Excitement in the Boat, part 9:

They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. (Luke 8:24 NASB)

The word translated as "rebuked" is an interesting choice of words. It is epitimaō, and is defined as "to charge". It is used to mean "to show honor" or "to adjudge". Digging a little deeper, we find that it comes from two roots words. The first is translated as "chamberlain" and it indicates the one in the service of the King who is in charge of an area. The second root is used to indicate "to honor" or "to fix the value of". None of that sounds much like what we think of as rebuking, does it?

When Jesus stepped up to speak to the storm, he was announcing His authority as the One who was in charge. He was not only commissioned by the King, He was the King. In reminding the wind and the waves of Who He was, He also reminded them of the value of the cargo in the boat. In a personification of the storm, He was saying, "I'm in charge here. You do not want to mess with this boat. The price is way too high.  Stop this now."  

Let's be sure we get this, because it is breathtakingly beautiful. Jesus was the one in charge of the boat and anything that affected it. The disciples were the "cargo" for which He cared. When He addressed the storm, He was commanding it to be still on the basis of His authority and because of the high value He placed on the lives of His disciples. Of inestimable value and dearly loved, those disciples were far too precious to have the storm destroy them. 

As a disciple of Jesus today, we can put our own names in that sentence. 

Of inestimable value and dearly loved, you are far too precious to Jesus for Him to allow the storms of life to destroy you. 

He is with us, He in in charge, he loves us, and He is protecting us. 

Dear ones, trust the One who loves you most, and pray that He will still the storms that assail you and your loved ones. 

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Link to last night's post: http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-back-tree.html

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The terrorist prayer focus this week is Hamas. Pray that they will begin to value life, that their efforts at terror will not prosper, and that their social welfare programs will be more important to them than their costly efforts at destruction. Pray for the kind of Damascus road experience that turned a Saul into a Paul. 

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