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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Out of the World of Out of the Evil?, #7
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)
The above quotation sums up the burden of the Hebrew Prophets.
Christ Himself, as revealed in the fullness of the new Jerusalem, is "the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
We do not find in the Old Testament an emphasis on dying in order that we may leave the earth and go to Heaven as to a place. We do notice the promise of the coming of the Messianic Kingdom to the earth.
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice Before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. (Psalms 96:12,13)
The words of Jesus are in keeping with the promise of the Kingdom: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil [one]."
The third fact emphasizing that the pilgrimage of the heroes of faith is not from earth to Heaven, with Heaven being the permanent goal, is Hebrews 11:40:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
The verse preceding the above verse (11:39) states that while they did receive a good report through faith, the patriarchs did not receive the promise.
Now, beyond question, the patriarchs are in Heaven around the Throne of God. Yet the Scripture states that they did not receive the "promise." What promise? And what does the expression mean, "that they without us should not be made perfect"?
If eternal residence in Heaven is the goal of the saint, and the patriarchs now are in Heaven around the Throne of God, Hebrews 11:39,40 does not make sense. They already are perfect, if going to Heaven is the "rest," the perfection of God. Why should they be waiting for us in order to be "made perfect"?
But if the goal of the Christian faith is our being made perfect, our personal transformation into the image of Christ in spirit, in soul, and—at His coming—in body, the bringing forth of an entirely new creation, then Hebrews 11:39,40 does make sense. It is in accord with the remainder of God's Word.
The patriarchs in Heaven cannot be made perfect apart from us because the Bride of the Lamb, of which the patriarchs are members, will be raised from the dead and ascend to meet the Lord when He appears. The saints of every age will be raised together and perfected in the resurrection.
The city that the patriarchs sought is coming to the earth.
For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Hebrews 13:14)
To be continued.