Bible
Study: Jeremiah 20, 10 to 13. And John 10, 31 to 42.
Going through
our readings this morning, one immediately gets a sense of how hard it must
have been for Jesus as well as for the prophet Jeremiah. Not only was his life
threatened, the Jews picked up stones before his very presence to stone Jesus
to death. Jesus tried to reason things out with them but to no avail.
He even
quoted the scriptures to prove to them that he was right in referring to himself
as a son of God but for his adversaries, this was pure blasphemy. They tried to arrest Jesus there and then but
he escaped from their hands.
This is
the second time Jesus would be escaping from the hands of a hostile crowd, the
first being when his own people in his own native land dragged him out of the
temple to the brow of the hill on which their city was built intending to throw
him down headlong.
When we
read passages of Scripture like this, we seem to miss the message within the
lines. Why? Because we already know what happened in the end. And because we
already know that the story of Jesus’ persecution ended on a rather joyful note
with his resurrection and ascension into heaven, we seem to make light of the fact
that He actually went through hell.
When we
ourselves go through difficulties and challenging moments in life, our sorrow
and pain appear rather endless and even more aggravated by the fact that we
have no idea how our story would end. Based on our limited knowledge as human
beings, we are incapable of seeing the future, hence we tend to get very
discouraged when God allows adversity in our lives.
The book
of Hebrews contains a rather shocking commentary about the whole idea of
suffering for the sake of God, one that is worth reflecting upon. It says “And
it was only right that God-- who made everything and for whom everything was
made-- should bring his many children into glory. Through the suffering of
Jesus, God made him a perfect leader, one fit to bring them into their
salvation.” Hebrews 2, 10. In other words, for Jesus to become perfect, it is
absolutely necessary that he should suffer. This means that suffering holds the
key to perfection.
This
explains why our life on earth is dotted with suffering. For anything good that
we must get, for any form of advancement in life, we must suffer. God loves us.
He loves us too much to allow us suffering for nothing! He sees our plight and
if right now there is something you are going through that you wish was over,
yet you have prayed about it and God is still allowing you experience that pain,
it means something good will come out from it someday. Just hold on!
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, in moments of adversity, be with me to help me through so that even if I
am not able to see how it will end, I will not give up. Amen.
God bless
you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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