Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

This is the second installment in my advent series.

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

Imagine for a moment that you are a shepherd, keeping your flocks in a field in Judea. For as long as you can remember, your people and your nation have been outcasts, controlled and despised by the Romans. Of course, you have always been taught the prophecies of the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior who would deliver your people from bondage—yet with each passing year, this hope seems to flicker and fade until it seems but a dream. One eventful night, however, an angel gives you a glorious message: “Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). At last, the Savior has come. You need not fear anymore, for the Messiah will overthrow the Romans and deliver your people from bondage…won’t He?

Throughout Jesus’ life and ministry, people continually misunderstood the purpose of His birth. Israel saw Jesus as their hero, but not because He had come to deliver them from their sins. They cared more for what Jesus could do for them than for Who He was. This culminated thirty-three years after His birth, at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We are told that “The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!’” (Matthew 21:9). This Hebrew word “hosanna” means “save us.” How could these shouts of joy and praise turn into cries of “crucify” only days later? The people certainly claimed to believe in Jesus’ mighty power, yet they sentenced Him to death without a second thought. The reason is simple: the people had worldly ideals of a worldly Savior. They wanted Jesus to be king of their country yet refused to make Him King of their hearts. They believed in a mighty God but tried to dictate how He could use His power.

It can be easy to judge the people we read of in the Scriptures for their obstinacy or lack of faith. But if we’re honest, don’t we often act the same way? Don’t we try to put God in a box, claiming to know how He will act simply because He is a powerful God? There are endless passages that speak of God’s greatness and might. Job 37:2-5 says, “‘Listen closely to the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that goes out from His mouth. Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, and His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend.’” Psalm 50:1-2 says, “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken, and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth,” and later in verse 6, “the heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is judge.” Isaiah writes, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable” (Isaiah 40:28). Where do I stop? God’s word overflows with His incredible power—and truly, it can never really be expressed to its fullest extent. Our frail and fallen minds cannot grasp how mighty our God is.

We must guard our hearts and be sure we haven’t developed a wrong understanding of the power of the Lord. When we think of how great He is, it can be tempting to treat Him like a genie or a mall Santa. We climb into His lap, tell Him everything we want, and walk away confident that He will deliver. Yet we have no desire to trust Him with our lives, allowing Him to give us whatever He wants us to have. Like the Israelites, we try to superimpose God’s power on our plans.

If we truly believe that Jesus is a mighty God, as Isaiah foretold, we must be willing to trust Him with our needs, our hearts, and our lives. What if Jesus had come to earth and become what the people desired? The Romans would have been overthrown, Israel would have prospered, and Jesus would have been a king unrivalled by any other. But their hearts would have stayed dead; their lives would have no purpose; their futures would be hell-bent…and so would ours.

We won’t always understand why God does what He does. It won’t always make sense why He doesn’t display His power in the ways we want Him to. But God’s power is not lessened when His actions don’t meet up with our expectations. Paul writes in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” God has nothing to prove—His mighty power was displayed to the world when He died and rose to conquer death. He is the same now as He has always been—an amazing, incomprehensible, mighty God who is not limited by our understanding. Trust Him with all you have, and you will never be disappointed.