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 gives us hope because He knows how much we need it. Proverbs 13:12a says, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” This truth is echoed in a song that says, “It just cannot be that a man should lose hope every day.” We need hope, real hope, and we struggle when the fulfillment of that hope is delayed. The central example of Hebrews 6:10-20 (where we started more than two weeks ago) is Abraham. At age 75, he no longer expected the birth of a son; he was without hope. However, God then promised Abraham a son – and he still had to wait 25 more years! I Thessalonians 1:2 speaks of the “patience of hope”; in other words, hope implies waiting. How long do we have to wait? None of us know. Aging Abraham was surprised at the promise of a son – and he was surprised that he had to wait a quarter of a century. We may have to wait longer, even much longer. However, since biblical hope is a certainty, we can be sure that there will be times of fulfillment, culminating in the final fulfillment when we see Jesus face to face.