They called a council meeting out of a mixture of fear, frustration and fury. What do you do about a man who is working signs and miracles that are good for the ordinary people and causing them to become His followers? They pretended that they were concerned about the future of their nation, whereas they were only concerned about the future of their influence and power if more people continued to believe in Him. (John 11:45-56)
Unexpectedly, Caiaphas prophesies that Jesus would die for their nation, and by so doing bring all the peoples together. This was a direct prophesy from the Holy Spirit as to what would happen to Jesus and implied within it, was that Jesus would not be dying because He had done anything wrong, but because He would be a sacrifice to prevent the ruin of a nation. Also implied was the construct that the Levitical priesthood as it was known at the time would be coming to an end. There would be one final sacrifice that year by One who would be both High Priest and victim, that would henceforth make the sacrifices of animals obsolete. Clearly, if the true meaning of this prophesy was understood by Caiaphas, he could not pronounce it voluntarily.
So we have a situation where an enemy of the person of Christ is moved by the power of the Holy Spirit to prophesy about Christ’s glory while unwittingly declaring Him innocent of whatever He would be charged for. Interesting to observe that God can use anybody, even those who are sworn to oppose His plans, to prophesy about His Son and His Kingdom. It is not only the hearts of men that are in His hands (Proverbs 21:1), their tongues can also be overpowered whenever He wishes them to say what He wants.
This should comfort us. This is why we should not fear what man can do or say about us. We should be primarily concerned about how we are continually being assessed by God. God is supreme. God is sovereign. God has power over every human breath. He can give it and He can take it away. He can make the tongue dumb (Zecharia) or He can make it speak what is against the person’s wishes. God can make our enemies declare our innocence and He can strike down any person who is stubbornly waging a war with His will for our lives. If they will not yield to His message, they will fall at His call.
May our understanding of the unlimited power of God give us confidence to serve Him wholeheartedly and go about doing good, even to those who oppose us. Amen.
Hilltop Thoughts, Valley Strengths 