Luke 7:36-39 In This World There Will Be Trouble

“To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?  They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’  For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’  The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’  Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

The old say goes, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, because I have already made up my mind.”  This is what we have with the sect called the Pharisees’.  They wanted a monopoly over honor, power, and glory, and the opposed any one or any thing that diverted the attention of the people away from them.  John the Baptist was perceived as a prophet sent by God and was extra-ordinary in appearance.  Jesus was perceived as the people’s Messiah.  The Pharisees are identified with Satan in the Biblical text, because they oppose God’s anointed.  Whenever Satan cannot control someone or something, his pat answer is to destroy it.  John was beheaded and Jesus crucified.

Daily Prayer:  Father, Christian persecution is still present with us today, and will remain until Christ returns.  From now until then, arm us with Your armor so that we may stand in Christ’s name until His return.  In Jesus  name I pray Amen.