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.)
Last week, we briefly discussed Revelation 17:7: “And the angel said unto me, ‘Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.’” In the Bible, a mystery is a previously unrevealed secret that is made known by a specific revelation from God. The unveiling of this future relationship between Babylon (“the woman”) and the Antichrist (“the beast”) is necessary, for the revival of Babylon is otherwise unexpected. Verse 8 begins another description of the Antichrist: “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition; and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” We are reminded that the Antichrist tries to mimic Christ, “[Who] is, and [Who] was, and [Who] is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8b). Of course, everything about the Antichrist is counterfeit and is controlled by Satan (Revelation 13:4). Yet, the non-believers of the Tribulation “shall wonder” because of the immense (but temporary) power of the Antichrist. Still, his end is “perdition” – that is, absolute and eternal lostness. A simple lesson for us is to reserve our “wonder” for the One Who is the “Wonderful Cousellor” (Isaiah 9:6), our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.