Daily Devotions
John
The silence of the Jews
Text: John 7 : 11-43
THE SILENCE OF THE JEWS
The Jews had no answer to this comment of Jesus. They were so sure that if they charged Jesus with breaking the Sabbath, they could make Him look like a lawbreaker! They could even demand the stiffest penalty if they could prove His guilt.
They were not so sure now. Jesus had brought up a truly thorny issue. The law of circumcision was of great importance. It was given by God Himself. There was a severe penalty clause if this law of circumcision was not kept.
“This is My Covenant which you shall keep,
between Me and you and your descendants after you:
Every male child among you shall be circumcised;
and you shall be circumcised in the flesh
of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the Covenant
between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you
shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations…And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised
in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off
from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Genesis 17:10-11, 14
The Jews were well and truly trapped! They couldn’t give an intelligible reply to Jesus. Did they think that they were dealing with an unlettered man? Did they imagine that He was possessed of a demon? How could that be? His thoughts were deep and sound! He stumped the best of their scholars! The crowds noticed the silence of The Jews.
THE ASTONISHMENT OF THE JEWS
There were some Jews who resided in Jerusalem who noticed the embarrassing situation that had developed. These men spoke up and said.
“Now some of them from Jerusalem said,
‘Is this not He whom they seek to kill?
But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.
Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?'”
John 7:25-26
They let the cat out of the bag! The Jews had denied that they had any intention of killing Jesus. Some of the Jews in Jerusalem, were so astonished by Jesus, perhaps because this was their first encounter with Him that they blurted out a hitherto well-kept secret. They admitted, inadvertently, that there was intention to kill Jesus. Plots had been hatched to implicate Jesus and to ultimately destroy Him.
There was great surprise on the part of some of The Jews. They were astonished that Jesus was speaking publicly and so boldly too! Their most erudite scholar could not hold their own against His wisdom!
Inevitably the rhetorical question was spoken out loud. Had the rulers considered the possibility that Jesus could be the Christ? However, if they were to follow this line of reasoning and research, how would they reconcile their popular understanding of The Messiah? John recorded a popular folk-lore concerning the Messiah.
“However, we know where this Man is from;
but when the Christ comes, no one knows
where He is from.”
John 7:27
There were many popular traditions built around the coming of the Messiah, sadly none of them Biblically accurate. One of them was that The Messiah was a mysterious person who would come and go as He pleased. No one would know when He would appear. He would be a great Messiah, but nobody would know anything much about Him. God would cloak Him in absolute secrecy!
The Jews actually preferred this version of The Messiah versus the Biblical teachings concerning the Messiah. Even if The Jews were to confine themselves to study the prophecies of Isaiah, they would have discovered a lot of information concerning Him. The Jews had the privilege of having a whole set of Books that made up their Scriptures. If they were to make a systematic study of the Messianic prophecies, they would have a far better understanding of just who the Messiah really was! But no, they preferred to retain their romantic version concerning the Messiah.
ANOTHER STRONG CORRECTIVE MESSAGE FROM JESUS
Jesus could not keep quiet when people bandied opinions so freely! John noted His spirited response.
“Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying,
‘You both know Me, and you know where I am from;
and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true,
whom you do not know.
But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.'”
John 7:28-29
What Jesus said was not new! He had said similar words before. Once again He reiterated the following truth. Surely, with all the work that they did to check up on His background, they would have known all about His miraculous birth, His lineage, etc.
If The Jews were to examine His doctrines, would they not have deduced that His teachings were indeed fully Biblical? Would that fact not lead them to consider that He could have indeed been sent by God?
Jesus knew the real reason why they could not come to the right conclusion! They really did not know God, and therefore they did not receive any enlightenment from Him concerning the identity of the Messiah! What a strong word of reproof this was!