What a celebration they had at the completion of the
work. It sounds like the most amazing
church conference anyone ever attended, great choirs, all the clergy, the
entire nation praising and singing, great pride in their accomplishments but
really because God had enabled something truly remarkable. Joy was the order of the day and the people
came from near and far to see and to celebrate.
After all the opposition, all the impediments both real and potential,
and after seventy years of this being nothing but rubble, the sight of the city
once again protected and whole must have been truly amazing to see. Nehemiah had in very short order made the
city habitable again, by both man and God.
They had much to celebrate.
We too have something to celebrate. That is the point of the first two parables
here about the kingdom where Jesus uses similes to compare the kingdom of God
to worldly things. What He ultimately
teaches is that it is better than anything you can imagine being real. He says it is as if this unbelievable thing
happened and when it did you gave up everything else because you had to have
this one thing as its worth far surpassed anything else you could have. Do we understand the great gift we have been
given in this way? If we did, our
worship would reflect that. The quality
of our worship in some ways is a good measure of the worth we ascribe to what
we have been given in Jesus. The third
parable tells us that not all get in, some are tossed aside. There is nothing we can do to increase our
value and therefore the likelihood we will be a "keeper", there is no
value higher than Jesus and if we are in Him then God sees us as of infinite
value, one that He must have forever.
The more you make of Him the more He makes of you.
John sees the two witnesses proclaiming truth to the
nations. The temple itself is protected,
signified by the measuring John is given to do.
Everything outside, including the courts where the Gentiles were allowed
to be, is to be trampled. We know that
the temple was destroyed in 70 AD so we also know that the temple itself is no
longer the place where the Lord resides, He is in His people. Here, the witnesses have an appointed task
and until it is complete they have divine protection but when they are done
they will die and then be taken up to heaven three and a half days later for
all to see and then the woes will begin again and the final judgment will
commence. For some it is judgment and
for others it is a day of celebration, not because many will die and perish but
because the end of the world of sin is come and the kingdom of God is
here. Amen, come quickly Lord Jesus!
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