60IN60 Day 31 - Wed Jun 3

It’s Day 31 and we’re in John 13.

If you struggle with the feeling that you need to hurry through the reading, it can be helpful to lay aside a certain length of time for the reading. "I'm going to spend the next ten minutes reading the Bible. If I get done early, I'll go back and re-read it. If I don't get it done, that's fine. Now I can relax and not try to hurry through so I can get on with the other things I need to get done today. I'm going to be here for ten minutes."

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 2 - He'd been prompted, but it was still his choice. And he chose in the wrong direction.

Help:

- Verse 1 - The "full extent of His love" was not the washing of their feet, but the willingness to go to the cross.

- Verses 8-9 - First Peter refuses (v. 8), then Peter draws the wrong lesson (v. 9). What he should have done is simply receive Jesus' word.

If you want to read the chapter online, here’s a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

Your Questions and Comments:

- John 11. "I am somewhat puzzled by verses 47 - 53. If Caiphas as high priest prophesied that Jesus would die, was this revealed to him by God or was he just setting the narrative for the appropriate time and circumstance to justify the killing of Christ? Please clarify this for me. Thanks!" - I do not think God had revealed anything to Caiaphas in the sense that he was quietly listening for a word from God and then obediently spoke it in this moment. When v. 51 says, "He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation," the idea is more that Caiaphas said this just as a part of what he was thinking but the words had deeper significance than he understood as he spoke them. I think for him the thought behind his statement was something like this: "We Pharisees are God's representatives. God is working in Israel through us. We are God's chosen leaders. Now this Jesus guy comes along and he is threatening our power. If we lose our power, Israel as a nation is done because we are its only hope. Therefore it's better for one person to die than for the whole nation to perish." I think he was just saying something that expressed his justification for killing Jesus. He was unaware his words had a deeper meaning, but his statement fulfilled prophecy that the high priest would make a statement like that. It's a combination of personal freedom (Caiaphas said what he wanted) but divine foreknowledge (God had put the prophesy in the Bible because he knew the high priest would make that statement with a double meaning).