Thursday after the Ninth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 5, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. John 5:39-47 (NKJV)
5:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
41 “I do not receive honor from men. 42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Devotion
As Christ rattles off the list of witnesses that testify about Him (John the Baptist, His own works, the Father Himself), He finally comes to the greatest witness of them all: the Holy Scriptures.
The very Scriptures that the Jews were citing to prove Jesus wrong were the ones that had been pointing to Jesus all along. In just the first five books of the Bible, the writings of Moses, Jesus was revealed over and over: the Word by whom all things were created (Gen. 1), the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), the Seed of Abraham and Heir of the Old Testament (Gen. 17:8), Jacob’s Ladder (Gen. 28:12), the Hero from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), the Passover Lamb (Ex. 12), the Mercy Seat on the ark of the covenant (Ex. 25:21), the true Temple and Tabernacle of God (Ex. 29:45), the true atoning Sacrifice for sin (Lev. 16, etc.), the Star that would rise out of Jacob (Num. 24:17), the Joshua who would lead God’s people into the Promised Land of heaven (Deut. 1:38), the Prophet like Moses to whom the people of Israel were commanded to listen (Deut. 18:15,18).
Most of the Jews didn’t listen. But that is all the more reason why we must. “Search the Scriptures,” Jesus commands. And listen to them as they reveal God’s plan of salvation for sinners, a plan that centers around Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again. Believe the witnesses! Believe in Him!
Prayer: Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please Thee; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
