One of the things I thought about this week is how thankful I am that I don’t know what my future is. What if I had known my whole life that I would get cancer? How on earth would I handle that kind of knowledge? Who could handle such knowledge? Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Bible tells us that God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). This means God knows everything that will happen. Not only does God know what is going to happen to me (and you), He knows what I will do and say and think. “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:4). One time, Jesus was with one of the Jewish leaders, a man named Simon. As He was sitting there with Simon, a woman—a sinner!—came to Jesus and poured oil on Him which would be considered a sign of the woman honoring and worshiping Jesus. She was crying and mourning over her sin (Luke 7:36-40), desperately wanting forgiveness for her sin. Meanwhile, Simon sat there thinking to himself that If Jesus knew the kind of person this woman was, Jesus would never let her touch Him. The whole time, Jesus knew exactly what Simon was thinking! Jesus answered Simon’s unspoken criticism of the woman—He responded to the guy’s thoughts!—saying, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
In the same way that God knows the future, Jesus also knew what He Himself would experience here on earth. For example, Jesus knew He would experience the pain of rejection over and over. One time, Jesus was teaching in his own hometown. When He read a prophecy from Scripture that Isaiah had written 700 years earlier about what the promised Messiah would do, Jesus told the people the prophecy they had just heard had been fulfilled. This means that He was saying to his hometown crowd that He, Jesus, was the Messiah. The Messiah they had waited for hundreds of years. You would think this would be joyous news, right? Nope. They tried to kill Jesus. His own hometown, people that He had known His whole earthly life, tried to kill Him. That’s pretty harsh. But even before it happened, Jesus knew it would happen.
So, let’s think about this. Jesus knew exactly what His future was. He knew that He would be rejected. He knew He would suffer. He knew He would take the wrath of God upon Himself for the sins of the world. He knew He would die a horrible and painful death. So, knowing all that would happen to Him, how could Jesus go through with it? Because of His great love for God the Father and His great love for sinners—that means you and me. Jesus loves you and me that much. God sent Jesus to take the sins of the world on Himself. Jesus knew this was His future. And He knew what it would cost Him: His life. But He also knew the truth that God triumphs over death, that God had promised that Satan would be defeated (Genesis 3:15). And that’s exactly what happened. Because God does know the beginning from the end. Jesus did rise from the dead. Jesus did overcame sin and death. And through His sacrificial death, all who believe in Jesus do have eternal life. That’s not a pipe dream, that’s a promise. A promise from the God who knows the end from the beginning. I pray you will not neglect so great a gift, eternal life, which Jesus made possible to sinners. If you want to talk about this, need prayer or would like a Bible, let me know.
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