Monday, April 29, 2024

Looking for the Wrong Things

Scripture: When Jews from Jerusalem sent a group of priests and officials to ask John who he was, he was completely honest. He didn’t evade the question. He told the plain truth: “I am not the Messiah.” They pressed him, “Who, then? Elijah?” “I am not.” “The Prophet?” “No.” Exasperated, they said, “Who, then? We need an answer for those who sent us. Tell us something—anything!—about yourself.” “I’m thunder in the desert: ‘Make the road straight for God!’ I’m doing what the prophet Isaiah preached.” John 1:19-23

Observation: As John the Baptist begins his ministry, the Pharisees come out to figure out what is going on. They explicitly ask him if he is one of three people ... the Messiah, Elijah returned, or "the Prophet" (a person promised by Moses). John he clear that he is none of these, but rather he is the fourth person they should REALLY be expecting; he is a prophet predicted by Isaiah, whose function is to explicitly prepare the Jews for the arrival of the Messiah.

What happens next is ... the Pharisees dismiss John almost entirely, and thus ignore Jesus when John fulfills his mission by pointing to Jesus as the Messiah.

The Jews have so misunderstood the word of God that they entirely miss the boat. Moses declared there would be a great, eternal leader to come to Israel, and somehow the Jews did not equate that to the Messiah. Elijah was taken up to heaven, with no promise nor prediction that he would ever return, yet somehow they expect that to happen. And many prophets declare the coming of Messiah with Isaiah being the most clear on the topic, yet when John points out that he is in fact aligned to that prophetic message they reject the concept, even questioning John's authority to baptize.

The law and prophets have declared that Messiah will come to the world, by way of the Jews, to restore the entire world to the Lord, and that he will be introduced through one prophet with a message to "make way for the Lord." While that is happening before their eyes, the Jews are instead looking for other people with different purposes and missions and different messages, confused about who is who and what was and wasn't promised. They are looking for the wrong things, and thus miss everything.

Application: I think humans look for the "wrong things" because we confuse what we want with what we need. We search for what we want. God gives us what we need, plus what he knows we should want. How often do I miss those gifts?

I want comfort. The Lord has given me a good job that creates the provisions I need for comfort, yet I often get lazy with my work and think THAT downtime represents comfort. It doesn't, and it could cost me the provision if I keep it up. I want happiness. The Lord has given me a wonderful wife, and I ignore her while I play games on my phone as a source of happiness (which it isn't). This kind of list could go on and on.

I don't want to be a like Pharisee looking for Elijah's mythical return, and thus missing Jesus. I don't want to look for what I want, and miss the great things the Lord has offered me.

Prayer: Lord, I do know you have blessed me in so many ways, far more than I could want. May I find joy and peace and love only in you and in your blessings, for I truly want no more than that. Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment