John 8:57 “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?”
When the Jewish leaders tried to publicly dismiss our Lord, He distinguished Himself from them by contrasting His “father” from their “father”. He tells them that “it is my Father that honoureth me” (John 8:54) and that “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day” (John 8:56). It is clear that they more highly revered their genealogy than they did the Word of God or even God Himself. Essentially, they loved and revered themselves for who they thought they were. Our Lord then revealed their vanity by telling them that “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” (John 8:56); that is, you highly revere “Abraham”, your genealogical “father”, but he “rejoiced to see my day”. In prophetic faith, “Abraham” could “see” the coming of the Messiah and Him saving His people (Matthew 1:21) and setting up His blessed Church-Kingdom (Matthew 16:18). Thus, if their “father” “Abraham” had been their then, he would have known and worshipfully served His Lord. So, the Jews mocked our Lord by contemptuously asking Him, “hast thou seen Abraham?”. The truth is, as God, He had and does always see “Abraham”; and He also presented Himself to “Abraham” in human form and spoke with him (Genesis 18:2). Then, our Lord “said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58); that is, I preexisted “Abraham”, whom you so vainly revere. In this decree, our Lord identified Himself has the Sovereign Eternal God. Thus, “took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59). So, what do we revere? Do we revere genealogy, traditions, institutions, prominent leaders, or even ourselves? The First and Second Commandments specifically prohibit such vain reverence: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” (Exodus 20:3-5). Furthermore, we do not use the title Reverend because we are plainly taught that, “holy and reverend is his (God’s) name” (Psalms 111:9). Therefore, let us exclusively and daily present ourselves as meek and humble “servants of God” (I Peter 2:16) and Him only let us worshipfully serve!