A Blessing for the Coming-One, updated

If
By Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run
--Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Funny, after titling this blog, I'm coming back to it some days later as I came across this scripture that gave me chills of pertinence. I didn't realize I made a scriptural reference in the blog title:

Luke 7:19 says, "And John, (the Baptist) calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"

Many believe this means John lost faith in the nature of Christ, but I wonder how could this be? For even when they were both yet in the womb, John responded to the nearness of the Lord. He was wired from before birth to perceive the reality of Jesus the Nazarene.

When the pregnant Mary approached the pregnant Elizabeth, Elizabeth said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." (Luke 1:42-45)

So...how could the Baptist lose faith? It would make as much sense to say that one of his limbs simply fell off one day. No, I think he was asking Jesus whether Our Lord was walking the earth not only as the Suffering Servant Messiah--the one foretold by Isaiah, whose prophetic words foretold the existence of the Baptist himself--but also as another one foretold, one hidden in the quiver of God, one depicted as the arrow of Ephraim that was to be shot from the bow of Judah in that time when the enmity between Judah and Ephraim is ended...and maybe this is why Jesus Himself says in Revelation:

Rev 2:18

And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet [are] like fine brass;...

Rev 2:26
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

Rev 2:27
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. (quote of Psalm 2:9)

Rev 2:28
And I will give him the morning star.

Is Jesus that bow of Judah? And if so, why haven't we looked for the arrow He will send forth? Why aren't we looking for one to whom He will give this power over the natioins? Why aren't we wondering who He will present with the morning star, especially considering what else He says about this star He will give:
Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
To me, it reads like He will give Himself to one who overcomes, who will rule the nations according to the description David saw and Jesus quoted from Psalm 2. For what does this Psalm say?

Psa 2:7
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Psa 2:8
Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession.

And Jesus Christ quotes the following part of that Psalm as what He bequeathes to that same one to whom He will give the morning star, namely Himself:

Psa 2:9
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Psa 2:10
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Psa 2:11
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

What are we to make of these words of His? What are we to make of His choice of prophecy to quote with regard to His passing of His mantle, in a sense? Just how much will this joint-heir status get condensed in the life of humanity? But these are things too large to spend much time thinking on, without pauses for prayer and reflection and waiting...maybe because God still keeps the fullness of it hidden, except for those faint echos across time...echos like the one you heard here, Rudyard.