The Short-Term Versus The Long-Term View

John 5: 18

For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

The Jewish leaders did not want to give up their power and authority over the people, or stir up the Romans who had conquered them. 

They knew that if they recognized a Messiah, then He would be their King, which was a very dangerous proposition in that day. The Romans were notorious for being the bullies that would violently put down any movement that rebelled against their authority. 

So that was the "blaphemy" charge with which the Sanhedrin condemned Him. And Pilate wrote the charge, nailed to His Cross: "Jesus, the King of the Jews." 

Politicians will do anything they can to hold on to the political power they wield over the little people. They think of themselves as above the law, not subject to the consequences of their crimes. That has never changed.

So these Jewish leaders would refuse to recognize the obvious, that Jesus' miracles could only be done by God's own power. Their denial enabled them to do the unthinkable: to murder their only hope. 

Whenever we see only the temporary we are also vulnerable to Satan's subtile little lies that lead us into faulty thought processes. Once we start down that wrong road, it leads us further and further away from the good that our Father wants for us.

God will not violate the free will He gave us. We are free to destroy ourselves and everyone around us. We are also free to choose to do what is right, the hard thing that may look foolish in the short-term. 

We always need to see the final consequences, drawn out to its logical conclusion, to know which path will lead us to where we really want to go. 

So many will embark on the road to ruin, following those who have gone before. That is the broad way, where the crowds run (Matthew 7:13).

But the narrow way has a small entry, and only those who are wise will search for it and find it. Once entered the path is hedged in, with a definite path to follow (Matthew 7:14). 

God's Word is the footlight we need to see each step forward, as our car headlights only light the portion of the street we are driving on, not the whole way to our destination. Only enough light to show up the potholes and stumbling stones in the way, so we can bypass them or step over them (Psalm 119:105). 

The Jewish leaders were politicians, only looking at their own temporary advantages in the Roman system they lived under. They couldn't see the final ramifications of their efforts to rid themselves of this "problem." 

When I need to make a decision that will affect my future, I try to look far enough ahead to see where this way will take me. My intent is to go the way that will lead into the very best that my Father has planned for me, so I seek His Word on how to think. 

My thoughts lead to my opinions, which form my beliefs and convictions, which lead into my words and actions. It all starts in my mind. 

O my Father, thank You for Your Word! Thank You for giving us Your thoughts, for sharing with us Your Love and Your bounty (II Timothy 3:16-17). 

Lead me, Father, in the way I should go. Show me the path You have placed my feet upon, that I may do the things only I can do, and accomplish the works You have prepared me to finish in this my time in this society at this period of the history of the World. Help me to know that only Your Spirit in me is what will enable me to do this. 

Thank You for showing me how everything fits together, how the whole Bible describes this Earth and Universe from its very beginning, its Creation (Genesis 1:1ff), all through the human history of the World of Societies we build on it, to its final culmination, its pinnacle, and its end (Revelation 20), to be re-made into a New Heaven (Universe) and a New Earth based on a whole different basis of being (Revelation 21-22). So all our knowledge, our Science, will become obsolete then, and we will learn a whole new way of existing (I Corinthians 13:10). 

And Your Kingdom will continue to grow. The increase of Your reign will never end (Isaiah 9:7). 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!