As teachers of the Word it is a conundrum when God tells you its not enough to be teachers of the Word.

In fact the Word is full of prophetic statements concerning Jesus. Yet the Jews missed Him. They were thorough students of the Word, the Law and the Prophets.

When the captives came back to Zion, prophesied in Psalm 126, they were like men that dreamed. God changed their fortunes, and humbled the nations to bring them back. They got back with all fervour not to repeat the errors they had made before they went into Captivity. We see two generations used to refine, because Jeremiah in chapter 29 of his book, a letter spells out a 70 year period for them to be in displacement. The Generation that came out was not the generation that went into the Captivity. Both Kingship and Priesthood had been done away with in the foreign land, only the prophets supervised the people in the ways of God.

Whilst 1 Samuel 2 says there would be a famine of hearing the Word, so in the time of the Captivity they would be avid readers and scholars. The Pharisees were founded for this purpose as was the founding of Synagogues. Yet with all the study, when Jesus showed up in Nazareth to announce that Isaiah 61, 1-2a was now fulfilled they tried to cast Him off a cliff.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for even their zeal for the Scriptures, they were blind to what God was doing in their midst.

It is a fearful thing for a teacher to teach the Word, and yet miss the very manifestation that comes, and be excluded from a generational demonstration of His Word.

Luke 24 shows us the key.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were downcast when the “hidden Jesus” came to them. They did not understand what had just happened. The Messiah had been given to the Romans in a betrayal, and crucified. They had “hoped” that it was He who would restore the fortunes of Israel and subsequently their own.

And right there we have a blind spot. We can teach, we can seek for His Word to find our security, our destiny, we can even preach on it. We can centre the Word on our own needs, and what Jesus needs to do for us, for us to make a difference. And right there we miss the most important part.

Jesus rebuked their slowness, and egocentric vision. He opened the Scriptures to open their minds that this betrayal and this death was no accident, indeed it was planned in eternity and prophesied through the prophets. In the Scripture they began to see that this was no programme that was temporal but was eternal.

As Jesus was with them at the covenant table so He is revealed in His Glory. They then grasp with their physical senses the enormity of God’s plan. The plan was to raise up the Messiah from death and implant a spiritual kingdom which would be implanted in men’s hearts. Just as mighty Babylon was humbled so Rome would be, not by armies of men, but by armies of people impacted by the Spirit.

Just as they were grasping this Jesus is taken away in Spirit to Jerusalem. They immediately return, and Jesus appeared. For 40 days He opened their understanding.

What we need to ask is that the Holy Spirit brings Jesus to us in His Word, so that what we teach is not teaching into meeting our immediate needs, but our place in His Eternal Plan. Paul talks about the purpose of the Church that it would teach principalities and powers that Jesus reigns, and about the manifold wisdom of God made known to the Church.

So instead of trying to lift our saints from their battles by promising temporal things, we must point our teaching to Jesus who is the WORD. John 1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was/is God. We must point our souls to that aim, to Him who is the Word.

If we receive a visitation of Jesus, so when the Word manifests in our midst so we will not miss its significance, and we will fulfil in our generation part of His Eternal plan.

Shalom.

Russell A Durose 30/10/19