The King is Coming

Day 53:  1 Samuel 11-15; Isaiah 61-66; 2 Corinthians 4-6

Wow! I am psyched!  I completed reading Isaiah!  That's sixty-six chapters of "Woe unto you," and "OK, let's make up!"  I apologize for my attempt at cynical humor.  But the prophets have always been my weakest area of scriptural knowledge.  I just get so bored with it so quickly.  And yet there are words that strike a chord with my heart and open me to heaven.  There is great hope in the prophets in the midst of severe warnings and foreboding predictions of God's wrath.

I may be guilty of having ears but not hearing, eyes to see but no understanding.  King Saul had a problem of not listening.  It's obvious he listened more to his fear of losing the people's trust than he was about obeying God.

He rescues the people from an Ammonite attack on Jabesh-gilead and he is exalted before them as one they can trust as their savior king (1 Sam 11:12-15).  But he quickly fails to obey the Lord he had served as the people's leader.  The Philistines amass near Saul's dwellings at Michmash for war.  Saul calls all Israel to battle, but they hide instead in caves, hills and rocks because of the massive army of the enemy.

When Saul sees the men deserting he doesn't wait on Samuel the prophet to offer sacrifice and seek the Lord's help.  Instead he does it himself.  He has no authority to make offerings to the Holy One of Israel.  He won't be the last king to try it either. 

As a result Samuel tells Saul, "You have been foolish.You have not kept the command which the LORD your God gave you. It was at this time that the LORD would have permanently established your reign over Israel, but now your reign will not endure. The LORD has found a man loyal to Him, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not done what the LORD commanded (1 Sam. 13:13-14)."

The king is coming who will be loyal to God first and foremost.  This kind of leadership lifts the people's eyes from fear to faith. There are more stories of Saul's failure to keep vows, honor the sacrificial portions that belong to the Lord, and others. 

Isaiah writes words on the other side of the exile in Babylon.  God is calling them home.  And a great vision is shared of God creating a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem for all the world to come and bless His name and enjoy the blessings of His people in a city where peace flows like a river.

Those who reject God will be on display rotting in the valley of Hinnom (the trash heap) out side the city walls.  This is where the concept of Gehenna (hell) comes from.  Gehenna is a trash dump for refuse.  Decaying matter creates methane gas and attracts flies and their maggot worm larvae.  The fires at the dump burn continually as more gas is created by anaerobic bacteria and the addition of more organic garbage.  The worms never die because there is a continual supply. 

But this inside the city of the new Jerusalem are blessed and shine with light.  Isaiah lays the foundation for Jewish Christians who write about heaven.  The king is coming and those who love Him and obey Him will join Him in His kingdom come!

Paul writes the Corinthians about this heavenly home. 

"For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ...so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment." (2 Cor. 5:1, 4b-5)

Paul tells the church that because of our hope in our eternal home, we know our troubles on earth are light and momentary compared to the "absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17)."  So we concentrate on unseen things, not on the things seen in this world.  We walk by faith, not by sight. We try to live lives pleasing to the Lord knowing that one day we will appear at His tribunal (courtroom) "that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or worthless (2 Cor. 5:10)."

The King is coming!  Open your heart completely and your mind, your ears, your eyes and you soul that the King of Glory may come into you, His temple.  Each day open yourself to the kingdom come through the Spirit that dwells in you.  His peace will remind you of the peace of your heavenly home.  You are a new creation in Christ, for now through the Holy Spirit you share in the glory of the new heaven and earth.  On behalf of Christ be reconciled to God and share the message of reconciliation with others.  The King is coming!

Amen.