#DailyDevotion Who Is Jesus? He Is YHWH Sabaoth!
Matt. 8:27 27The men were amazed and said, “What kind of man is He? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!”
What kind of man is Jesus indeed! The wind and the sea obey them. These elements were closely related to chaos. They were considered to under the control of evil spirits but of course they were still under the control of the Maker of heaven and earth, the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses, only by the power of the LORD was able to turn the river to blood and divide the Red Sea. But now there is Jesus who commands the wind and the waves like a master commands his dogs.
We are in the season of Epiphany, where Jesus is manifested as the LORD in the flesh. We have already seen a few passages yesterday that made this explicit. But perhaps we need to be reminded of a few others.
We see in Genesis chapter 1 God makes the earth covered with the sea and he commands it to retreat to expose the dry land. God ask Job in ch. 38, “8Who shut in the sea with doors when it broke through and came out of the womb, 9when I made the clouds its garment and dark clouds its baby clothes; 10when I prescribed its shoreline, and set up bars and doors, 11and said, ‘You may come this far but no farther, here your surging waves will stop?” Well, can you answer that?
Of the LORD the Psalmist writes in 104, “ 5You set the earth on its foundations never to be shaken. 6 You covered it with deep water as a garment, the waters standing over the mountains. 7When You threatened the waters, they fled, when You thundered at them, they ran away.” The Psalmist of 107 I believe saw this day of Jesus when he wrote, “23Those who go down to sail the sea in ships, who do their business on the high seas, 24saw what the LORD can do and His wonders in the deep waters…26Men went up to the heights and down to the depths; the disaster melted their courage; 27reeling and staggering like drunkards, all their skills became useless. 28Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. 29He made the storm calm down, and the waves around them were still.”
So who is this Jesus who calms the wind and the waves? It is the LORD himself, in the flesh. He has come down from heaven to tabernacle among men in their flesh, making them one with himself. Yet, having the power to command the wind and the waves, Jesus humbled himself to not strike back at those who beat him, insulted him and crucified him. The Almighty One, the LORD suffered these things for the creatures he had made to redeem them from sin and death, so they could live with him forever in the New Heavens and New Earth that is to come. This salvation he has won with his mighty arms outstretched upon the beams of the cross he gives to you freely this day so you may know the power he works in you by this free gift of salvation. You can put your trust in him.
Heavenly Father, even as Jesus commanded the wind and the waves, he submitted himself to death that we might live through faith in him. Grant us this faith that we may now live by this faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.