Life Matters - January 24, 2024
History repeats itself and the future has nothing new. The preacher put it this way; “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
As we ponder the past and wonder at the future we can most certainly be assured that Jehovah God of the past is, and will be, Jehovah God of the future. He is God today and will be God tomorrow. And as God of the past, present, and future there is nothing hidden from the eyes of His understanding. Not of the past, not of the present, nor of the future.
There is a day coming when we shall know as we are known, (1 Corinthians 13:12) but for now we do not. For we do not see the full picture, the full view. God has, however, given us hints, glimpses of the future, through prophetic utterances, through ceremony, and through symbolism. Of symbolic structure and ceremony, the temple of Jehovah God stands out in the Old Testament of God’s Holy Word. It was an object lesson of the coming Messiah, of God’s unbendable law and of His mercy upon those who trust Him for natural and spiritual sustenance. From the blood on its sacrificial altars to the veil shrouding the Holy of Holies being rent from the top to the bottom when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, to rise again for our justification, the symbolism and ceremonies were fulfilled and superseded by the One of whom they witnessed. The shadow fled away at the arrival of He who cast it.
“The Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world,” (Revelation 13:8) was not new to the mind and heart of God. It had only become a “new and living way” to His finite humanity. We may well see a lot of “new” things and changes, but to our Creator God the things that are, have been, and the things that have been, are still. The digital “inventions” of today are not so much the creation of new things as they are discoveries of the old, of that which has been from the dawn of creation. Every bit of metal, every bit of silicon, every airwave used to transmit sound and pictures into space, then to the earth, were here from the beginning of time. Knowledge, as God showed the prophet Daniel, has increased exponentially in these last days. (Daniel 12:4) Knowledge about old things applied in ways possible from the beginning and only recently discovered.
Of these recent discoveries, digital technology stands out in its ability to change the way the world functions and the way its people relate. While it can be used for good, even a cursory observation so far shows that the devil is employing his old devices to overpower this “new” technology for his own wicked ends. We are confronted with a spiritual “civil cold war” where Truth is always in question by its enemies while those enemies of truth are quickly offended when their lives are brought into question. Questions are a critical part of the human experience in every quest for Truth.
Questions can also be an avoidance of Truth as exemplified by the enemies of Jesus, but we speak here of an honest, sincere, quest for reality as given to us by God in His Holy Word applied to everyday life.
The attack on Reality and Truth is nothing new either, its enemies have only found a heretofore unknown weapon to employ against it. The attack on Truth and Reality is a call to arms for every Christian. It is a call to employ the weapons supplied to us against lies and for Truth. Truth is the most painful when it exposes negatives about oneself or of loved ones. We all know that to be true, because all of us have experienced it to one degree or another; have we not? When Truth exposes something negative to our conscience, we immediately find ourselves at a crossroad. To accept the Truth or reject it. When Truth is accepted, we find ourselves at another crossroad; to repent, give it to Jesus who receives every repentant heart, cleanses, and sets free. Then to rise and continue in that freedom. Or to look to oneself, to cower, to fall back, to drop out of the fray, to lose the freedom of a clear conscience.
The freedom of a clear conscience is priceless. That freedom is of utmost necessity for Christian courage… “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God,and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
So as we ponder the past and wonder at the future, may our courage be continually refreshed by the presence of Jesus whose own temple was broken for us at “The Old Rugged Cross” and then rebuilt on that fresh Easter morning. That is an old story, always new in its freshness. Good for the past, the present, and the future.
Life Matters!