Psalm 63, 98; Amos 9:11-15; 2 Thess. 2:1-3,13-17; John 5:30-47
The Lord promises abundance. The picture here is so wonderful, so well considered, that it is amazing. The ground produces so quickly that the plower goes right behind the reaper and the treader of grapes to produce the wine immediately behind the one who sows the seed to grow the grapes. The images are all completely agrarian, down to the prophecy that the Lord will plant His people in their land and no one will uproot what He has planted. The fulfillment of this word obviously awaits the final judgment and the new creation. We will not see this type of abundance until the effects of sin are gone from the earth and the new creation is in place. This is actually the way it was intended from the start.
Jesus offers multiple witnesses to His identity. John the Baptist, Jesus’ works, the Father, the Scriptures, and Moses all testify concerning Him and yet they will not receive any of this. What reason does Jesus give for their failure to receive this testimony from so many witnesses? Their carnality is a barrier. They don’t have the Word of God abiding in them, it is external and an enigma to them. They are looking to be edified and glorified, they are looking for a superstar, not this Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael was looking for something else also but when Jesus spoke of seeing him under the fig tree he changed his mind, he accepted the testimony of Jesus’ words and knowledge. We must come to Him on His terms and not our own. What do we see in Jesus? We see that He produced abundance (the wine at the wedding), we see that He produced healing and wholeness, we see that He had authority and power concerning the Word of God and concerning demonic spirits, and we see that He had the power of life over death. What more could we want? Our problem is that we want it all, now.
The day of the coming of the Lord will not come without complete rebellion and the revelation of the man of lawlessness. We can wish that the end could happen without difficulty but it won’t be that way, sin must have its day. Just as the sin of the Canaanites had to fill the land prior to the Israelites receiving it after their long sojourn in Egypt, just as the level of sin had to rise to the level of “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” in Genesis 6 prior to the flood, so it will be before His patience is finally exhausted. In the interim, we must work with this knowledge but suspending that knowledge in the hope that He can do a great work of reversal. We know the prophecy is true but we work for the kingdom in spite of that knowledge. Jesus knew all along that He would be crucified but He came anyway and attempted to share the Good News in spite of His foreknowledge.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
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