Jesus fulfilled prophecy after prophecy of the coming Messiah. A common count is at least 300 separate prophecies with clear fulfillments 1. That would seem to be pretty convincing evidence.
However, during His ministry, the Pharisees persisted in opposing Him, largely because He was not the kind of Messiah they expected. They were looking for a military leader who would kick out the occupying Roman Empire and restore Israel to a new golden age. Jesus was just a rabbi with no educational credentials; he didn’t study under or get endorsements from any big-shot rabbi. He came from a small village that apparently was used as a metaphor for “insignificant” (John 1:46). He had no money, no military training, no royal lineage. He wasn’t a “proper” Messiah.
Even His own followers didn’t understand. When Jesus started teaching them that He was going to suffer and die, Peter actually had the nerve to rebuke Him! (Matthew 16:21-23) They asked questions like “Is this when You will restore Israel?” (Acts 1:6) or “Can we have places of honor in Your kingdom?” (Mark 10:35-37) A common interpretation of the motives of Judas, who betrayed Him to the authorities, is that it was an attempt to force Jesus to show His power. The thinking is that he hoped the threat of arrest would convince Jesus to act more “Messiah-ish”. If so, the attempt backfired!
Whether the Pharisees didn’t believe He was the Messiah, or Judas believed He was but thought He was going about it the wrong way, both would have had the same issue. When God didn’t behave as they expected, they thought that He was wrong.
That wasn’t the first time that someone had made that mistake.
Abraham
God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). There was just one slight problem: Abraham was 75 years old when that promise was made, and had no children. Over ten years later, his wife Sarai convinced him to help God along. She gave Abraham her blessing to have children by another woman: her servant Hagar. That didn’t turn out too well; see the whole story in Genesis chapter 16.
Another ten years went by. Now Abraham was 99 years old, and Sarai was 90. God repeated his promise: Abraham would have a son, and it would be by Sarai. Little Isaac was born the next year, after Abraham had celebrated his 100th birthday … and 25 years after the original promise (Genesis 17:15-22, Genesis 21:1-7).
God had promised a son. When the child didn’t come along quickly enough, Abraham thought God was wrong. He wasn’t.
Lazarus
Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. He had stayed in their home while teaching His disciples and enjoying their hospitality (Luke 10:38-42). So when the sisters sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was very sick, they expected that He would come immediately and heal him, as He had healed so many others.
Instead, Jesus deliberately delayed before finally arriving only after Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. First Martha, then Mary, greeted Him with the same statement of both faith and reproach: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died!” That was before Jesus called Lazarus to come out of that tomb.
When He didn’t come quickly to heal Lazarus, Mary and Martha thought Jesus was wrong. He wasn’t. (See the whole story in John chapter 11.)
Jericho
After the Exodus from Egypt and the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites were finally ready to take possession of their Promised Land. That meant driving out the idol-worshipping pagans who were there at the time. A group of ex-slaves conquering a land of walled cities needed a strong army, right? Not for the first city to be taken…
God told Joshua to have all of his fighting men march around the walls of Jericho. No siege, no battering rams, just … march … once a day, for six days. On the seventh day, they were to … just march … seven times around. Then blow a horn.
Now, my husband is a trumpet player. I can vouch for the fact that he is able to make impressive sound. But it’s not enough to knock down walls. God was, though!
Anyone hearing those instructions would have been sure that God was wrong. He wasn’t. (Story in Joshua 6:1-20.)
Gideon
When God called Gideon to lead the Israelites against their oppressors, the Midianites, Gideon’s first reply was…
…if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.
Judges 6:13
God’s response was “I’ve picked you to correct that situation.” (paraphrased!) So Gideon rounded up an army. But before the first battle against an enemy “as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore” (Judges 7:12), God told him that his 32,000 soldiers were too many. God whittled it down to only 300 men, and sent the others back home. Then those 300 were sent out with torches in one hand and trumpets (again?!) in the other. Notice that leaves no hand to hold a sword; how were they going to fight?
When the 300 were in their places encircling the enemy camp, they waved the torches and blew the trumpets. Then the enemy, apparently thinking they were surrounded by an overwhelming force, turned on each other: “the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army.” (Judges 7:22)
Did each of those 300 soldiers think God was wrong with that battle plan? He wasn’t.
Given examples like that…
If I disagree with God, if He is not moving as quickly as I want or doing things the way I think they should be done, which of us is most likely to be wrong? Hint: It’s not God.
- When life hurts, and I think God should fix it RIGHT NOW, but He doesn’t…He’s not wrong.
- When what God asks me to do is uncomfortable, even if it seems silly and useless…He’s not wrong.
- When I’ve been waiting for God to show His power, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting…He’s not wrong.
Back to our starting point, even though Jesus wasn’t Messiah in the expected way, He was in the way that God had always intended, and…
God’s not wrong.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
Isaiah 55:9
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Note: A similar article on this site is “God’s Way“.