Jesus, in response
to the
Pharisees’ question
“Who do you think you are?”
said, “
"Your father Abraham
rejoiced at the
thought of seeing my day;
he saw it and was glad.’ ‘You are not yet
fifty years old,’
the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’
‘I TELL YOU
the
TRUTH,’
Jesus answered,
‘before
Abraham was born,
I am!’
At this, they picked up stones to stone him,
but Jesus hid himself,
slipping away from the temple grounds”
John 8:56–59
The violent response
of the Jews to
Jesus’ “I AM” statement indicates
they clearly understood what
He was declaring--
that He was the eternal God incarnate.
Jesus was equating Himself with
the "I AM" title
God gave Himself in Exodus 3:14.
If Jesus had merely wanted to say He existed before Abraham’s time, He would have said, “Before Abraham, I was.”
The Greek words translated “was,” in the case of Abraham, and “am,” in the case of Jesus, are quite different.
The words chosen by the Spirit make
it clear that Abraham was
“brought into being,” but
Jesus existed eternally
(see John 1:1).
There is no doubt that the
Jews understood
what
He was saying because
they
Took up Stones to Kill Him
for making
Himself equal with God
(John 5:18).
Such a statement, if not
true,
was blasphemy
and
the punishment prescribed
by the
Mosaic Law was death
(Leviticus 24:11–14).
But Jesus committed no blasphemy;
He was and is God,
the second Person
of the
Godhead,
equal to the Father in
every way.
Jesus used the same phrase
“I AM”
in seven declarations about Himself.
In all seven, He combines
I AM
with tremendous metaphors
which express
His saving relationship
toward the world.
All appear in the
book of John.
They are
I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51); I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12); I AM the Door of the Sheep (John 10:7, 9); I AM the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14); I AM the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25); I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6);
and I AM the True Vine (John 15:1, 5).
In the Book of Revelation, chapter 12,
the prophet John
the
Evangelist describes
a vision of a
woman clothed with the sun
and
adorned with stars--
a woman soon to give
birth to a
son who is destined to
rule all nations
and who will be
caught up to God and his throne
The Great Winepress
Jeremiah Called
Then
the word of the LORD
came to me,
saying:
“Before I formed you
in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born
I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet
to the nations.”
Then said I:
“Ah, Lord GOD!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”
But the LORD said to me:
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to
whom I send you,
And whatever I command you,
you shall speak.
Do not
be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,”
says the LORD.
Then the LORD put forth
His hand and touched my mouth,
and the LORD said to me:
“Behold, I have put
My words in your mouth.
See, I have this day
set you over
the nations and over
the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”
(Jeremiah 1:4-10)
Before I formed you in the womb
I knew you,
and before you
were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you
a prophet
to the nations."
This is the preparation of God,
and it had begun
long before
Jeremiah was even conceived.
In other words, God said, "I started getting you ready, and the world ready for you, long before you were born. I worked through your father and your mother, your grandfathers and grandmothers, your great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. For generations I have been preparing you." What a wonderful revelation to this young man!
When men face a crisis, they always start looking for a program, some method with which to attack the crisis. But when God sets out to solve a crisis, he almost always starts with a baby. The babies God sends into the world, who look so innocent and so helpless--and so useless at their birth--have enormous potential. There is nothing very impressive in appearance about a baby, but that is God's way of changing the world. Hidden in the heart of a baby are the most amazing possibilities. That is what God said to Jeremiah: "I've been working before you were born to prepare you to be a prophet, working through your father and your mother, and those who were before them."
History tells us that the mother of Sir Walter Scott loved poetry and art, so it's not surprising that her son became a poet. The mother of Lord Byron was hot-tempered, proud, and violent. The mother of Napoleon Bonaparte was ambitious for herself and her children. The mother of John and Charles Wesley was a godly and devout woman, with great executive ability--and, having nineteen children, she needed it! God prepares for a child long before that child is born.
God prepares for every child in this way; the kind of preparation spoken of in this passage doesn't apply only to Jeremiah the prophet. I often hear people say of some noted person, "When God made him, he broke the mold." That is true. When God made Abraham Lincoln he broke the mold. There has never been another like him. But what we often fail to see is that this is true of every single one of us; there is nothing unusual about it. God never made another one like you, and he never will. God never made anyone else who can fill the place you can fill and do the things you can do. This is the wonder of the way God forms human life--that of the billions who have lived on this earth there are no duplicates. Each one is unique, prepared of God for the time in which he is to live. To strengthen Jeremiah, God said to him, "I have prepared you for this very hour," just as he has prepared you and me for this time, for this world, for this hour of human history.
Each of us, therefore, is both the goal toward which God has been working and, at the same time, the preparation of others yet to come, for we have a part in their work as well. Not long ago, I heard the story of the death of a young pastor. When he was dying of cancer, his father and uncle, both of whom are pastors, came to see him. After visiting with them both a short while, the young man asked his uncle, "Would you mind if I talk to my dad alone?" When the father came out, he and his brother went to get some coffee, and the father said, "I want to tell you what David did while we were alone. He called me over to his bed and said, 'Can I put my arms around you?' I stooped over as best I could and let him put his arms around me. 'And now, dad, would you put your arms around me?' I could hardly keep control of my emotions, but I put my arms around him. Then, with his arms around me, he said, 'Dad, I just want you to know that the greatest gift God ever gave me, outside of salvation itself, was the gift of a father and mother who love God and taught me to love him, too.'"
That is what God is saying to Jeremiah.
"What a gift you have!
How I have prepared you for this moment,
through the generations which lie behind you, that
you might live and speak and act in this
time in history."
But beyond the preparation of God,
there is also the provision of God:
Then I said, "Ah, Lord God!
Behold, I do not know
how to speak,
for I am only a youth."
But the Lord said to me,
"Do not say, 'I am only a youth'
for to all to
whom I send you you shall go,
and whatever I command
you you shall speak.
Be not afraid of them,
for I am
with you to deliver you,
says the Lord"
(Jeremiah 1:6-8)
Jeremiah's response is to shrink from the call of God. Many a young man had done that before him--Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, and other mighty men of God. When God first laid hold of them and set them to a task, they shrank from it. Jeremiah pleads youth and inexperience, and says he has no ability to speak, just as Moses did. So if you ever feel fearful and inadequate when God calls you to a task, just remember that you are in the prophetic succession! God's men often start out that way.
As far as we can tell, Jeremiah was about thirty years old when God called him. That is when young men began their ministry in Judah. By the standards of modern youth, that would be considered over the hill, beyond the time a man is capable of starting anything. But that is when God often starts. Jesus was thirty years old when he began his ministry. Yet Jeremiah is acutely aware of his inadequacy and his inexperience, which, I think, indicates the sensitivity of this young man. Throughout the whole prophecy you find him very responsive and sensitive to what is happening to him. He is called to stand before kings, to thunder denunciations and judgments, to feel the sharp lash of their recrimination against him, to endure their anger and their power, and to suffer with his people as he sees them rushing headlong to their own self-destruction. We know he feels this keenly and sharply for the Book of Lamentations is made up of the cries of his heart as he senses all that is happening to him.
But God answers Jeremiah in the same way he has answered every other young man who felt this way: "Go, for I am with you. Don't worry about your voice, your looks, your personality, your ability--I will be with you. I will be your voice. I'll speak through you, give you the words. I'll give you the power to stand. I'll give you the courage. I'll be your wisdom. I'll he whatever you need. Whatever demand is made upon you, I'll be there to meet it."
Do you recognize that this, essentially, is the New Covenant that Jesus makes with all of us? This is what he promises each one of us--that he will be with US in this same way. The promise which encouraged Jeremiah is the same promise which is handed to us in the gospel. Whatever we are, whatever demand is made upon us, God says, "Do not be afraid. Do not shrink back. Do not say, 'I can't do that.' Remember that I will be with you, and I will make you able to do it."
And so, the third division of this call is the promise of the power of God:
Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth;
and the Lord said to me,
"Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:9-10)
As with Isaiah, God touched Jeremiah's mouth. Isaiah started his ministry when God touched his mouth with the coals from the altar and gave him power in speaking. Jeremiah's words, then, become the key to his power, the living, burning, shattering, building, mighty power of the word of God. In this power, Jeremiah was set over nations and kingdoms. This was not mere poetry. The messages of this book were actually addressed to all the great nations of the world of that day--to Egypt, to Assyria, even to Babylon in its towering might and strength. Jeremiah was given a word for all these nations. I like to think of this scene, because I think it is repeated in every generation. Here are the nations of the world, with their obvious display of power and pomp and circumstance, with statesmen and leaders who are well-known household names, marching up and down, threatening one another, rattling their sabers, acting so proud and self-assertive. But God picks out an obscure young man, a youth thirty years of age whom no one has ever heard of, from a tiny little town in a small, obscure country, and says to him, "I have set you over all the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Your word, because it is my word, will have more power than all the power of the nations."
That is a remarkable description of our heritage as believers in Jesus Christ. James says that the prayer of a righteous man releases great power. And when you and I pray about the affairs of life, we can affect the fate of nations, as the word of Jeremiah altered the destiny of the nations of his day, even though we are obscure and no one knows who we are. This has happened before in the course of history.
So Jeremiah was set in the midst of death and destruction, but God said he would plant a hope and a healing. His word was to "pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow"--and that is always the work of God. In a nation there are many things which have to be torn down--things men trust in--just as in an individual's heart and life there are things which need to be destroyed. I talked with a young man not long ago who said to me, "I don't understand what's wrong with my marriage. I'm doing everything I know to do, but our relationship isn't right. I can't put my finger on what is wrong." I said to him, "I'm sure there is something wrong, and God will show it to you. There are things you're doing in your marriage which you're not aware of, things you need to see. But right now you are blinded to them. You think things are right, and yet they're not, and it puzzles you. All this indicates is that there are still things God needs to tear down--points of pride, or times of discourtesy, perhaps, that you don't recognize; habits and reactions of worry and anxiety and anger and frustration that you've fallen into or given way to, and you don't even know about them." We all have areas like these in our lives. And the work of God is to open our eyes to these things, to destroy them and root them out. . . and then, always, to build and to plant. God never destroys for the purpose of destroying; he destroys in order to build up again.
Jeremiah's Long Term AssignmentWhen God called Jeremiah years earlier, he was given authority far transcending immediate events in Jerusalem during his lifetime. In Jeremiah Chapter 23, God authorizes him to pronounce terrible destruction on Babylon, and all the surrounding gentile nations of that day, But we can also see that this lone prophet was given authority by God extending down to us today. God uses the nations of the world to correct Israel in her lapses into idolatry, but when that chastening is over, He turns His attention to judging those powers who had ignored or mistreated His people.
He has been called "The Weeping Prophet" for good reason. He is a type of Christ. Six hundred years after he lived, Another would come to the same city, Jerusalem, and weep over their calloused unbelief.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often 1 have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing, Look, your house is left to you desolate, For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37-39)
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.
“And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. “They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. ‘Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ “Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, ‘behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. ‘Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ‘And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. ‘So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations. ‘(For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)’ ”
Judgment on the Nations
For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. “And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”
Then I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the LORD had sent me: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people; all the mixed multitude, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (namely, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod); Edom, Moab, and the people of Ammon; all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who are in the farthest corners; all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed multitude who dwell in the desert; all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth.
Also the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
“Therefore you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Drink, be drunk, and vomit! Fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.” ’ “And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “You shall certainly drink! “For behold, I begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth,” says the LORD of hosts.’ “Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:
‘The LORD will roar from on high,
And utter His voice from His holy habitation;
He will roar mightily against His fold.
He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes,
Against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise will come to the ends of the earth--
For the LORD has a controversy with the nations;
He will plead His case with all flesh.
He will give those who are wicked to the sword,’ says the LORD.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Behold, disaster shall go forth
From nation to nation,
And a great whirlwind shall be raised up
From the farthest parts of the earth.
“And at that day the slain of the LORD shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth.
They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.
“Wail, shepherds, and cry!
Roll about in the ashes,
You leaders of the flock!
For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled;
You shall fall like a precious vessel.
And the shepherds will have no way to flee,
Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.
A voice of the cry of the shepherds,
And a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard.
For the LORD has plundered their pasture,
And the peaceful dwellings are cut down
Because of the fierce anger of the LORD. He has left His lair like the lion;
For their land is desolate
Because of the fierceness of the Oppressor,
And because of His fierce anger.” (Jeremiah 25)
Jesus the Avenger of Blood
Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the
cloud sat One like the Son of Man,
having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out of the temple,
crying with a loud voice
to Him who sat on the cloud,
“Thrust in Your sickle and reap,
for the
time has come for You to reap,
for the harvest
of the earth is ripe.”
So He who sat on the cloud thrust
in His sickle on the earth,
and the earth was reaped.
Then another angel came
out of the temple
which is in heaven, he also
having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar,
who had power over fire,
and he cried with a loud cry to him who
had the sharp sickle, saying,
“
Thrust in your sharp sickle
and gather the clusters of the
vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.”
So the angel
thrust his sickle into the earth and
gathered the vine of the earth,
and threw it into the
great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress
was trampled outside the city,
and blood came out of the winepress,
up to the horses’ bridles,
for one thousand six hundred furlongs.”
(Revelation 14:14-20)
Jesus, The Avenger of Blood
God of Vengeance, God of Furious Wrath
Draw near, O nations, to hear, and hearken, O peoples! Let the earth listen, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host, he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter. Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed. The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat.
For the LORD
has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense
for the cause of Zion.
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles. They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be nothing. Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches. And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr shall cry to his fellow; yea, there shall the night hag alight, and find for herself a resting place. There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and gather her young in her shadow; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, each one with her mate. Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them, his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
A parallel passage in the New Testament shows clearly that Jesus will come again both to save (his people) and to judge and destroy his enemies,
We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering---since indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12).
The unloosed fury and wrath of a holy God shows clearly in the writings of the prophet Zephaniah,
The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth," says the LORD. "I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will overthrow the wicked; I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth," says the LORD. "I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests; those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens; those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom; those who have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him."
Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is at hand; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And on the day of the LORD'S sacrifice --"I will punish the officials and the king's sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. On that day I will punish every one who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master's house with violence and fraud." "On that day," says the LORD, "a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills.
Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut off. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are thickening upon their lees, those who say in their hearts, `The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.' Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them."
The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on men, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealous wrath, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full, yea, sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. (Zephaniah 1)
Introducing the subject of soon-coming judgment on ancient Ninevah the Prophet Nahum wrote of terrible destruction on all sides, but safety and refuge for all of God's own people---in Ninevah, in Israel or elsewhere.
The LORD
is a jealous God and avenging,
the LORD
is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance
on his adversaries
and keeps
wrath for his enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and of great might, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, the bloom of Lebanon fades. The mountains quake before him, the hills melt; the earth is laid waste before him, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him.
The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who
take refuge in him.
But with an overflowing flood he will make a
full end of his adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
What do you plot against the LORD?
He will make a full end; he will not take
vengeance twice on his foes.
Like entangled thorns they are consumed, like dry stubble.
Did one not come out from you,
who plotted evil against the LORD,
and counseled villainy?
Thus says the LORD,
"Though they be strong and many,
they will be cut off and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds asunder."
The LORD has given commandment about you:
"No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will
cut off the graven image
and the molten image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile."
Behold, on the mountains
the feet
of him who brings good tidings,
who proclaims peace!
Keep your feasts,
O Judah, fulfill your vows,
for never again
shall the wicked come against you,
he is utterly cut off.
(Nahum 1:2-15)
The Woman gives birth to a male child
who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron.
That’s a reference to the Messianic prophecy
in Psalm 2, where we read:
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
[Psalm 2:8-9]
Jesus fulfilled this Messianic prophecy.
The fact that the
male child is caught up to the throne of God
is a reference to Jesus’ Ascension into heaven,
so we have another confirmation
that the male child is Jesus.
the Woman here is Jesus’ mother,
the Virgin Mary.
But there is more to the story.
The symbolism connected with the
Woman is drawn
from the book of Genesis,
where the patriarch Joseph
has a dream involving the
sun, the moon and the stars.
Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to
his brothers,
and said, "Behold, I have dreamed
another dream;
and behold, the sun, the moon,
and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers,
his father rebuked him, and said to him,
"What is this dream that you have dreamed?
Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed
come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”
[Genesis 37:9-10].
The symbolism of the
sun, moon, and 12 stars comes
from
Genesis, where it refers to the
family of Jacob
and the 12 patriarchs,
who headed the
twelve tribes of Israel.
That has led some to say that
the Woman in Revelation 12 is Israel.
You could go further
and note that the Church is the spiritual Israel.
So some have suggested that the Woman as the Church
Woman’s role as the mother of Jesus primary,
so she’s his literal mother, Mary, and
the sun, moon, and stars imagery
means that
Mary was a Jewish woman.
Jesus Christ experienced hematohidrosis
while praying in the
garden of Gethsemane
before his crucification as mentioned by
Physician Luke
as “and being in anguish
he prayed more earnestly
and his sweat was like drops of blood
falling to the ground.”
A great Sign appeared in Heaven:
a Woman dressed
all in sunlight,
standing on the
moon, and crowned with
Twelve Stars.
She was giving birth to a
Child and cried out
in the
pain of childbirth.
The economy of
God’s revelation
is
Jesus Christ
as the
crucified and resurrected
Lord, along with the
Bible’s perfect
witness
to that revelation,
serve as our perfect guide
regarding theological method.
If we want to do right theology, we look to
Jesus; orthodoxy happens when we
believe in Jesus Christ
and speak about
the God revealed in him.
There simply is no other
God than the one
revealed by and in Jesus
Preexistence is that doctrine that the
divine Word
(John 1:1, a metaphysical entity) preexisted Jesus Christ and was not united with humanity until the incarnation. My contention is that in aiming to speak about God, preexistence speaks about a God behind God who acts and wills apart from the Word proper, Jesus Christ. We must ask ourselves the question, “Is the Word (logos) of God Jesus Christ?” If we answer yes, then there is no coherent way to speak of the logos asarkos (unincarnate Word). The Word is always forever in some way in a dialectical relation to the incarnation; i.e., the metaphysical Word is eternally Jesus Christ, incarnate or not.
The God-man Jesus
does not simply begin to exist
at the incarnation but is
identical with the Word of God.
A preexistent, metaphysical divine nature of Jesus, which is realized in the incarnation, seems to stem from neo-Platonistic readings of the Johannine prologue (John 1:1-18). Plato’s Timaeus and Republic discuss the immortality of the soul in terms of a) sharing in the incorruptibility
of the world of Ideas (Forms) and b) sluffing off the physical body and its desires that hold you back from sharing in that eternal incorruptibility. His Phaedo is perhaps the where the most in-depth treatment of the soul lies: here he argues for the immortality of the soul and its eternal persistence and preexistence as a metaphysical unit dislocated from the physical. In Phaedrus, Plato describes a “great circuit” where souls follow the gods, and if they control their winged horses, they can pop their heads up into the world of Forms.
If they cannot, then they will be cast down
into this
world and become
incarnate
Given this, the idea that a divine person existed before the incarnation apart from being Jesus Christ aligns oddly well with Plato’s conception of the soul and its incarnation. The inclination to rid the Word of all physicality and therefore all humanity is a Platonic impulse. Now, of course I would not suggest that God is physical. However, this preoccupation with anti-physicality is odd; it prevents theologians from saying, “God is eternally interwoven with humanity.” Regardless of his relationship to the physical, God the Son is eternally related to humanity in his own determination to be God for us. To throw that doctrine away in fear of a physical God or a divine creation demonstrates a kind of anxiety about
fully reckoning
with the
God revealed in Jesus Christ
A theology from the viewpoint of the cross would not profess that the Son existed as logos asarkos and at some point in our history became Jesus Christ. Rather, it would profess that there is no logos asarkos, only a logos incarnandus (a Word that will be incarnated). To affirm a preexistent Son who had no humanity is to affirm a God behind God in Christ. To affirm a logos incarnandus is to affirm the God in Christ as the only God.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who we preached among you–Silvanus and Timothy and I–did not become “Yes and no”; on the contrary, a final “Yes” has come in Him. (2 Corinthians 1:19)
The hypostatic union relies
on the
eternal election of Jesus Christ.
According to preexistence, the
pre-incarnate Jesus’ two natures are so split as to render his
divinity entirely apart
from humanity from the foundation of the world.
This allows theologians to say that Jesus was speaking
about his divine nature specifically apart
from his human nature
when he claimed to exist before the incarnation.
This is a philosophically coherent view, yet it
establishes a definitively
non-Christological view of the Son.
The pre-incarnate Son is reduced to being a divine,
metaphysical entity and not Jesus Christ.
However, if we want to maintain that
Jesus Christ
is coeternal with the father,
that his divinity
is not
altogether distinct from humanity
(since God willed,
before the foundation of the world,
to be God
not-apart-from humanity),
but that his
divinity is
inseparable from
humanity,
then we must nuance preexistence as a doctrine.
For without an eternally elect
Jesus Christ,
Jesus’ human form is ad hoc; it is assumed in our history in
order to
accomplish a purpose
and not because
it is essential to his identity as the
eternally elect God-man
A Christian substitute for the
doctrine of
preexistence is a richer theology
of the election and
incarnation of the
will-be-incarnated
Word of God,
Jesus Christ
When we maintain that God is distinct from his creation, we also proclaim that He willed to be God not-apart-from his creation. The act of creation has its theological precedent in the eternal generation of the Son by the Father. Likewise, the incarnation has its precedent in the electing will of God to be God with us. In God’s electing will to be God with us, he undergoes a humiliation that serves as the theological precedent for his condescension in the incarnation event. It is this very humiliation that the logos asarkos precludes, and one that the logos incarnandus necessitates.
The classic doctrine of divine simplicity is another potential snag for this view. If everything in God is God, as the church rightly proclaims, and humanity is in God, then how is humanity not divine? The short answer is that it is too simplistic to say that humanity is in God; God has no parts, after all. Rather, God has set his face toward humanity in his subsistent relationship of his eternal generation by the Father, which is also the
Father’s election of Jesus Christ.
It is that election that allows us to say that the
Word is eternally Jesus Christ.
If we want to say that the
Word of God is Jesus Christ,
then we must abandon preexistence as it currently stands.
Instead, we would say that
God elected himself to be Jesus.
If we want to say that the Word of God is Jesus Christ, then we must abandon preexistence as it currently stands. Instead, we would say that God elected himself to be Jesus and this is revealed in the incarnation. At the incarnation, God truly makes himself known. Let’s rejoice in his eternal refusal to be God apart from humanity.
In John 10 Jesus presents Himself as the Good Shepherd and, in a debate with the Jewish leaders, makes the claim, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). It was a bold statement—one His audience found quite audacious—and it reveals much about who Jesus is.
Five key observations can be made concerning this passage. First, Jesus claimed to be one with God in the sense of being equal to Him. Jesus did not claim to be merely a messenger or prophet of God, but of equal power with God.
Second, His audience understood that Jesus was claiming equality with God the Father. In verse 31, “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.” Why? Blasphemy was a crime punishable by death according to the Jewish Law. When Jesus asked why they were planning to kill Him, they answered, “For blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:33). If Jesus had been lying or deceived, His statement would have been blasphemous. In fact, the only way His words were not blasphemy is if Jesus was telling the truth about His equality with God.
Third, Jesus referred to Himself as God’s Son and to God as His Father (John 10:36–37). He used Psalm 82:6 to show that the Messiah has the right to claim the title “Son of God.”
Fourth, Jesus claimed that that Father sent Him: “the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world” (John 10:36). In this statement, Jesus claimed preexistence in the Father’s presence. No biblical prophet had ever made such a claim before; yet Jesus claimed to exist before Abraham (John 8:58).
Fifth, Jesus only stated that the Jews did not believe Him; He never said they misunderstood His claim to be God. John 10:38 notes, “Even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Jesus was not correcting a misunderstanding. They understood what He said perfectly. He was correcting their willful rejection of Him.
Colossians 1:16–17 affirms Jesus’ same teaching: “In him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” John 1:1 explicitly notes that Jesus was both with God in the beginning and was God.
In summary, Jesus claimed to be one with the Father as part of a larger argument to note that He had existed from eternity past, lived in perfect oneness with the Father, held the same power as God, and was sent by God the Father’s authority. Unfortunately, He was rejected as divine by the Jewish leaders. Jesus’ claim to have equal power as the Father was not blasphemy. It was the plain truth.
Jesus proclaimed Himself
to be the
“Alpha and Omega”
in Revelation 1:8; 21:6; and 22:13. Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Among the Jewish rabbis, it was common to use the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet to denote the whole of anything, from beginning to end. Jesus as the beginning and end of all things is a reference to no one but the true God. This statement of eternality could apply only to God. It is seen especially in Revelation 22:13,
where Jesus proclaims that
He is “the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.”
One of the meanings of Jesus being the “Alpha and Omega” is that He was at the beginning of all things and will be at the close. It is equivalent to saying He always existed and always will exist. It was Christ, as second Person of the Trinity, who brought about the creation: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3), and His Second Coming will be the beginning of the end of creation as we know it (2 Peter 3:10). As God incarnate, He has no beginning, nor will He have any end with respect to time, being from everlasting to everlasting.
A second meaning of Jesus as the “Alpha and Omega” is that the phrase identifies Him as the God of the Old Testament. Isaiah ascribes this aspect of Jesus’ nature as part of the triune God in several places. “I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last I am He” (41:4). “I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). “I am he; I am the first, I also am the last” (Isaiah 48:12). These are clear indications of the eternal nature of the Godhead.
Christ, as the Alpha and Omega, is the first and last in so many ways. He is the “author and finisher” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), signifying that He begins it and carries it through to completion. He is the totality, the sum and substance of the Scriptures, both of the Law and of the Gospel (John 1:1, 14). He is the fulfilling end of the Law (Matthew 5:17), and He is the beginning subject matter of the gospel of grace through faith, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9). He is found in the first verse of Genesis and in the last verse of Revelation. He is the first and last, the all in all of salvation, from the justification before God to the final sanctification of His people.
Jesus is the Alpha and Omega,
the first and last,
the beginning and the end.
Only God incarnate
could make such a statement.
Only Jesus Christ is God incarnate.
A beloved person is one who is dearly loved. In the Old Testament, the word beloved is used repeatedly in the Song of Solomon as the newlyweds express their deep affection for each other (Song of Solomon 5:9; 6:1, 3). In this instance, beloved implies romantic feelings. Nehemiah 13:26 also uses the word beloved to describe King Solomon as “beloved by his God” (ESV). In fact, at Solomon’s birth, “because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah” (2 Samuel 12:25). Jedidiah means “loved by the Lord.”
For reasons known only to Him,
God sets special affection on some people
and uses them in
greater ways than He uses others.
Israel is often called
“beloved of God”
e.g., Deuteronomy 33:12; Jeremiah 11:15).
God chose this people group as
His beloved in
order to set them apart for
His divine plan
to save the world through Jesus
(Deuteronomy 7:6–8; Genesis 12:3).
The word beloved is also used repeatedly throughout
the New Testament.
A notable use of the word is at the baptism of Jesus.
In this scene,
all three Persons of the
Trinity
are revealed. God the Father
speaks to the
Son from heaven:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”
(Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22).
Then the
“Holy Spirit descended like a
dove
and rested on Him”
(Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32).
God again calls Jesus “beloved”
at the
Mount of Transfiguration: “
This is my beloved Son, with whom
I am well pleased; listen to him”
(Matthew 17:5).
We can learn a little about the
loving relationship shared by the
Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit by God’s use of the word beloved.
Jesus echoes that truth in John 10:17 when
He says,
“The reason my Father loves me is
that I lay down my life--
only to take it up again.”
Many New Testament writers
used the word beloved to
address the recipients of their letters
(e.g., Philippians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 2:11).
Most of the time, the
Greek word translated “beloved” is agapētoi,
related to the word
agape
In the inspired letters,
beloved means “friends dearly loved by God.”
In the New Testament, the use of the word beloved implies
more than human affection.
It suggests an esteem for others that comes from recognizing
their worth as children of God.
Those addressed were more than friends;
they were brothers and sisters
in Christ
and therefore highly valued.
Since Jesus is the One whom
God loves, Beloved is also used
as a title for Christ.
Paul speaks
of how believers are the beneficiaries of
God’s “glorious grace,
with which
he has blessed us in the Beloved”
(Ephesians 1:6, ESV).
The Father loves the Son, and He loves and blesses
us for the Son’s sake.
All those adopted
into God’s family through faith in the
finished work of Jesus Christ
are beloved by the Father
(John 1:12; Romans 8:15).
It is an amazing, lavish love:
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
Because
God has shed His love on us,
we are free to apply the words of
Song of Solomon 6:3 to
our relationship with Christ: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”