Matthew 11:1-6 NASB [1] … When Jesus had finished giving a instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach b in their cities. [2] Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples [3] and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” [4] Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: [5] the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. [6] And blessed is he who f does not take offense at Me.” …
If you are going to live under the flow of a blessed life, then its imperative that you don’t live with offense in your heart toward Jesus.
John the Baptist was the last of the great Old Testament prophets and was the first one to publicly declare that Jesus was the lamb of God, the Messiah. John was so sure that his cousin was the true Messiah, that he encouraged his followers to leave him and follow Jesus.
A couple years after declaring Jesus to be the Messiah, John sent word by his disciples to ask Jesus if he actually was the true Messiah. Why did he asked that question.In other words, why was he questioning at this point who Jesus was? There can be several answers to that, but I know at least one of them is because John was expecting Jesus to do something different than what Jesus did. John, like many Jews who had a true messianic expectation, believed that when the Messiah came he would liberate Israel from its slavery to Rome, and establish a governmental rule in Jerusalem once again. Jesus did come preaching the kingdom, as of course did John the Baptist, but instead of establishing an earthly kingdom first, Jesus was destroying the works of the devil, and setting people free by establishing the reign of God in their lives. Jesus answered John’s question by sending word back to him that people are being healed, delivered, and set free. When telling the disciples of John about the work that he, Jesus, was doing, he said blessed is he who is not offended in me.
It is important that when God does things different than the way we expect him to, that we don’t take an toward him. Disappointment, and delay can set us up to be offended which results in widespread unbelief in our hearts. We can be confident that God is a promise keeper, and he is at work even now, but it is imperative, if he’s not doing it the way we thought he was gonna do it, or is taking longer than we thought was going to take, that we don’t take up the destructive attitude of being offended with God. He knows what he’s doing, and he knows why is doing, and why he’s doing it the way he’s doing it. It is not our comprehension that is important, but it is our confidence in the one who is so big and so good that matters. True faith doesn’t always understand, but faith simply trust, especially when we don’t understand. And offended heart towards Jesus, gives birth to a doubting life, which darkens our ability to see, and receive God’s blessing.
Blessed are those who were undefended.