They looked for him as a mighty warrior, a king who would lead them to greatness, a ruler with whom they would rule over the Romans. They were not prepared to find Him within.
Our mistake is similar. Even with the New Testament as our guide we have sought an external ruler, one who would make things right for us by subduing our oppressors; one who would see the wrongs of the world and fix them. We did not see our role or the empowerment of the Spirit to carry it out by our words.
Reading but not recognizing that God created all by the power of His word and that we were created to be like Him, we continued to look to the future for the likeness to occur. And we waited, and waited and waited.
Many still wait vowing to be ready at His appearance.
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Genesis 1:26 (KJV) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 5:1 (KJV) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
