Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Because Jesus knows all things, He warns us of the dangers that easily and often beset us. One of these is the snare of prosperity. As the Israelites prepared to enter their Promised Land, the Lord cautions them (and us): “It shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee unto the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then beware lest thou forget the LORD, [Who] brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” It is a sad testament to our sin nature that we can be blessed by God, enjoy the blessings, and quickly forget Him. The same God Who graciously bestows all good things upon us also graciously alerts us to the threat of comfortable ease; this admonition is likewise one of these good things! In I Timothy 6:6, Paul provides a similar thought: “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Our appreciation of God’s goodnesses to us will increase our appropriate enjoyment of them. Let us then not “forget the LORD.” Let us remind ourselves and each other how good Jesus is to us.