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 Revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1) reveals that the second half of the Tribulation is a time of increasing intensity: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you having great worth, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (12:12). We should note the stark distinction between a heavenly perspective and an earthly one. We note also that the fiery fury of Satan, his “great wrath,” is fully in force during this roughly 3 ½ year time period (12:6) “because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” A problem becomes a crisis when a time limitation is introduced. For example, a paper due at the end of a term is not a cause for crisis until the last few days before the due date (for some procrastinators, not until the night before). The time restriction moves us into crisis mode. In a far more significant and terrible way, the certainty of Christ’s soon justice infuriates Satan such that he pours out his evil in an unprecedented manner. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus called this time “great tribulation,” and theologians thus appropriately label the last half of this period the Great Tribulation. A simple application for us today is that Satan, although dangerous, is doomed.