Daily life with Jesus by Grahame Howard: True faith, is taking God at His Word

Wednesday, 26 February 2020

True faith, is taking God at His Word

"So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went on his way." V50
John 4:46-54. NKJV

Let us briefly check out what we know here:
A certain nobleman came to Jesus and begged Him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. At the time, many in Cana, gathered around to see what was happening and Jesus made the statement, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.' V48.

But Jesus, seeing the man was genuine, told Him to go back home to Capernaum where he would find that his son was well. He did this and, to his delight, it was as Jesus had said, his son had been made well.

In the Greek, the meaning of nobleman was basilikos which meant that he was royal. He may have been a king but was more likely a royal official - a man of high standing in the court of Herod. He was a somebody, who chose to swallow his pride and ask a humble carpenter for help. He had even travelled 20 miles or so from Capernaum, which was some distance to travel in those days. The Courtier didn't care what people thought, and let's face it, he was putting his life at stake trusting in Jesus. If Herod found out, he could be executed. But he loved his son and trusted Jesus.

Jesus' response may have seemed harsh to him, but Jesus was referring to the people of His home town, who knew Him but never honoured Him but if there was a miracle about to happen, they wanted to see it. Jesus was also testing the nobleman's faith in order to see if he was genuine.

This didn't bother the nobleman, he just wanted his son healed and when Jesus said, 'Go your way, your son lives,' he believed it and set off home. Now this is interesting and shows the level of the nobleman's faith in Jesus. He took Him at His word - he asked, he received and he believed and his son was made well. This is faith. If he had taken offence and walked off in anger, his son would have died. It would have been hard for the Courtier to just go back home. He had wanted Jesus to go with him. But he accepted it and reaped the reward. It took him a while owing to the distance, but when he realised that his son was healed at the exact time that Jesus had told him to go home, he rejoiced.

The people where Jesus lived just wouldn't believe in Jesus, despite Jesus' many attempts to tell them. They gave Him no honour. But stop right there; weren't we like this before we accepted Jesus. We had heard about Him but never gave Him much thought until that day we needed Him the most.

True faith is taking God at His word. The nobleman did just that and his son was healed and he and his household became believers in Jesus Christ V53.
When we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He exalts us 1 Peter 5:6 and James 4:6, 'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.'

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard