Today's readings are Proverbs 8.1-21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Prov.+8.1-21 ) and John 12.36b-50 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=John+12.36-50 ).
Jesus' words in John 12 are perplexing, to say the least. Why would Jesus say what we won't understand? Why would he seem to be hindering people from coming to him?
In the final analysis, though the hindrance is in our eyes, which are closed to the method God has chosen to rule this world. The key to our perplexity may well be in Jesus' words which immediately follow. In verses 47 and following Jesus says that he will not judge unbelief, but will rather allow his statements to do the judging in the final day. We have a tendency to expect God will work in very direct, predictable ways. We sin, God judges. We do works of righteousness, God rewards. We pray for the sick, God heals them. Simple, no-fuss, no-muss religion.
That isn't the wisdom of God. It's our wisdom. Our Lord works in a different way, with the supreme example of that different way being his death as a substitution for us. He laid down his life and took our sins upon himself, suffering intensely for your sake, in order to destroy sin. Yet in this world which our Lord created by the power of his Word, he could have prevented sin altogether, he could have wiped out sin some other way, he didn't need to suffer as a man. Despite all that, God is acting in accord with his character by atoning for sin in the way he has chosen, and it is good and right.
God's wisdom is different from ours. When we expect him to act in a particular way, let us always look at Scripture to see if he actually plans to act that way. His ways are not our ways.
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