Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street
Friday, October 03, 2008
Micah 4
God has a great plan for the fulfillment of His glory. That plan is bigger than the nations of Israel and Judah, though it surely involves His Old Covenant people. In the days of Micah God spoke through His prophet about a future day calling it the latter days. We begin to have a taste of what Micah spoke of in the gospel age in which we now live. We see more of this when we go to be with the Lord, but it is ultimately in the age of resurrection that comes with the return of Christ when we see the greatness of the Lord’s glorious will.
How can we know what the age of resurrection will be like? We are told about a new earth. There must be some very significant continuity between the present earth and the new place of blessing, or it would not make any sense to use the word earth in describing that future place. We are also told about a new heaven.Once again there must be some very significant continuity between the present heaven and the new place of blessing, or it would not make any sense to use the word heaven in describing that future place.We are told that this future place will descend from heaven and will bring about a renewed earth. The place of blessing in the resurrection age must have significant continuity with the existing heaven and earth, and yet be new in certain ways, that can only be thought of as discontinuity.
That new day that Micah speaks of has already begun in the preaching of the gospel of a Jewish Messiah. The nations are streaming into the church over these centuries as the good news of Christ and the resurrection is proclaimed. The words of familiarity from Micah’s day, during the age of the Law, were well used to speak to the people about the coming age of the gospel. We who were once strangers to the Lord’s covenant people are now learning now of God’s ways as a part of the new living temple of the Holy Spirit. Even now we hear His Word, we worship Him, and we know something of His presence and His love.A day is coming when the Lord will come in judgment, and will bring something very new. What is the nature of the discontinuity that makes this resurrection age new? That new day will be a day of justice.Now we see much injustice. That new day will be a day of peace. Now we see much war. That new day will be a day of security. Now we experience much fear. The greater blessings that the Apostle speaks of when he refers to the end of His life on earth and his presence then with the Lord will one day cover the entire renewed earth. This sure hope comes to us by the mouth of the Lord of heavenly hosts. He has spoken.
The experience of people all over the earth today is a confusing story of multiple gods, an idolatry that even snares people of faith.In the coming age God’s children will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. God will gather those who have been injured badly in this time of His curse, and He will make them to be a part of His glorious nation. When Jesus made the lame walk, that was a small taste of the fulfillment of the Lord’s great promises. The Lord will be with us as our King, not only spiritually, but physically, for He will descend, judge, and renew.He will not merely visit for a time.He will reign in that new Kingdom without end.
Getting to the place of those latter days from the time of Isaiah will not be easy.First there will be an exile in Babylon, a restoration of a remnant back to the Promised Land, a final end to the era of the Law, the beginning of the age of the gospel in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the preaching of the gospel over many centuries of suffering and persecution.Yet lest we be weary in well-doing in the midst of Adam’s dying world, the Lord has limited the years here and has given us precious promises and strong encouragement for our souls.Our Savior has gone to the present heaven and takes us there with Him where we live and reign with Him until the time of resurrection has fully come. This is a wonderful limitation upon our present suffering while we wait for the coming of all the people of God.
While we hate to see people die, and we continue to mourn the fall of Adam and the consequences that we feel from that fall in the absence of those we love, it would not be a better plan to have people remain on this present earth for centuries upon centuries, facing continued trials and troubles. It is a great thing that there is already a present heaven where righteousness dwells, and where the problem of our experience of separation from God has already been solved. It is wonderful that we who believe on this present earth and those who see the certainty of Christ in their heavenly home are both sharing in the same future hope of the resurrection age, the complete fulfillment of the words of Micah 4.
The common link between those who wait here below and those who wait above is Christ, the great King of the Kingdom. We are in Him even now, and those who have gone to be with Him are surely in Him in a way that is somehow better. He knows what it is to suffer here below. It was here that He faced the “normal” byproducts of the fall that we face. It was also here that He suffered the rejection of men who should have recognized Him as the Messiah King. It was here that he faced the cross, by which the wrath of our Holy God was satisfied. If we suffer with Him now on this earth below, when our surviving friends and families lay our mortal bodies to rest in the grave, we go to where our Lord is now in the present heaven. One day we will return with Him in glory, and we will live with Him forever in the age of resurrection after the present heaven transforms a delightfully renewed earth. This hope by which we live, is an ancient hope, made more sure through the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His ascension to the present heaven.
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