Jesus' Words
Then the godly will shine like the sun in their Father's Kingdom. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand (Matthew 13; 43). This is where the journey will begin. I read this scripture always wandering what it really meant. I would think to myself what does it mean to really see and hear? What does it mean to really understand? This verse is only found a few book of the Bible, but our main focus will be in the Book of Matthew. It comes right after a discussion that Jesus, my Lord and Savior for those who do not know Him, is having with His disciples.
He has told them a story about wheat being planted and weeds growing among them. After He has told this story, to them and many others, He goes into a house and the disciples come after Him. They ask Him what He means by these things and He explains it to them. The thing He does not do is explain these things to the other people who did not come to find him. Why is that? It would seem that if God was going to be just and righteous than He would have to tell everyone the same thing and let them all know the truth. How can a man be judged for a crime when he didn't know it was wrong? How can a man live in the truth when he cannot understand it? There is no righteousness in not letting people know the law and then judging them by it. In order for any law or system to be righteous there has to be away for each and every person to have the same standing. There has to be a way to put everyone on the same playing field.
At the beginning of chapter thirteen in the Book of Matthew, Jesus begins with the story of the scattered seed. Then he ends the story saying, "Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand (Matthew 13; 9)." Then the disciples come and ask him the very same question that I ended the last paragraph with, "Why do you always tell stories when you talk to the people? (Matthew 13; 10)" Jesus then explains it to them. "You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not." Why them and not others? Jesus tells us. "To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening even what they have will be taken away from them. That is why I tell these stories, because people see what I do, but they don't really see. They hear what I say, but they don't really hear, and they don't understand." Then He quotes scripture from Isaiah 6:9-10 "You will hear my words but you will not understand; you will see what I do, but you will not perceive its meaning. For the hearts of these people have hardened and their eyes cannot hear and they have closed their eyes so their eyes cannot see and their hearts cannot understand and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them." Then Jesus finishes His statement with saying this, "blessed are your eyes, because they see and your ears because they hear. I assure you, many prophets and godly people have longed to see what you have seen, but they could not."
So these are the very words that were spoken by Jesus the Christ who came to redeem the world from sin, and set us free from slavery and death. I will continue on with my message, but before this is done I pray that you will let God lead you and teach you. Let not any words that I have put on a page become you life (in which I mean my writing not God's). I pray that you would pray for me, that God would guide my writing and guide my heart. For there is no reason for my writing unless God would guide it. God bless me as He blesses you!
The Truth of these Words
What can we say? Was God being unfair? Of course not! (Romans 9:14)
God is in no way unfair or unjust! Jesus speaks these words to these people, but He does not hide the truth from them. He speaks to them just as he speaks to everyone else, but the others do not take the extra time to want to come to Jesus and understand what He is talking about. The Bible provides us with a perfect example of this in the Book of Acts starting in chapter 8 verse 26.
As for Philip, an angle of the Lord said to him, "Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he did, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and walk along beside the carriage." Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah; so he asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man replied, "How can I, when there is no one to instruct me?" And he begged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
The first thing to notice about this passage is what the eunuch was doing. He had gone to worship God in Jerusalem. He had taken time out of his life and out of his schedule to go and worship God. It does not say what he worshiped God for, but all the same he had worshiped God. Then what is next to notice is that the Holy Spirit guided Philip to him. It was God who sent Philip to meet with this man. It was not anything that Philip thought up on his own or anything that the eunuch had asked him to do. It was God hearing the eunuch worshiping, that cause God to send Philip to him. This is just as the same thing that God did with Saul when Israel wanted a King. God said, "This time tomorrow I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you anoint him to rule over my people Israel, and he will save my people from the hand of the Philistines because I see my people coming crying out to me ( 1 Samuel 9:16)." God gave them a King because they asked for it. God saved them from the Philistines because they cried out to him. In both cases God is guiding these men.
