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.)
In “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1), John records “another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire” (10:1). The inclusion of “a rainbow” is certainly compelling. Ezekiel 1:24-28 provides a lovely picture of the transcendent Shekinah glory of God. Verse 28 concludes, “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of One [Who] spake.” Three thoughts come quickly to mind. First, our Lord is awesome in all of His ways. He is beautiful (attractive) in every sense of the word. Second, this God of transcendence chooses to reveal Himself to us in a myriad of ways, including speaking to us. Whether we are reading Ezekiel in the Old Testament or Revelation in the New Testament, God is communicating directly to us. Third, the use of the rainbow reminds us that God has promised not to destroy the earth again by flood (Genesis 9:8-17). By the end of Revelation 9, more than half of the world’s population has died, but they have not been killed by a worldwide flood as in Noah’s day. We can trust our Savior God to keep all of His promises to the largest and the smallest details.