Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Conspiracy to force Jesus to be King
Returning to Galilee, held by Rome..
Jesus faced crowds with different motivations than the Lord God on occasions other than His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
The Prophet Jeremiah had warned:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?
– Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
Jesus knew the motivations of the crowds.
John 6: ESV
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick…
9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number…
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The Messiah who cursed the fig tree knew the hearts of men who would be led by a King rather than follow the Lord God.
Returning to a time after the Judges, let us recall briefly the appointment of Israel’s first King. The Elders of Israel have conspired against the Lord.
1 Samuel 8:
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “… Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Jesus knew the hearts of the crowds, of the leaders of Israel, parties of religious officials of the Temple. Their hearts deceived them and their wickedness chose any course other than obeying the Lord.
Rule Over Us
Returning now to Judges and Gideon, mighty man of God after the Lord’s great victory:
JUDGES 8:
22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon,
“Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.”
… 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.
King Saul of Israel before David;
kings who did evil in the sight of the Lord warned by the Prophets;
King Herod, puppet kings to Rome motivated by men —
Kings, Presidents, Premiers, Prime Ministers, Princes —
Prophets (who are as false as gods carved from stone) — all men of the people!
Jesus would be like none of them.
Jesus could only be the One King obedient to the LORD God.
But that was not what the crowds desired.
It never was and never will be.
To Be Continued…
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