Bible Story of the Day: Exalted One

Scripture is the story of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. There are over 400 prophecies and representations of Jesus in the Old Testament alone. The Old Testament pointed forward to the coming Christ, and the New Testament points back to Jesus. The Bible is a record of redemption through Jesus Christ who conquered sin and death when He died on the cross and resurrected three days later. The New Testament was written almost 2000 years ago. Some of the Old Testament was written over 4000 years ago. The Bible Story of the Day not only shows Jesus throughout scripture but shows how scripture is relevant to our lives today. Seeing Jesus in scripture is a major step into understanding who our God is, and how He impacts and affects our lives in every moment. I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your mind to understanding the verses and how they affect your life and gives you a better understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will post a link to the chapter that each passage is from, so that you can read further on your own.

Exodus 15:1-3

Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said,

“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;
The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.
² “The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
This is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will extol Him.
³ “The Lord is a warrior;
The Lord is His name. (NASB).

Acts 7:55-56

⁵⁵ But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; ⁵⁶ and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (NASB).

Let’s face it. There have been and will be moments in our lives when we question the greatness of God. We have all been in the valley and felt like we were alone. Jesus seemed nowhere in sight. We know this is a lie. We felt foolish looking back and realizing just how much Jesus was guiding us through the darkness of the valley. The two passages from the Old testament and the New show us that Jesus is always with us especially through the hardest times of our lives.

In Exodus, Moses recognizes the greatness of God by delivering them from the Egyptian army, that without divine intervention would have slaughtered ever Israelite. That didn’t happen though, because God intervened. He was there the whole time. He had protection over the Israelites from the beginning. Moses recognized that and sang a song of exaltation to the Lord, Most High.

In Acts, Stephen, a man known to be “full of the Spirit”, was murdered by the Jews in Jerusalem that did not like what he was preaching about Jesus. Stephen became the first martyr of Christianity. He died for speaking about Jesus. As Stephen was being stoned to death, he looked up and saw the Exalted One standing at the right hand of the Father. Stephen was not afraid. Stephen did not doubt. Stephen new at that very moment the greatness of God, and cried out in exaltation about Jesus as he took his last breath.

Moses and Jesus saw the greatness of Jesus, and His promise of protection. Moses survived. Stephen died. However, the protection is the same. We know that death will come to this body. God has told us as much. The protection comes in the form of eternal life, salvation, and a restored union between us and God. The glory of Jesus can be seen through life and death. The death of Stephen caused the rapid expansion of the Gospel throughout the known world. The life-saving intervention given to Moses and the Israelites showed the known world that God protects His people and they were able to become messengers of the Gospel that was yet to come.

The bottom line is that there is a bigger picture and that the greatness of God works in far more ways than our human minds can consider. Notice I did not say “God works in mysterious ways”. His ways are not mysterious when you understand that it is not about us as individuals and that we are spiritual beings, not physical. Jesus, the Exalted One, has promised us a restored relationship with God the Father. The plan has been put in place long before us. His greatness will never be overshadowed. Will you exalt Him with me?