In the deserts of Iraq in the summer of 2014, Dakhil Habash and his family fled their home in the middle of the night after receiving assurance from three neighbors that they would be safe from any attacks by Sunni militants.
Something didn’t feel right to Mr. Habash, and he and his family secreted themselves away under the cover of darkness.
The Habash family belongs to the ancient Yazidi ethno-religious community. His neighbors were Arabs, one of whom he later found had joined Sunni militants and was helping hunt down Yazidi families.
The man Mr. Habash thought was his friend wasn’t who he imagined. He talked and acted like a friend, but he had become someone else. One man stood at his side, and when the winds stirred the sands of the desert, another stood in his place.
Thank goodness Mr. Habash could see through the sandstorm of misconception. He saved himself and his family by opening his eyes to the truth.
In John 1:21, the Jews asked John, known as the Baptist, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
And he answered, “No.”
The sandstorm had gathered, and the eyes of the Jews were blinded. They could not see John for who he was, the forerunner to the most phenomenal man about to burst onto the world scene.
They could not see the truth that was right before their eyes.
In John 1:25, they pressed John for an answer. “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
His reply? We find his words in John 1:26-27. “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
Of course, he was speaking of his cousin Jesus.
Jesus struggled with this same sandstorm. John 1:11 relates the sad fact that he came first to his own people, and they did not receive him.
Closer to him and surely more devastating to Jesus, Matthew 13:53-55 tells us he could do few works in his hometown and in his own household because of their unbelief.
They could not see through the sandstorm that hid the truth. They thought they were safe amidst the assurances of the world, when they needed to realize the truth. Jesus was the one, true Son of the Most High God, and he had come to offer them salvation from sin and spiritual death.
They needed to flee sin, under the cover of night, if necessary. The world had already betrayed them, and their rescue could only come by escaping to the truth offered by Jesus.
Who do we want to be seen as? Mr. Habash, who listened to the false words blowing around him and discerned the truth, or the Jews, who let the winds drown the Master’s words until they couldn’t hear them at all?
The sandstorm is blowing today. The truth is there. All we have to do is reach out for it.
During the howling of the storm, the truth of Jesus is still there for us to find.
Copyright © 2014 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.H.31.14.vp
Originally Published: 10-30-14 in Faith