June 11, 2012

  • God Wouldn't Stay in His Room!

                

            Since the fall of humanity in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to sever the intimate relationship they had enjoyed with their creator, Yahweh God, there has been a deep divide.  There was a separation, an alienation, a hostility and for them--death as they were cast out of Eden where the tree of Life remained.  For God, His inter-sanctum was Heaven, the most Holy Place of His dwelling.  A typical view of His usual domain is an immense room centered by a throne with a sea of glass surrounding it and immersed in unapproachable light emanating from the glory of His presence.  It is a profoundly sacred place.

             In stark contrast is the earth which is clearly depicted by Scriptures as a polluted and completely profane environment, corrupted by satan and sin, and plagued by death.  It should not be surprising therefore that on those rare occasions when Yahweh visited earth, it was a big deal.  Often fire (a cleansing agent), smoke, bright glistening light (unbearably bright) or the thunderous rushing sound of great volumes of water accompanied Him.  And of course whenever the Holy God of Heaven came into the midst of sinful unholy human beings, people died--often a lot of them.  Yahweh God knew this.  So, although we might think His remaining in Heaven would be a good thing for us, He understood that it wasn’t.

            Though confining Himself to Heaven for the short term might seem to be good for sparing human life, in reality Yahweh knew full well that that would mean the ultimate death for all  humanity.  Jeremiah had spoken quite correctly; “I know God, that mere mortals can’t run their own lives, that men and women don’t have what it takes to take charge of life” (Jeremiah 10:23 [MSG]).  And the Psalmist backed that up with the clear assertion that people are totally incapable of keeping “themselves alive” (Psalm 22:29).  Humankind without divine intervention, implodes completely.  It is an inevitable, but intolerable reality for both ourselves and God!

    Consider the impassioned cry of Yahweh over His creation as viewed through the pen of Hosea His prophet: 

                        

            This reading contains both the dilemma and its solution.  The Holy God of Heaven loves intensely and has always longed for an intimately close relationship with an unholy people that His Holiness cannot tolerate.  People need  an intimately close relationship with Him for their very existence.  They cannot live without Him!  However, it is humanly impossible for His people to erase (even if they wanted  to which they often did not!) the anger and hostility that their sinfulness had created.  The answer to this impossible dilemma is that God is not human.  God is GOD.  As God, He has done the impossible!   He has both retained His innate Holiness and intimately embraced a people that had been very unholy (He has come into their very midst for their good!).

            Jesus, the Immanuel (‘God with us’) came to earth, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, was raised from the tomb and ascended on high presenting Himself (and His blood) as atonement for the sins of all humanity before His Father’s throne once for all time.  As He died on the cross, Jesus had cried out; “It is finished!”  And in that moment of His death, the veil or curtain of the temple had been ripped from top to bottom signifying that free and open access to the Father was now available to all  people everywhere through His Son, Jesus Christ. The work had been done and Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father on High.

            As long as God stayed in His throne room [Heaven], there would be distance, alienation, enmity, hostility, anger, wrath, separation----and death–for humanity.  It was an intolerable situation both for us--and  for God.  As long as we were separated from God--the source of life, we were, distant, alienated and condemned-without help or hope in this world.  And this was a big deal for God as well.  We need God for life, but He has chosen to need us for love!  And because of this great and profound love and compassion for His people and the total ruin that devastated them, God couldn’t stay in His room  and refused to do so!  

            The message of the ‘torn curtain’ is that God is no longer angry with us—He is out of His room!   Not only are we now able to approach the majestic throne of Yahweh God with confidence and boldness, but He also now has free and open access to us, His people!  He is here  in our midst—among us  and there is now no fear, devastation or death!  He dwells among us for our good and blessing!  And it is the message of Peace!

                         

                                                                                                                                                             

    [References  for further study:  Isaiah 59:2, Revelation 4:1-8, I John 5:19, II Corinthians 4:4, Hebrews 9:1-28, I Timothy 3:16, John 19:30, Mark 15:37-8, Hebrews 10:12 and Revelation 21:1-7]