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John 14:9
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The dear sages who compared Jerusalem to Sarah our matriarch could not have foreseen the extent of their analogy. In the midrash of the barren woman, Hashem reveals the messianic future of His dear city to the prophet Isaiah. Since its sacking by the Romans in the first century C.E., many have looked at Jerusalem just as Isaiah saw her: a barren woman sitting on a heap of ashes, ostracized and rejected by her husband because of her many infidelities (Isaiah 54; Jeremiah 26:6). One of the legends I like the most is the one about the weaning of Isaac. It is said that Abraham called in a great feast (Genesis 21:8). The rumor had gone around that Isaac was actually Pharaoh Abimelek’s child (Genesis 20:2). Not only people couldn't believe that old Abraham sired a boy, but they also could not conceive Sarah lactating at ninety years old. The point of the feast was to vindicate the miracle God had performed and put the rumors to rest. Great Sheiks came from all around in great caravans and pomp to attend Abraham’s feast. To prove herself, not only did Sarah nursed her son, but she offered to nurse every baby in the camp. She did, and the story goes on to say that every child Sarah nursed eventually became a king or a person of great influence and integrity. Also, in order to erase any doubt that the child was truly Abraham’s, God had made the face of Isaac similar to that of his father, so that it was said that he who saw the son saw the father. Sounds familiar doesn’t it (John 14:9)? Look now why our ages compared Sarah to Jerusalem. Just like Sarah was, twice Jerusalem was conquered and taken captive by foreigners, first by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans. With the re-establishment of the State of Israel, the Roman captivity shows signs of coming to its end. Having the past of Jerusalem in Sarah's life, let us now see now its future. After the return from her second captivity, Isaac, the promised child, the fore-shadow of Messiah was born. Sarah who barren and past the age, finally bore fruit. In the same manner today, Jerusalem, one of the oldest city in the world, a city that has been used, abused, rejected, redeemed, to be rejected again and re-redeemed, prides itself of a new vibrant Messianic community rising all over in Israel: the ‘remnant of the seed of the woman’ (Revelation 12:17) preparing the way for the soon return of the King (Revelations 19). The same miracle that rejuvenated Sarah to conceive Isaac and lactate happens in our day through Jerusalem. Think of it: a whole country was re-born in a day with a new generation of messianic believers preparing the way for the soon-coming of the King who will rule the earth in the justice and righteousness of the Father. Will they become the kings of integrity ‘nursed’ to rule in the Jerusalem of the World to Come? May it be soon Abba, even in our days! Those who would try to interfere with the miraculous plan of God are playing with the unstoppable spiritual and natural forces that created the heavens and the earth. May they beware!
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Hebrews 11:10
For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. At Mt Horeb, God instructed the people of Israel about the different types of offerings. The first one mentioned in the Book of Leviticus is the ‘burnt offering’ called in the Hebrew the ’olah’ or ‘the offering of ascent’. This offering is fully burnt and dedicated to God; no-one else receives any benefit from it like with the other offerings. This speaks a total abandonment to Hashem without reservations. This is what Abraham was asked to do with Isaac on Mt Moriah, which he did with the ram provided by Adonai. This event took place at Mt Moriah, the place occupied by the city of Salem where Melchizedec was king. This was also the place where later, at the time when David sinfully decided to take a census of the nation Israel, an angel destroyed many people with a plague (2 Samuel 24). Under the instructions of Gad the prophet, David bought the place to build an altar so he could make an offering for Adonai. We must remember at this point that God had forbidden altars to be built in random places. The only altar to be used so far was the one in Shiloh by the Ark. This was therefore a strange command from Gad, but David also knew that at some point and time, Hashem had a place in the Land of Canaan where He would write His Name. A traditional source tells us that in order to honor both Melchizedec and Abraham, David later renamed the place, ‘Yireh-Salem’, or Jerusalem meaning: ‘He will provide peace’. What a name for a city that has seen more than its share of wars and conflicts and still waits for ‘the big one’! Oh but He will provide peace. Like Abraham we must not stop our eyes at this imperfect world. We must seek for our true homeland; desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. That’s why Hashem is not ashamed to be called our God, for He has prepared for us a city, a city that will finally see and know peace, a peace like no other city or even country in the world has ever known or seen. Not a ‘Pax Jerusalema’ enforced type of peace, but a peace from within originated by Yeshua the Messiah: the Prince of Peace Himself. This Jerusalem is the city with foundations, whose designer and builder is the Almighty God. Abba, the Father. He has the true peace-plan and road-map to peace in Jerusalem. Yes, Jerusalem will see peace; He promised it (Hebrews 11:10, 16)! Matthew 6:10
"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". Many teach after the Catholic idea that the final goal of our natural state is to eventually leave this earth and eternally dwell in a place called ‘Heaven’. Part of this teaching concludes that this ‘Heaven’ is the place where we all go after we die or shortly after, unless we go to the 'other place'. Many also report having had dreams about being in this ‘Heaven’ or even encountered loved ones living in it. I’d like to suggest that no-one goes to ‘Heaven’, but rather that ‘Heaven’ comes to us. When Moses entered the cloud God instructed him to tell the Children of Israel, Let them make me a sanctuary… Exactly as I show you …, so you shall make it (Exodus 25:8-9). Jewish sages teach that when Moses disappeared into the cloud, he actually entered the heavenly realm. There he saw the ‘pattern’ after which he was to build the Tabernacle and all its elements. God had brought His realm on earth to show Moses. The idea of the Tabernacle was to establish the necessary protocol so that the Holy One may be able to dwell among us on the earth (Exodus 25:8). We often speak of the restoration of all things. This implies the return to something that was and the original model of God’s creation, of God’s ‘Heaven', was, that He fellowshipped with us on the earth (Genesis 3:8). The Garden of Eden is the ideal we all desire to return to: living in complete unobstructed fellowship with God within the realm of His marvelous unadulterated creation. That is ‘Heaven’. “But what about these people who claim to have had dreams of a wonderful place, or to even have sojourned there?” you may ask. Well, maybe they are just reacting to their experience with the only information that they have (we often do). I personally suggest that they have gone to the place where the soul sleeps or rests, awaiting the final resurrection (1 Samuel 28:15; Daniel 12:2; Revelations 6:9-11). Yeshua spoke of resurrection as a time long preceding death (Matthew 22:31). The Master also spoke of that place where people awaits the resurrection, a place corresponding to our works on the earth (Luke 16:19-24). He told the thief at His side that he would be in paradise with Him that very night but three days later Yeshua hadn’t yet gone to the Father (Luke 23:43; John 20:17). Paul also speaks of several levels of heavenly dimensions. From the beginning, God’s work has been to restore the original conditions of the Garden of Eden. The way Josephus describes the first 1,000 years on earth under Seth sounds heavenly (Ant. 2.3.68-69). Later God chooses for Himself a people through which He makes a covenant to be able to dwell among them. The Tabernacle and the Temple housed the Shekinah, the very Presence of God. Yeshua came to earth to show how godliness is experienced and lived. He prayed, Your kingdom come, … on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), and the whole thing ends with Yeshua spending 1,000 years restoring all things on earth to prepare it for the arrival of New Jerusalem, again, on the earth (Revelation 20-22). May it be soon Abba, even in our days! |
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