Life with Jesus could be exciting and scary all at the same time. This must have been one of the scariest surprises the disciples had in their time as His followers on the earth. As they rowed, they must have been pondering and discussing the surprise they had just experienced.
These verses are full of some of the biggest surprises in the Bible. The fact that the men were not burned, but their cords were. That they were walking around in the fire! Plus the appearance of God as a man, long before Jesus was born!!
But the God of Heaven was faithful to those who were faithful to Him, and He protected His children. He still does that today. We read that the soldiers who threw the men into the furnace died because of the intense heat. But those thrown into the fire remained unharmed!
Many people are thinking that God has gone to sleep, or fallen from His throne or is just not as capable as we had hoped He would be. Many other people are feeling as though church, (and consequently God) is irrelevant in this world, and are separating themselves from both.
The plan was to surprise them more than they could dare hope. On the fourth day He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. This was a forerunner of what Father God was going to do for His beloved Son, raising Him from the dead on the third day!
The presence of the Holy Spirit is evident in what happened next. We read in the following verses that Elizabeth instantly knew for the first time about the other pregnancy! Only Holy Spirit could do that sort of thing in a day when there was no electronic means of communication.
It was Gabriel who was the bringer of this good news, which was a surprise for everyone who heard it. While telling Mary that she had been chosen to carry the earthly Son of God, Gabriel informed her of the situation with Elizabeth. What a day of surprises that was!
One of the most difficult unrecorded conversations in history must have been when Joseph heard about The pregnancy. We are not told how he heard, but the world of film has tried to show us how that happened. We can imagine that it was a life changing surprise for him.
The new birth spoken of in evangelical circles means being aware that we can become spiritual children of Father God by believing in His Son Jesus, and by giving our lives to Him. That personal decision is the first step in a life-long relationship as we grow into spiritual maturity.
The minute this first earthly couple tasted the fruit, they knew they had done wrong! This was a very bad surprise with long lasting results for all humanity that followed! But like many disobedient children that have followed them, they tried to cover up their wrongdoing and hide their guilt!