Missed Blessings Because of Hard Hearts
Have you ever tried to convince someone of a fact you knew to be true, but they just would not accept what you said and kept making excuses as to why it could not be as you told them? Perhaps someone famous is in town and you want your friend to go with you to meet them, but they keep insisting that person is not here and continually tells you why that person could not be who you claim him/her to be. They never get to experience the joy of meeting that special someone with you that you had hoped for. Well, Jesus had the same problem when he was here on the Earth.
Awhile back, we discussed there were three miracles Christ performed which proved himself to be the promised Messiah that Old Testament prophets had predicted would one day come (Jesus Drives out an Evil Spirit): healing a person blind from birth, healing a Jewish leper, and healing a mute who was demon possessed. Yet, Jesus did all three of these things (Jn 9:1-6; Mk 1:40-44, Lk 5:12-14; Mt 9:32-35), yet the Jewish leaders still did not believe Jesus to be their Messiah. To give these Jewish leaders the benefit of the doubt, two of these were brought to them by hearsay so they had to believe the witnesses to be credible. Yet, one of these would involve a temple priest and he would, or should, have to at least question Jesus’ validity of being their Messiah. What do I mean by saying this?
Moses gave the cleansing rituals for what one who had been cleansed from leprosy (i.e., some type of a skin disease) was to do (Lv 14:1-7; 33-53). When the temple was constructed, four chambers within the four corners of the Court of Women were built: Nazarite Chamber, Chamber of Wood, Chamber of Oils, and Chamber of Lepers. Those who were cured from leprosy would take their required offerings to the priest on the eighth day of their purification ritual, immerse in the mikveh within the Chamber of Lepers and then go to the Nikanor Gate (the gate between the Court of Women and the Inner Court) where a priest would pronounce him or her clean and be anointed with the blood from the sacrifices provided earlier.
This is all well and good, but it seems that there was never a recording of any Jew being healed from leprosy since the time of Moses. Therefore, it became a saying that only the coming Messiah would be able to heal a Jewish leper. So, shouldn’t the priest that day have been totally shocked that this man was coming to receive a pronouncement of being cleansed after having been a leper? There should have been a big stir among all the temple priests that day. After all, something that had not happened in several centuries had just occurred. Wasn’t that worth a stir?
So why didn’t it? I guess we will never know for sure, but we can speculate. The Jewish leaders had already had some falling out moments with Jesus. Rather than praising them for their meticulous keeping of all the tedious commands the Law required, Jesus criticized them because they did not really care about the people (Lk 11:42). They cared about keeping the letter of the Law, but not the overarching theme of how the Law should lead the people to God. They used it to brag and show how the “common” people were not as good as they were in keeping the Law. Because of this, Jesus reprimanded them. Jesus’ harsh words hurt their pride and angered them. According to them, if Jesus was the Messiah who was proclaimed by all the prophets, he should care about the Law and be raising them up as pristine examples of how to keep the Law, and invite them into his kingdom he was to now set up. Therefore, it is my suspicion that when the once-leper told the priest it was Jesus of Nazareth who healed him from his leprosy, this priest likely totally dismissed what the man said and likely didn’t even accept that the man had leprosy in the first place or was cured by happenstance somehow. Or, as was done on other occasions, just told the man to be grateful he had somehow been healed and give glory to God because the man Jesus was no Messiah.
So, the Jewish leaders really had no excuse in not knowing that Jesus Christ was their Messiah. He had fulfilled all their teachings about what a coming Messiah would do. What he did not do while he was with them was set up an earthly kingdom and they used this fact to justify their unbelief (Jn 10:22-42). If they had asked questions, they would have come to learn that Jesus first had to overcome their spiritual needs before he could overcome their physical needs.
So, what was the outcome of their unbelief? They missed out on one of the greatest blessings that could have been theirs. And they kept other Israelites from enjoying that same blessing. Their whole life, they had taught about a Messiah who was prophesied to come to Israel and believed a Messiah would come but missed it completely when he finally did arrive—mainly because of two things. First, Jesus did not meet their expectation of what a Messiah would look like, do, and accomplish. Second, they let their pride and hurt feelings get in the way of them objectively looking at what Jesus said and did. They asked no questions. They just condemned.
Today, the Christian community has become polarized, and we seem to be on the verge of the same problem that these Jewish leaders had. We think we know the next steps God is going to take on this Earth. Some adamantly say the time of the Rapture is upon us (1Th 4:16-18). The world is so bad, there is nothing else that can save us expect Christ coming for his bride. Others say that the Holy Spirit is going to sweep across the Earth like a flood (Hk 2:14) and will achieve the greatest harvest since the Church was founded back in the book of Acts. Many are quite adamant in this regard as well. Each side has scripture to back them up. So, who is right? The Jewish leaders had Scripture to back up why they did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, not realizing that their reservation of doing so was really about what the Messiah would do at another time in history. Their minds and hearts were not open for God to instruct about this so he could use them in their day and time.
So, what is the solution? Let God be God. Prepare for the possibility of either scenario to occur. Plus, neither of these events may happen or occur exactly as we think they will. These New Testament Jewish leaders certainly thought they had it all figured out. After all, they had been studying their Scriptures their entire lives. They couldn’t conceive God coming any other way except how they envisioned it in their minds. Yet, they totally missed it. They let tradition override God’s actual plan. Let’s not be the same way.
Could the Rapture be upon us? Certainly. Yet, could God also send the Holy Spirit to cleanse his bride to make her purer and bring in a harvest of souls to expand the number to be part of his bride? Certainly, and it would be within his character to do so.
No matter which scenario God performs will still be awesome. Let’s be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit during this time. Let’s not be so adamant about our future that we don’t allow God to use us in what he has prescribed for our time. Let’s press into his Word and press into Him so we can have an open heart and open mind focused on Him. Then, we can be part of something amazing that God is going to do. We are definitely on the cusp of something. Something wonderful. Let’s be sure we’re ready. God bless.
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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens