Basics, Incredible Visions, and my Inheritance

Ezekiel 43:1–44:31, Revelation 21:9–27, Job 39:1–10, 1 Peter 1:3–4, Malachi 3:17

Job is suffering and questions if God hears, or cares, or can do anything about it. I’ve been there, and God just does the same thing with me as He did with Job. He takes him to some basics about Himself. He asks questions about nature and confirms His control over every living thing. He also asks questions that confirm Job’s lack of power, such as: “Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?” (Job 39:9–10)

Obviously Job cannot expect a wild animal to meekly plow his fields. However, the point is that God is in charge and Job is not. The Lord is challenging Job to trust His wisdom and power. He is loving, wise, and able to do the impossible.

God’s perfections are also seen in the directions He gives Ezekiel for the construction and use of the perfect temple. He describes how the priests will not be like other people. They cannot own land or be involved in normal commerce. Instead, God Himself will provide for them.

He says, “This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. And the first of all the firstfruits of all kinds, and every offering of all kinds from all your offerings, shall belong to the priests. You shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, that a blessing may rest on your house.” (Ezekiel 44:28–30)

An easy interpretation is considering what this meant to Israel. For them, this was about their priests and that is all. However, this devotional book called “Connect the Testaments” has me thinking about the relationship between the OT temple and what God says in the NT about Christians being the temple of God with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. For that, as I read Ezekiel, I’m seeing more parallels between what he writes and what comes later.

The NT talks of my inheritance also. It says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:3–4)

Ephesians says that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of my inheritance until I acquire possession of it. (Ephesians 1:11–14) and Hebrews 9 clarifies that because Jesus died (and His death redeems me), this inheritance is given to me and all “those who are called” to receive it.

I understand this to mean that heaven may be a lot of things, but for me it is about being with God forever. He is my eternal reward, the inheritance with my name on it!

Revelation’s visions given to John seem to be saying the same thing. First, he is invited to see “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb” which throughout the NT refers to the church, or the body of people God has redeemed. However, John does not see a mass of people. He sees something that has puzzled me . . .

“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” (Revelation 21:9–11)

How can the Bride be the holy city? Why does this vision point to jewels and incredible beauty? A verse from the OT in the King James Version comes to mind: “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” (Malachi 3:17, KJV)

God uses poetic language to speak of His “treasured possession” as those who put their faith in Him for eternal life. When that inheritance is received in its fullness, He will bring us together in heaven and we will be like a city made of precious stones.

Where does the temple come into this picture? It doesn’t and yet it does! The Word of God gives John’s comment on the vision he saw of the holy city: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:22)

Right now, Christ is in me and I am a temple of the Holy Spirit. In glory, I will be in Christ and He will be my Temple and my eternal place of worship.

I Spy God, God Spies me

The Old Testament tabernacle of the Lord didn’t look like much on the outside, but on the inside it was gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, tapestry, beauty. God gave pages and pages of directions for its construction, and called the people to give what they desired. “All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.” (Exodus 35:29)

Then the work began. “And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, ‘The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.’ So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, ‘Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.’ So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.” (Exodus 36:2–7)

Today I sat in church and looked around for evidence of the beauty in God’s dwelling place, now in the hearts of His people. I saw musicians and singers lead the worship and people helping people find places to sit. Upstairs, dedicated workers taught the children. In the kitchen, a crew prepared brunch. One man preached a message definitely graced by God. Another invited worship and prayer. At the end of the service, dozens of people moved chairs, brought out tables, flipped on white tablecloths, and moved the chairs around them. The line-up moved quickly and in no time, we sat in fellowship together, about 400 people. A few left their meal to blow up balloons for the children. After we finished eating, many more stacked chairs and cleaned up, both in the sanctuary and the kitchen. Some would go home with family. Some would go out to serve the needy. This is God’s New Covenant tabernacle, the place where He lives and where worship happens. What a joy!

Solomon wrote: “Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all choice spices— a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.” (Song of Solomon 4:13–16)

He was thinking of the bride in all her beauty. Did she remind him of the delights of God’s tabernacle? Maybe she did. But he could not look into the future and see the Bride of Christ, the church. Today I watched her and saw beauty, the spices flowing, and I rejoiced to be there, seeking God and He found Me.

One day in the life of Jesus, His disciples set across the water while Jesus went up on a mountain to pray. They encountered a storm and were afraid, but Jesus walked on the water to them. The next day the crowd that remained saw that there was only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but they had gone away alone. Other boats came, but the crowd could not find Jesus or His disciples, so “they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.” (John 6:22–24) Would they find Him?

Those who came to that “tent of meeting” called the tabernacle were seeking God. These who got in the boats and set out across the water were seeking God. Yet God was first seeking them. He found them in the tent in the wilderness. He found them like choice spices and fruits in a garden. He still finds all who seek Him.

Yet even more amazing is what He also says, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” (Romans 10:20)

This is the love of God. Not only does He find those who seek Him — but He also seeks those are not interested, and finds those who are not seeking Him.

A Wedding on the Calendar

Next weekend we have a wedding in the family. A niece is getting married and I’m sure she is making preparations and very excited about her wedding day. We look forward to it also, not only the wedding part, but the opportunity to see family that we haven’t seen for a long time. The date is on the calendar and our niece knows exactly when she is supposed to be ready for her groom to step forward and receive her as his bride.

During New Testament times, weddings involved the bride preparing for the groom’s arrival at her home. When he showed up, she would go with him to his house and the festivities would follow. Jesus used this custom to illustrate the importance of being prepared for His return. He spoke of ten young women who were to meet the bridegroom and escort him to the bride’s home. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’”

Since he came at night, the ten needed torches or lamps to guide him. However, in this parable, only five were ready. The rest did not have oil in their lamps and while they went to get some, “those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.”

For centuries, date-setters have predicted that precise moment when Jesus will return, even though the Bible says no one knows the day or the hour. What is certain is that we must be ready. However, as I read this parable, I’m thinking this story is not for Christians.

The Bible calls us the “bride of Christ” and we WILL be ready because He has made us so and the ceremony is a certainty. The parable is instead about those who hang around, perhaps those who know us and want to be part of what is going to happen, but they are missing something; they are not ready. If they are not prepared when He comes, they will not be admitted to the festivities when Christ is united forever with His Bride.

This parable is recorded in Matthew 25 between two others that both say the same thing. Of two servants, only one was looking for his master’s return and the other was not ready. Of people given talents, two used them wisely while the third had misconceptions of the master, didn’t use his talent, was called an “unprofitable servant” and “cast into outer darkness.” Jesus is calling those who don’t know Him to be ready before He comes again.

Christians long for the return of Christ. We want to see Him, to finally fully know and understand Him, worship and adore Him. Everyone else either fears His coming, or mocks it and doesn’t believe it will happen.

The latter group is foretold in 2 Peter 3:2-4. He says, “Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’”

This passage goes on to say they willfully forget about the flood that destroyed the world because of sin, and ignore the warnings of God that He will judge the earth with fire. These warnings are also mocked.

But the passage offers an explanation of why it is taking so long for Jesus, like the bridegroom in His story, to come for His bride. Verse 9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward you, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Verses 10-12 continue, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the great day of God . . . ?”

So those are my marching orders for today. I’m to remember that God promised Jesus will return and this world will be judged. I’m to live accordingly, demonstrating holiness and godliness in my own life. I’m to give my full energy to my responsibilities yet keep His return in mind. I don’t know when He will show up, but I want to make sure that this bride is ready.