OK. I understand the Revelation passages, but am not sure how you see them relating to the ideas I was exploring in the first post.
How would you respond to these speculative scenarios
- Could you imagine Jesus mishearing an instruction and making a mess of a job because of it?
Did Jesus ever make a mistake? In a sense, yes, but when he did he recovered from before it ever became sin, For example:
"And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them." Luke 2:48-50
Jesus was the very Word of God, but one of his purposes in coming to planet Earth as a man was to overcome the things which hinder men and to make it possible for other men to overcome them as well. He knew at 12 years old what his Father's business for him [Jesus] was, but he did not fully understand what a man had to do to accomplish it as a man [not as God or the Son of God]. So then...
" And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth,
and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
And
Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:51-52
Jesus was always without sin, but his experience was incomplete for he had never previously been the child of a natural mother with all that that meant. His purpose in dealing with the "doctors" was God's ultimate purpose for him, but it wasn't time yet. First he needed to serve really as a child obeying his parents [Mary and Joseph] as a child was supposed to obey. He never failed in that point again for to have done so would have been to sin and we know that he never did.
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb 4:15
Did Jesus ever cause an accident through clumsiness?
If he did, I do not recall it, but even so what would that have to do with the perfection which God describes? God gave David the words to relate to them to his son, Solomon, who was to be the King of Israel:
"And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and
serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." I Chron 28:9
Solomon stumbled and did not stay within the guidelines defined by David, but that doesn't mean the guidelines themselves were wrong, does it? This is why Solomon, himself, is led later to write:
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but
the LORD pondereth the hearts." Prov 21:2
The heart of David was always right toward the Lord even though he sometimes stumbled. Not so with his predecessor, Saul, the previous King of Israel. Both of them were anointed by the prophet Samuel, but David was never rejected by God because he was always quick to admit his faults and willing to receive whatever blame was his own. Not so Saul who tried to justify himself and/or blame others for his own mistakes.
Did Jesus always give the correct answer while being educated?
We may be certain that he always gave God's answer, but as we likely already know from our own experience in the schools of men, that that does not stop men from pushing along in their own ways:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
Was Jesus ever so exhausted that he was unable to give a person the attention they deserved?
Do we suppose that Jesus was supposed to minister to every man that he encountered during his ministry [3½ years]?
"And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" Luke 12:13-14
Were all possible judgments that could be made with regard to men properly part of God's plan? If they were, Jesus apparently was not to accomplish them all personally as a man working the work of God. Consider that Jesus, the man of flesh, was not the ONLY instrument of
God in that time.
Consider another example:
"And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him,
Master, carest thou not that we perish?
And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful?
how is it that ye have no faith?" Matt 4:37-40
How helpless are we really? How important was it for the storm to be stilled in the eyes of God? Would the men have necessarily have lost the most important thing if they had been washed overboard and drowned?
Of course, what did Jesus mean by that final underlined question? "How is it that ye have no faith"? Men must trust in God. How often have we since we first believed lacked the faith to step out as God certainly desired that we step out?
These aren't mean to be flippant questions - the issue beneath them is: what does it mean to be perfect?
In my own life - even if I reached the peak of a holy, prayerful, spirit-filled life - my hearing isn't all that special, so if you ask me to buy fork handles, I'm quite likely to come home with four candles.
Naivety or lack of intelligence as men would define intelligence are never our problem in serving God as He desires. God knows exactly what He has given us and what He has not given us. God is more concerned with our availability that with our ability. If we remember David's words to Solomon and ask God to help us to make it so for us, will He refuse us?
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" Matt 7:7
