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I posted this on Thursday, July 19, 2012. I post it again.
There is such inexpressible and perpetual activity in the holy realms, it is breathtaking to think of. All heaven is working under command of our Holy God to ready for the Time. What time? The time when God says to Jesus, "Go get your bride!" And His deposit of our inheritance will be redeemed in full! (Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 1:22). All of time, history, prophecy, and Holy Sovereign Decree has been moving toward the time of fulfillment of the promises of Jesus to His Bride and the promises of God to His people the Jews. Everything.
If you have ever been involved in a project, you know the cycles you go through. There's the initial excitement, the middle part slow slogging, then the hurry up, 'oh my goodness the deadline is approaching!' feeling. I lived on a sailboat for two years, and the few days before we launch is a hectic rush of never-ending activity to get all the provisions on board. The deadline to leave port is hard and fast, one which liveaboard cruisers and Navy personnel know the feeling well. If you ever have opened a restaurant, or built a house, or sold a house and had to move, gotten ready to graduate, gotten married...you know that the activity to prepare for the event by the deadline is never ending and increases the closer the deadline comes.
We do not know the day or hour the Father will tell His Son to go get His bride, but we can sense the deadline nearing. There is a massive amount of activity, some of it seen and some of it unseen.
But back to the bible's pictures of activity. Didn't Jesus say, "In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" (John 14:2).
Things are being prepared, right now. Our lodging in New Jerusalem. Our feast. The temple perhaps. I don't know, but He is preparing. He is engaged in activity to ready for the moment when a flood of redeemed souls enter glory to dwell with Him forever.
He is also preparing for the moment when His promises to his people the Jews come to fulfillment and the Kingdom Comes. Here is one specific glimpse of that preparation:
A Vision of a Man with a Measuring Line
"And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” (Zechariah 2:1-2).
Zechariah had been awakened and was shown a series of 8 astounding visions all in one night. One of them is that God sent a surveyor (likely The Angel of the LORD, Jesus) to measure the place where the final Jerusalem will be, its exact size and placement! Rejoice O Jerusalem! "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her;" (Isaiah 66:10).
Right now Jerusalem is called Egypt and Sodom, (Revelation 11:8), but someday it will be cleansed, and it will become the holy city God intended it to be.
Look! He is so gracious, He showed Ezekiel also! "In the visions God brought me to the land of Israel, set me on a high mountain in which there was a structure like a city on the south. And he brought me there and behold there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed and he stood in the gate." (Ezekiel 40:2).
Measuring ... preparing ... So much activity:
"And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!" (Genesis 28:12).
Going and coming ... ascending and descending ... Not just in the Old Testament but the activity continues in the New:
"He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1:51).
The Sovereign God, His Perfect Son, and the Holy Angels are working to bring about the fulfillment of all the glorious promises of the bible. I know we know the judgment promises will come true. The world and the heavens will be UNcreated in a reverse orderly progression that mirrors the 6 days in the Creation. Mountains will crumble. Rivers will dry up. Sun will blink out. Stars will fall. People will die.
But to the positive, He is also readying His universe for the new heavens and the new earth, for the moment when the Father says, "Son, it is time for you to be married. GO GET YOUR BRIDE!"
Is there any doubt that the preparations will have been completed and the glowing glorious heavens will be inexpressibly beautiful? No, no doubt.
"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:2-4)
Our Savior who Saves by grace, our Father, the architect of the earth and the universe, the author of our faith, the redeemer of souls, the Chief of all the Holy Hosts, is preparing...forus.
If you have ever been involved in a project, you know the cycles you go through. There's the initial excitement, the middle part slow slogging, then the hurry up, 'oh my goodness the deadline is approaching!' feeling. I lived on a sailboat for two years, and the few days before we launch is a hectic rush of never-ending activity to get all the provisions on board. The deadline to leave port is hard and fast, one which liveaboard cruisers and Navy personnel know the feeling well. If you ever have opened a restaurant, or built a house, or sold a house and had to move, gotten ready to graduate, gotten married...you know that the activity to prepare for the event by the deadline is never ending and increases the closer the deadline comes.
We do not know the day or hour the Father will tell His Son to go get His bride, but we can sense the deadline nearing. There is a massive amount of activity, some of it seen and some of it unseen.
But back to the bible's pictures of activity. Didn't Jesus say, "In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" (John 14:2).
Things are being prepared, right now. Our lodging in New Jerusalem. Our feast. The temple perhaps. I don't know, but He is preparing. He is engaged in activity to ready for the moment when a flood of redeemed souls enter glory to dwell with Him forever.
He is also preparing for the moment when His promises to his people the Jews come to fulfillment and the Kingdom Comes. Here is one specific glimpse of that preparation:
A Vision of a Man with a Measuring Line
"And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” (Zechariah 2:1-2).
Zechariah had been awakened and was shown a series of 8 astounding visions all in one night. One of them is that God sent a surveyor (likely The Angel of the LORD, Jesus) to measure the place where the final Jerusalem will be, its exact size and placement! Rejoice O Jerusalem! "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her;" (Isaiah 66:10).
Right now Jerusalem is called Egypt and Sodom, (Revelation 11:8), but someday it will be cleansed, and it will become the holy city God intended it to be.
Look! He is so gracious, He showed Ezekiel also! "In the visions God brought me to the land of Israel, set me on a high mountain in which there was a structure like a city on the south. And he brought me there and behold there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed and he stood in the gate." (Ezekiel 40:2).
Measuring ... preparing ... So much activity:
 |
| Wm Blake, Jacob's Ladder, from Wiki |
Going and coming ... ascending and descending ... Not just in the Old Testament but the activity continues in the New:
"He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1:51).
The Sovereign God, His Perfect Son, and the Holy Angels are working to bring about the fulfillment of all the glorious promises of the bible. I know we know the judgment promises will come true. The world and the heavens will be UNcreated in a reverse orderly progression that mirrors the 6 days in the Creation. Mountains will crumble. Rivers will dry up. Sun will blink out. Stars will fall. People will die.
But to the positive, He is also readying His universe for the new heavens and the new earth, for the moment when the Father says, "Son, it is time for you to be married. GO GET YOUR BRIDE!"
Is there any doubt that the preparations will have been completed and the glowing glorious heavens will be inexpressibly beautiful? No, no doubt.
"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:2-4)
Our Savior who Saves by grace, our Father, the architect of the earth and the universe, the author of our faith, the redeemer of souls, the Chief of all the Holy Hosts, is preparing...forus.
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