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.)
Jesus’ brief interaction with the hostile religious leaders in Dalmanutha is instructive to all of us: “And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question [dispute] with Him, seeking of Him a sign from heaven, tempting [testing] Him. And He sighed deeply in His spirit, and saith, ‘Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, “There shall no sign be given unto this generation.”’ And He left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side” (Mark 6:11-13). Seeking after a sign is a form of testing God, of trying to manipulate Him. You have probably heard people say some variation of the following: “If only God would _____, I would trust in Him.” Yet, how could He be God if we could control Him in any way? Jesus had already provided numerous miracles which authenticated His Messiahship; all of these were irrefutable signs – signs which the Pharisees had rejected. We simply cannot follow their example. However, I have heard folks (presumably Christians) who speak approvingly of Gideon and “putting out a fleece” (Judges 6:1-40). They miss the clear teaching of that passage: our two choices are testing God or trusting God. Gideon tested God and began a sad decline into idolatry (Judges 8:26-27) – a declension that affected him, his family, and the entire nation. Mature Christians will choose to trust our Savior God rather than foolishly and unspiritually test Him.