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 subject of fear is dealt with again in Isaiah 44:2-3: “Thus saith the LORD [Who] made thee; ‘Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and thou Jesurun [literally, “upright one,” a term of endearment for the people of Israel], whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” We see here that God, consistent with His unchanging character, replaces the negative with the positive: He offers to remove fear and insert “blessing” in its place. Last week, we saw that the father of John the Baptist (the prophesied forerunner of the messiah) received an angelic message: “Fear not, Zecharias” (Luke 1:13). After John’s birth, Zecharias rejoiced that the coming Messiah would make it possible to “serve Him without fear” (Luke 1:74c) and would “guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79b). “Peace” is God’s best for His people: it is a synonym for the “blessing” promised in Isaiah. Thus, Jesus, God the Son, becomes the great “blessing” Who pours out His best – His “peace” – upon each one of His people. No matter what is under the Christmas tree, we can be certain that it cannot match God’s “way of peace.”