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.)
There are many character traits that I admire. At the top of the list, along with loyalty and dependability, is persistence. It is no surprise that Jesus is persistent – perfectly persistent. Perhaps you are familiar with Frances Thompson’s poem “The Hound of Heaven,” which imaginatively portrays Jesus as a hound hunting us down – hunting us down not to harm or hurt but to help. This winsome characteristic of persistence is prominent in Revelation 8, which begins in a curious way: “And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour” (verse 1). We are not told exactly why this silence occurs at this point in the Tribulation period or why it is about thirty minutes long. What we do know is that this absence of sound will be startling. We can think of the eye of a hurricane: after the battering winds comes a brief period of calmness, followed by a renewal of battering winds. This greater heavenly silence in Revelation 8:1 is one more way – a truly unique way – of getting people’s attention. It is another way that Jesus hunts people down to help them to understand His truth. Jesus persists, even in this short silence.