The Jackass and the Prophet

The religious leaders said to those they’d sent to arrest Jesus:

“Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?  But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.” (John 7:45-50)

You gotta shake your head at the hubris of that Jewish clergy. And if you have lived long enough, you’ve met the same kind of people. They’re the ones with the advanced theological degrees, the ones with the ‘credentials’, the ones who know it all and won’t be told by the person in the pew anything about God.

I wonder if they remember the story of Balaam and his donkey. You can find it in the 22nd chapter of Numbers. Written nearly 3500  years ago, it still makes – like all of God’s word – it still makes for us an important spiritual lesson:

God used a donkey to rebuke a prophet.

And so if God used a jackass to rebuke a person too smart to recognize his own error, does anyone think God cannot use the person in the pew to do likewise?

A man much wiser than any of us once said:  A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction.  (Ecclesiastes 4:13)