I want to be more like you, Jesus. How many of us have prayed that prayer? We want to shine His light unto the world. We want to reflect God’s glory. Well, go with me for a minute. In Ezekiel 28, the Bible talks about the devil. It describes the stones that were in him. It gets interesting when you compare them to the stones of the priest’s breastplate that are listed in Exodus 28.
Ezekiel 28:13 KJV the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold
Exodus 28:17-20 KJV 17 a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond,a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst, a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.
Now we know that the devils original design was meant to reflect God’s glory. Imagine if you will, God entering the “anointed cherub’s” presence and God’s light shining against all those stones. This must have been a beautiful sight to behold. Apparently, this went to the devil’s head, and well, we know the rest of the story. Now, let’s pay attention that there are three stones in the priest’s breastplate that were not in the devil’s design. These three are the ligure, the agate and the amethyst. I would like to focus on the color of these three. Because if you’re trying to reflect light, color matters. The ligure is a yellowish green color. The agate is blue, red, purple, black, green, brown, pink. The amethyst is purple. It is interesting that bruises can be blue, purple, black, pink, brown, or yellow green. Follow me if you will. This is how we differ from the enemy. We have the ability to know Jesus on a different level. We can be like Him through suffering. We may suffer with Him and for Him. If you’re having trouble or pain, if you have been talked about or persecuted for being a Christian then rejoice. Yes, rejoice that we get to have this fellowship that the angels who are in His presence cannot.
Matthew 5:11-12 ISV 11 “How blessed are you whenever people insult you, persecute you, and say all sorts of evil things against you falsely because of me! 12 Rejoice and be extremely glad, because your reward in heaven is great! That’s how they persecuted the prophets who came before you.”
Know that if we are going to be more like Jesus and shine His light, then we will go through some type of suffering. We may all have different battles or pains that we suffer, but there will be something. Understand that it is not that God has forgotten us. No, it is that He is making us more like Him.
Philippians 3:10 KJV That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Romans 5:3-5 WEB 3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: 5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.