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 beast” of Revelation 13:1-2 is the Antichrist, Satan’s ruler during the Tribulation. It is unfathomable to Christians how anyone could willingly follow such a vile, evil “man of sin” (II Thessalonians 2:4). One unholy attraction is found in Revelation 13:3-4: “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, ’Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” “Deadly” means “fatal,” indicating the severity of the Antichrist’s “wound” (literally, “plague”). Some scholars believe that he is near death and is miraculously healed, for “as it were” can be translated “seemed” (NIV) or “as if it had been” (NASB). Others suggest that he actually dies and is resurrected, in mimicry of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Still others think that this is a staged or fake resurrection. Whatever occurs at that time, unredeemed people will be impressed by this display of power. II Thessalonians 2:9 speaks of the Antichrist, “whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders”; many will be moved by what is Satan’s greatest “lying” miracle. Moreover, verse 10 of II Thessalonians 2 continues, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved”; because people have already rejected Christ, they will be ready to receive the Antichrist. Furthermore, verse 11 says, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a [literally, “the”] lie”; this “strong delusion” from God is His righteous justice upon those who refuse to trust the truth but choose to believe the “lie” that the Antichrist is the Messiah, the Savior. Finally, as we will see later in Revelation 13, coercion will be employed by the Antichrist to force people to bow down to him – a method that Jesus refused. The mercy and grace of our Savior stand in complete contrast to the terrible tyranny of the Antichrist.