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bigmike

John 8:58 (NKJV) 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
It is well known that when Jesus spoke, the Jewish religious leaders listened, but usually only to try to find fault with what He said.
Many of the things He spoke angered them badly.
They accused Him of blasphemy on more than one occasion.
But this verse caused them to become seething with rage. It angered them to the point that they wanted to kill Him.
John 8:59 (LSB) 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
What Jesus said had a dual meaning.
First, He implied that He existed before Abraham. Abraham had a definitive birth date, and a moment in time when he died and ceased to exist in his human body. But Jesus was eternal, with no beginning and no end.
Because the Jewish leaders viewed Jesus only through human eyes and failed to allow God to guide their hearts, they dismissed Him and all that they witnessed, writing Him off as a lunatic and a false prophet.
And their flesh caused them to fail miserably in discerning the spiritual season in which they lived.
Luke 12:56 (NKJV) 56 Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
Even as believers, we can often miss what God is showing us, what He wants us to learn, because we look and listen solely by our intellect, and not by the Spirit of God.
Father, may we learn, grow, and mature, that we will lean not on our own understanding, but on the voice and the leading of the Holy Spirit, that we may properly discern the season in which we live, and not miss what you are saying and showing us.
Amen

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