Let Him Turn the Page

     In Matthew's gospel, the eleventh chapter, we find John the Baptist sending a message to his cousin, Jesus.  He asked Him, "Are You really the Deliverer that was promised?  If You are, why haven't You gotten me out of this jail.  After all, I thought You were the Messiah, the One who was going to restore the glory to Israel and rid us of all of our enemies.  I thought You were going to restore the Kingdom of God.  I had so many high hopes for Your coming.  I told everybody that You were the Lamb of God.  Was I wrong?"  (Henry Givens translation.)

     But, really that's us isn't it?  We come to a place in our walk with God where His presence isn't as real as it once was.  We are bound up in circumstances that tie us to problems that seem to have no answer.  We pray and pray and God seems distant and not near.

     John the Baptist was probably holding to the old Jewish idea that the King's appearance would immediately throw off the powers that held Israel as slaves.  He was thinking of the physical and not the spiritual.

     Jesus did come to destroy the enemy's chains, but He started with the inner chains before He worked on the outer chains.  What God was doing was turning the page of history and that was going to take a while.  

     Like John the Baptist, we judge God's righteousness by what we see happening.  What we fail to hear from Him saying to us, "Sh-h-h-h!  I'm just turning the page and it's taking a little time."  Like little children, we should snuggle closer to our Father's chest as we sit in His lap.  Let Him turn the page.  And, then let our enemies beware and take flight as our Father begins to read again.