I Will Follow You

    “It is not right to acquit the guilty or deny justice to the innocent.” Proverbs 18:5

   I had started writing something all together different this morning but it felt forced. I have come to recognize that’s usually because I am trying awfully hard to be intelligent. (Chuckle.) That’s solo flying without listening to the Spirit. Not a good thing. Thankfully my laptop has a delete button and start overs are just fine by me. I’ve had plenty of practice.

  So here we are, in Proverbs, instead of investigating Jeremiah’s shattered water jug.

  Because I didn’t know, I asked Google. The Book of Proverbs is part of the Torah which means it would have been included in Jewish teaching. While not Law exactly, the Proverbs are filled with wisdom, guides to moral living, encouragement and warnings.

  When I read this one today, I was instantly transported to the scene outside Pontius Pilate’s. The gathered crowd of leading priests and Jews called for the release of Barabbas, a convicted criminal, instead of Jesus.  John 18:40

  They acquitted the guilty so the Innocent would die.

  But Caiaphas, the Pharisee, had justified this. In words that were decidedly prophetic, he said to the other leaders, “It’s better that one man should die for the people.” John 18:14

  Now I suppose the people he was talking about were those he was trying to maintain religious control over. So really, his first consideration was to maintain the status quo, ergo, his seat of power.

  One Man died for His people because Caiaphas ignored the prophecies about the Messiah found throughout the Torah. One Man died for His people because morality was usurped by greed and fear.

  One Man died because He had to.

  Sometimes it’s hard to wrap my head around just how cruelly Jesus died. Yet, Jesus’ sufferings were the labour pains of the New Covenant and a new hope. I am so grateful to live under this New Covenant.

  Hmmm, maybe this does tie in to Jeremiah’s shattered water jug after all. In Jeremiah 19, he is commanded by the Lord to take an empty water jug and break it as a symbol of what the Lord was going to do to His wayward people who were merrily worshiping idols. They ended up exiles, enslaved by the Babylonians, with the temple in Jerusalem destroyed. All this happened so the line of David would be the one that rose from the ashes.

  Jesus is a descendant of David.

  And like Jeremiah, His life and death and life did plenty of jug shattering but since His Father is a potter, we get new ones that are far more beautiful than the old. (Hmmm, that’s from the Book of Jeremiah, too!)

  Thank You, Lord for guiding me today; for reminding me You are the Author, I am the scribe. Thank You so much that I have access to the internet to help me find all these different passages in the Bible and for the dedicated people who make sure this information is readily available. AMEN!