"And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children."
In today's lesson Jesus told of how God the Father had sent many prophets to Israel, the last and most important of which was John the Baptist, yet Israel had continued to reject all His messengers by continuing to live in disobedience to His word. They even rejected the "baptism of John", "But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him."
This lesson also allows us to make some very important points about the intent of God's overall plan for the redemption of mankind as it was referred to in Matthew 28:19: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". We as the children of God are to teach the concept of the Holy Triune, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. In order to do that we must first learn that concept and it's purpose.
It is important to note that with death of John the baptist, God ended the prophetic period of His dealings with mankind. (The first part of the Holy Triune whereas God dealt with mankind individually through His designated prophets).
The coming of John the Baptist and the teaching of the "baptism of John" marked the fulfillment of the prophetic portion of God's relationship with mankind and marked the beginning of the second part of the Holy Triune, the coming of Jesus Christ, God in the body of a man.
After Jesus had completed His divine mission of fulfilling the Law of Moses and had been sacrificed for the sins of all those who would come to believe in Him, Jesus sent His Holy Spirit (The third part of the Holy triune.) to deal with and serve the needs of the eternally saved.
We will cover the importance of this as these lessons demand.~
No comments:
Post a Comment