Often God gives His people a promise. Sometimes to an individual, sometimes a nation. But often that promise requires a lot of work on our part. We have to cooperate with The Lord to accomplish what He is calling us to do. That is often a test of our obedience.
What a shock this must have been for those rebellious Israelites who were getting fed up of wandering through the desert. They began to grumble and rebel against the leaders. The rebellion by Korah, told earlier in this chapter, resulted in many deaths. Suddenly God Himself protected Moses and Aaron.
Many of us may have heard of the sudden death of somebody. But can we imagine the reverse of that? What a great surprise and a great joy it must have been for these women, and for the rest of the disciples to discover that death could not stop Jesus!
If we read this story without knowing anything of the future for Joseph, we may agree he was the spoilt child of his father! Reading on, Genesis tells us of many happenings in his life before the fulfilment of his dreams. Also how he eventually made peace with his brothers.
The best surprise for Adam was when he woke from sleep and SUDDENLY met Eve. Our verse today tells us that God decided that man would be lonely, so He put him to sleep and performed the first ever surgical operation by taking a rib from Adam and making Eve.
We can visualise Jesus saying this about any of the Marys we have looked at. But also to so many others who had blessed Him as He journeyed throughout the area of Galilee. We can also imagine Jesus saying this to many of the church workers who serve Him today.
We can suppose there were many other people whose names we will never know, who were at the cross that day watching the death of the one they thought would be Saviour of the world. We will not get to know those people while we live this side of Heaven.
These named women, Mary, Joanna and Mary, and the others with them were the first evangelists, carrying the good news of the resurrection of Jesus to the disciples. Since then, many more women and men have been those who tell of that good news to others all across the world.
I remember my grandmother criticising certain church-goers she knew saying they were too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use! She, herself, was in church every week, but believed Sunday was the day for a nodding wink to The Lord, and the rest of the week looked after itself!
Jesus had taken Mary Magdalene out of the rut she had been living in. He had accepted her for who she was and changed her into what she was to be. The first evangelist! The first to talk to the risen Jesus, the first to tell others He was alive.
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