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) contains the reality of intense judgment. Some question, “Why does Jesus judge?” Rather, we should ask, “Why do we rebel?” Not one of us deserves God’s mercy nor merits His grace. Thus, Jesus is fair in judging those whom He judges, for these rebels are following the original rebel – Satan. In Revelation 9:1, we read, “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.” The verb “fall” is in the perfect tense, signifying a completed action, as modern translations clarify (for example, “had fallen in the NIV and NAS). The use of “him” tells us that this is a being, not a literal “star.” Verse 11 clarifies that “thy had a king over them, [who] is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.” Both names mean destruction and refer to Satan (which means adversary). He is a fallen angel named Lucifer (son of the morning), as delineated in Isaiah 14:12-15. Thus, John sees the future activity of this fallen rebel during the Tribulation period. Certainly, then, God’s judgment against Satan is fair; it is justice against a rebellious destroyer.