we take God at his Word, or we take him not at all

The Word for today:
John 11:45-12:19

mark this: John 11:44-47 --
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many miracles."

"Why doesn't God rend the sky and come down in spectacular display? Then we'd believe."

No, we wouldn't.

You would think that this crowning miracle--the raising of Lazarus from the dead--would have turned these skeptics to Jesus, but it did not.

Previously, Jesus had said--
If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone should rise from the dead (1).

The Pharisees could not deny he performed miracles:
The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many miracles."

Pharaoh, in the Old Testament, had been shown miracle upon miracle (2). Yet they served to harden his heart -- to calcify his will against belief.

The problem is not with the evidence we have. The problem is that when we don't want to believe, we will find a way not to believe. We will even find a way to disbelieve our very eyes. Hearts that will not see will not see.

We take Jesus at his Word, or we take him not at all:
If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone should rise from the dead.

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(1) Luke 16:31; (2) Exodus chapters 7-11