{"id":4937,"date":"2014-01-16T00:05:49","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T08:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=4937"},"modified":"2014-01-15T10:59:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T18:59:32","slug":"the-best-vengeance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/01\/16\/the-best-vengeance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Vengeance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is he of whom it is written:<\/p>\n

\u2018Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,<\/p>\n

Who will prepare Your way before You.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying:<\/p>\n

\u2018We played the flute for you,
\nAnd you did not dance;
\nWe mourned to you,
\nAnd you did not lament.\u2019<\/p>\n

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, \u2018He has a demon.\u2019 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, \u2018Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!\u2019 But wisdom is justified by her children.\u201d (Matthew 11:10-18)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can\u2019t satisfy all the people all the time. Elijah was a great prophet, who nevertheless faced discouragement. A human being, he wondered at times whether what he was doing was really worth it. He ran in terror when his life was threatened. And yet, he was God\u2019s man in God\u2019s time. John the Baptist\u2019s role was just like Elijah. Elijah stood up to Ahab and John stood up to Herod. While Elijah got taken to heaven in a fiery chariot, John went to heaven by dying.<\/p>\n

The religious leaders rejected John the Baptist as demon possessed. He had lived in the wilderness, ate the worst possible food, and never touched wine. Meanwhile, they condemned Jesus as a gluttonous drunk since he spent time in people homes, ate their food and drank their wine.<\/p>\n

Jesus responded to both criticisms by claiming that \u201cwisdom is justified by her children.\u201d What does that mean? It means that wisdom\u2014specifically, the wisdom of God\u2014is proved right by its results. If we\u2019re of God, Jesus argued, then that will become obvious soon enough. <\/p>\n

According to the old clich\u00e9, the best vengeance is to live well. The message begun by John and finished by Jesus has lasted for nearly two thousand years. The truth shall overcome. What we do for God will endure forever.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is he of whom it is written: \u2018Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.\u2019 \u201cAssuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4938,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions\/4938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}