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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
November, 1940
The " Forgotten Beatitude
By VANCE HAVNER
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“And blessed Is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me” (Matt. 11T6). M OST Christians are fairly fa miliar with the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the i>oor in spirit, . . . they that mourn, . . . the meek, . . . they which do hunger and thirst after right eousness, .. . . the merciful, . . . thè pure in heart, . . . the peacemakers, . . . they which are persecuted.” But there is a little beatitude in Matthew 11, so short that we often miss its message. It ' might well be called “the forgotten beatitude,” but its truth surely needs to be called to 'our remembrance in a time like this. Offended in the Dungeon John the Baptist was in prison. Rugged, ascetic, this Elijah of the New Testament, this prophet of the outdoors certainly was out, of place in a dark, damp dungeon. One day his feelings hit a record low so that he sent a delega tion to Jesus to inquire, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” A serious doubt, that was. The very, thing John had preached like a living exclamation point had become a ques tion mark to the preacher himself. Let it be observed that our Lord did not send John a sharp reprimand. Nor did
He dispatch a nice talk on “How to Be Happy in Jail.” He reminded, the multitudes that' John was no reed s h a k e n with the wind, not a man clothed in soft raiment. Among those bom of women, no greater than John had risen. But John was down in the dumps, and our Lord understood. John had preached a victorious Messiah, with fan in hand, purging His floor, gathering His wheat into the garner and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. But h'ere was Jesus, and He was not manifesting Him self at all in such a fashion. He was meek and lowly, going about’ doing good. So the, devil got in his doubt of God’s Word, as long before in Eden, and the prophet began wondering and, as always follows, worrying. Our Lord’s answer was simple enough. John’s delegation was to return and re port what it had heard and seen: the blind were seeing, the lame walking, lepers were being cleansed, the deaf were hearing, the dead were b e i n g raised, and the poor /were having the gospel preached to them. It was as if He had said, “I am running on sched ule, John; I am doing what I came to do. Things may not be going the way you expected, but do not let it upset you; do not stumble over it. AND BLESSED IS HE, W H O S O E V E R SHALL NOT BE OFFENDED IN ME."
Prisoners Today It is a day of dungeons, and many saints h,ave fallen into the clutches even of Giant Despair. If a husky lion-heart like John the Baptist could faint, then, “beloved, think it not strange concern ing the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing hap pened unto you." > 7 John the Baptist’s trouble, like most trouble, did not come singly; it was two fold. There- was depression and there was doubt. The depression was within himself; the doubt was about Jesus. He was in jail, and with the dungeon goes depression. Do these lines fall under the eye of some reader imprisoned? Perhaps that one is not behind visible lock and key, but none the less behind bars. While it is gloriously true that “stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage,” the Either side is- also true that other things than stone walls can prisons make and other than iron bars can form a cage. Perhaps adversity has hedged you, your bank account has gone down, and your blood pressure has gone up. May be you are bound to a monotonous rou tine until your birth stone might well be a grindstone. Or, has a loved one gone and left you lonely? Is it sick- t ness, or' invalidism that troubles you, or what is sometimes worse, some ill-
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