June 4, 2021 — The Meeting

It will be no Stranger who comes to meet us at that rapturous moment. We’ve been learning about Him all along the way.

We closed our last study with a stanza from a hymn by Gerhardt Tersteegen, so let’s begin with a little more from the same hymn, based on our portion of Scripture today: “O the blessed joy of meeting, All the desert past; O the wondrous words of greeting, He shall speak at last!…He who in His hour of sorrow Bore the curse alone; I who through the lonely desert Trod where He had gone; He and I, in that bright glory, One deep joy shall share—Mine, to be forever with Him; His, that I am there.” Watch as the distance rapidly diminishes between the young woman who in faith had made the journey and the young man who in expectation had awaited her arrival. “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming. Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel; for she had said to the servant, ‘Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?’ The servant said, ‘It is my master.’ So she took a veil and covered herself” (Gen 24:63-65). And if we were to ask this same question—“Who is this man?”—of the Holy Spirit, what might He tell us? Using the words both of His detractors and His disciples, He could say: “Truly this Man [is] the Son of God!” (Mk 15:39). “This Man receives sinners and eats with them” (Lk 15:2). “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (Jn 7:46). “Through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). “This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12). “Behold the Man!” (Jn 19:5). He’s your blessed Man, Christian, who waits for you at the end of your often difficult journey Home. Yes, “it will be worth it all when we see Jesus!”