read or hear the Gospel and you don’t
have faith, you won’t actually get it.
The Bible isn’t just some random historical document and so long as we
treat it in that way we will never get it, it must be read and received with
faith and hope, just as the official came to Jesus that day in Capernaum. If all we bring is skepticism, we will
receive nothing at all. The man brought
faith and walked away in faith and received what he sought. Much of science these days is done without
faith, in fact it is done in skepticism but not proper skepticism, the
skepticism that says I don’t believe any preconceived ideas about origins, but
that I believe a particular story of origins and I can’t or won’t receive any
information to the contrary. Thus,
statements such as the universe has all the appearance of design but it
isn’t. The presupposition of no design
means that evidence will not persuade.
They can’t see the signs where given.
No one asks where the Lord is because they have already decided there is
no Lord.
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