TO SEEK OR NOT TO SEEK

When Barnabas and Paul were on the isle of Cyprus, the proconsul (governor) was seeking the word of God.  There was an intervenor to their delivery of the Good News in the form of a Spiritually-blind magician by the name of Elymas, who made efforts to turn the proconsul away from seeking the faith.  Paul was incensed at the efforts of Elymas and was empowered by the Holy Spirit to act.  Acts 13:9-11 (ESV) describes it as follows: But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You sone of the devil, you enemy of righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight path of the Lord?  And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”  At that point, the magician was not only Spiritually blind but also physically blind as well.  

This account of a seeker (the proconsul) and non-seeker (Elymas) reminds of when a scribe asked Jesus in Mark 12:28-34 which commandment is the most important of all.  The scribe had initially arrived on the scene to witness a confrontation between Jesus and the Sadducees.  Though he disliked the Sadducees doctrine, he came rooting for them because they, like he, had a religion of human achievement and Jesus was a threat to his belief system.  But as he listened to Jesus, he found himself drawn to him.  As the scribe internalized with the words and agreed with him, Jesus told the scribe that he was not far from the Kingdom of God.  However, the scribe had not followed up his mental understanding with a heart commitment.  In other words, the scribe was an unaware seeker until he heard the words of Jesus.  The Kingdom of God is made up of Christ-followers, as many at Mosaic are.  We must be alert to both seekers and non-seekers, as the day is coming when the physical nature of the Kingdom will again be ushered in.