God is good and in control

 If “real life” is assaulting the simple assertion that God is good and in control, creating feelings of doubt, fear, insecurity, anger, etc… you’re in good company.
Lots of people in the Bible have felt that way too.
David prayed:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (psalm 22)
Habakkuk cried out:
How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!” But you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife,
and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. (1:2-4)
John the Baptist, who, the first time we see him, is declaring
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
less than a year later is in Herod’s jail,
where he is eventually beheaded,
sending a message to Jesus asking
“Are you really the One or should we expect another?”
Because you don’t seem like you’re providing.
You’re certainly not doing what I thought you’d do.
Things aren’t working out for me so well right now.
I’m in a really bad spot.
And this is the message Jesus sends back to John:
Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Blessed is anyone who does not fall away on account of me.
Matthew 11:4-6
Professor John Koessler points out isn’t news to John.
He already knows this.
Jesus sends him no new information in this message.
All Jesus does is remind John of what he already knows.
Jesus’ message to John isn’t just an accurate report of his ministry;
it’s also a paraphrase of the section of Isaiah 35:5-8a
“Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”
In other words, there will be a time of restoration, of total renewal,
a time when all God’s promises are fulfilled
and that time is beginning, John.
John would have known this passage and
likely would have remembered what comes just before it:
“Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 35:3-4
Jesus is indeed sending John a message and it’s the
same message he sends to us today:
Don’t confuse predictability with reliability.
You cannot predict what God will do.
But you can rely on him, you can count on him.
You can count on God to save you.
Source: New feed