Discipleship Encouragement and Correction, Doctrinal Teachings
This is Too Cool A Story to Sleep Through
I absolutely love this verse! Every time I read it, I am awe of God. In reading this verse I have this sense that God laid out His plan right to left, but for us, we’re reading history, left to right. Oh, oh… and consider the fact that our God, Who dwells in eternity; which exists without an a beginning or an end, is applying one here. It’s like we’re living within an eternal parenthesis, starting with creation and ending at the final judgment. Oh, oh… and then everything starts out brand spanking new! Spanking new… cool, like a newborn, but in this case, a rebirth of all creation; better than ever, with Christ seated on the throne. But lest I digress amidst my enthusiasm….
Now what I find really cool is how God, working from the end back (how is that the Gospel of John precedes Genesis in time anyway?), God progressively laid everything out (going in our time left to right) where more and more of His plan is revealed. Like after Adam’s fall, we get this veiled covenant: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15 Adam probably looked at Eve and said, ‘What’s with that?’ Then, the Lord goes on to reveal the expansion of His covenant with choosing Abraham; then renewing His covenant with Israel, then Moses, then David, all the while giving us more and more information about Himself and His plan.
Oh, oh… and when we might have learned in church about some of the basic prophecies of the Messiah, which were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born (you know: place of birth, name, where He would be born, where he went [Egypt], how He would die for our sins….) there’s a really great summary verse in Jeremiah 3:16 of what would happen in the future, which heralded the transition of God’s plan from the Old to the New Testament:
“And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.” Jer. 3:16
What was that? The Jews would no longer speak of the Ark of the Covenant? Are you kidding? Why? Oh, oh… Do you remember what was in the Ark? There was the manna, the blossoming rod, and the two tables of the law. It wouldn’t be spoken of because in the New Testament, Jesus is introduced as our bread of life! He too is the blossoming rod Who came back to life as King, and in Christ, He utterly fulfilled the Law and His righteousness was imputed to those whom God called. Crazy huh? Still, people don’t believe it (or maybe they kind of suspect that something is a little bigger out there in the universe than them but don’t want to admit it.) Nonetheless….
That kind of catches us up to the present, but it’s not like God isn’t progressively revealing what we need to know to live today. He gave us the prophetic utterances of Jesus and the Apostles; not to mention the Book of Revelation. They question is are we keeping up with the times? Have you been watching what is going on in the world? My goodness… no, for God’s goodness… wake up from your slumber folks! Today could be that day. If anything we can learn from history and from the Scripture, God has written our history, continues to roll it out, and we, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, should not be caught sleeping in the next turn of events.
Why? This is too cool a story to sleep through and we are inching our way towards the final parenthetical end mark.
