Matthew 17:15 Lord, do pity and have mercy on my son, for he has epilepsy (is moonstruck) and he suffers terribly; for frequently he falls into the fire and many times into the water. 16 And I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to cure him. 17 And Jesus answered, O you unbelieving (warped, wayward, rebellious) and thoroughly perverse generation! How long am I to remain with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me.18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. AMPC
Jesus said to His disciples, and He is saying to us, we are unbelieving. We are warped (twisted), wayward (disobedient) and rebellious (disloyal) and a thoroughly perverse (difficult) generation! Wow Jesus just called us out. What is He saying to us? I think it is clear He is saying we are warped, we are twisted in our thinking and it makes us disobedient, and actually disloyal to Him.
Because we are not really listening to Him and have our minds set already on what we believe, I think we are difficult to teach.
Jesus said in Luke 10, I give you power, and authority to cast out demons, lay hands on the sick, and yet we become the sick.
Luke 10:19 Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you. AMPC
No wonder Jesus became frustrated, He is teaching us how to live, giving us His power and authority to do His work, but, instead of receiving it we become the sick.
God showed me His frustration of us through a card game. I was trying to teach my son a new card game. He kept arguing with me about the card game telling me the order of the cards didn’t make sense to him and so it was wrong. I was truly frustrated with him.
God told me to get the game out again and to re-explain the order of the game. Through me reiterating the game God showed me my son was trying to use logic to fix the game, and that was why he couldn’t catch on to the game.
I confronted him and told him to put his logic aside and just except the theory that man who invented the card game used.
His logic made the game hard for him to play as well as remember and recall the order of the cards because he didn’t agree with the arrangement of the cards. All he could really think about was that it was wrong.
God then showed me we do the same thing with His Word. We try and fix His Word to the way we think it should be. With our logic we change the meaning of His Word. Inevitably we don’t get His revelation of His way working because we are so focused on what we think.
We can’t hear, we hear but we don’t hear.
That is why Jesus was frustrated. He was telling them they are difficult to teach. How long should I put up with you is a pretty harsh rebuke!
I believe He was saying to them and, He is saying to us today, you are difficult to teach. Because you won’t believe Me, you are trying to figure it out yourself, without Me, making it too hard to teach you. I am pretty sure Jesus was feeling like giving up! I am pretty sure He was convinced that we are pretty dense. And, I am pretty sure that is why He gets quiet sometimes.
He pours out His wisdom, His principles of the way His Kingdom operates but we get logical about it and argue it, instead of just do it. Instead of doing it we look for another way out. We are a pretty prideful people.
Finally as I laid out the cards and explained to my son that what seems to be right is changed, and now this is right because of the way the person set up the game, logical to him or not -he caught on. Because he took my correction and gave into what he thought, after some practice he caught on to the game.
God is saying that to us today. In His Kingdom it isn’t going to be like we think. He is the designer of His Kingdom and the operations and things will work the way He said they will.
He said His power when we believe is on the inside of us and when we lay hands on the sick they will recover. But if we are logical about it and think well, I can’t do that, or in this case this person must be taken to the hospital, we are thinking logical and logic has nothing to do with faith working.
If we would just let go of what we think, and do what we were told to do, then, we could catch on to faith working. Then, we can catch on to faith and laying hands on the sick and watching them recover. Then, we can even be the healed rather than the sick.