The Kingdom Suffers Violence
(Where is the God of Our Salvation? - Part 4)
by Mike Rule

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12 KJVR)

I have tried to understand this passage for the past five years but have found it confusing and unclear.  However, in the past few months it is NOW beginning to make sense to me.  The Lord has brought light to the passage through a most unexpected person in the Bible: Judas Iscariot.

I've heard a lot preached about Judas but haven't found much of it to ring true with the Divine YES within. I have not sensed the Spirit of God within me bearing witness that what I heard was Truth.  Then the Lord began to speak to me about Judas, and it all began to fit with Jesus' statement in Matthew 11.

Judas was chosen as one of the Twelve by Jesus, he walked with Jesus, he saw what Jesus did, and I believe he KNEW who Jesus was:  the promised Messiah.  Yet like the rest of the disciples and the Jewish nation, Judas did not comprehend what Jesus was all about.  It is likely that Judas thought Jesus intended to lead a revolt against the Roman oppressors and rise to the throne of Israel, that He was going to become King.  Yet, after about three years of following Jesus and seeing God's power evidenced through Him, Judas saw Jesus doing nothing to take His rightful place.  I think Judas must have been frustrated that Jesus kept holding back.  I think he felt neither he nor the Jewish nation could wait any longer for Jesus to come to power.  Thinking he was offering a service to God, Judas attempted to force God's hand by putting Jesus in a situation in which He would have no choice but to assert His authority and exercise His power as the Son of God.  Hence, Judas "betrayed" Jesus into the hands of the religious leaders to prove once and for all Who Jesus was.  We can see the horror rise up in Judas as he realized that Jesus was NOT going to overthrow the Romans, but instead willfully chose to die for the sins of the world.  In seeing his plan backfire, Judas so despaired over what he had done that he threw the money he had received from the chief priests and elders into the sanctuary and went away and hanged himself. 

Judas fell into the same trap that so many of us do. We get a taste of what God can do and our minds run with it.  We visualize all the good that can be done and all those who can be saved. However, when God does NOT do what we expect Him to do, rather than waiting and trusting Him, we take things into our own hands and try to force God's hand.  Repeatedly in Scripture we see what happens when mankind relies upon his own understanding and tries to force God's hand by taking things into his own hands and helping God out. Look at Abraham's life and the resulting Ishmael when he takes Hagar.  How many of us are dealing with spiritual Ishmael's because we THINK we know God's plan and run ahead of Him forcing His hand?

As Becky and I have continued to follow His call, we have been tempted time after time to take things into our own hands and force the hand of God.  This is especially challenging because He has called us to live in such a way where if Jesus does not show up we are in big trouble.  It would be so easy to try to live that way by force, DEMANDING that Jesus show up, rather than living in response to His leading and call while trusting and relying on Him.  I have wrestled with God over rectifying our financial struggles.  I have considered taking a year off of ministry so I could get a high paying contract job in engineering to make enough money to put us back on our financial feet.  I have considered changing the structure of LCMI to intentionally raise support rather than trusting God as He directed us to do initially.  I have looked at option after option, only to discard each one.  For in choosing another direction, it costs me the peace of God, which rules in my heart.  I know I am where He wants me, but it is hard to trust when nothing makes sense.  Can you relate?

Many of us find ourselves in situations where we are able to "fix" our problems through human effort, but we KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is calling us to wait and to trust.  We could take the Kingdom by force, but the Lord calls us to TRUST Him to build the Kingdom.  It is hard to trust Jesus when there is nothing you can do.  It is even harder to trust Him when you know you could build the Kingdom in your own strength and do things that would appear to be a service to God and to people. Will you believe that God is faithful, and wait upon Him no matter how bad things get, and no matter what it looks like to anyone else? 

(Next week I want to look at passivity versus trusting and resting.  Shalom, friends.)

Verses for Reflection

And it becoming early morning, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then he who had betrayed Him, seeing that He was condemned, sorrowing, Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver again to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, betraying innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? You see to that. And he threw the pieces of silver down in the temple and departed. And he went and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:1-5 MKJV)

"They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. (John 16:2 NASB)

"I'm a Jew. I was born and raised in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia and received my education from Gamaliel here in Jerusalem. My education was in the strict rules handed down by our ancestors. I was as devoted to God as all of you are today. I persecuted people who followed the way of Christ: I tied up men and women and put them into prison until they were executed. The chief priest and the entire council of our leaders can prove that I did this. In fact, they even gave me letters to take to the Jewish community in the city of Damascus. I was going there to tie up believers and bring them back to Jerusalem to punish them. "But as I was on my way and approaching the city of Damascus about noon, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice asking me, 'Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?' "I answered, 'Who are you, sir?' "The person told me, 'I'm Jesus from Nazareth, the one you're persecuting.' (Acts 22:3-8 GW)

For I, truly, was of the opinion that it was right for me to do a number of things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (Acts 26:9 BBE)

I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God; but their devotion is not based on true knowledge. They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right. For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God. (Romans 10:2-4 GNB)

Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 MKJV)