For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Rev. 21
Which elements of the new heavens and new earth are you most looking forward to, and why? Reading through this this morning I saw for the first time the New Jerusalem as a symbol of Christ’s Church. “’Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” (Rev. 21:9b-10). Though it doesn’t say the specific words, the Bible makes it pretty clear that we, the Church, are Christ’s bride.
In the Old Testament, God called out Abraham and made a nation of him for Himself. He made a covenant with this nation so that He could be their God and they could be His people. Then he gave them an inheritance, a land to dwell in. He established His temple in Jerusalem, as part of His covenant, so that He could dwell among His people in the land that He gave them. All of this was done as both something of an object lesson, if you will, and as a replica of the real thing that was to come.
After all of this, God sent His Son, Jesus. Through Him, God built a kingdom of priests – those who serve God. His Son became a new covenant for the people of this new kingdom, a kingdom made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, so that He can be our God and we can be His people. We have an inheritance in this kingdom. And we are the New Jerusalem, the place where God dwells, with Jesus as our temple. That is the real thing. That is God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. Beautiful!
Job 8-10
What is the thrust of Bildad’s argument and Job’s response? Which view do you resonate with? Bildad is certain he understands a God who is beyond our understanding. He has boiled life and our relationship with God down to a simple and tidy recipe. Do what is right and you receive God’s blessing. Do what is wrong and you receive His judgment. Bildad could not accept that Job did nothing to deserve his suffering because it flew in the face of his beliefs. Rather than considering his beliefs might be flawed, he accused Job.
While there is some broad scale truth to Bildad’s belief, God does not fit into anyone’s simplistic formula. We need to be very careful about trying to put God into a box. This is especially true when we assume, as Job’s friends did, that God’s actions are dependent on us. Job, at least, did not make that mistake. He fully acknowledged God’s sovereignty. He doesn’t even seem to me to be accusing God of doing wrong. Because God is sovereign, who is man to question what God does? But Job certainly seems to question God’s love. He considered injustices in the world beyond his own and, because he knew God to be sovereign, he believed it must be God who does these things. Again, he doesn’t seem to be saying that God is wrong in doing these things, just that He is uncaring.
Job made an interesting comment in all of this, though, that I have never picked up on before. He said of God, “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer Him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of Him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.” (Job 9:32-35).
So, besides having Job’s story to learn from, we have something else that Job did not to help us through our suffering. We have Jesus, God in the form of a mere mortal, who died and was resurrected to be the mediator who removes God’s rod from us and brings us back to Him. We have unshakable confirmation of God’s love for us.