Living Stones – Saturday, December 16, 2017
God speaks
John 11:49, 50
And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”
There is another dimension to the declaration by Caiaphas that Jesus must die.
As we examined yesterday, the utterance from the high priest carried weight, in both the natural realm and the spiritual realm, and so set in motion the events that culminated in Jesus’ death on a cross. We also know that Caiaphas’ motivation was to secure his own power and that of those in the establishment. Nevertheless, God spoke in the circumstances through Caiaphas.
Caiaphas was high priest that year and therefore was the head of the Jewish religious and political authority. He represented the people to God and God to the people. It was he who was God’s ‘spokesman’ and through whom God’s prophetic declaration was repeated.
Jesus’ fate was sealed, not in the Garden of Gethsemane, but in the Garden of Eden. He personally, as a man, faced it in Gethsemane but it was sealed in Eden. “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15.
So Jesus came to die, Caiaphas was merely a tool in God’s hand to make the declaration to them who were going to execute God’s vast eternal plan. “Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.” John 11:51-52
God always spoke through the tongues of men, Hebrews 1:1 records that “God, … at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,” that verse continues that God, “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…”
In the book of Numbers there is a story of a king named Balak. Balak was a Moabite king who was afraid of the people of God, Israel. So he sent for the spiritist Balaam saying “please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.” Numbers 22:6.
Balaam, however, was only able to speak the words that God gave him. “Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!” So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?”” Numbers 23:11-12
God will declare His purpose in the lives and activities of men in spite of who gets up to speak and what their motives for speaking might be. God declared his purpose to Israel through the mouth of an uncircumcised spiritist in Balaam and through an angry and self-serving high priest.
God continues to speak through men every day through preaching, teaching, through prophetic declarations and through the means of other Spiritual Gifts of speaking.
In 1 Corinthians 12, where we have the listing of the gifts of the Spirit, we note that there are many speaking gifts given by the Spirit of Christ including “to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, … to another prophecy, … to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” These were selected from the list in verses 7 to 10. These are all speaking gifts.
Some Christians, by virtue of their denomination and doctrine, place no emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit neither in their teaching nor in the practical application of the Scripture in daily living. Then, at the other end of the Christian spectrum, there are those who emphasise the charismatic gifts over and above everything else.
Neither extreme is useful, helpful, or even Biblical. But, rather than have a theological and doctrinal debate over the validity and exercise of the Gifts of the Spirit today, we should be focused on hearing the voice of God, for God still speaks in the affairs of men through men, even when some of those men may have wrong or questionable motives.
Caiaphas with impure heart and corrupt motives made a clear declaration of God’s intent and didn’t even know it.
Think on these things:
- Have you ever heard the voice of God speaking to you directly or through others?
- Have you ever, in times of reflection think to yourself that you missed an opportunity or particular path because you didn’t at the time detect that it was God speaking to you through someone else?
- Have you ever heard from God and then told others of what God is saying to them, or has anyone ever told you that they are convinced that what you said was from God himself?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be able to discern the voice of God through the speaking of others.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
