“Are You the Coming One, or are we to look for someone else?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: those who are blind receive sight and those who limp walk, those with leprosy are cleansed and those who are deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is any person who does not take offense at Me.” [Matthew 11:3-6 (NASB)]
Having quoted from Isaiah when proclaiming the Messiah’s arrival, we know John knew Isaiah’s prophecies. The Messiah would “bind up the brokenhearted [and] proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners,” [61:1] but, after spending more than a year confined to a dark cell, John had neither liberty nor freedom. It’s no wonder he doubted.
While Jesus’ answer to the Baptizer’s question seems cryptic to us, it would have made perfect sense to John. By pointing to the facts, Jesus affirmed that the days of salvation had begun. Although he was using His Messianic power in a way John hadn’t envisioned, Jesus was fulfilling the Messianic promises of Isaiah 35, 42, and 61. Jesus was, indeed, the Christ! When John’s disciples returned with a report of Jesus’ words and actions, the Baptizer’s questions were answered and his doubts erased.
Encouraging John not to give in to despair or abandon his faith, Jesus added a blessing to His message: “And blessed is any person who does not take offense at Me.” Calling this the “forgotten Beatitude,” Vines Expository Bible Notes paraphrased His words as, “Blessed is the person who does not get upset by the way I [God] handle my business.”
What follows, however, is somewhat unexpected. Lest the people think less of John for his imprisonment and doubt, Jesus bore witness to the prophet and praised him. Declaring him to be a true prophet who spoke directly for God, Jesus affirmed that John was the returning Elijah, the one to announce the Day of the Lord, and the greatest of the Old Covenant’s prophets! Clearly, John’s doubt did not diminish Jesus’ respect and love for him!
While we probably aren’t languishing in a prison cell, we will have doubts. Things happen that make our confidence waver and we begin to question things we’ve come to believe. No matter how deep our faith or how long we’ve followed Jesus, doubts and questions will arise from time to time—especially when we’re in the dark places of pain, persecution, injustice, loss, disappointment, isolation, or failed expectations.
When we can’t see or understand God’s plan, like John, we tend to doubt Him. Doubt, however, is not the same as unbelief because, like John, doubt seeks an answer when unbelief doesn’t. The Psalmists certainly weren’t shy about expressing their feelings and asking God questions. “Why do You stand far away, Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” [10:1] “How long, Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” [13:1] “Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?” [44:24] “Lord, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?” [88:14]
When we have questions, we must do what the Psalmists, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Job, John, and the rest of Scripture’s doubters did—trust the Lord enough to share our uncertainty, express our anxiety, and ask our questions. Let us remember the question Jesus asked while hanging on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus’ words tell us that He knows what it’s like to feel abandoned by God and they give us permission to confront God with our troubling questions in the midst of our trials and despair.
To ask is to believe that somewhere there is an answer….Far from faith excluding questions, questions testify to faith….We ask, not because we doubt, but because we believe. [Rabbi Jonathan Sacks]
While we now know what is meant by an iota and dot, jot and tittle, or yod and kots, we wonder what Jesus means by “the least of these commandments!” If the smallest letter is as important as the largest and the smallest flourish on the smallest letter in Scripture was not to be eliminated, how can there be a “lesser” commandment? The confusion again comes from reading an English translation of a Greek rendering of the original Hebrew. Jesus probably was using a popular Jewish idiom “mitsvot kalot” meaning “light” commandments, rather than “mitsvot ketanot,” meaning less important or small commandments. While this seems a bit like splitting hairs, it reflects Jewish thinking in Jesus’ day when a distinction was made between “light” and “weighty” commandments when comparing one to another.
What is a jot or a tittle? Found in the King James version, the words “jot” and “tittle” date from the 15th and 16th centuries. “Jot” comes from jota, an alternate spelling of the Greek iota (the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet) and, at the time, meant something very small. “Tittle” was a translation of keraia, a Greek word meaning “a little horn” that referred to an accent mark over a vowel. While those English words were good translations of the New Testament’s Greek, Jesus wasn’t speaking Greek when He gave the Sermon on the Mount. He was speaking Hebrew or Aramaic and the words He used weren’t iota and keraia. He would have used yod, which was the smallest Hebrew letter, and kots, meaning thorn, which was the little curve or flourish at the yod’s top distinguishing it from other letters. The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, yod sounds like a “y” and looks a bit like an apostrophe.
During Lent, I journeyed toward Jesus’ death and resurrection with a Lenten devotional. For each of the season’s forty days, there was a Scripture reading from John, a short devotional, an inspiring quote, interesting facts about Lent’s history, and a unique fast for the day. Each day’s reading also provided journaling space for the reader. For the fortieth day’s journal entry, readers were asked to write a brief letter of thanks to Jesus for all He endured to lead them into eternal life.
Every morning, I receive an email from a Christian site to which I subscribe. Having no interest in Temu, make-up, or a “game-changer” pen for seniors, I ignore the ads as nothing more than “click bait.” Today’s ad from a jewelry company, however, caught my eye with its words, “Just in: Angel Numbers.” Having missed all the articles about them in Allure, Reader’s Digest, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Day, Instyle, and Vogue, I didn’t know what an “angel number” was, so I Googled it. Apparently, when you see repeated digits (such as 11:11 on your clock, $9.99 on a price tag, 30303 on a license plate, or a date like 2/22/22), the universe is sending you a message! Rather than a coincidence, these repetitive numbers are a “sign from your guardian angel” (or a dead loved one). Supposedly, the “language of angels,” such numbers are meant to point you in a certain direction or confirm the direction in which you’re going! Of course, a host of psychics, spiritual mediums, and numerologists are more than willing to tell you the meaning of your “angel numbers.” And, as I discovered from the ad, once you find your number, you can purchase it in jewelry!
God gifted Solomon with great wisdom and people from every nation journeyed to Solomon’s court to hear his wisdom. Although 1 Kings 3 tells us that Solomon wisely determined the identity of the real mother in a dispute between two women who claimed to have given birth to the same infant [3:16-28], one wise answer hardly seems newsworthy enough to make him famous beyond Israel’s borders. Even the king’s prolific writings and vast knowledge of botany and zoology don’t fully explain his renown. In a world without mass media, what caused his reputation to travel some 1,400 miles to Sheba (modern Yemen)? Sheba’s queen was so interested in meeting the king that she and her entourage made a journey which, including her stay in Judah and the return trip, took two to three years. What about Solomon caused her to travel so far to assess the king’s wisdom and wealth for herself?
Devotions of the Heart 