When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before You. How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance. Psalm 89:14-15.

“Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested Me in the wilderness.” Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. Hebrews 3:7-8, 12.

And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 40: “This is of a truth that prophet”. Deuteronomy 18:15: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. And, John 6:14: Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

In the last sentence above, Jesus had just fed a crowd of over five thousand with the small human provision of five barley loaves and two fish – just as He had provided for the children of Israel manna from heaven while they wandered in the desert for forty years. As I was praying this morning I thought about the two men walking together on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). They had probably been witnesses of many of His miracles and listened to Him speak with authority words no other religious leaders were saying. They were leaving Jerusalem where Jesus had been crucified along with all their hopes with Him that He would be the One to redeem Israel; and yet some women said they had seen Him. Can we imagine how troubling all of that would be? We live over 2,000 years distant from all of these events that were happening in real time then. But when they explained everything to the stranger who asked them why they were troubled, they couldn’t see that the stranger was Jesus Himself until He revealed Himself as He broke bread and blessed it. And then their hearts soared! They returned the very same seven miles back to Jerusalem to share all they had experienced because Jesus, the One they hoped would redeem Israel was alive! Everything changed spiritually for them. In the “reality” of living in our fallen world, Rome was still in charge. And John, the disciple still living into old age, who had lived with Jesus for three years and continued to shelter Jesus’ mother until her own death, saw Jesus in vision fully glorified and yet fell at His feet as though dead. I keep thinking about the “reality” we live in in this fallen world. How many years is it “real”? Until our physical death. A blink of an eye for each of us. The two men from that road to Emmaus, their own physical lives long over? They were with the disciples telling them everything when Jesus Himself appeared to all of them. The One they hoped would redeem Israel was live and still teaching them. “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have…These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:38-39, 44-49. Don’t let the “reality” of this fallen world blind you to the Love of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. He is not just going to redeem Israel but all nations. I love what Tom Wright wrote in What St Paul Really Said: “The cross is not something that God does unwillingly or only because He can’t think of a better way. At the heart of Philippians 2, and at the heart of Paul’s theology and indeed gospel, is the news that the one true God consists, through and through, of self-giving love. For this God to become human, and to die for sinners, is not a category mistake, something that a sensible or logical God wouldn’t do. At the climax of Isaiah 40-55 is a strange portrait of the servant of YHWH, who does for Israel and the world what only YHWH Himself can do for the world.” People, we cannot do what only God can do! We don’t even understand until everything changes for us spiritually by the Spirit opening our spirit to the truth of God’s love for us, His children dearly loved. Even then, it takes time and a desire given and received gladly! I look forward to all of eternity with Creator God so I can learn and understand and rejoice with Him and with all of us. Imagine, no darkness anymore!