January 23 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Matthew 11:16–19

Devotional

We can find heavenly instruction in day-to-day matters. We find this not only in adult matters, but also in the events that take place in the lives of children. During His ministry on earth, Christ paid attention to children. He watched those playing games in the market place. One group of children suggested to the others to play a game called marriage. Then they would form rows and be accompanied by musical instruments and sing happy songs. The flute players were to do their best, because it must look like a wedding.

But the game does not work out. All the children do not cooperate. They do not want to play this game. The group agrees that if this game is too joyful, they will pretend they are at a funeral procession. Instead of joyful singing, they now make sorrowful sounds, as mourning women would do at funerals. But again, not all the children join in. They do not want to play this somber game either.

What do they want? Actually, they do not want to do anything. At each suggestion they are unwilling, stubborn, and lousy playmates. They do not want wedding music, for that would be too joyful; and they do not want to hear songs of mourning, for that is too somber.

What happened in that market place was an illustration of how the Jews responded to important matters. Christ says that John the Baptist came and ate no bread and drank no wine. He lived in the desert as a loner. His food consisted of locusts and wild honey. Surely, this was a miserable life, a life of fasting. His preaching was no less conscientious. “Repent ye,” he had cried out, “…the axe is laid unto the root of the tree.” John the Baptist was a preacher of repentance. His words thundered because they were full of God’s judgments. He announced death to people who thought they were alive.

What was the result? Initially the Jews were frightened, but it soon turned out that they were exactly the same as the unwilling children in the illustration. They did not go along with John the Baptist on the way of repentance and sorrow. He sang his lamentations, but they did not mourn. They said: “Oh, John is such a peculiar man. He has a devil.” In essence they thought John to be possessed, mentally sick, and abnormal.

But what a difference it was when Christ came. The first miracle He did was to change water into wine, and at a marriage feast at that! When Christ performed this miracle it was as if music was played on the flute. He healed the sick. He caused the mute to speak. He made the blind to see. He drove the mourning women out of the house of Jairus. He raised the dead. At one occasion He was even told that it was too late, for the body had already been in the grave for four days.

What was the result? When the people had to make a choice, they rejected Jesus just as much as they rejected John. They said of Him: “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” They wished for John the Baptist to be gone for he was too somber. They also wished for Jesus of Nazareth to be gone for He was too free in the offer of salvation. Was John too harsh and was Christ too permissive? No! The issue is that man is by nature an enemy of God. Man is unwilling to bow to Him. What do you think of Christ?

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.