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Published: June 8, 2023, 7 a.m.

Welcome to Day 2148 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.\nThis is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom\nThe Gospel of John \u2013 16 \u2013 The Great Desertion \u2013 Daily Wisdom\nThe Gospel of John \u2013 Part 3 Authentication Of The Word \u2013 The Great Desertion\nToday we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. \xa0Last Jesus explained how he was The Bread Delivered from Heaven as He was the spiritual food that provided eternal life. Today, our scripture is John 6:58-71. Follow along with me as I read. I include two verses from last week to put this message into context.\n\nI am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.\u201d\n\nHe said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.\n

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• Many Disciples Desert Jesus
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\nOn hearing it, many of his disciples\xa0said, \u201cThis is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?\u201d\n\nAware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them,\xa0\u201cDoes this offend you?\xa0Then what if you see the Son of Man\xa0ascend to where he was before!\xa0\xa0The Spirit gives life;\xa0the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you\u2014they are full of the Spirit\xa0and life.\xa0Yet there are some of you who do not believe.\u201d\xa0For Jesus had known\xa0from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.\xa0He went on to say,\xa0\u201cThis is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.\u201d\n\nFrom this time, many of his disciples\xa0turned back and no longer followed him.\n\n\u201cYou do not want to leave too, do you?\u201d\xa0Jesus asked the Twelve.\n\nSimon Peter answered him,\xa0\u201cLord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.\xa0We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.\u201d\n\nThen Jesus replied,\xa0\u201cHave I not chosen you,\xa0the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!\u201d\xa0(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot,\xa0who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)\n\n\xa06:59\u201365\n\nBy this time in His ministry, Jesus\u2019 disciples numbered in the tens of thousands with varying degrees of devotion. At least hundreds were serious enough to consider Him their rabbi and would have actively supported a movement to make Him king. But Jesus knew theirs was the kind of fickle devotion that sprouts quickly and withers suddenly in the heat. This situation reminds me of the passage in Jonah 4:6-8, where a plant grew rapidly and shaded Jonah from the hot sun, but then he cursed it when it died the next day. The fickle multitude of disciples described Jesus\u2019 teaching as skl\u0113ros, which literally means \u201cdry,\u201d \u201chard,\u201d or \u201crough.\u201d Figuratively, the term describes something or someone as \u201cunyielding\u201d or \u201creceived with discomfort.\u201d Distressing news or challenging concepts would be called \u201chard.\u201d Jesus\u2019 teaching wasn\u2019t difficult to understand and accept.\n\nJesus perceived the multitude\u2019s difficulty and asked if the teaching had, literally, \u201ctrapped them in.\u201d The Greek term