Be Still part 2

No, this is not another blog about my boss. This is just stuff I've been learning; little things God's been showing me during our time together in the morning.

Lately I have begun to know that in order to truly understand the New Testament, I must become familiar with the Old Testament. There are a lot of things not said in the gospels, I think because they were just understood during those times and we have lost the meaning of them throughout the centuries. Today theology students can tell me what they're taught to know. Some things are totally up for debate.

Why did Jesus hush the demons before they could proclaim Him as the Lord?

Did Jesus always know He came for the Gentiles as well as the Jews?

What does it mean when Jesus says He did not come to judge (John 12:47) but before then He'd told everyone that's why God sent Him (John 5:22; John 9:39)?

What was Jesus writing in the sand when the Pharisees and the scribes brought the adulterous woman to Him for judgment?

Here is where I think knowledge of the OT helps make things clear. The other day I stumbled upon Jeremiah 17:13:

“Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust.”

Perhaps Jesus was writing names? Was He adding these men to the “list” of those who have forsaken God? Was He taunting them? Perhaps the Pharisees went home that day, thought over the situation with the sinful woman, and remembered Jesus writing in the dirt, and then were reminded of this verse in the Holy Scriptures and burned with anger over the audacity of the Carpenter Boy from Nowhere.

Or perhaps, as my Bible suggests, this situation never happened.

I read Yancey's entire book, “The Jesus I Never Knew” and didn't realize that what he was saying was, as Madeleine L'Engle simply put it, “The Jews expected Jesus to be a political leader like King David.” They didn't realize He was God. And who would, considering the way He presented Himself: the omniscient, omnipotent, eternal God being born as a baby who had to learn how to walk, talk, read, and who had to have His diapers changed. Even His disciples didn't know Him for who He really is.

Yesterday morning I was reading Mark 4:35-41 and the language used struck me as familiar.
The disciples and Jesus are in a boat crossing (I'm assuming) the Sea of Galilee. There is a storm so big their boat starts to sink and Jesus is sleeping away at the stern, probably exhausted after many days of intense ministry. The disciples are terrified and wake Him up, “We're going to die! How can you sleep?” they tell him (that was add-libbing, not a quote).

“[Jesus] got up, rebuked the wind, and said, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” vs 39

“Be still,” He said.

I have spent a lot of time lately in Psalm 46 because God is teaching me to be still. The psalm begins, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” From there the Sons of Korah imagine a scene of ultimate terror: the earth is falling apart! Nations are terrified! Earthly kingdoms are proven impermanent. Through all of this they rest secure in the knowledge of Almighty God.

At the end of the psalm, God tells us to be still and know that He is God. In the story in Mark God, as Jesus, tells the wind and the waves to be still. He then asks the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And the disciples were terrified and responded, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!”

He is God!

Jesus gave the disciples the opportunity to “be still” in the storm and know that He is God. They did not know, but the storm did! The storm knew the voice of its Creator when He spoke.
I pray I learn to be still and know that He is God. I want to be in the midst of a storm and know He is God. I want that kind of faith. But is it possible that when I'm in a storm and cannot recognize the Lord with me, He will tell it to be still, thus revealing His presence to me?