<TITLE>05. Par 43-52</TITLE>L-43 Now, God, in His Own Son, built a body that He lived in, tabernacled, changed His strand. Just think. Jehovah laying in a manger, over a manure pile in a barn, crying like a little baby. Those little baby hands, little Jehovah coming down and veiling Himself in--in that form. Look at Jehovah out playing, as a teen-age boy. Look at Jehovah building in a carpenter shop. Jehovah hanging on the cross. Then, when He rose up, He proved He was Jehovah. That's right. "God, in Christ, reconciled the world to Himself." He was more than a philosopher. He was more than a prophet. He was Emmanuel.

L-44   Now, tonight, we're going to approach this, a subject here. Well, we just read the Scriptures. And we're going to take this for a text: And When Their Eyes Were Opened, They Knew Him.

L-45 Now, our scene starts off at a beautiful time, or setting, it was about this time of year. It was in a--a Easter. And it was the first, fine Easter. And Jesus was back from the dead, in the springtime, of Easter, living among the people again. And many, who loved Him, didn't know it.

L-46 And that's the same as it is today. There is 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.

L-47 They, yes, many of them in that day, who had walked and talked with Him, could not comprehend that He was back from the dead, through they had witnesses, had 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? There's... It's too unusual.

L-48 And it's usually in the unusual things that God is in. It's the unusual things that makes Him God. See? That's what makes Him what He is, is the things He does so unusual.

L-49   Now, it was usual when Joseph, before the birth, when he found Mary; his lovely little sweetheart that he was engaged to, to be married. He 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--and when she'd say, "Joseph, dear. The great Angel, Gabriel, visit me, and He said I'll 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.'"

L-50 Now, he wanted to believe that. But there had never been anything happen like that, so it was too unusual. And, look, that was a just man, a good man, and the Scripture claiming that it would, "a virgin would conceive," and he didn't understand. See? The Scripture that said that Christ would be born that way, still, Joseph couldn't understand it, because it was too unusual.

L-51   Now in them days, they had no prophets. The man was... They hadn't had prophets for hundreds of years, and so God dealt with him in a dream. A dream is a secondarily way. The right way is always to the Word, first. Now, God has a way of proving whether his Word is right, or not. Or where there were any...

L-52 In the Old Testament, Aaron had the twelve stones, the birthstones, on his breastplate here. And they hung it on the post in the temple. If a prophet prophesied, or a dreamer told a dream, they take them down to this, what is called, as the ministers would know it, the Urim Thummim. And so, this, when this dreamer told his dream, or the prophet told his prophecy, and supernatural lights didn't flash over that, to make the Urim Thummim, then, I don't care how real it sound, it was wrong. The Urim Thummim had to witness it was right. Well, that, now, the Aaronic priesthood, was done away with, and the old Urim Thummim.


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