Good Monday morning! And a congrats to the Green Bay Packers, winners of Super Bowl XLV! The singer muffed the national anthem, we liked Sam Elliott in the intros, and there seems to be a difference of opinion over the half-time show. Some commercials I liked a lot, some not so much. We enjoyed an evening of entertainment and shared a football game with many fans who watch no other football game all year. For a bit there at the start, I wondered if any players were going to be left to finish the game. The teams appeared to have a parade going down to the locker rooms. The Super Bowl is a huge stage and it shouldn't surprise anyone that football players, referees, halftime performers and anthem singers might all have a bit of trouble under the pressure. How many times would you have to tell yourself, "This is the biggest audience ever!" before you started feeling some big ol' butterflies in the tum-tum? Once or twice would serve to get the butterflies going I think. I'm just glad that it wasn't my job to coordinate all those dancers at the halftime show!
The halftime show by the Black Eyed Peas got me to thinking this morning about what we can say about ourselves. When God met Moses way back in the day, He introduced himself as "I Am". The lead singer of the group we saw last night uses a clever rendering of William spelled "Will.i.am.", with all of the periods and pronounced as the three separate words, if I'm not mistaken. We use "I am" to introduce our job usually. As in, "I am a writer" or, "I am a plumber". Sometimes we have to provide evidence such as writing a devotional each weekday or working on two novels. One day I hope to point to books on library shelves instead of providing as yet unverifiable evidence of my novels, but that is beside the point. A plumber will usually provide evidence by stating what company he works for or that he owns his own business. We have to provide extra information along with our, "I am"
God didn't need to provide any further evidence beyond his stated, "I Am". We use the second capital letter in English writing to note the difference between the Hebrew for "I Am" (hayah) and the more common usage of "I am" which may be the same Hebrew word just like it is in English. The same words when spoken by God, just don't come out the same when spoken by you and me. I don't know if the ancient Hebrews would state their occupation with an "I am a priest" or not, but when the Lord spoke "I Am" they knew. A few years down the road of time from Moses, a man came along and answered questions at times with an "I Am". The folks around Jerusalem would then start looking for rocks of just the right shape for throwing hard at a person's head. This was their duty to the Law.
If a person used the godly "I Am", the Jews were bound by the Law to kill that person. The only problem was: one person had been promised that would come as Savior, another name of God. Messiah would arrive and his use of "I Am" would not be blasphemy. If the Jews didn't believe the person referring to himself as "I Am", you can see the problem. Another prophecy states that the chosen people would not recognize the Messiah. So in fulfilling both prophecies, Jesus had to duck some rocks a few times. In the Gospels, we can read that Jesus often took that moment when the people bent down to look for choice rocks to make his escape. Why didn't he stop the rocks, or transfigure himself as he did for Peter and John?
Those who believe in Jesus know that he could have done these things. However, we also know that more than enough evidence of Jesus' divinity existed in the miracles he did perform during his time. Many people were healed in full view of anyone who wanted to watch... and believe. Some did believe, but many chose not to. Jesus might have transfigured himself right in front of the rock throwers, and the stones might have dropped to the ground that time, but would those people have chosen to believe? Today, we can read the eyewitness accounts of Jesus in the New Testament. We still have that same choice though; choose to believe in Jesus or choose to be skeptical and believe in the world.
The next time Jesus comes, there will be no choice. Jesus will come in his glory and the choice will be taken away.
Enjoy the week in Christ Jesus!
Bucky
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