Matthew 13:17

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

 

for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Matthew 13:17

 

“Amen! For I say to you that many prophets and righteous, they passioned to see what you see, and not they saw, and to hear what you hear, and not they heard” (CG).

 

In the previous verse, Jesus told His disciples that their eyes and ears were blessed. He now provides an explanation of that, saying, “Amben! For I say to you that many prophets and righteous.”

 

The promise of a Redeemer was spoken by the Lord in Genesis 3. Until the record was written down by Moses, it would have been an oral tradition. It is certain, based on the surrounding text, that Eve thought she would be delivered by the birth of Cain. However, that didn’t pan out.

 

From there, a list of “the sons of the God” is recorded in Genesis 5, and the story of the division between these sons, meaning those who believed and those who didn’t, is given in minimal detail in Genesis 6. Noah was deemed a righteous man and was spared from the destruction of the world by the flood.

 

He and his family repopulated the earth, still passing on this story of a coming Redeemer. Eventually, proper worship of God began to fade. This is implied in Job 1 & 2 where the “sons of the God” are noted as gathering for worship. If there are sons of “the God,” there are those who are not. The world was again losing its memory of the promised One.

 

Such people, like Job, would have been deemed righteous (Job 1:1). However, an appropriate mode of worship was needed to keep the memory of the Redeemer’s coming alive and to ensure that worshiping God as He deemed proper necessitated the introduction of the law.

 

Throughout these ages, some of those whom Jesus refers to are recorded, fitting a pattern that would include all who were like them. Hebrews 11 gives a summary of such people. The thing that identifies them as such is not, however, observance of and adherence to the law. Rather, it is... faith. Time and again in Hebrews 11, the words “by faith” are used to describe these people.

 

Each of them had a grounded hope in the coming of the Messiah. Hebrews 11 is summed up with the words –

 

“And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” Hebrews 11:39, 40

 

In accord with that, Jesus says, “they passioned to see what you see, and not they saw, and to hear what you hear, and not they heard.”

 

These people, by faith, waited and hoped. They looked ahead to what God promised, not around at what man has tainted. Their eyes were fixed unashamedly on the fulfillment of the promise, not considering the taunts and attacks of those who live for this world.

 

Their desire and passion were to see the Messiah and to hear His instruction concerning matters that could never be contemplated or deduced without God’s special revelation. With the coming of Jesus, these things were spoken and explained.

 

Life application: Jesus told the people –

 

“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Matthew 11:11

 

Jesus has come. There is no longer a need to wait for what God’s promised Messiah would do or say. We now have an accurate and detailed record of what His disciples heard and saw.

 

We can, by faith, be deemed righteous. We look back to the incarnation, the life lived, the cross, and the resurrection, and we believe. In accepting God’s word concerning the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ, we are deemed righteous.

 

From there, we can, by faith, look ahead to the promises of total restoration with God, not just as a spiritual truth (which we now possess), but as a tangible, eternal reality. For those who have been saved by faith, we have been given a guarantee that what we hope for will be realized –

 

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13, 14

 

How strong is your faith that the words of Scripture are true, accurate, and reliable? How deeply do you believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of that word? Are you sure in your heart of hearts that what the Bible tells us lies ahead is really coming? What is it that you long for most in this world? There is a reward ahead for those who live by faith –

 

“Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:8

 

Hooray for Jesus!

 

Lord God, thank You for the hope we possess in You, in Your word, and in what it says about Jesus’ coming and His return for us someday. Thank You for the guarantee You have given us, securing us as Yours until that day. Thank You, O God, for Your everlasting faithfulness. Amen.