Stick and stones….
Have you ever said something that got people really upset? Maybe, you wrote something and you got feedback that was really negative?
In Jr. High, I went to a private school. In English one day, we were given an assignment where we could write on Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.”, or something that was not in the Bible. I chose the verse to write on. The teacher loved it and gave me an A++. This is what got me excited about writing.
Then a group of girls started saying that the only reason I got the grade was because I wrote about the Bible verse. That was one of the things that stopped me from hurting. My writing on the verse was because I was not interested in writing on the other subject. It was not to kiss up to the teacher. Their words hurt for a long time and was one of the reasons I stopped writing.
In John 8:58-59, we see that Jesus had the same reaction to what He said.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Throughout all of chapter 8, Jesus is hitting hard against the double standard the Pharisees and scribes had for themselves and the everyday Jew. So no wonder when He basically said that He was I AM, they wanted to stone Him.
I can hear them talking to themselves as He was speaking. “Who does He think He is to say that our father was the devil?” “How dare He say such things!” “He has to be crazy.” BUT when He claimed that He was I AM, that was it. They had enough of Him and had heard Him claim that He was YHWH. BLASPHEMY!
As they were getting stones to stone Him, He disappeared from the midst of them. You would think that some of them would think, “Maybe, what He said is true.” This was when they set in their hearts to kill Him.
How comforting it is to know that Jesus knows what it is like to have people not like what you said. We have a GOD that can understand what it is like.
Bonnie Sue Writes 