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.)
The description of Babylon in Revelation 17:3-5 is (and may nauseatingly remind fans of Star Wars of Jabba the Hutt): “So he [the angel] carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’” Scarlet is not intrinsically evil, of course, but this color is used in Isaiah 1:18 as a symbol of the sad and undeniable universality of sin: “’Come, and let us reason together,’ saith the LORD: ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’” Both the Antichrist (the “beast” – see Revelation 13:1-10) and the system that he heads (“the woman”) are blatantly, defiantly, unapologetically evil and are thus represented as “scarlet.” The contrast with Jesus is absolute: “His head and His hairs [are] white like wool” (Revelation 1:14a), He rides “a white horse” (Revelation 19:11a), He forgives our sins and makes us “white as snow” and “wool,” and He will adorn each believer “in fine linen, clean and white” (Revelation 19:8b). May we be truly grateful for the distinctiveness of Jesus that accomplishes our eternal transformation.