Seeing the Lord!
Genesis 46:30 And Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive."
Luke 2:29-30 "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation.
John 9:35-38 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you." Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him.
John 20:20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
John 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Joseph
We know that Joseph is a type or picture of the Lord Jesus. He was cruelly treated by his natural family, he was imprisoned, he was charged with sin that he did not commit; but yet through all of that the Lord orchestrated the events that would lead him to be the savior of his family and ultimately of the nation of Israel. His father thought he had died, but when he saw him alive in Egypt, it caused him to say that now He was ready to die.
A similar thing happened when Simeon saw the Lord at his birth. He had been waiting to see the salvation of the Lord and when he saw the Lord Jesus, it gave him confidence in God’s promise to send a savior. It also gave him peace with regard to his own death.
We all need a vision of the Lord Jesus. We don’t get it by seeing him physically at the present time, but we do “see Jesus” by faith (Hebrews 2:9). The song writer has put it this way:
O joyous hour! when God to me
A vision gave of Calvary;
My bonds were loosed—my soul unbound;
I sang upon redemption ground.
In order to see the Lord, our spiritual eyes need to be opened. It takes the Holy Spirit using the word of God to do that today. But when our eyes are opened, we may find that the religious people that we know ostracize us. They may kick us out of the synagogue (or in today’s circumstances, the church). A person who has “seen the Lord Jesus” by faith is changed. They no longer want to occupy themselves with the world that they once found so important (Egypt in the case of Israel). They will want to live in Goshen where there is blessing but where there is separation from the corrupt world. Instead of trying to be like the world, they will realize that their strength is in being different from the world.
Seeing the Lord should make us Glad!
When the disciples saw the Lord in that room where the doors were closed for fear of the Jews after the Lord’s resurrection, they were glad. Their leader, their friend, their savior was alive and talking to them. Prophesy had been fulfilled. Now for the first time they understood the full plan of God. They left that place witnessing to the resurrection of the Lord. Their lives for the most part ended in martyrdom, but seeing the Lord made all the difference. Now they had strength, a message and a commission.
What about Us?
We will not see the resurrected Lord until He comes. We can believe in Him, we can worship Him, we can preach Him; but we do so without the physical sight of the Lord that Thomas had. But those of us who have taken God at His Word and have believed in the record that God has given us of His Son are blessed. The Lord prays for us in John 17 and he blesses us in John 20.
If we are saved, we can say, “I once was blind but now I see.” We have gotten a vision of the Lord. We are truly blessed. Seeing the Lord by faith prepares us for death, gives us a reason for living and keeps us looking for the sudden return of the Lord. That will be day!
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of January 21, 2018