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.)
Any interpretation of apocalyptic passages in the Bible must be based on what the Word of God tells us elsewhere. We cannot go outside the confines of Scripture to find the meaning of Scripture. “The great red dragon” of Revelation 12:3 is Satan, for verse 9a states, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan.” His efforts to destroy the Messiah, Jesus Christ (verse 4), included Herod’s slaughter of the innocents in Matthew 2:1-18. The bestial nature of Satan is well-represented by a “dragon”; the color “red” is associated with death (Revelation 6:4), reminding us again that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). The unusual description of “having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads” (verse 3) is undecipherable without comparison to other Scripture. However, when we read similar descriptions in Revelation 13:1 and Daniel 7:7-8, 24, we find an explanation. Just as the Roman Empire’s rise to power was predicted by Daniel, another world power (something akin to a one-world government) will arise at the end, empowered by Satan’s evil. One scholar calls this description “a picture of the fullness of evil in all its hideous strength,” and he is correct. We are reminded that “we wrestle not against flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).