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.)
Micah 7:19 is another Old Testament passage that speaks of the fullness of our forgiveness, a forgiveness based upon the death of Jesus on the Cross (Colossians 2:13-14). This verse says, “He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” The first part of this verse pictures God turning to us (since we by ourselves do not turn to Him). He is motivated by His kind “compassion,” seeking to give to us what we most desperately need. The imagery then shifts to God forcefully wrestling our sins into submission. Who is going to confront and combat our Champion to bring these sins back? No one, of course. To further assure us that our sins have been dealt with, we have the word picture of God casting our sins not only into “the sea” but into “the depths of the sea.” The Israelites were not a sea-faring people. To them, the sea was a distant place, as distant as anything on earth could be. This imagery joins with the rest of the verse to reveal God as a vigorous and intense Savior of all believers. His forgiveness cannot be withdrawn.