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 began studying the use of “Almighty” in the New Testament. This designation means “the One Who has His hand on everything” in the original Greek. Revelation 16:4-7 includes the sixth occurrence of this word: “And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they became blood. And I [John] heard the angel of the waters say, ‘Thou art righteous, O Lord, [Who] art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.’ And I heard another out of the altar say, ‘Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments.’” Certainly this intervention of God ranks as one of the greatest examples of poetic justice possible. We must insist that this event is in the hands of God and demonstrates that His touch is indeed upon everything. His employment of an angel does not lessen His involvement. The totality of His activity should cause each Christian to self-evaluate and ask, “How do I want the hand of God to rest upon me?” We know that He will never let His people go; we are saved eternally. However, there are present issues that can require our God’s stern hand of correction (see, for example, Hebrews 12:5-11). May we instead seek the soft caress of His hand of blessing.