Daily Devotions
John
The infuriated but impotent Jews
Text: John 7 : 11-43
THE INFURIATED BUT IMPOTENT JEWS
From denial to fury! The Jews betrayed their own hand when they responded as they did to the remarks of Jesus.
“Therefore they sought to take Him;
but no one laid a hand on Him, because
His hour had not yet come.”
John 7:30
Jesus had been absolutely right. The Jews had every intention to harm Him. They may deny His charge. However, inadvertently circumstances had turned out in such a way that they were publicly humiliated – once again! They had been made to look incompetent with reference to the Scriptures! Worse, they were made to look as if they were unbelievers!
They knew only one reaction. They sought to arrest Jesus! Though that normally would have been an easy task, for some strange reason, they never managed to arrest Jesus! They could not explain this phenomenon! Somehow, they could not make an arrest! They had not counted that God would step in and prevent them from making that arrest.
There would come a time when Jesus would die. That destiny with death had already been determined. The reference to His death was termed cryptically, “His hour”. That hour of His death had not yet arrived. Nothing that The Jews could attempt would work! God Himself would personally protect and preserve Him until His Hour had come. How impotent were The Jews! Their pride in the authority and power they had over all Israel had blinded them from realizing that they were literally “nothing” in God’s sight.
THE POWER OF GOD AT WORK
The Jews worked hard and desperately, seeking to forestall people from believing in Jesus. They did everything they could to discredit Jesus, but at the end of the day, they could not prevent anyone from believing in Jesus. What had they hoped for? Perhaps they hoped that the general populace would choose to follow them, rather than Jesus. But what could they really offer? They were already publicly humiliated time and again by Jesus. They could not perform a single miracle, while Jesus was performing signs and wonders at will!
John recorded that there were some who decided that they wanted to believe in Jesus.
“And many of the people believed in Him, and said,
‘When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than
these which this Man has done?'”
John 7:31
They were impacted by the signs that Jesus had performed. Another popular belief among the Jews was that The Messiah would be One who would be able to perform mighty miracles. In this regard there was some truth in their folklore.
VAIN ATTEMPTS TO CONTAIN JESUS
The Jews were not unaware that there were some who felt deeply moved by what Jesus taught. Some had already come to faith in Jesus. Before things got even worse, the religious authorities in Jerusalem decided that they must do something about Jesus. They made another attempt to arrest Jesus.
“The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things
concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests
sent officers to take Him.”
John 7:32
Jesus was not in the least perturbed by the action of the officers sent by the Jewish religious authorities. The highest religious authority was called the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. They exercised great authority and power over all Israel in religious affairs. To some extent, they also had judicial powers, except where a crime demands the death penalty.
As the officers approached Jesus, He calmly said to them.
“I shall be with you a little while longer,
and then I go to Him who sent Me.
You will seek Me and not find Me,
and where I am you cannot come.”
John 7:33-34
Jesus knew that the officers were sent to arrest Him. He also knew that if they could they would like to silence Him forever. The Jews would have liked to kill Him. He knew that one day, before too long, He would die at their hands. However, He chose to speak of death quite differently.
To Jesus, death was simply returning to His Father who sent Him. Death was not something that He needed to fear. The Jews had rejected Jesus and the wisdom that He displayed. These Jews had crossed the line of no return. Perhaps one day, they would realize just how sinful they are, to want to kill their own Messiah! But it would be too late. They would not be able to find Jesus then. They would not be able to go where Jesus went! The rejection of Jesus had farther-reaching significance than The Jews had realized at all!
CLUELESS RIGHT TO THE END
The Jews listened to the words of Jesus and failed to understand a word He said.
‘Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?
Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks
and teach the Greeks?”
John 7:35
How sad Jesus must have felt as He looked at the very people He came to save!