Jesus on the Throne & Reaching to the Samaritan Woman

Pardon me, but this week I am going to have to rush by the Angel of the Lord meeting with Gideon, Joshua and others so that I might get us to two encounters with Jesus before Christmas. I will come back to these others in the New Year.

 

Continue to keep in mind these verses (and others) that indicate God, the Father, cannot be seen, nor has ever been seen by anyone:

• John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time…”
• John 6:46 “No one has seen the Father…”
• I Timothy 6:16 “… God … whom no one has seen or can see.”
• I John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God…”
• Colossians 1:15 “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God…” (i.e. God is invisible & cannot be seen)

Given that God the Father cannot be seen, let’s turn to Isaiah 6.

 

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:

 

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

 

 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.  ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’  Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah 6:1-7

 

I had always concluded that this was God, the Father. I assumed this instantly, with no questions. One day I ran across John 12:41. In Chapter 12, Jesus has been anointed by Mary. Subsequently He rides into Jerusalem for the last time to cheering crowds knowing that death awaits Him. The Greeks (Gentiles) come seeking Him and the Father speaks from Heaven audibly (John 12:28). After all this, John, the writer of the Gospel, gives his commentary on the situation. He describes the unbelief of the Jewish leaders and people. To underscore their unbelief, John references Isaiah Chapter 6 specifically verse 1 and verse 10, he quotes directly. This is the context for a stunning verse. John sums up what Isaiah saw in Chapter 6 and why he said what he said:

 

“Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.” John 12:41

 

Isn’t that amazing? John says that Isaiah said what he said because Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory as He sat on the throne with the heavenly angels flying overhead!

 

Jesus really is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  Isaiah 6 gives us an incredible picture of Jesus’ Kingship, honor and remarkable authority. The Seraphim, that special class of angels, fly above Jesus on His Throne uttering the unmistakable praises due God, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty.”

 

Jesus is God and He also became a human baby whom we celebrate in wonder during Christmas!

 

It is this One, this Eternal King, who gives up His divine life to become a human being, who sits down tired by the well of Jacob and reaches out His hand of life to a rejected and sinful Samaritan woman (John 4)

 

She has had five husbands and she comes to draw water outside of the usual time women draw water so she can avoid the shame and scorn of the others. Jesus is sitting there “tired as He was from the Journey” (John 4:6). Jesus, in wonderful humility, begins drawing out this woman, seeking this one lost sheep as He declared in Luke 15:11–31. Jesus, the Eternal One, begins by asking her for water and overstepping the Jewish-Samaritan walls of offense. He then turns the conversation and offers her living water. He then reveals that He knows about her many husbands and broken life. She starts an argument about the best place to worship God. Jesus steps over this and in the end reveals His divine identity directly to this woman (which He rarely does), “I who speak to you am He [Messiah]” (John 4:26).

 

In Jesus, divine authority and power meet ultimate humility. The One who lives forever, steps off His throne to go after this one lost sheep and rescue her from sin, confusion and darkness! Christmas is the celebration of this One who does such amazingly indescribable things! We delight, not only in what He did buy why He did these things! The Bible is perfectly clear that Jesus did all these things because, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…”

 

God gives His one and only Son to become a human and to bear the sins of the human race on the cross because of love.

 

Take Away
God Is Just Like Jesus
Jesus, the more understanding and detail I get about your life before you became a human baby, the more I am amazed regarding what you gave up to become one of us! It is incredible how much you gave up to come and love us! And then you did it a second time. Once you became human you gave up that life as well to die on the cross to pay for human sins. All this you did so that we might be with you forever! You are overwhelming in the best sense of that word!