The Blessedness of the Unoffended
by T. Austin-Sparks
by T. Austin-Sparks
To read a very familiar portion of the Word, from the second chapter of the book of the Kings, the second book of the Kings, the second chapter:
"And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me as far as Bethel. And Elisha said,, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that were of Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets that were of Jericho came near to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry ye here, tarry here I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord the God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were at Jericho over against him saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him."
Turn to the gospel by Matthew, chapter 11, 11 and verse 2:
:When John heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he sent by his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go your way and tell John the things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me."
In the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10, chapter 10 of the letter to the Hebrews at verse 35:
"Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise."
To revert to the old version of Matthew 11:6: "Blessed is he who shall not be offended in me." The blessedness of the unoffended. You will know that the word there "offend" or "offended", so frequently used in different connections in the New Testament, just means "a stumbling block". Literally: "Blessed is he who will not find Me to be a stumbling block" or "who will not stumble at Me". It is changed into the word "boldness" in the Revised and we shall see why in a moment or two.
The first thing then to take note of is that the Word of God does take account of the possibility of our being offended with Him. It does not say anywhere that that possibility should never arise and will never arise. The Lord has no where said that we shall never have any occasion for being offended with Him. He has indicated that there will be plenty of opportunity for so stumbling at Him, falling over Him, coming down because of Him - if you like: crashing because of Him. There will be plenty of occasion or opportunity for so doing. He has never said that it will never be so. It is well for us to recognise that.
Temptation is never sin. We all are tempted in this as in many other ways. And as you know, temptation is only another word for trial, so it is translated in some places "trial". And there's nothing wrong with trials, with being tried, if you like: with being tempted. And there will always be plenty of opportunity for being tempted to be offended with the Lord.
The Lord sent no word of rebuke to poor John the Baptist in the prison when he was perilously near to being offended with the Lord because of his situation. The Lord was not hard on John because of his question. He might, had He been another, have said, "But John, did you not point Me out as the Lamb of God? Did you not proclaim Me as the One, the Messiah? Haven't you preached about Me to multitudes? Have you not made the strongest declarations and affirmations as to what you believed about Me? And here you're asking a fundamental question about Me. John, what's gone wrong with you?" No, nothing like that. The Lord knows our frame, that we are dust. And the Lord, I'm saying, takes account of this ever present possibility in our weakness, of being offended with Him. But he does attach to this matter a particular blessedness if we don't crash over the Stumbling Block of His ways with us, "And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me".
