Music: Handel's Messiah, Easter Changes Everything

Continuing to share some thoughts invoked by reading through the lyrics of Handel's Messiah.

Tracks 40-43

Psalm 2:1,2 (Acts 4:25-26), 3, 4 and 9.
Why do the heathen rage, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us. He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Jesus is constantly under attack in every age?

Today, the attacks are in the form of things like the Da Vinci Code where the life of Jesus is mutated into something completely different than what the Gospel's record and the Early Church proclaimed. There are some who even go so far as to say Jesus never even existed. Around Easter and Christmas, there are usually one-hour TV specials and special features in popular magazines proclaiming the latest theories of "Who was Jesus really?" And there are those (Dawkins and Harris) who say that Christianity is not only false but the source of evil in the world.

Indeed, Christians should speak up and make a defense for the hope that is within us.

The Psalm 2 imagery is of God as the ultimate King who laughs at the machinations of kings of this world. As one pastor I heard while preaching the Book of Revelation said, "Jesus is going to win." Those who oppose a holy and righteous God doing deeds of evil will be nothing more than clay pots against the mighty scepter of a just Messiah.