This past year, God has amazed me several times. The stories are long but involve Him showing His love and power to family and friends. As positive as those experiences were, God’s ability to astonish is not always pleasing:
2 Chronicles 7:19–22. “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’ ”
The OT word used above means ‘appalled and in fear by the actions of God’ against human rebellion. No wonder insurance companies and victims in hurricanes and other ‘natural’ disasters call them “acts of God.”
However, this same English word is used in the OT to describe the reaction of King Nebuchadnezzar when he saw four men in the fire instead of the three he had tossed into the furnace, and the astonishing rejection of God predicted by Daniel, and to predict the reaction of people seeing the marred form of Christ.
It is used later in the NT to tell of the astonishing reaction of the crowds and even His disciples to the teaching of Jesus. Some examples:
Matthew 7:28. “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.”
Matthew 13:54. “And coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?’”
Matthew 19:25. “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’ ”
Mark 7:37. “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’ ”
These and many other verses tell how Jesus greatly amazed people by what He said and did. They were astonished because “His words possessed authority” and the things He did were beyond anything they had ever see before. This astonishment carries on after Jesus returned to heaven. When His disciples spoke and acted, they also caused the same reaction because what they did was attributed to the Lord:
Acts 4:13. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
Acts 13:12. “Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.”
GAZE AT HIS GLORY. One aspect of faith is the ability to be amazed. It seems odd to trust God entirely, believing nothing is too hard for Him, and yet at the same time be startled, even astonished when something happens that makes me say “only God” because there is no other explanation. He enables a congregation to pay off a huge debt in a brief time. When seriously needed, He put a note in a man’s car that said, “You are cherished.” He motivated a woman to do the oddest thing that kept their vehicle from rolling off a road. He astonishes me at three funerals last week when in the midst of sorrow, He gave comfort and even joy. He lifts my burdens, puts unexpected songs in my heart, gives me solutions to what seems like unsolvable problems. He uses trials for my good. He answers specific prayer for specific needs in unexpected ways. Lest I think that God does not care or has no imagination, He keeps filling my life with surprises and knows how to astonish me with His incredible love and attention. He can do “exceedingly abundantly above all I ask or think.” Thank You Jesus.
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