Read: James 4:1-3 Matthew 2:-13
Numbers 24:17 John 6:14-15, 26-27
John 6:35-40 John 3:16-19
John 7:37-38
Consider:
Have you noticed that by and large people often really want the wrong things? Or at least we tend to overly value things that really aren’t important? We really struggle with not only wanting the wrong things… but we often pursue them in foolish and destructive ways.
When Jesus was born, He wasn’t at all what many of God’s people wanted. Likewise we can be caught in wanting something from Jesus other than what He offers us.
Here are the people in Jerusalem, who have been waiting hundreds of years for God to speak, to act…for the Messiah to come and make things right. They worship at the temple, say prayers multiple times a day, focus on asking God to come and intervene in their world, raise their children to know the scriptures, longing for God to act.
Perhaps the people in Jerusalem wanted the wrong thing…a political leader, who wouldn’t cause any trouble for them, but would make their lives easier. Jesus had come to take away the real problem they faced: their sin and guilt which separated them from God. They didn’t realize that what He had come to give was something they had much greater need of… salvation, not from Herod, but from their sin.