Beyond Expectations

We can not expect to always understand who God is, He is beyond our understanding.

Matthew 2.1-12

Reference: v. 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Explore: In 2001 I went on a minister’s leadership trip to the USA to visit churches and hear the stories of people ministering there.  We did a lot of traveling from one church to another but every church was very hospitable and went out of their way to see to our needs.  There was one church we visited in the late afternoon and our leader had asked if it was possible for them to provide us with tea.  The church facilitator questioned this but after it was confirmed that the group would like tea they prepared it for us.  When we arrived at the church they had a large table with a huge array of drinks on it.  There was brewed coffee, teabags, soft drinks, water, juice… the whole table was filled with drinks.  Of course, when our team leader had asked for tea he had meant an evening meal, yet when the American’s had heard the word ‘tea’ they thought only of the drink.  Even though we both spoke English our words had different meanings.
When King Herod heard that the ‘king of the Jews’ had been born he thought this meant only one thing: his seat on the throne was in jeaporady.  He went to great lengths to eliminate this baby who would become ‘a ruler’ and yet He had no need to worry about his place on his earthly throne.

Application: We often have certain expectations on God as well.  While Herod expected the Messiah to take his place of authority, we often expect our Heavenly Father to take away all our pain and suffering.  However, we have misunderstood the place of God.  We can not expect to always understand who God is, He is beyond our understanding.  And every time we try to fix Him into a particular design we limit His majesty to our own human mind.  We can easily misunderstand God’s intentions and God’s words when we filter them through our own minds.  We need to realise that God will always be the all powerful, all knowing, ever present diety and while we may not understand we must continue to learn about Him and strive to be more like Him as best we can.

Prayer: Lord, you are truly beyond our expectations.  I will try not to limit your majesty by my basic understanding.  Continue to reveal yourself to us each and every day.  Amen.

Matthew