He Knew by Dawn

“Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” John 18:4

When God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I believe it was in great part for their protection. Some knowledge just isn’t necessary to know or easy to carry. Even Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that in much wisdom there is sorrow. So I have been amazed coming into this season of Christ’s death and resurrection, just how much knowledge He had of the horror that was to come. Many of us, if given the choice, would rather just live-out our lives and let life happen than to know all the hard things that are ahead. We only want to know about the good things.

The joy that was set before Him, which scripture tells us about, helped tremendously to get Him through the horror of Calvary. Imagine reading about yourself and all you would suffer in the future as He did in Isaiah 52 and 53 and elsewhere. No wonder He was given the vision of great joy to keep Him moving forward! What love and resolve He had to continue on. That is why we praise and honor Him so!

In Luke 19 He weeps over Jerusalem. This must have been great agony for Him. Here was the Prince of Peace who had all the answers to their quandaries and conflicts and yet He and all He brought with Him was ‘hidden from their eyes.’ What sorrow. Then He was privy to the coming destruction because of their rejection. The City of the Great King – the City of David – the City of great history, past, present, and future would undergo a siege that would ‘tear them down to the ground.’ How does one carry such knowledge and still continue moving forward? If you have ever read anything about 70AD and the destruction of Jerusalem, the horror is beyond our ability to fathom. The whole ordeal was of ‘holocaust’ proportion!

Jesus went to the cross with knowledge of great glory and great devastation. No wonder He wept! No wonder He was in such agony in the garden so that He sweated blood. Once again we see a garden being the backdrop for decisions that would choose the course for mankind. In a garden great disobedience and sorrow came upon the human race and in a garden great sorrow and obedience were offered for all mankind. And from a Garden in the future there will be great joy and healing for all peoples! Forever!

While Adam and Eve’s choice impacted us without our choosing it, Christ’s choice is one we can choose to make or not to make. We can choose life or death. That is amazing and worth some meditation. Choose life or death – seems like an easy choice, doesn’t it?
However, Jesus went to the cross with the knowledge of good and evil and while the evil broke His heart and battered His body, the good kept Him in Father’s will. His view was one of vast sorrow; the depth of which we will never need to know. But God’s View of what was to come far outweighed the sorrow He saw for people, nations, as well as for Jerusalem which will forever be the City of the Great King!