{"id":7048,"date":"2015-10-24T00:05:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T07:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7048"},"modified":"2015-10-23T12:21:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T19:21:54","slug":"speaking-truth-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/24\/speaking-truth-to-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking Truth to Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some Pharisees approached, saying to him, \u201cGo away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tAnd He said to them, \u201cGo and tell that fox, \u2018Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.\u2019 Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cO Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! <\/p>\n

\t\u201cBehold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, \u2018Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!\u2019 \u201d (Luke 13:31-35)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tJesus did not always speak with kind and gentle words. Jesus purposely insulted the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, Herod Antipas. This was the same Herod who had killed John the Baptist. According to Jewish tradition, foxes were cunning, but lowly animals.<\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s also worth noting that Jesus, as the Messiah and a descendent of David, had a legitimate claim to the Jewish throne, while Herod did not. He was illegitimate, serving at the whim of the Roman occupiers. The law of Moses prohibited the cursing of a ruler, while New Testament authors spoke against saying evil things about one another. However, those prohibitions were not intended to prevent legitimate criticism of rulers by God\u2019s prophets, apostles and people.<\/p>\n

\tJesus did not fear for his life. The Pharisees\u2019 attempt to scare Jesus away failed. No human being could thwart his ministry or purpose. God\u2019s will cannot be resisted, after all. And yet, Jesus bewails the fate of Jerusalem, a city he wanted to save and comfort, but whose crooked ways and resistance prevented any solace then. Did this mean that Jerusalem could resist God\u2019s will? No. Jesus knew that his will for Jerusalem\u2019s redemption and peace could be achieved only by sending it through some dark times first. Its destruction by the Romans a generation later was part of his will, too.<\/p>\n

\t God\u2019s will is accomplished in his timing. It usually takes awhile for God to do what needs doing. God believes a slow cooked sauce is preferable to the instant variety.<\/p>\n

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Some Pharisees approached, saying to him, \u201cGo away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.\u201d And He said to them, \u201cGo and tell that fox, \u2018Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third … 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\/7048"}],"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=7048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7050,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions\/7050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}