Extra-time Intervention

Scripture Reference:

Ezekiel 37:1-4

John 11:3-45

According to the Bible, God is the beginning and the end; and according to us life begins at birth and ends at death. Nevertheless, God is before birth and still is after death. That’s what makes Him all-knowing, all-understanding and His wisdom is extremely beyond ours because He knows what we don’t know. He knows what happens before the beginning and after the end of what we know. Hence, even when we think we have reached the end and there is no other way out, God can still make a way where there seems to be no way.

He proved this by showing us that life can still exist after death. His power defeated death. Not only concerning the life of Jesus Christ, but also in the Old Testament; in Ezekiel 37:1-14 when God did not resurrect the dead but created an army out of dry bones of the dead. When Israel felt all their hope was lost and their bones were dried (verse 11), He showed them that he could get hope out of the grave.

In the Gospel books, Jesus used to heal the sick and raise a few who had just died and people were getting used to such miracles not until he performed a wonder that was beyond the regular.

They reported to Jesus in John 11:3 that his friend Lazarus was sick and in verse 4 Jesus told the disciples that ‘his sickness was not unto death but for the glory of God that the son of God might be glorified there by’. Through the story we realize that Jesus did not rush to lay hands on Lazarus but allowed him to undergo what people saw as death (yet to God, he was just asleep). Jesus reached four days after Lazarus was buried. Mary and Martha had hope and faith that Jesus would perform a miracle but their trust in His power was limited to a certain point and beyond that point they gave up on believing for a miracle. In Verse 21, Martha told Jesus “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died”. However, Jesus still kept the word He had told the disciples earlier that Lazarus was only sleeping and when He went to the grave He called him up and he responded by coming out of the grave.

Many times we reach those points in life where our faith is dimmed to nothing and there is practically no reason to hope. However, God uses some of those instances to reveal His majesty above all circumstances. If life was a soccer game, God would be the best player at scoring winning goals during the extra time. He knows how to create a dry path in the midst of the red sea when there is nowhere to hide; in the burning furnace, he is there to make it cool such that you are not consumed. His power performs miracles when there is no more reason to hope. He is the God who can still intervene beyond what we consider the last minute. It’s not yet over until God says it’s over.