Read John 12:37-50
Even after all the miracles they saw Jesus perform many didn't believe. This was the fulfillment of Is. 53. Looking at that chapter I noted all the rejection Jesus received:
"there is no beauty that we should desire him"
"he is despised and rejected of men"
"we hid as it were our faces from him"
"we esteemed him not"
"we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted"
"he was oppressed, and he was afflicted"
"brought as a lamb to the slaughter"
"taken from prison and from judgment"
"cut off out of the land of the living"
"made his grave with the wicked"
This is one of the most powerful chapters in the Old Testament. "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he put him to grief: when you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lords shall prosper in his hand."
In Isaiah 6 it says that God hardened their hearts and made them blind so that they would not be converted. He told Isaiah to go and make the heart of the people fat, their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. He did this by telling them God's warnings over and over till they became calloused because they refused to obey. Jesus did this by doing miracle after miracle. They had to harden their hearts not to believe. John says that many high officials believed in Jesus but because they loved the praises of men more than the praises of God they kept their mouths shut.
Jesus gives one more plea to them. If you believe on me then you believe on God because we are one and the same. In me alone will you have everlasting life.
Lord, forgive us for rejecting you and your word. Give us open hearts, eyes that see and ears that hear. We gratefully accept all that you did for us on Calvary.
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