Matthew 21:14-17
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the
temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of
the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple
area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
they asked him.
“Yes,” replied
Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From
the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise’?”
you have ordained praise’?”
17 And he left them and went out of the city to
Bethany, where he spent the night.
Psalm
8:2
New
International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
above the heavens.
2 From the
lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
Interesting, how
Jesus uses the scriptures to make a point with the religious leaders of the
time. Not only was He declaring that He
knew scripture, He was declaring that He was Lord. If these men had indeed read this scripture
before, they would have remembered the verses just prior to it where the Lord
is being praised, “how majestic is your name in all the earth.”
Jesus was saying to
these men, just as the scripture says, I have ordained praise through these
children, I am majestic. I thought it
was interesting to note that Jesus didn’t mention the last part of this
scripture either yet if these men knew their scriptures, they knew what it
said. These men were silenced for a
moment because of their unwillingness to go against the crowd. They had to figure out a way to turn the
crowd against Jesus. But, make no mistake;
these men were enemies, foes, and avengers.
That wanted nothing more to get rid of Jesus so they could remain the
ones in power. They didn’t realize that
they never had the power on their own to begin with.
I also thought it
was interesting how this passage ended.
Jesus simply walked away from them and went somewhere else to spend the
night.
My thoughts for
us:
1.
Do we know scriptures well enough that if a
passage is quoted we would know what came before it and after it?
2.
Do
you try to do things in our own power rather than recognizing our majestic, all
powerful God? Yikes, are we sometimes
like the pharisees thinking we have the power and plotting our next move,
forgetting that God is in control?
3.
Yikes
again, are we sometimes like the pharisees thinking that we need to appease the
crowd, yet all the while we are trying to plot how we can change the crowd to
our point of view?
4.
Do
we listen to what the children are saying or do we just tell them to be quiet?
5.
Do
we do like Jesus and just walk away or do we want to fight and win the battle
no matter what it takes?
As you seek Him may
you glorify Him just as the children did!
Seeking Him with
all my heart,
Sheila
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