The Golden Lampstand

April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

³¹“You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. ³²And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; ³³three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. ³⁴And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, ³⁵and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. ³⁶Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. ³⁷You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. ³⁸Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. ³⁹It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold. ⁴⁰And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.” – Exodus 25:31-40 ESV

The opening lines of the book of Genesis tell of God’s creation of the universe, and it begins with His dispelling of darkness with light.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. – Genesis 1:1-4 NLT

In God’s grand plan for the universe He created, light would always be preferable to darkness. God deemed the light to be good because it symbolized His own nature.

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. – 1 John 1:5 ESV

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. – James 1:17 NLT

In the same way, God planned for a source of light that would penetrate the darkness of the Tabernacle. This tent-like structure was designed with no windows to let in the light of the sun. And in its innermost recesses, where the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were located, the darkness would make these small rooms virtually unusable. In the impenetrable blackness of these spaces, the priests would have found it difficult to carry out their God-ordained duties. So, God designed a light source, “a lampstand of pure gold” (Exodus 25:31 ESV).

Within the Holy of Holies, God’s presence was intended to dwell above the Mercy Seat which was located on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. Just outside the veil, in the Holy Place where the Table of Showbread and Altar of Incense were located, the Golden Lampstand would symbolize the light of God’s presence. The flames from its seven lamps would illuminate the room and serve as a constant reminder of God’s glory and holiness.

From God’s description of the lampstand, it appears that it had a central shaft or trunk with six branches. At the top of the central shaft and six branches, oil lamps were to be placed. This meant that the lampstand offered seven sources of light to illuminate the Holy Place. This tree-like object was covered in almond blossoms made of pure gold. These budding “flowers” were intended to communicate the idea of light and life. This symbolic tree was to be a constant reminder of God’s providential care for His people. Perhaps it was meant to serve as a symbol of the Tree of Life that was located in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). This same tree is mentioned in the final chapter of the book of Revelation. In his vision, the apostle John is given a glimpse of the New Jerusalem, the city of God that will descend from heaven and serve as the dwelling place of God among men. In that city, the Tree of Life reappears.

Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever. – Revelation 22:1-5 NLT

Notice that there will be no need for lamps or even the sun, “for the Lord God will shine on them.” In this eternal city, God’s presence will come to dwell among His people, and John indicates that in this New Jerusalem, there will be no need of a Tabernacle or Temple.

I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. – Revelation 21:22-27 NLT

But in the Tabernacle God provided for the people of Israel, light would be a necessity. So, God designed a lampstand, a tree of light and life, to dispel the darkness and display His glory. And this lamp would serve as a foreshadowing of a greater and brighter light to come. It was Jesus who would later declare Himself to be the light of the world.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12 ESV

And the apostle John would describe the impact of this divine light.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:4-5 ESV

But Jesus was more than just a source of light; He was the key to life, and He pointed the way to God. Yet, John reminds us that the light of the world was not well received by all.

“…the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” – John 3:19-21 ESV

To come into God’s presence is to enter the light. His glory and goodness expose our sins. But Jesus made it possible for those sins to be atoned for so that we might walk in the light and enjoy the illuminating presence of God in our lives.

The prophet, Isaiah, predicted the coming of the light of the world. Centuries earlier, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah wrote these promising words:

The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine. – Isaiah 9:2 NLT

Then he went on to provide the identity of this “great light.”

For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
    will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
    for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    will make this happen! – Isaiah 9:6-7 NLT

The Golden Lampstand was to be placed in the Holy Place. It was reserved for the benefit of the priests. But the light of the world came to illuminate the lives of all men. He came to penetrate the darkness of sin and provide light to illuminate the way back to God. This child would grow to be a man, who would die on the cross for the sins of mankind. But He would be miraculously raised back to life as proof that His death had satisfied the just demands of a holy God. His dead body was placed in a cold, dark tomb, but that foreboding place was invaded by the light of God’s glory when Jesus was resurrected.

The light still shines in the darkness. Jesus still illuminates the way to God. He remains the light of the world and the light of life, dispelling the darkness of sin and displaying the glory of God as He transforms the lives of those living in darkness. And the apostle John wrapped up the book of Revelation with this promising statement from the lips of Jesus Himself.

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.” – Revelation 22:16 NLT

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Banned for Life

December 23, 2021 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

²⁰The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

²²Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. – Genesis 3:20-24 ESV

Up until this point in the story, the woman, whom God had fashioned from and given to the man, remained nameless. The man, אָדָם (‘āḏām), had given her the more generic name of “woman.” The Hebrew word, אִשָּׁה (‘iššâ), carries the sense that she was the “opposite of man.” Genesis 5 reveals that immediately after creating the man and woman, God had referred to them as Adam (‘āḏām).

Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man (‘āḏām) when they were created. – Genesis 5:1-2 ESV

God called them “humanity” or “mankind.” He had always intended for there to be more of them. They were simply the first two who would multiply and fill the land with more of their kind – more “humanity” made in the likeness of God.

But, in the immediate aftermath of the fall, Adam decided to provide his mate with a name.

The man called his wife’s name Eve… – Genesis 3:20 ESV

In Hebrew, her new name was חַוָּה (ḥaûâ), which means “life” or “living.” Although God had placed a curse upon the woman, there was still hope. While she was doomed to experience pain during childbirth, she would still be able to fulfill God’s kingdom mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28 ESV). And, in naming his wife, Eve, Adam displayed his belief that God was not done with them yet. They had violated the one prohibition God had given them, and yet, He was still going to graciously allow them to keep His command to fill the earth. Their decision to eat the forbidden fruit had not destroyed their ability to be fruitful and, for that, Adam was grateful.

Moses provides his readers with a brief note of explanation concerning Eve’s new name.

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living… – Genesis 3:20 ESV

In Hebrew, there is a clever wordplay going on in this verse. The name “Eve” (ḥaûâ) is pronounced khavvah in Hebrew. It sounds remarkably similar to the Hebrew word for “living” (ḥay), which is pronounced khah’-ee. In a sense, Moses is stating that Eve’s God-given destiny would be that of “life-giver.” Though flawed and brokern, she would be the vessel through whom God would bring the “offspring” who would bruise the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15 ESV).

The apostle Paul provides a compelling description of those who have placed their faith in Christ, and it could easily apply to Eve in her fallen–but-not-forgotten state.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… – 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 ESV

Eve was a damaged clay jar and, yet, God was going to use her to bring about the ultimate solution to the problem she had helped to create. Adam and Eve had rebelled against a gracious and holy God. They had violated His command and directly disregarded His good and perfect will for them. But God had known from the very beginning that this would be their fate. He had already made provisions for their failure of faith. The fall of man should never be viewed as a wrench thrown by Satan into the well-tuned engine of creation. The Scriptures teach that this entire scenario had been pre-ordained by God “from before the foundation” of the world. He had made plans for it.

In the high-priestly prayer that Jesus offered up to His Father on the night He would be betrayed, He alluded to God’s pre-determined plan.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. – John 17:24 ESV

Jesus had always enjoyed an eternal relationship with the Father. It had not begun on the night He was born in Bethlehem. He had been sent to earth by His Father to accomplish a very important mission, and the details of that mission had been developed long before God created the universe. The apostle Peter reminded his fellow believers of the unique and unbelievable nature of this pre-creation plan of God.

…you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you… – 1 Peter 1:18-20 ESV

It had always been God’s plan to send His Son as the sinless sacrificial lamb to pay the debt incurred by mankind (‘āḏām) at the fall. And the apostle Paul picks up on this theme in his letter to the believers living in Ephesus.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will… – Ephesians 1:3-5 ESV

Over and over we read that God had planned all this “before the foundation of the world.” In other words, long before He created the universe or had formed man out of the dust of the ground, God had a well-developed and infallible plan prepared for dealing with the inevitable fall of mankind.

“To put it very simply, the Cross of Christ was not an ambulance sent to a wreck. Christ was the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world because God knew all the time that Vernon McGee would need a Savior, and He loved him enough to provide that Savior.” – J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible: Genesis through Revelation

We know that the sin of Adam and Eve had serious consequences.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. – Romans 5:12 NLT

Paul goes on to note that “everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses” (Romans 5:14 NLT). God had cursed the first man and woman with death.

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 4:19 ESV

In Romans 6:23, Paul records that “the wages of sin is death.” And he pulls no punches in assigning the ultimate blame for this problem.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. – Romans 5:15 NLT

Adam’s sin led to condemnation… – Romans 5:16 NLT

For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. – Romans 5:17 NLT

Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone… – Romans 5:18 NLT

Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. – Romans 5:19 NLT

Paul is relentless. He heaps all the responsibility on Adam. And yet, we know from the Genesis account that “the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6 ESV). And, in his first letter to Timothy, Paul acknowledges Eve’s primary role in bringing sin and death into the world.

For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. – 1 Timothy 2:13-14 NLT

They were both guilty. All mankind (‘āḏām) stood before God as condemned and deserving of death. But Paul went on to write, “women will be saved through childbearing” (1 Timothy 2:15 NLT). This is most likely a reference to the fact that childbirth can be a death-like experience, bringing intense pain and suffering, but resulting in new life. Adam, all by himself, would have only death to look forward to. But because God had given him Eve, there would always be the hope of new life and the continuation of the human species.

God was not done with Adam and Eve. In fact, Moses reveals that God replaced their hand-made garments of leaves with “garments of skins” (Genesis 3:21 ESV). There is a foreboding sense to this verse. The Hebrew word for “skins” refers to the hide of an animal. What this somewhat innocuous-sounding verse conveys is that a sacrifice had been made. Blood had been spilled. An innocent animal had been slain in order to cover the shame and sin of two guilty humans. This entire event foreshadows a divine reality that would be canonized in God’s Law.

…according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. – Hebrews 9:22 NLT

And it would also be modeled in the sacrifice of “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 NLT).

But while properly clothed with the sacrificial garments provided by God, Adam and Eve still stood in a state of fallenness. The author of Hebrews reminds us “it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4 NLT). Adam and Eve still stood condemned before God. The animal God had sacrificed to make their garments had not cleansed them from their guilt or alleviated their sense of shame. Those things would remain with them till death and be passed on to their progeny. Again, the author of Hebrews describes the inadequate nature of animal sacrifices to fix mankind’s problem.

If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. – Hebrews 10:2 NLT

The next phase of God’s judgment of Adam and Eve came in the form of their expulsion from the garden.

…the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. – Genesis 3:23 ESV

And Moses provides the reason for their ban from the very place God had created for them.

“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever…” – Genesis 3:22 ESV

God had given them the freedom to eat of any tree found in the garden, save one. That means they had full access and permission to eat of the tree of life. It seems that the tree of life had been provided as a source of eternal sustenance. As long as they ate it, they would live. But, in contrast, if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. It’s interesting to note that the tree of life appears again in the book of Revelation. John was given a vision of the New Jerusalem, the place God will provide as humanity’s future home – the eternal residence of all those who place their faith in the Lamb of God.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. – Revelation 22:1-2 ESV

The tree of life reappears and, once again, it will be a source of life. But in Adam and Eve’s fallen state, God did not want them to eat of the tree of life and “live forever.” So, He ordered them out of the garden and then stationed angelic sentries to deny them any further access. And thus begins what will become an ongoing theme of man’s perpetual movement away from God and His presence. The rest of the book of Genesis will chronicle mankind’s steady migration from the beauty of the garden and into the world.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Tree of Life.

May 12, 2018May 29, 2018 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. ⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. – Revelation 22:1-5 ESV

John’s vision of the New Jerusalem continues, but this time, it moves from imagery involving architecture and building materials to those pertaining to physical and spiritual sustenance. The city will be beautiful, but it will also be practical, filled with good things that will help secure the ongoing well-being of all the redeemed. First of all, John sees a river, the river of the water of life, and it is flowing directly from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In one sense, this river is both symbolic and literal. It is apparently a real river flowing through a real city. But the fact that John sees it flowing from the thrones of God and His Son, reveal that it is pure in nature and completely uncontaminated by sin. It is the water of life because it flows from the givers of life. God and His Son are the creators of all physical life, and Jesus is the source of eternal life. In his first letter, John described Jesus in these terms:

³All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men. – John 1:3-4 ESV

Physical life is impossible without water. Man cannot exist for very long without access to this essential resource. But in the eternal state, there will be no death, so there is little likelihood that the water from the river will be required for man’s sustenance. Our glorified bodies will be eternal in nature, not susceptible to disease or decay. But the river reveals that it is the presence of God and His Son that makes our new life possible.

There is an interesting parallel passage found in John’s gospel that portrays the Spirit of God as living water. Compare what Jesus has to say in these verses with the description of the river flowing from the thrones of God and His Son in John’s vision.

³⁷On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. – John 7:37-39 ESV

So, perhaps the river is symbolic of the Spirit of God, flowing from the other two members of the Trinity and filling the New Jerusalem with all the life-sustaining properties of righteousness, holiness, joy, and love. It is difficult not to consider the fruit of the Spirit, listed by Paul, when thinking about this river of life flowing through the streets of the New Jerusalem.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control… – Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

It is impossible to have life, true life, eternal life, without the presence of this fruit. A life that has no joy is not really life at all. A life devoid of love is like a stagnant pond, incapable of ministering to anyone other than itself. When John speaks of eternal life, he is not just referring to life without end. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 ESV). He came to bring abundant life, a life filled with all the good things that only God can provide. It is important to remember that even those who refuse God’s gracious offer of salvation through His Son, will also inherit eternal life. But their ongoing, non-ending life will be devoid of the fruit of the Spirit. They will have no access to the river of life flowing from the Godhead. Their eternal state will be radically different.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. – Revelation 21:8 ESV

So, John sees a river that symbolizes life, spiritual and physical, in all its glory and goodness, flowing from God and His Son, and made possible by the Spirit. But the imagery of life does not stop there. John also sees a tree, the tree of life, growing along the banks of the river. This is an obvious reference to the tree of life mentioned in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis.

⁸And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. – Genesis 2:8-9 ESV

God created man and placed him in the garden, and provided him with access to a variety of fruit-bearing trees, from which he could eat. This included the tree of life. The Hebrew word for life that Moses used in these verses is chay, and it refers to “living.” It was the tree of living. The fruit of this tree provided Adam and Eve with life. And it is important to note that, after having eaten from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were banned from the garden by God. And the reason behind their ban was to prevent any further access to the tree of life.

It seems that, as long as Adam and Eve had remained obedient, they would have had access to the fruit of the tree of life. It would have been a normal part of their daily diet, provided for them by God. But, when they failed to keep God’s command, and ate of the one tree He had specifically forbidden, they lost their right to life. Not only did they forfeit their intimate communion with God, they gave up their access to the source of life for their lives. And mankind has been stuck in that same sad state ever since. But Peter reminds us that God remedied man’s problem by sending His Son as the payment for man’s sin debt.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. – 1 Peter 2:24 ESV

Jesus gave up His life on a different tree, a wooden cross, manufactured by human hands, and designed to take the life from a man. But God used this cruel form of torture and death to make eternal life available to humanity once again. And for all those who place their faith in Jesus Christ, the tree of life will once again be accessible and available. And John states that the tree will come with “twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2 ESV). Notice that the tree offers variety, a selection of fruit that changes each month. There will be no monotony to life in the eternal state. No one will be bored. Eternal life will be abundantly rich and diversified life, marked by unimaginable variations of quality and quantity. And the citizens of the eternal state will have constant access to the fruit of the tree of life, as well as to the leaves, which John says bring the healing of the nations. But what does this statement mean? Why would there need to be healing, if there is no longer any sickness and death? And who are the nations? First of all, the Greek word that is translated “healing” is therapeia, from which we get our word, therapeutic. The root word for therapeia has to do with service or administering to the needs of others. So, in a sense, “healing” has to do with health-giving or the promotion of well-being. Even the leaves of this tree will have life-giving, therapeutic value. Since there is no sickness in the eternal state, there will be no need for healing. But the tree of life will be a source of spiritual and physical well-being, providing mankind with abundant life in every way possible.

One of the things that is easy to miss is John’s statement that, in the eternal state, “No longer will there be anything accursed” (Revelation 22:3 ESV). The curse that God pronounced upon man and upon creation as a result of the fall will be forever lifted. The prophet Zechariah prophesied about this day.

And Jerusalem will be filled, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed. – Zechariah 14:11 NLT

There will be no more threat of judgment. Sin will be non-existent, because there will be no sinners. Disease, a byproduct of man’s rebellion against God, will be eradicated. The atmosphere of the heavenly state will be permeated by the presence of God, the Son and the Spirit. And all will worship them and them alone. Think about that. There will be no one worshiping self. There will be no idols or false gods to which men bow down and offer their worship. All honor, glory, reverence, gratitude and praise will be offered to God. And there will be an intimacy restored to the relationship between God and man that has not been known since Adam and Eve sinned. At one time they enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God, walking with Him in the cool of the day in the garden. But sin destroyed that fellowship. And then Jesus restored it. He has made it possible for sinful men to be made right with a holy God. And the eternal state will be marked by fellowship with God and His Son. We will see them face to face. And John spoke of this incredible experience to come, in one of his letters.

Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. – 1 John 3:2 NLT

The day is coming when God will make all things new. He will restore His creation, marred by sin, to its original, pristine state. He will glorify all those who have placed their faith in His Son. He will once again provide unhindered access to the tree of life. There will be no darkness, sorrow, sin, disease or death. Light will be provided by God Himself. Joy will flow from the throne of God. Contentment will no longer be a pipe dream to be pursued, but never achieved. Every citizen of the Kingdom of God will be fully satisfied, completely content, and eternally joyful. Hard to imagine? Yes. But what John describes in these verses is the essence of our faith. And the author of Hebrews would have us remember: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).

Devotionary

The Bible Made Accessible and Applicable

tree of life

The Golden Lampstand

Banned for Life

The Tree of Life.