One of the things I have really appreciated about meeting with my heavenly Father in the mornings is his determination to show me that his side of the relationship is constant and unwavering no matter how much my feelings are like a rollercoaster of never-ending ups-and-downs. In fact, it often seems that the more honest I am about the Deeper of how poorly I am doing when I awake, the more glorious the Higher is when God makes his word known to me in the most real and personal of ways.
This morning was no exception to this. I was thoroughly honest with God (without belaboring how I was feeling) and came to him with the boldness that honors him even when I am struggling. I approached him with an expression of dependence that it is up to him how my time with him turned out, and he opened the eyes of my heart to come to know him by experience in a wonderfully new facet of what it means to come to Mount Zion.[1]
It began here:
Within her citadels God
has made himself known as a fortress.[2]
This is the way I have known God for the past three decades, that my coming to him every day is coming into the fortress of God himself, the one place and the one person who is always happy to see me, always forgiving of my sins, always wanting the absolute best for me.
Then I continued on with the next verse:
For behold, the kings assembled;
they came on together.[3]
I spent some time considering how things look under the new covenant when there are really no physical protections in place as there were under the old covenant, and there are no promised earthly blessings as there were under God’s covenant with Israel.[4]
This led to a deep appreciation for how Jesus’ first coming contrasts with his second coming, and the parallel between what the church looks like now in the world with what it will look like at and after Jesus’ return.
In summary, Jesus’ first coming was quiet, humble, and unnoticed, leaving only 120 disciples with whom he would build his church.[5] The second coming will be so brilliant, glorious, and visible, that the whole world know it is him and will mourn what they did to him. As it is written, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”[6]
In a parallel way, the church during the church-age (between Jesus’ two comings) is unnoticed. It is persecuted because the world is blind to who we are. The media does not speak of the wonderful things Jesus does in his church. The nations do not speak of how Jesus transforms people out of their earthly religions into genuine relationship with God. But Jesus is quietly building his church without any fanfare. For now.
But at his return, the trumpet will blast, the dead in Christ will be raised first, and Jesus’ angels will gather those believers who are alive at his return so that all God’s children will be taken up to be with Jesus as he comes down to judge the earth.[7]
Which brought me to this expression that sums up what it is like to presently come to the Mount Zion of God’s throne-room while the world does not know we are doing so:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.[8]
In the present time, believers coming to Mount Zion is invisible to the world. We suffer in this world because the world has no concept that they are defying the living God. Even those who do so blatantly do not really know with whom they have to do, and what a horror it will be to them when Jesus appears.[9]
But what is coming is an experience of “the glory that is to be revealed to us,” and that glory includes “the revealing of the sons of God.” And we will be revealed to the enemies of God as every eye is on Jesus and his return, and the world in its terror and anguish and mourning sees who is gathered to join Jesus’ angels and come to be with him in judging the nations. And when all believers are standing there with Jesus, everyone will know who are the sons of God.
I hope that gives a glimpse into what it felt like to come
to Yahweh as my fortress this morning and be thoroughly and delightfully
surprised to receive such treasures of wisdom and knowledge that cannot be
found anywhere else or in anyone else. And all this was such a wonderful (and wonder-filled) gift
to a child whose heart came to God unable to imagine how he would help me. But
help me he did, and for that I give him praise!
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1]
My ongoing theme as of late based on Hebrews 12:18-25.
[2]
Psalm 48:3
[3]
Psalm 48:4
[4]
Yes, there are promises to believers that apply to our earthly life, but the
new covenant is not based on the same material blessings and curses that were
clearly stipulated in the old covenant for the nation of Israel.
[5]
Acts 1:15
[6]
Revelation 1:7
[7]
This is a mixture of the glorious thoughts revealed in Matthew 24:29-31, along
with Paul’s teachings about the return of Christ in I Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Together, they picture Jesus appearing in the clouds, the dead in Christ being
raised, the angels gathering all the believers to be with the Lord as he
continues to descend to the earth, believers being with our Savior as he judges
all people, and then watching Jesus invoke the horrible and wonderful realities
of the purging of the present heavens and earth and the making of the new
heavens and earth (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22;
II Peter 3:11-13; Revelation 21:1).
[8]
Romans 8:18-19
[9]
Revelation 6:12-17 describes this horrible reality.
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