I was thinking the other day after I received an email from my mentor right now about John the Baptist doubting. It kinda showed me that even John had a period where he was not sure.
Mat 11:1 And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
Mat 11:2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
Mat 11:3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Mat 11:4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:
Mat 11:5 The blind receive their 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.
Mat 11:6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
What I learned is that we all have that time that we don’t know if we made the right decision to serve Jesus. Sometimes it gets so hard that we forget what God has done so far in our lives. Because the situation seems to overwhelm us we only see short term both into the future and into the past. That leaves us only seeing the start of the situation and only far enough to see no end to it. In verse 3 John the Baptist. This is the same John that had the encounter with Jesus already and baptized him and saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.
Mat 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
Mat 3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The question is why after all these experiences did John actually question if he is the one that is “to come” meaning IS HE REALLY THE SAVIOUR?
When Jesus sent back the message all he does is remind him of all the tings he SAW and heard. I’m thinking that sometimes we need to remember what God has done in our lives. The fact is that Jesus is always doing things and when we look to him to wonder why things are happening he wants us to rely on the things that he has done (seen or heard) you may have seen things eg. Blessings or heard eg. Testimonies or even the ultimate sacrifice, The CROSS.
Verse 6 is the killer for me cuz. Blessed is he whosoever is not offended in me. In the greek translation and some commentaries I read it means that blessed is the man that is not offended my the means by which God came to spread his message. It seems like John himself was unsure if this lowly poor carpenter’s son was the man he was prophesying about. ALL THIS EVEN THOUGH HE HAD ALL THE ENCOUNTERS BEFORE. So you are blessed if you are not ashamed that your Saviour was in the form of a lowly human being humble and meek.
