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 most important aspect of the heavenly city (Revelation 21:2) is found in verse 3: “And I [John] heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.’” On the human level, a long-distance relationship can be difficult, even with all of our newer technological innovations that make it possible to communicate quite easily. Even though our Lord God is most definitely with us now, it will be an eternal blessing to be with Him in a face-to-face relationship. Such a relationship is, remarkably, His desire. We remember that in the Garden of Eden God is described as “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8) to visit Adam and Eve (unfortunately, in the immediate context, to deal with their sin of rebellion). The Israelites were blessed by the visible presence of God at the Tabernacle and later at the Temple. In His Incarnation, Jesus, God the Son, walked amongst the people, talked to them, and cared for their needs. The repetition in verse 3 is an affirmation of this desire of God to be with us: “He will dwell with them…God Himself shall be with them.” The fullness of God the Holy Spirit is with us now (I Corinthians 6:19), and Jesus is “Emmanuel…God with us” (Matthew 1:23). In “the holy city,” the reality of our relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will be at an even higher, more tangible level. Truly it is our Lord’s fervent desire to be “with men,” for He has promised “that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3).