LifeLink Devotional

Monday, October 19, 2020

Misinformation. Not having all the facts and not honestly accepting all the facts can cause terrible disagreements and have serious consequences. It’s even worse when the facts are available but ignored because they don’t fit a pre-determined narrative.

That’s where we find the people of Israel at the end of the seventh chapter of John. They were debating and arguing the identity of Jesus. Their statements were based on misinformation.

John 7:40-43  When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him.

Each group of people had a differing stance on who Jesus was because they only considered a small portion of the information available. In the case of the religious leaders, we know that their motivation for misinformation was that their positions or power and authority were threatened by the truth. But in the case of the groups of common people, we are not told their motivation for the stance they each took. However, it is intimated that they each had their own expectations of who they wanted the Messiah to be, and used only the information necessary to prove their point.

The groups who said Jesus is the Prophet were correct.  Deuteronomy 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.”

Those who claimed Jesus was the promised King, the Messiah, were correct.  God’s covenant with King David was that  “your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”  2 Samuel 7:16

Those who claimed that the Christ would be a descendant of David and come from David’s city Bethlehem were correct, even though they were misinformed and believed Jesus was from Galilee. Micah 5:2  But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Each group had some of the truth, but no group embraced all of the truth. They only believed what served their purpose.

Go ahead…make all the applications needed to our present culture, both spiritually and politically.

Pastor John