God Was With Him?

"how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38

            There are those religious ones who would have us believe that Jesus the epitome of love would go around blessing all kinds of people without exception.  He would take time out to understand people first, and meet them where they are, so that He could draw them along to where they need to be.  This is something that many humanist pschyolgists would do but not Jesus  He knew their thoughts. In actual fact Jesus didn’t bless or accept all men but cursed and rejected many and He did things to irriate them so they were filled with rage and plotted to kill him. The bible records:

Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.  So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.  But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, "Arise and stand here." And he arose and stood. Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?" And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. Luke 6:6-11

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,  and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25

 Jesus didn’t bless the religious and political leaders of His day but cursed them! Woe to you doesn’t mean something good is going to happen to you? He told them they were serpents, brood of vipers who would not escape the condemnation of hell. He warned the public openly about them and their ways and said:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.' Matthew 23:14-16

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,  "and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'  "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  "Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Matthew 23:25-33

Jesus, just like His Father, God, disliked hypocrites, thieves, liars, murderers, deceivers, evil and wicked ones,  ( Psalm 7:1, Proverbs 6:16-19, Revelations 21:8) especially when they were leaders and He had not patience with them. He didn’t miss the opportunity to give them the  stringest rebukes of the Pharisees for being proud, arrogant, false, and thieves. . They believed they were right. They believed they, and only they, knew the way to bring forth the kingdom of God. They taught all the minutae of the law whilst negelecting the weightier matters, grounded in justice and compassion. They  attempted to force others into their way of thinking  whilst neglecting to consider what truth really was or that love was more important than their doctrinal purity. They didn’t care about the sheep under their care nor did they look out for their best interests!  They neglected the weightier matters of the law - justice and mercy in place of their own selfish interests and hidden agenda of power and glory.  Of course they had no love for the sheep. They didn’t considertheir  needs, nor addressed them as a friend or brother, nor sought to meet their needs. They only sought to assert their own doctrinal superiority over others. So Jesus like His Father Jesus cursed them and didn’t bless them and warned them about their impending judgments. God’s word is unchanging:

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,  "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: "Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?  "You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.  "The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.  "So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.  "My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them."   'Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:  "as I live," says the Lord GOD, "surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock"-  'therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD!  'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them." Ezekiel 34:1-10

"For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.  'And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Acts 3:22-23

Jesus judged the false ones of His day and He publicly did not say nice things about them but told them that their end would be worse than their beginning. He told them they were hypocrites, blind guides, serpents, brood of vipers, and lawless ones, who would not escape the condemnation of hell and there would be a day of judgment for them.  Because Jesus was a Prophet, and the Chief Prophet, and God was with Him, God would honor His words and they would not fall to the ground. The Jewish religious and poltical leaders of Jesus day along with their followers would not escape the condemnation of hell in the speedy ensuring judgments that followed in 70 AD for whatsoever a man sows so shall He reap! Flavius Josephus  in writing about “The Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70” testified:

Throughout the city people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots] searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse which even animals would reject was collected and turned into food. In the end they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields. Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four drachmas. http://www.loyno.edu/~rspipes/chicken/seige.htm

There is a real price to be paid for rejecting truth and doing injustice, even in the current time of life, as the people of Jerusalem who murdered Jesus could testify. By 66 AD Life in Jerusalem had become a nightmare, it was so full of violence and misery. Famine and food shortages become an everyday problem.

Then in 70 AD Titus marched against the city with four legions of the Roman army.  They laid siege to Jerusalem and using their battering rams they breached the walls of the city. Fleeing citizens of Jerusalem were caught by the Romans and were tortured and crucified.  Later the whole city was destroyed and the people of Jerusalem paid the price for ignoring Jesus warning about what would happen to them. These kinds of things do happen even in the current time of life!

TITUS now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones resisted the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the cloisters, Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. Through that night and the next day the flames raged through the cloisters. Then, in order to save the Temple itself, he ordered the fire to be quenched. On the tenth of August, the same day of the year on which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple built by Solomon, the cry was heard that the Temple was on fire. The Jews, with cries of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to take revenge on their enemies or perish in the ruins.

The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left but a small portion of the outer cloisters, where 6,000 people had taken refuge, led by a false prophet who had there promised that God would deliver His people in His Temple. The soldiers set the building on fire and all perished. Titus next spent eighteen days in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then speedily captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any mercy, night alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of this siege of Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners numbered 97,000.

http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Outline_of_Great_Books_Volume_I/templejer_cg.html

If we examine the Jewish people and their religious leaders, they were sincere and arrogant in that they were right to crucify Jesus. After all Jesus was in their opinion and according to their theology a false prophet and their leaders told them so. As a matter of fact their leaders told them that Jesus was a Samaritan and had a demon.  They were God’s chosen people who thought they had surrendered to Him but in reality denied Him. They refused to see the plain truth that surrender is more than lies. It is a deep desire to surrender all the lies. Most men look how they can carry on without surrendering their will to God. They seek a sign rather than the truth. That is why Jesus told them:

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

 He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red';  "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'

Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.   "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed. Matthew 16:1-4

Jesus called them hypocrites and a wicked and adulterous generation. They thought they could see what they cannot see at all. They heard what they desired to and refused to surrender all. They thought and therefore god has spoken. They thought it went that way. They forgot the lilies of the valleys were created before them. They could not see the winds of change were blowing and sweeping across their land. They thought they were secure and continued in their traditional ways not know that the strong winds would be blowing and devastating the land. It was coming nearer and nearer to the hour of their demise. They mindlessly went on in life thinking themselves very spiritual and assuming that sincerity and presumption where a guarantee of salvation. They did not tune their heart and mind and spirit to God’s s still small Voice. They did not take action in their limps and heart toward God's intentions and not theirs. They assumed they knew everything and did not turn it all to the Lord. They were proud of what they had achieved. After all, it was theirs? They never anticipated that the word of the prophets would come to pass just as Jesus prophesied and there were real consequences to their sin, rebellion and deeds. As a result of the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem in 70 AD. The number of people who perished by famine were enormous and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable.  Finally on the order of Titus Caesar the entire city of Jerusalem and its temple were demolished except for three towers.

It did not pay to reject and murderer God’s true prophet and Son. A whole nation and its capital were destroyed in the ensuing judgment of God that followed. As God’s word is true even this day:

'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.  'And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. Genesis 18:18-19