Friday, August 24, 2018

“Impossible Wombs”


"Impossible Wombs"


    The Lord Jesus Christ entered the world through the womb of the impossible.  "A virgin shall conceive" (Matthew 1:23).  The same was true of his herald, John the Baptist.  "They had no child because Elizabeth was barren" (Luke 1:7).

    Two women who should not have been able to bear children bore the Savior and the prophet of whom the Lord Jesus said, "among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11).  This tells us much about the nature of God's redeeming work in Christ.  It began with the miraculous.  It continues until this day as the supernatural working of God manifested through means that appear to be beyond hope.  Virgins don't conceive.  Barren wombs don't bear children.  "God… calleth those things that be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

   Again, the process continues until this day.  What virginal, barren wombs exist in our lives?  Where are matters of hopelessness, helplessness, and seeming impossibility?  Where might Christ come forth in ways we cannot imagine?  How might glories appear in places that were before empty and void?  We do not know.  But we know the One who can be trusted to reveal His Son in the most unlikely places.  We trust Him to do so.  We also expect He will be about His redemptive processes in ways and means that often involve the unexpected.  The Lord Jesus had to be born of a virgin so as not to partake of the nature of sin that exists in Adam's lost race.  John's birthing from barrenness clearly typifies Israel's lack of faithfulness to God, but nevertheless her bringing Christ into the world.  Two women.  Two wombs of the impossible.  Two men of miraculous origin and substance.  One reality, namely, the Lord's work in a fallen world always flows against the current of appearance, human perspective, and the norm of our expectations.  The current continues its unlikely course unto this hour, including the matters of your life and mine.  We do well to anticipate such working, to expect the unexpected.  Mary and Elizabeth, along with their blessed offspring, born of impossible wombs, help us to do so.

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
(John 7:24)
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen."
(Ephesians 3:20-21)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Wait on the Lord.  Be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine heart.  Wait, I say, on the Lord."
(Psalm 27:14)


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