“For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:17 ESV).
Matthew recorded Jesus’ words to His disciples as He explained the privilege they had in witnessing the kingdom of heaven revealed in Him. Jesus spoke in parables, distinguishing between those who merely heard and those who were given understanding. He reminded His disciples that many Old Testament prophets and righteous people faithfully served God while longing for the day of the Messiah, yet they never lived to see His arrival. Their faith rested on promises they never saw fulfilled. Matthew emphasized that the disciples’ generation was uniquely blessed: they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears what generations before them could only anticipate. This longing of the Old Testament saints aligns with Hebrews 11:13, where those heroes of faith were described as seeing the promises from afar, greeting them by faith, yet dying without receiving them. Together, these passages highlight the sad irony that while many longed for and believed in Christ’s coming without seeing it, others who saw Him with their own eyes and heard Him with their own ears still did not believe.
We are reminded that faith has always required trust in what God promises, even when fulfillment is not immediate. The Old Testament saints looked forward with longing, believing God’s Word without seeing its completion. The disciples looked at Christ with their own eyes, standing at the turning point of history. We now live in a unique tension: we look back with faithful gratitude at Christ’s finished work, and we look forward with longing for His soon return. We are blessed beyond the prophets in clarity, yet we still walk by faith, not by sight. This calls us to cherish the gospel we have received, to resist spiritual complacency, and to cultivate a holy anticipation for the day when faith will give way to sight. As believers, we join the long line of God’s people who live in hope, waiting expectantly, always longing for Christ’s return.
PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for faithful saints who trusted You without sight and for the fulfillment we see in Jesus. Help us to live with grateful hearts for what You have already done and with eager hope for what You have promised to do. Strengthen our faith as we wait, and keep our hearts fixed on Christ until He comes again. In Jesus’ name, amen.