The Weakness of Human Reasoning - II Chronicles 10-12 and John 11:30-57
When King Rehoboam took the throne after Solomon, he had to decide how to respond to the people who felt Solomon had been too harsh. He chose to take the advice of the younger counselors, who told him to be even more harsh. That line of human reasoning led to the division of the kingdom. The ten northern tribes formed their own country. Rehoboam had failed to do the Lord's will, because of faulty human reasoning. The flesh tells us to assert our authority and not to care about people. That is the wrong way to think. Then, he wanted to go to war to force them to listen to him. He did not realize that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to force people to listen. Even the new king of the northern kingdom of Israel followed human reasoning by changing the religion and making the idols to worship. That might have been good politics, but it was wrong in God's eyes. What happened at that point? All of the Levites, priests, and the people who were set on worshiping the Lord, moved down to Judah, so they could go to the Temple. These were the people who rejected human reasoning. I pray that all of us are in that group today.
In John 11 the Jewish leaders saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, but they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. How could that happen? They were going by human reasoning. They thought He was simply working magic or wonders. Their human minds did not allow them to consider He was God. It is the same way with the evolutionists of today. They have decided that there is no God, so they can't see the evidence for Him all around them. However, the Jewish leader, Caiaphas, had another line of human reasoning. He told the other leaders that it was necessary for one man to die to save the country. He was referring to Jesus. He meant that Jesus had to die or the country would be torn apart, since so many people were deciding to follow Jesus, instead of them. That was faulty reasoning. The real unity would have come by all of them receiving Christ as Lord. However, God used his wrong reasoning to do His will in that Jesus died for our sins, not to save the country. God brought good out of the bad human reasoning. He has to do that a lot, because we insist on doing things our way, so often. I pray that we will all see the damage done by following weak human thinking and that we will seek the Lord's will.
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Chronicles 13-14 and John 12:1-26.
In John 11 the Jewish leaders saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, but they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. How could that happen? They were going by human reasoning. They thought He was simply working magic or wonders. Their human minds did not allow them to consider He was God. It is the same way with the evolutionists of today. They have decided that there is no God, so they can't see the evidence for Him all around them. However, the Jewish leader, Caiaphas, had another line of human reasoning. He told the other leaders that it was necessary for one man to die to save the country. He was referring to Jesus. He meant that Jesus had to die or the country would be torn apart, since so many people were deciding to follow Jesus, instead of them. That was faulty reasoning. The real unity would have come by all of them receiving Christ as Lord. However, God used his wrong reasoning to do His will in that Jesus died for our sins, not to save the country. God brought good out of the bad human reasoning. He has to do that a lot, because we insist on doing things our way, so often. I pray that we will all see the damage done by following weak human thinking and that we will seek the Lord's will.
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Chronicles 13-14 and John 12:1-26.