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 keeps His promises – always and in all ways. Revelation 7:1-8 records that at the end of this age Jesus will fulfill His covenant with the people of Israel. About 4,000 years ago, God made specific promises to Abraham, the father of the Israelite nation (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:4-6; 22:16-18). During these millennia, the Israelites sometimes served the Lord but often fell into idolatry and pride. For long centuries, (including from AD 70 to 1948) the Jewish people did not inhabit the promised land of Israel. Because of that lengthy time period, some have tried to apply these promises to Christians, ignoring that God “cannot deny Himself” (II Timothy 2:13), that God’s timing is not ours (“one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” – II Peter 3:8), and that He “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). I remember reading about the well-known preacher W. A. Criswell. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, he regularly preached that God would restore the Jewish people to Israel. Most listeners scoffed at him, but he persisted because of what the Bible said. When Israel became a nation again in 1948, many were surprised – but not Pastor Criswell and others like him who studied the Word and understood both its promises and the unchanging nature of God. The restoration of Israel, just after about one third of the world’s Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust, is part of our Lord’s unfolding of His promised plan of redemption and righteous judgment.