”The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. For the Lord gave us this command when he said, ‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’” When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers. So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region. Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.“
Acts of the Apostles 13:44-52 NLT
God constantly offers men and women a chance to be a part of his plan and they consistently refuse to do so. Sometimes they want to remove God from what he offers, sometimes they want to control what he offers, other times they reject that he is offering these blessings. This is not a new phenomenon but an old one. It should be able to go without saying that the most egregious sins were committed this way. Right from the Garden of Eden to the crucifixion itself, men have always demonstrated the inability to accept God as he asks. It should not be any wonder that the Ten Commandments themselves are cap stoned with the edict to reject covetousness. However, in this passage, we can see how God deals with such a crime. He gives the blessing to the next most willing participant. It does not go wasted. Rather than reject God’s terms or involvement in his blessings, we ought to put aside our biases and search our hearts to excise their rebellious nature. It is clear that not doing so can lead to us missing out on those blessings altogether.
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