#DailyDevotion Jesus Christ Is Not Some Loveable Puff Ball
September 10th
Read 2 Kng 9:1–13; 10:18–29
2Ki 10:21-28 And Jehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other…(24) Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside and said, “The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life.” (25) So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, “Go in and strike them down; let not a man escape.” So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Baal, (26) and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Baal and burned it. (27) And they demolished the pillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day. (28) Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel.
Jehu, king of Israel is a type of Christ. Now you may, “Wait a minute! Jesus isn’t like that. Jesus is some nice fuzzy fluffball, tender and nice, not judging anyone. He wouldn’t do that!” Well yes and no.
Certainly Jesus has said, Joh 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” But it is also written, “Joh 3:18-19 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (19) And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” So we have before us a Jesus that is both merciful and kind and one who judges those who do not believe in Him.
It is true, 2Co 5:18-19 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Now is not the season of judgment. Now is the time of reconciliation. Jesus has sent us into the world to proclaim that Our Father in heaven has reconciled Himself to the World through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ. He is no longer counting our trespasses against us.
But there is a day of judgment, a great and terrible day of the Lord. There is an appointed time when the world will be judged. Concerning the world 1Pe 4:5 “they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” It is written concerning that day, Rev 19:19-21 “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him [Jesus] who was sitting on the horse and against his army… (21) And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.” It is this Jesus whom Jehu represents in today’s lesson that we may take notice of it and learn from it to be faithful to the One who is always faithful to us, Jesus Christ, who indeed freely, by His sacrificial suffering and death, by the shedding of His blood, delivered us from sin, death and the power of the devil.
Lord Jesus Christ, keep us faithful unto the end that we may not be judged with the rest of the unbelieving world. Amen.