In His Hands

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

IN HIS HANDS

John 10:22-42

22 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."  31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"  33 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." 34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came — and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."  39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed 41 and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

NIV

Jesus can say words and people can hear his words, but not hear what he is saying. He has been telling them all along who he is and they just cannot comprehend what he said. It appears the problem lies in whether people are his sheep or not. When Jesus says that his father has given them, his sheep, to him, it almost sounds like God predetermines who are his sheep and who are not. But, if we look at the Greek and list the actual words, without those added for clarification, it says, My Father which gave me all is greater. Perhaps those who added those words for clarification had a bias. Not that we are judging them, but just wondering why they added those words, “them and than”. However the point is that we who are his sheep, listen to his voice, we hear and comprehend his words, and we follow him and because we do, he gives us eternal life and we will never perish. Now, again, at the risk of sounding a bit like an annihilationist, perish sounds a lot like perish. The Greek words carry a variety of meanings, which in the context, mostly mean to be lost, to die, metaphorically to be given over to eternal misery. When we include all the other verses which speak of perishing, or eternal damnation, or spending eternity in punishment, we have to understand perish is not to be annihilated, or put an end to. Nevertheless, whatever perish is, we do not want anything to do with it, so we follow Jesus and therefore instead of perishing, we have eternal life. That is so superior in every aspect.  In addition, there is not a single force or power on earth or in the heavenly realms that can snatch us out of his hand. Now, that almost sounds like we could never lose our salvation, no matter what. However, that does not include the fact we have the free choice to jump out of his hand, not that we would, but we could, at least that is implied. There is no external force that can snatch us out, but that could then mean an internal force, our self could jump out. However, once again, it would be the dumbest thing in the world to jump out, to give up on being one of his sheep. Some might be tempted to give up because their life is not a bed of roses, everything is not perfect, Jesus has not given them everything they asked for, they have hard times, bad times, ill health, financial difficultly and things are just getting worse by the day. However, we have to understand that just because we are followers of Christ, it does not mean we might not experience some difficult times. We just have to look at Jesus, the perfect Son of God and he was despised, beaten, tortured and crucified, all while in the dead center of the will of God. Then we could look at how his disciples ended up, and how Paul was beaten at times and thrown in jail. The life of following Jesus can lead in many directions and we have to be faithful to the end, no matter our circumstances, which could be one of those powers which cannot snatch us from his hand. That is to say, hard times could attempt to snatch us, but it cannot. We are in the hands of God. What power is greater? We are safe and secure in the everlasting arms of Jesus, the very hands of God.