Who is God?
And the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside. The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing. So John called for two of his disciples, and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, "Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?"
John's two disciples found Jesus and said to him, "John the Baptist sent us to ask, 'Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?'"
At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Luke 7:17-23
John the Baptist and the Jewish nation expected a Messiah who would drive out the Romans and make them into a great nation. But Jesus had been preaching for a long time and had not said anything about the Romans. Even though John had heard a voice from heaven when he baptized Jesus, he wondered if he had made a mistake.
God is sometimes not the God we thought he was. We can have what they call a "crisis of faith." We wonder if we have made a mistake. God doesn't do the things we think he should do. We can become offended by God.
A lot of believers go through this. I just finished reading, Faith Unraveled, by Rachel Held Evans. She began to question what she had been taught about God. She wasn't sure she wanted a God like that.
It is good to question our beliefs. There are so many different doctrines in the churches that we can learn wrong things about God. We have to study for ourselves and ask for God to lead us. We can ask him what this or that verse might mean and he will light up our minds.
The doctrine of the Messiah in John's day was mistaken. The verses in the Old Testament about Jesus' second coming were mixed up with the verses of his first coming.
What was Jesus' advice to John? Look at Jesus, and then judge. Was he acting righteous? Was he fulfilling some of the prophecies? Yes, he was. Then Jesus said something very important, "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me."
Let us not be offended by God or Jesus. Keep searching; never give up. You will find him,... "when you search for him with all your heart." Jeremiah 291:13
