Believe or not

DEVOTION

PROPHESIES AND FULFILLMENTS CONCERNING CHRIST

BELIEVE OR NOT

Ps 69:8-9

8 I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; 9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

NIV

It does seem strange the brothers of Jesus would make him feel alienated in his own home. Was he his mother’s favorite son? Was he treated as special or received special treatment, that above his brothers? Was this the stage which brought about the fulfillment of this prophecy?

John 7:1-5

7:1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2 But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

NIV

By this time Jesus had already started his public ministry. In John chapter one we see him calling his disciples. In Chapter two we have the wedding at Cana where he turned the water into wine. Surely because his mother was there, some if not all, his brothers would have also been there. In the same chapter we also see Jesus cleansing the temple of those who sold sacrifices and the money changers. Chapter three we have his conversation with Nicodemus and his telling him, and us, that unless a person is born again they cannot see the kingdom of God. We have the most quoted verse ever here in John 3:16. The words of Jesus. Chapter four we have him meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. Chapter five he heals the man by the pool of Bethesda, “Pick up your mat and walk”. Because he did this on the Sabbath the Jews, the Pharisees persecuted him and we have his great discourse regarding who he is. In chapter six we see him feeding the five thousand with two fish and fives loaves, a real miracle by any stretch of the imagination. We have him later, after the people chased after him, telling them he is the bread of life. Then he gets to Galilee and in this chapter seven it is when we are told his brothers did not believe in him. How can this be? Surely they were aware of all the goings on, of all the things he had been doing. Certainly his brothers were aware he was a strange one during their childhood. Was it this special treatment which caused them to rebel against the idea of him being the Messiah? Was it just because they knew him as just another son in the family, although he was the eldest son and would have stood to inherit anything Joseph had. We know later they even thought he was out of his mind. Why would they not believe in him? Yet today there are people, with all the testimony we have written by men who walked, talked and ministered both alongside of him as well as after his ascension, that do not believe in him. We were once one of those who did not believe. We once rejected all his works, like his brothers. We once refused to believe he actually did all those things, that it was either false, or works of magic to entice people. We once thought it was a work of organized religion to gain control over the lives of people. But as his brothers were in error, so were we. Where we once lived in darkness, we now live in the light. It was the Spirit who penetrated the darkness and brought us out into the light. We also find that some of his brothers were also brought forth into the light, by the Spirit. It may appear easier to not believe, as his brothers. It may seem a better service to self to not believe, to not have any accountability for our words, thoughts or deeds, to coin an overused phrase. If we live to serve our own interests we simply are not believing in Jesus. Maybe that was where his brothers were at that time, wanting to serve their own interest rather than his. We they jealous or envious of him? Certainty we are not jealous of Jesus, but still are we still trying to serve our own interests? Do we want what we want and make every effort to get it? How can we serve, or believe in two masters? How can we believe in Jesus and believe in ourselves at the same time? How can we want to do want he has called us to do, while still wanting to do what we want to do? It seems it comes down to this one point, we either believe or we don’t.