GOD'S YES IN JESUS
Ten times Pharaoh said "no!" to Israel but when God finally said "yes!" Pharaoh and his hordes melted. The Red Sea said "no" but God tore its jaws apart and shouted "yes!" down its throat and the Red Sea became obedient. The wilderness said a long and withering "no!" to Israel but God said a longer more powerful "yes!" and the wilderness became the road home. An Assyria horde of 185,000 said "no" to caged-up Israel’s plea and drove desperate Jerusalem to prayer and in the night God 185,000 times whispered a devastating "yes". Israel said "no" and God said a humbling and chastising "yes" as Israel went off into exile. Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome said "no" to God and his people but God said a fragmenting "yes" and scattered the ruins of these kingdoms across half the earth. Pilate and the Jewish nation said "no" to Jesus but God said a redeeming "yes". A whole creation spoke its "no" to God and at God’s powerful "yes" Christ’s tomb opened and a new creation began.
And so it is, the world speaking its powerful, ceaseless and scornful "no" to a feeble, vulnerable, self-despising, self-doubting church and God saying his gracious "yes". And as the Church moves toward glory the old, worn-out world passes away. And that reminds me again of Heine's description of a feast of the Olympian gods that Jesus gate-crashed. Here's how Heine describes it: "Then suddenly approached, panting, a pale Jew with drops of blood on his brow, with a crown of thorns on his head, and a great cross laid on his shoulders; and he threw the cross on the high table of the gods so that the golden cups tottered, and the gods became dumb and pale, and grew even paler till at last they melted away into vapor."
"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ." 2 Corinthians 1:20
When you can’t believe your ears because they hear the world’s "no" that threatens to deafen you to all else, when your poor heart is overwhelmed by humanity’s fearfully wicked "no," when your own sin, day and night, whispers "no" and when the very air you breathe seems to snarl "no," look to Christ. Go on, sit down for a while and as best you’re able, think only of him and the gospel about him. Listen, listen! hear him say "Yes!"
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.