Meditations from Zion

John 7:45
Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

These were professional soldiers; they were sent to the outer courts of the temple to arrest Jesus. But apparently, something happened when they got there.

There is so much left out of the scriptures. We’ll never know what teaching of Jesus thwarted their plans. We’ll never know how many guards were sent. We’ll never know if their hearts were permanently changed. But we do know they started with one mandate and once they encountered Jesus, their orders were tossed aside. When they returned to the priests, they couldn’t even articulate what he had said, just that they had never heard anyone speak like that.

I believe God is speaking like this every day, but we fail to take in His words or His message. Perhaps we do listen while we are present with Him, but then, we go about our day as though nothing special happened. There is even a scripture that captures that phenomenon: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” [James 1:23-24]

Keep me mindful today. Keep me sensitized to the voice of Jesus within.