WISDOM’S VINDICATION
LESSON FOR JUNIORS
Study Scripture: Matthew 11
Lesson 5 July 4, 2020
Key Verse
“The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
Matthew 11:19
INTRODUCTION
It happens to all of us especially when we are very young. We were told that we should look for something great to come to us and we wait a long time for something beautiful to happen. Because of the long wait we dream about all kind of different things and we change up things so that when the beautiful thing happens we do not even recognize it.
This is what happened to the people of Israel, the children, the young, the middle-aged, and the older people. It even happened to those that were ruling the country and who were supposed to know the Bible so well that nobody should be able to fool them. They should not be the ones to forget what God had said.
God had predicted that the Messiah, whom we know as Jesus Christ, would come to do all kind of wonderful things for the people. He would heal the sick, cure those suffering from leprosy, heal those who were blind so that they would now be able to see, raise people who are died so that they would leave again, as well as many other amazing things.
But the people had waited so long. The Bible had told them that someone would come before Messiah came and he would bring to people’s mind again that they should love the Lord their God. But all kind of things happened in between the time they were waiting and they forgot what the Messiah would really do. They would have a great deal of difficulty to recognize Him even though it shouldn’t have been so difficult. But you see, they forgot to keep on reading their Scriptures and believing what the Bible had been telling them.
It is not that the Bible had not warned them that they should follow the way of wisdom and understanding and listen carefully to the instructions they had been given. But sometimes human beings tend to forget things.
In our Lesson today we read of John the Baptist who had been appointed by God to come and preach and teach the people that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ would be coming to the Earth, living among them and doing all the great things that the Bible had predicted that He would do.
His work was to tell the people about Jesus and he had waited faithfully for Jesus to come. He thought that because of the great and important work that God had appointed him to do that he would be safe from the enemies of God. But one of these enemies named Herod who lived in a palace decided to arrest John the Baptist because John had told him that he was breaking the Commandments of God and doing what was not right. This ruler did not like anybody to tell him that he was misbehaving. So he arrested John and put him in prison.
John thought that this would never happen to him. He knew that Jesus was doing all the great things that the Bible said He would do when He came as Messiah.
So doubt crept in his mind even though he did believe that Jesus was the Messiah that God had promised. So John sent some of his disciples to sort of ask Jesus what He was waiting on to take over the country and get rid of the enemies of Israel. He thought that Jesus would get rid of the Romans who were ruling over Jerusalem and Israel so that the people of Israel would be free and would now begin to live a happy life.
This Lesson teaches us many things. The first question we should ask ourselves therefore is how can you tell what is true? First you have to know what the truth is so that when something wrong comes you know that it is not right. Then you should stick to the truth and not be scared away.
So John made the mistake of doubting that Jesus was the Messiah that was to come at that time and he sent his disciples to ask Jesus
“Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?”
The real question was whether there would be another Messiah that could do what Jesus was doing.
So how can you tell what is true and what God has promised? John as well as many other people thought that Jesus when He came would start a big fight, use His unlimited and tremendous power, kill all the Roman soldiers that had occupied Israel, get rid of all the bad people, and put in power the good people. Nobody could stop Messiah from doing that. But really that was not what God wanted to happen at that time.
So since John and other people thought that Messiah could do what they wanted since they had remade the Messiah in their own desires or image, they were unsure of everything.
But Jesus was kind and gentle to John and his disciples and He told John’s disciples to tell John what they saw Him doing. They should tell John that the blind was receiving their sight, the people that were lame who could not walk before were now walking, the people that had a terrible disease called leprosy were now cleansed of that dreadful bacteria, the deaf people were hearing because Jesus had healed their hearing, some that were dead were now raised up back to life by Jesus, and most importantly the people who were poor and who everybody had neglected now had the good news of salvation preached to them.
The disciples of John saw these great miracles of healing with their own eyes and so they went and told John what they had seen so that John the Baptist finally was convinced of the beautiful truth that Jesus, was the Messiah, and that He had arrived on Earth because He was the one sent by God.
He knew that he did not have to wait for someone else to come, for Jesus was the real and true Messiah.
Notice that Jesus was telling John that he had to decide bu himself that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He had a decision to make. He did not have to wait or look for someone else.
Only the special person that God had sent could make the blind see, the people who never walked to walk now, to make people who had died live again, and make unbelievably good things happen for the poor. John would now see that the Holy Spirit was right when He told John that Jesus was that special person, the Servant of God, the Messiah, and the One who would die on the Cross to save men, women, and children.
The bad problem that many people who lived at the same time as John the Baptist had was that they could not make up their mind to follow the way of wisdom that Solomon and the prophets had told them about. No matter what you did they would reject you. They rejected John the Baptist who talked to them in a powerful way about the truth of God, saying all kind of bad things about him, and then they rejected Jesus who did the opposite things to John the Baptist, who spoke to them nicely and did all kind of great things for them including healing them of all kinds of sicknesses.
So Jesus had to tell them bluntly that they should look at the good that was being done to them for wisdom had pointed out to them that they should follow the people that have done great works among them and not complain so much. They should make up their minds to follow the way of wisdom that the Bible had taught them about. They should not behave like spoiled brats who could not make up their minds about anything and who no matter what was done for them they showed no gratitude.
The lesson for us is clear. The way of wisdom is the best way to live. You can tell what is beautiful and nice by reading your Bible. You can tell what is good that way. You will learn that nobody else is coming apart from Jesus Christ who did come many years ago and who will come again to straighten out everything bad that is going on.
So make up your mind. We have the testimony and to witness of people who have seen what Jesus did with their own eyes. So what’s real? Jesus is real. Follow Him. Do not let anyone fool you saying that someone else is coming. Jesus came already. He will come again to give you eternal life.