It’s Nothing New:
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us. Ecclesiastes 1:10
From Malachi to John the Baptist, perhaps some 400 years of prophetic silence ensued. Many Jews who were looking for the promised Messiah, who was to come, were saying;
”where is the promise of his coming? for
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from
the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3:1-4)
Finally, the long awaited announcement came through an Angel of God to Mary. “The Son of God” was coming. John (under a mandate) came out of the wilderness, to prepare the folks for His coming, but apparently, even John didn’t know quite what to expect. However, he finally saw what he had been told to look for and bare record that what he saw was…” the Son of God”.
But wait….Kings from heaven, won’t show up in the form of destructible human flesh!!! The “King” they had been promised, most certainly would not have been hangin’ out in “the hood”, workin’ construction, in obscurity for 30 years, before he is announced. Most certainly not… God would appoint the highest level of religious leadership to announce and provide witness for “The Promised Messiah”. God just wouldn’t choose some hairy, homeless, hermit, who eats bugs, to announce Him!! No way!!
The religious leaders of those days apparently had developed and passed along from generation to generation a detailed eschatology and knew exactly how it would all happen….or so they thought.
From Moses to Malachi and from Malachi to Jesus, the Jewish people believed and looked forward to the coming of a Messiah. Why then, when He finally came, would the Jewish people, as a whole, not recognize and acknowledge him? Why did they reject him when he finally came and was revealed to be their promised Messiah?
Because, he did not appear or manifest himself to them in the way in which the traditions of men and the religious leadership of those days had been teaching that he would.
Therefore: “He came unto his own” …”and his own received him not”.
Many Jewish people in these last days (the days since Jesus first came) continue to deny that He has already come and continue to look to the future for that which is “at hand” and has been at hand for over 2000 years. Jesus (the Christ), the Son of the living God, the promised Messiah, Emanuel (God with us), has come and his salvation is ….
”At Hand”.
However, Many Christians today, come in the name of Christ saying…”Jesus is the Christ”. They too, as the Jews of old, believe in the Messiah and the promises of God through His “old testament” prophets. Yet, they deny that His Kingdom is come. Still Insisting, like the Jews of old, that the promise of his coming in His Kingdom is still….”in the future”.
Matthew 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that
no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;
and shall deceive many.
“I am Christ.” Don’t all true Christians say…”He is Christ”? Jesus is the Christ!!! Some Christians, even true, well meaning Christians, who come in the name of Christ, saying; “He is Christ”, can and do …“deceive many”. They deceive many by repeating false or distorted teachings that have their origins in religious traditions which are laced with the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (See; e-book, chapter 2; “The Kingdom Of Heaven’s At Hand” this web site.)
Is there more to come in Christ in the future? Most certainly!! However, like the Jews of old; what are we missing in the meanwhile by overlooking the Kingdom that is……. “at hand”?
The traditions of men can be powerfully deceptive… which is “nothing new”.
© Byrl Keith Chadwell 6/2008
