An Unusual God with an Unusual Message
April
27, 2002
HEBREWS 1:1
¶ God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Let us bow our heads in
prayer. Dear Gracious Father it is with humble hearts and a reverent fear that
we approach Thy Holy Word tonight, knowing that "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God",
and we believe that You are still the Word. Therefore, Father, we approach unto
Thy Presence and into thy Word tonight, in anticipation that you will reveal a
little more of yourself to us as we feed on The Manna which you have personally
come down and have given to us in these last days. Be with your servant tonight
and your people, as we most reverently approach Thy Throne of grace, and as we
enter into Thy Presence through Thy Word. Keep us in Your way for "there is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death". And we have not come here
to find death, but Life, and that Life which is eternal. Therefore, as you
closed the mouth of the hungry lion, so too Lord close our mouths from saying
anything that you do not want for us to say. Your Prophet said, There is coming a time when the Bride will have Thus Saith
the Lord or She will keep still. May this be that time Lord as we speak from Your Holy Book, for
we ask these things in the lovely name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
We read from Hebrews 1:1 for
our text tonight about a certain thing which I believe we have read these words
perhaps a hundred times before, but I would like to bring out this certain
thing that was spoken to us here concerning God, and the way that He
operates. HEBREWS
1:1 ¶ God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Can anyone tell me what the
word sundry times means? The word Sundry is the English equivalent of the Greek word, polumeros pronounced, {pol-oo-mer'-oce} and it means 1) by many portions, by many times and in many ways
So we see here that God does
things in many portions and in many different ways. That means what he does is
not in a usual way, but rather in an unusual way. The Paul goes on to say, God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets, and it means 1) in many
different ways or manners. Now the word divers is the same as our
English Word Diverse. = di·verse ( d¹-vûrs“, d º-, d º“vûrs”) adj. 1. Differing one from another.
Now, this would seem to at first glimpse come into
conflict with Malachi 3:6 that says, I am God and I change not, or Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is
the same, yesterday, today and forever.
But a closer rerading of the definition for diverse
sheds more light on this difference. DIVERSE 1. Differing
one from another but
Made up of distinct characteristics,
qualities, or elements: And as Brother Branham has taught, "God is identified by His Characteristics."
Therefore, tonight I would
like to look at these unusual ways and unusual times that God speaks to
man. First of all, the Scripture reads ¶ God, who at various
times and in various ways spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Now, although the way, and
the times are varied and changing, yet we see the common thread here is that
God speaks through His Prophets.
AMOS 3:7 Surely the Lord
GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the
prophets.
Now, therefore, although God
changes the scene, and the manner in which he manifests Himself, and even the
times, yet the constant is that before he does anything He will reveal it
through one of His Servants called prophets.
I SAMUEL 2:2
[There is] none holy as the LORD: for [there is] none beside thee: neither [is
there] any rock like our God. Notice here
that we are told there is none like him. That again speaks of an unusual God,
in which there is none other like Him. Otherwise if there were others like him,
He would not be unusual. Right? And God wants it to remain that way. He likes
being One of a Kind. He likes to be the Unusual God.
EXODUS 20:2 I
[am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
EXODUS 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the
LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God:
Now, let's examine this
unusual God and let's see how unusual His ways are and His manner of speaking
to his people.
DOOR IN A
DOOR 63-0223 E-33 But you know sometimes it's unusual
things that God appears in. God appears in the unusual because God is
unusual. He does unusual things. He appears at unusual times. And He's seen
at unusual times, when times you wouldn't think that you would--He'd be there,
yet He's there. Very unusual. "He works in mysterious ways," the Bible
said, "His wonders to perform." Therefore that makes Him unusual. And
that's the way... We get into a usual trend of things and we miss God. It's the
unusual that brings God many times, the unusual things, something... We get so
tied up into a certain creed, or something that we're trying to serve, and then
if everything doesn't come just according to the way we think it should, then
we--we offset it. "It's--it's not--it's not of God." We make a mighty
mistake.
Adam: God through bloody
skins at their feet, and demanded the blood of an innocent one to atone for
their sins.
WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR 63-1216 33 This that I'm speaking of tonight might
seem just a little bit unusual, and especially of these notes and Scriptures I
have written here, which I will refer to, as many of them takes down the
Scriptures, and so forth. Now, it's a little unusual. But I want you to always
bear this in mind: God is unusual; God does unusual things. That's the trouble
with us today; we get so set in the usual things, that when something unusual
takes place, then we--we--we're all out of it; we don't know what's happened.
God does the unusual. And any man that's ever read the Bible, knows that God
always does the unusual.
Noah: and old man, building
a large ship in the top of a mountain when it had never rained. It would not
have been unusual if he built it at the sea shore, but up in a mountain?
WHY LITTLE BETHLEHEM 63-1214 19 We think of how God does things in unusual
ways, because He is unusual Himself. God is unusual. He's the Supernatural, the
Infinite, unto we finite. So anything He does is--is so unusual. And God is so
great, till He takes the unidentified things of the earth to identify Himself
by it.
Abraham and Sara: God gave
them promise of having a promised son, and yet made them wait until they were
too old to have children in the natural. She 90 and he being 100 years old.
Jacob and Esau: Jacob a
momma's boy and Esau a real man and yet you would think the One God loved was
the opposite of what He chose. Why?
Because it takes an unusual people to receive an unusual promise from an
unusual God.
Joseph: A boy who was home
schooled, sent to prison, and then pulled out of prison to become the chief
financial officer of the Greatest nation on earth at that time.
Investments The
64-0314 E-24 That's what makes
the Gospel today. It's the unusualness, because God is unusual. His Word is
interpreted unusual to what we sometimes have it interpreted. But as I've said
before, God needs nobody to interpret His Word. He does His own interpretation
by--by bringing to pass the things that He said He would do. He interprets His
own Word. He doesn't need our interpretation. It's... Our interpretation is our
own manmade thoughts that we put with It.
Moses: Moses, the son of a
slave, being raised right up under pharaohs nose, and in line to become pharaoh
himself. He rose to be the greatest general Egypt has ever known. The greatest
general in the greatest nation of his time, and then sent away to the wilderness
to forget everything he knew about fight, only to be sent back to take over the
greatest and most powerful country of that time, with only a stick in his hand.
VOICE OF THE SIGN
64-0214 24 Now,
we find that Moses, after doing this he got bitter. So he just run, left Egypt
and went out into the--the deserts. And there we find he married an Ethiopian
girl, had a son named Gershom. And one day while he was walking along the side
of--of an old familiar path, on the backside of the desert there herding sheep,
well, he was attracted by a scene that was unusual. And God is so unusual. He
does things in such an unusual way, so contrary to science, so contrary to
education, so contrary to, sometimes, man's theology, just contrary to that.
God does that just to show He's God. And to do that He has to take somebody
that knows none of these things, so that He can work through that person. 26
When Jesus come, why didn't He take Caiaphas, the priest that was trained and
ready for the job? He went down and got men that couldn't even sign their name.
Ignorant and unlearned, the Bible said they were. 'Cause God takes nothing to
make something out of it. See?
Joshua: A man raised up from
obscurity who led the armies of Israel to route every enemy that came against
this traveling group of people. He even called out for the sun to stop in order
for them to have enough light to finish the fight they had begun.
Jesus, the Lamb of God slain
before the world was even fashioned.
SEED NOT HEIR WITH SHUCK 65-0218 44 The Lord
add His blessings to the reading of His Word. Now, I believe here that I take a
text like this, very odd, unusual. But sometimes we find God in those odd,
unusual hours, unusual ways, unusual things. Because God is unusual, and those
that really serve Him from their heart, serve Him in a unusual way to the
things or the ways of the world.
And what of Rahab the
harlot, out of her marriage and out of her loins, came forth the lineage of
king David, and eventually the Messiah Himself.
And what of David, this
little ruddy stoop shouldered little fellow being selected as King of Israel.
Samuel the prophet had to bypass every man in Israel that was head and
shoulders above that little boy, in order to anoint Him as King of Israel.
Elijah the prophet, one man
against thousands.
Elisha: The prophet with a
temper, that cursed the rude children that made fun of his bald head, and a she
bear came out of the woods and ate those rude little children up. What an
example for a prophet of God. God's messenger, the one with a temper. Well,
Moses had a temper too come to think of it.
And what about Samson: A
scrawny little kid with 7 curly locks running down his back.
Gideon: Gideon, like that of so many other men God has called
into service throughout the ages. His life as we see it in the scriptures began
in total obscurity. Gideon, like
the other men of God became a strange instrument of deliverance in the hands of
God. There was no gradual buildup of events that led to his arrival, but his
calling sprang forth from a need in his generation. So was the coming of Elisha,
who emerged from among the seven thousand faithful but unknown men, not
one of whom was known to Elijah. John
the Baptist came on the scene like a whirl wind coming forth from the
Wilderness. Moses with his crooked
stick invaded Egypt from the backside of the desert. A one man invasion against
the mightiest nation on earth. But it was one man with One God. And that is all
it took to turn the world upside down in their day, one man yielded to his One
God.
Shamgar who slew 600 Philistines with an ox goad Shamgar of which little is spoken of in the Scriptures, but whom follows in the same manner as did Samson
JUDGES 3:31 ¶
And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines
six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.
Now, this scripture does not tell us a whole lot about Shamgar. But it does tell us that the men of Israel were not trained fighters at this time, for had they been trained fighters, he would have used a sword or spear or some other implement of war. But He chose to use an ox goad which tells us he was a farmer. Now, an ox goad is a sharp stick used to prod the oxen along. To prod them along so they will go into the stall. And that is the closest thing he had to a spear. Now, another thing we want to examine here.
Israel at this time was only a scattered people. They were not an organized group like all the other nations. There was s small group here and a small group over there. And they had no central place that unified them all together. In fact that did not happen until they denominated, and wanted a King like the other nations had. I think it is interesting how the minds of men seems to work. Israel, while they were just a scattered people with small groups scattered throughout the land, seemed to have trials come and go with an opposing force once in a while. And God always delivered the people by raising up someone, some insignificant person, to become a judge over them, not through education, not through years of training with the sword and spear.
No, these were not an educated lot. But they were led by the Holy Spirit. Men of God led by the Spirit of God. And all it took was one man to destroy the workings of the enemy. One man against a thousand and the one man would destroy them all. And such was Samson as we spoke of last night, and such is this man of God Shamgar that we will examine this morning. One man, used by God to defeat the gates of the enemy.
JUDGES 3:31 ¶
And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the
Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel. Again
we find more information in Judges chapter 5 in the song of Deborah. JUDGES 5:1 ¶
Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying, 2
Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly
offered themselves. 3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes;
I, [even] I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing [praise] to the LORD God of
Israel. 4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of
the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also
dropped water. 5 The mountains melted from before the LORD,
[even] that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel. 6 ¶ In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in
the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, (the caravans ceased)
and the travelers walked through byways.
7 [The inhabitants of] the
villages ceased, (the villages were unoccupied) 8 They chose new gods; then [was] war in the
gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? 9
My heart [is] toward the governors of Israel, ( My heart goes
out to the commanders of Israel,) that offered themselves willingly among
the people. Bless ye the LORD.
10 tell of it, ye that ride on
white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and ye who walk by the way. 11Far
from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there shall
they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, [even] the righteous acts [toward
the inhabitants] of his villagers in Israel: then the people of the LORD went
down to the gates.
Notice that when God was dealing with Israel in the times of the judges, He would raise up one man here and one man there and He would receive all the glory, and the people would teach their children about these great times when god stepped on the scene and delivered them from the mighty armies by the strength and cunning of a single man. The people rehearsed these stories and told them over and over and over again building up their holy faith in the Lord God of Israel.
But later on they began to get lazy and became neurotics as brother Branham said, worrying about what might happen. What might happen that might cause them to change their plans. What might happen that might cause them to have to call upon their God. People don’t like having to call upon God, they want to do things for themselves. I've heard people say, I don't want to bother him, there are so many more important things for Him to do than to watch out for me. And that opinion is so contrary to the Word of God.
052 Now, there was during the time of the
judges, a little old fellow named Shamgar. He wasn't even a judge, just a
little said about him, a little bitty
spot in the Bible, about a couple of verses, Shamgar. Maybe you may never have
read of him. He was just a little old Israelite. He lived during the days, that
every man done his own way that he felt. He had no cooperation. One was a Methodist,
another one a Baptist, another one a Presbyterian, the other one a Oneness, the
other was a Twoness, the other one a Threeness. Oh, my, no cooperation. They couldn't get together. So every man
done what he thought was good in his own sight. That's the reason the
Philistines come in and got them. Now, if you are a born again Christians and
will forget your differences and come together as Christians ought to, we can
do something. Our King will come to us, Jesus Christ.
053
But there, the little old Shamgar, there was no king. Who was he? He
was just a lay member. Well, they'd build up the crop and work hard,
Israel would. And the first thing you know, about the time that the crops got
ripe, they got all their wheat harvested and everything, round come the
Philistines, take everything they had, go back. That's the way the devil does
it. Just about time you get your church fixed to a place, and you say,
"Well now, I'm just getting along fine. We're having a real old time
revival." The devil will slip in some old crazy idea, "You know, them
people just about crazy." All that stuff, "There's no such a thing to
it, 'cause doctor So-and-so said there was no such a thing as that."
054
A man right here in this same neighborhood said, "Well now, we
believe in Divine healing, of course, if the man's a coming. But after the
meeting's over, let me see somebody that was healed. There won't be one."
That guy was a lying. He don't believe in Divine healing. No, sir, can't
believe in divine healing. Brother, it's so whether you say it or not. God said
so. If I prayed for ten thousand people tonight, and ten thousand of them died
in the morning, tomorrow night with the same faith, I'd be preaching Divine
healing. If I preach to a thousand people tonight, and they all died; fifty
years from now the resurrection, come to me saying, "Brother Branham,
don't believe in Him. You're dying now, but you do something else. There's no
such a thing as Christ; there's no such a thing as that," I'd still take
my choice with Christ and let me die believing Him. That's right. No matter
what people says, it's what God has said. That's right. God has said so.
I believe God.
055
This little old Shamgar, he got his place filled up, and he got his food
all laid up, his wheat. And oh, those year before the Philistines took it away
from him. I can see him, his poor
little old wife out there, and the sleeves all out of her dress, and his little
children standing there real peaked, their faces all drawn down, about like some
of these little churches now that's been kicked and beat around by some of
these theological cemetery, embalmers. That's right.
056
You know, that puts me in mind of a morgue. They take a dead man in
that's already dead and shoot a lot of fluid into him to be sure he stays dead.
That's the way they do; just keep him dead.
"Don't believe that stuff. Don't go around one of them meetings.
It's nothing but a bunch of fanatics." Oh, mercy, how can you believe?
057
Then I can see this great big bin of wheat. He say, "Well, now
honey," I hear Shamgar saying, "Now, sweetheart, maybe we, the
children... Now, we got the harvest in and maybe we can feed them a little
bit." We're going to have a revival pretty soon and--and maybe some of
these people have a little, you know how the pastor gets his church set up to
the place... And the first thing you
know, Shamgar was standing there talking to his wife, and she looked so pale.
And I could see the tears on his cheeks, poor little thing, she's starved to
death. See his little children, how hungry they look, and no clothes on...
Philistines, big old fat potato bug, come right in and take it right out just
as fast as he could make it. And there... That's the way the devil will do it:
chop it right away from you, take everything you can get, come right around and
rob you of every bit of experience you've got, take everything away from you,
telling you there's no such a thing, pointing to some old crow bait laying on
the bank. You know that's the truth. I hope you're reading between lines. If
you don't, I'll tell you right off on the lines. Notice, all right, but that's
truth.
058
Now, and there he was, there with his wheat and everything. And about
that time he heard something coming. Here come the Philistines, coming up the
road, six hundred of them. Oh, my. "Well, there we go; here it is again;
labored all year, here comes the Philistines to take everything I got."
His old wife begin to cry, and the little children holding one another. Shamgar
pulled back the window and looked out. There they was, six hundred of them, all
armed, trained, theological--Philistines anyhow. There they's a coming up the
road, armors a gleaming, you know, and the spears in their hands, walking right
on. They knowed how to do it, brother. I'm telling you, they were warriors.
Little old Shamgar stood there and thought, "Well, I ain't no soldier; I
don't know how to fight. I don't know nothing about it, but..."
059
To you holy people, his righteous indignation got up. I hope yours does
too tonight. Get up against evil, get up against that old wheelchair, get up
against them crutches. What the devil stuck them on, don't have to have them.
No, sir. They don't belong to you. Christ said, "Should not this daughter
be loosed on the Sabbath day been bound with the devil all these years?"
But it's going to be up to you.
060
Shamgar stood there, and he looked around. He wasn't a warrior; he
didn't have time to go away and train now, how to duel and to fight these men
with the swords and things. He didn't have time to do it. You don't have time
to go study out all these things and take a….
066
I can see Shamgar now. (We'll hurry; it's getting close to the prayer
line time.) I can see Shamgar standing there; he looks out. Oh, my. His
righteous indignation begin to come upon him; he got a little fight in him.
That's what you got to get, is little fight, a little backbone. Take that
wishbone out and put a backbone in. That's right.
067
I think old Buddy Robinson, his testimony, said, "Lord, give me
that backbone like a saw log, give me plenty of knowledge in the gable end of
my soul, and let me bite the devil as long as I got a tooth in my mouth, and
then gum him till I die." That's right. That's the way to do it, brother.
Get some spunk about you. Stand up and claim your God given privileges. God
promised you healing; it's yours. If you're too weak and jellyfish to take
it, you'll die. You want to stand and say, "It's right," then stand.
Hallelujah.
068
If God saved my soul, I took it by faith and believed that He did,
and God give me the baptism of the Holy Ghost in confirmation of it. If I
stand and take Him as My Healer when Mayo Brothers told me I had a few hours to
live, I took Him as my Healer; and I got the confirmation of it tonight.
Hallelujah. Yes, sir. Take Him at His Word and believe it.
069
Little old Shamgar got his righteous indignation up. He looked around;
he couldn't find nothing. He wasn't a warrior. But what was in his hand? He
couldn't find nothing but a ox-goad.
You know
what a ox-goad is? It's a old stick that's got a big grass hump on it, they
push the dirt off the plow, and sometime and punch the cattle through the gate
with it.
That's all
he had. But, brother, he was sick and tired of the Philistines coming, taking
what he had.
070
Oh, my, aren't you tired, mother? Aren't you, sister? Sick and tired of
the devil telling me, that, "I can't walk, I can't do this, I can't do
that." God, bless your heart, "All things are possible to them that
believe." That's it.
071
Shamgar said, "I'm sick and tired of it. I'm not a warrior, the
odds is against me." No matter how much odds is against you, God's for you
if you take His Word. He said, "There's one thing I know: I am
circumcised. I am a Philistine... I mean, I am a Israelite. That is a
uncircumcised Philistine. I know that I'm right." "I'm a child of God tonight. And I know
diseases come from the devil and I know God promised me victory." Whew.
Brother, I wish you felt like I did right now. Yes, sir, I feel awfully good.
Look. It's my God given privilege. Yes, sir. I'm still tonight in America, where I can preach it, enjoy it. Thank the
Lord for it.
072
His righteous indignation rose; he grabbed that ox-goad, and jumped
through the window and challenged six hundred Philistines, and stood there and
beat their heads in. Right. Why? Not a warrior, not at all, but he was a
Israelite; he was circumcised.
And if
tonight you're circumcised with the Holy Ghost you don't have to wait till
you're trained to be a warrior. God bless your heart, claim your God given
privilege, and beat their heads in. Amen. That's right. Say, "Get out of
the way, Satan." Kick him out of the way. "I'm the guy that's taking
over now. I come in Jesus' Name." Watch him scatter. Brother, when you use
that faith on him, he will back up.
073
A guy told me not long ago, he had a dream, said, "He'd seen a
devil, a little bitty old devil stand before him." Said, "It scared
him." And said, "The devil jumped at him, and he jumped back. And
every time he'd jump, the devil, he'd get littler and the devil would get
bigger." Said, "He knowed he'd have to fight him after while
somehow." So he looked around and tried to find something, he found the
Bible. And he drawed it up and whacked him, he took him. And every time he
would hit him, the devil would get littler and littler, and then he just beat
him to death." That's right. Every time he jumps on, just say, "Days
of miracles is past." You say, "It is?" "No such a thing as divine
healing?" "Is it?" Oh, he will kill you. God bless your heart,
take your stand out there. Say, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today,
and forever promised me this thing, and I got it." Brother, you'll see him
shrink right on away. That's right.
074 He beat them Philistines.
And look, an untrained farmer peasant with a ox-goad in his hand beat down six
hundred armed men. Whew. Oh, that's the Lord. I tell you I feel like I was just
about to have a heart spell to run a little bit. You know what, when I think of that? You ain't got quite room up
here; I have to have a lot of room to preach, brother. I got to move out a
little bit. Oh, my. A farmer with a ox-goad slew six hundred Philistines with
the power of the same God that's on us tonight. He didn't have no promise of
that in the Bible either. He didn't have a promise of it. We got a promise.
Amen. Oh, let that old sickness drop.
Ø
Daniel:
Ø
Shadrack, Meshak, and Abednego:
Ø
An unusual God with an Unusual message. Just look at some of those
messages.
Ø
Isaiah: A virgin shall conceive!
MAN THAT CAN TURN ON LIGHT 63-1229M
55 It was a unusual
thing for that to happen. Joseph being a just man... He--He was unusual; God is
unusual. And the unusual's hard to understand. That's why it's hard to understand
Truth today; it's so unusual. A woman to have a baby without knowing a man,
that was very unusual. But if you're honest and sincere, God can appear to you
yet in a dream. It goes to show that anything that you have, whether it's your
mind, whether you can whistle, sing, testify, or whatever you can do, if in
your whole being is committed to God, God can use it if you'll just let Him do
it.
GOD'S GIFTS ALWAYS FIND PLACE 63-1222
37 -it was too
unusual. You know, it just... It was something very different. And you know,
that's what's the matter today. God does things unusual, and it's so unusual
till even just men can't see it. 39
Joseph couldn't understand it, it was too unusual. He was a good man,
nothing wrong with him. He was a good man, a just man, but it was so unusual.
See, Joseph probably forty years old or forty-five, something like that, they
claim, when he and Mary was engaged. But here we find something that never had
happened: a woman espoused to this man and yet be found to be mother. And it
was so unusual Joseph was minded to put her away. But right at that crucial
moment, God sent His Angel, and appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Don't fear to take to thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost."
Ø
Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him.
GOD IS HIS OWN INTERPRETER 64-0205 29 That's what's the matter in any age. The Word of God is foreign
to people; It's too unusual. God always does the unusual. It's unusual anywhere
God is. It's against the systematics of the world, because that they've got
things the way that they think it should be. But God comes in and does the
unusual. "How could this virgin conceive?" He was honest; he sought
God about it. And then God spoke to him in a dream, and said, "Joseph,
thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. God has overshadowed her. This is
what's done it."
Ø
He will come with healing in His Wings.
Ø
The Messiah born over a manure pile, in a stable.
WHEN THEIR EYES WERE OPENED 64-0416
E-15 There's many
people that love Him that really can't believe that He's with us now.
They--they just can't seem to comprehend that. They just, many of them in that
day who'd walked and talked with Him, could not comprehend that He was back
from the dead, though they'd had witnesses and been to the tomb, and so forth,
and knew that He was up from the dead. But still they just couldn't believe it.
Why? I wonder why? See, that's quite unusual. See? They just... It's too
unusual. And it's usually in the unusual things that God is in. It's the
unusual things that make Him God. See? That's what makes Him what He is, is the
things He does so unusual. E-16 Now,
it was unusual when Joseph before the birth, when he found Mary his lovely
little sweetheart that he was engaged to, to be married. He, to have found her;
she was to be mother without being married. So she no doubt had told him of the
visit of--of Gabriel, the Angel. And Joseph was a just man. He was a good man.
And he was---he was, he wanted to believe her. I could imagine that he loved
her with all his heart, seeing that young Hebrew maid, and--and looked into her
eyes. And when she'd say, "Joseph, dear, the great Angel Gabriel visited
me, and He said I would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and the holy Thing
that would be born in me, would be from me, would be called the Son of
God." Now, he wanted to believe that. But there'd never been anything
happen like that, so it was too unusual. And look, there was a just man, a good
man. And the Scripture claiming that it would, a virgin would conceive, and he
didn't understand it. See, the Scripture that said that Christ would be born
that way, still Joseph couldn't understand it because it was too unusual.
Ø The King of
Kings, crucified, and spit on .
WHEN THEIR EYES WERE OPENED 64-0312
E-11 But the thing of
it was, the sad part, many people that knew Him and loved Him did not recognize
that He had risen from the dead. So is it today. Many people who believe, and
even teach that He rose from the dead, still doesn't recognize it. They
certainly cannot comprehend that. It's too much of a phenomena, too unusual.
The unusual things is where God is, if it's according to His promise. Many
loved Him, and knew it not. It was just absolutely too unusual for them to
believe what those witnesses had come from the tomb and said, "We saw a
company of angels that said He has raised from the dead."