Tuesday – November 5, 2024

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.)

In Revelation 22:16, Jesus reminds us of Who He is: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Jesus’ self-description as “the root and the offspring of David” is in fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” Jesse was the father of David, through whose line the Messiah would come (II Samuel 7:12-16). It is compelling that no one challenged Jesus’ right to fulfill this prophecy: He was of the lineage of David physically through Mary and legally through Joseph. His opponents never questioned the ancestry of Jesus, for the Jewish people of that era held genealogies in high regard, even reverence, and recorded them in careful detail. In the New Testament, both Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 provide precise and incontrovertible facts. Jesus fulfilled the historical requirements of Messiahship; those who rejected His claim did so based not on recorded truths but on personal animus and spiritual blindness. Still, the information is there, clear and definitive, for anyone who will not willfully reject it.