In todays post we have another one of those portions of Scripture - TopicsExpress



          

In todays post we have another one of those portions of Scripture that people find troubling. Lets take a look at it.... But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him. This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted: “Lord, who has believed our message?To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?” But the people couldnt believe, for as Isaiah also said, “The Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts— so that their eyes cannot see, and their hearts cannot understand,and they cannot turn to me and have me heal them.” Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he said this, because he saw the future and spoke of the Messiah’s glory. Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldnt admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God. John 12:37-43 For those of you who have been reading along since the beginning of the year, we had a very similar situation.... But the LORD hardened Pharaohs heart, and just as the LORD had predicted to Moses, Pharaoh refused to listen. Exodus 9:12 Both of these situations were quite similar. Jesus had performed many miracles but most people still didnt believe in him. Likewise, many today claim that if only they could see God, they would believe. The Lord is giving us an example to show us that they are not being honest with themselves. The people in Jesus time, like those in the time of Pharaoh, and Isaiah, would not believe despite the evidence. As a result, God hardened their hearts. That DOES NOT mean that God intentionally prevented these people from believing in Him. He simply confirmed their own choices. After a lifetime of resisting God, they had become so set in their ways that they WOULDNT EVEN TRY to understand Jesus message. For such people it is virtually impossible to come to God--their hearts have been permanently hardened. Continuing on in our reading we come to another intriguing account.... The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it. Mark 11:12-14 I remember the first time I read this, thinking, well thats random! But as I studied the verse, I began to see what Jesus was trying to say. Lets remember that most of Jesus teaching was about the Kingdom. When we examine the tree in the account we see that it was in full leaf, but upon closer examination we see that it had no fruit. This represents once again the phony, hypocritical people that parade around their religiousness. They look like they are so religious, and pious, but the truth is there is no fruit. They may talk the talk, but when it comes down to living their lives, their lives dont resemble a Christian. There is no love, kindness, patience...etc. When Jesus says May no one ever eat your fruit again. He is basically saying....May no one ever believe that you are my follower, or May people see right through your phoniness. Finally, we come to the account where Jesus addresses the corruption that had over run the Temple. In order to understand this you need to first understand what the sellers in the Temple were doing. During the festival times, Jews from all over the world would come and pay a pilgrimage to the Temple. They needed to come to the Temple and offer a sacrifice for their family. Many of them traveled from afar so they couldnt bring the sacrifice with them. In the Law, the Lord had provided a way for these people to still participate in the sacrificial system. He told them that they could buy an animal when they got to the Temple. But man, being as sinful and corrupt as he is, came up with a way to swindle people for their own profit. Here is what they did.... The pilgrim would go to buy a sacrificial animal from the seller, and because they were set up on the outer Temple, the seller would say that they could not accept pagan money. They considered money pagan if it had a mans likeness was engraved on it (usually the ruler of the land they were coming from), so they would tell they person they needed to exchange their money for Temple money. The person would then go to the money changers and they would charge an enormous exchange rate on the currency. The person would go back to buy the animal and the seller of the animal will now sell the animal to the pilgrim with an enormous mark up. This is how they were cheating everyone, and doing it in the name of the Lord! youtube/watch?v=I4kZsNEjVLc
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 03:33:44 +0000

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