–Seek the Lord. If you’re looking for Him, you’ll find Him on the way. If not, you’ll find Him in the way.
If you must find Jesus, then you must seek Him earnestly. We hear it often “seek the Lord”. Many of us are familiar with the why. A scripture like Amos 5:4-6 tells us why. However, many of us aren’t earnest about it. In today’s blog post, we will be learning how Jesus can be both a Rock of salvation and a Rock of offense, depending on how earnestly a person seeks Him.
When you read through the Bible and see the accurate and in-sync manifestations of the prophecy of the Messiah, one can only wonder why it was so hard for the early Jews to accept Jesus as Savior. In today’s world, a similar thing plays out. Despite the many evidences, truths, and fingerprints of God all around the world, some people still strongly doubt His existence.
Why is this even possible? As expected, the Bible has already prepared an answer. These people are simply not looking for Jesus.
Has this ever happened to you? You were looking something–let’s say your pen–you searched all around the house and eventually found it on a table. A few minutes later, you realized you can’t find your ruler either and simply concluded that it was stolen but then someone walks in and points your attention to the ruler on the same table you took the pen from. It’s not like that ruler just appeared on that table. It had always been there, even when you found your pen on the table. You may have even picked it up at that moment and thrown it aside because it was blocking your view of where your pen could be. But you missed it because you simply weren’t looking for it.
If you’re looking for Jesus–and you’re doing so earnestly, you will find Him. To find Him, you need sincerity and faith (Heb. 11:6). There are three reasons why many people will conclude that there are no answers or that Jesus is nowhere to be found. One is because they haven’t tried to find answers. Two, they have tried to find answers with an idea of what it must look like. Three, they have already concluded in their minds what they want to believe but go on this “quest” just for the sake of it.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6 NIV
Many people are in the category one and three. For the former, I will say that it is best for you to find answers and convictions. Jesus gives us the promise that if we ask, we will get answers, if we seek, we will find, and if we knock, the door will be open to us. The decision remains yours; to take action or not. (Matt. 7:7-8)
For the latter, you will need a mindshift before you can get to the truth. What you’re doing is simply self-deceit. Instead of finding answers and the truth, you will only find “points”–baseless ones at that–to back up your presumptuous argument.
A lot more people, however, find themselves in the second category; looking for answers with a picture of what it must look like. One thing to note is that you cannot box God. And you simply cannot use your own limited wisdom and knowledge to conclude what must be and how God must do what He wants to do.
When the gospel of Jesus was being preached in the early years of Christianity, the Jews had this idea of what God must look like. The Greeks also had their own idea. Because of this, they didn’t see Jesus in the gospel. They didn’t see the love of God or their ticket to salvation. What they saw was foolishness and absurdity. The Jews were looking for signs and found none. The Greeks were looking for wisdom but found none. But those who were looking for Jesus found Him, encompassing both the signs and wisdom others sought. (1 Cor. 1:22-24)
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:22-24 NIV
Jesus is known as the Rock (Deut. 32:4; 1Cor. 10:4). To believers, He is a Rock of salvation but to those who don’t believe, He is a Rock of offense. Their unbelief in Jesus becomes a stumbling block to them. Whenever they hear or see Jesus being glorified as the Rock of salvation, they become offended. And if you ask such people why they have that conviction against Jesus, they have a thousand and one things to say–not necessarily convincing or concrete things though.
I love how The Message translation put it in Romans 9:30-33 . Here it is:
“ How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:
Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
a stone you can’t get around.
But the stone is me! If you’re looking for me,
you’ll find me on the way, not in the way. ”
If you’re looking for something other than Jesus, you will find Him in the way. You will find Him offensive and obstructive. A disturbance to your plans and ambitions and hopes. And to such people, He ends up being their undoing. They end up stumbling over the rock and getting crushed by it. But if you’re looking for Him, you’ll see Him. You’ll realize you didn’t have to search to far or too long to get what you wanted. You will realize He is the Rock of salvation (Psa. 89:26).
“And he will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’”
Psalm 89:26 NLT
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