By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
When you have just begun a book, are you ever tempted to turn to the last page to see how it’s all going to end, to look ahead to read those final words, especially the last sentence? I am. In the beginning of any well-written story, right away, you see the situation and its complexities of plot. You wonder whether the convoluted circumstances can ever iron themselves out so that there will be an ending which pleases, not in some cheesy, cookie-cutter manner, but in a thought-provoking fashion that satisfies both your heart and your intellect. Everyone is looking for this kind of book. We long for them and, sometimes, we just have to know, early on, that, at the end of the story, everything is going to be ok.
If a person is seeking not just a book, but The Book for the ages, the writing that possesses the big picture of life, now and throughout eternity, then there is the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, Himself. In our present study of God’s Love in the Old Testament, we have begun reading and, as described above, have started to see the situation mankind and God find themselves in. It is a distressing scene, to say the least. It is complex and troubling. Sometimes, before we go another verse deeper into the story, we need, as stated above, to just know that, in the end, everything is going to be…well, perfect! This is exactly what today’s blog will do.
Michael gives us the ideal analogy for the Bible. It concerns tapestries. The subject of these came up in a conversation we had about these works of art and the book we are publishing of the blogs. We discussed how a tapestry is so beautiful on its front side, how it is ordered and spellbinding at the same time. However, if you turn a tapestry around to the back, it is a twisted, disordered and puzzling weave of threads going in seemingly random directions. There is nothing coherent, much less beautiful about it.
At that time, Michael and I were talking about all this in relation to a title for our book. His idea for it was brilliant: “The Other Side of the Tapestry.” While we have now decided on a different title, (“Things Wrapped in Purple,” is the title of our upcoming book on the blogs), nothing could be a better analogy to the Bible than the two sides of the tapestry.
We look at the major portion of Scripture and we see one side of the tapestry. The thread of the storyline goes in a thousand directions. Enormous victories are intermingled with unimaginable failures; high drama is interspersed with moments of deep peace. There are surprise reversals as Saul becomes Paul, Elijah jubilantly defeats the prophets of Baal and then is tired of life and without hope, Joseph is in a pit in the desert and then is second only to the Pharaoh in leading all of Egypt. We could go on and on.
On the other side of this convoluted Biblical tapestry, is a picture so beautiful, so divine, that words can hardly describe it. There is this spiritual work of art that is the love story between God and man, the heart of the Bible, not always so apparent. Sometimes, one has to turn the tapestry around to see the order and blissful picture depicted on the other side. This is one of those times.
Michael and I have chosen to do just that. Before we return to The Love of God in the Old Testament theme, let’s look ahead to the end of Scripture. Let’s see the beautiful side of God’s tapestry in the end of the book. Let’s see how the story ends.
We have already looked at the beginning. We started in Eden, and in a very real sense, in going to the last book in the Bible, Revelation, we will end in a new Eden. Our God is a God of great order. Each Eden, first and last, are bookends of that order.
When Michael and I ended last week’s blog, we wrote that God wanted to be in a close and loving relationship with mankind before The Fall. That didn’t change in the least after the The Fall, after they were sent away from the Garden. This will be seen as a pattern throughout Scripture. But, having said that, a subject we will deeply explore in future blogs, God’s ultimate goal was a return to the idyllic life He first envisioned in creating mankind and placing them in the Garden of Eden.
As we turn to the end of the Bible, this is what we see as the future of His beloved children. This is the ending to which we will now look ahead. John is speaking:
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth…And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold the TABERNACLE OF GOD is WITH MEN and He will DWELL WITH THEM , and they shall be his people, and GOD HIMSELF shall be WITH THEM, and be their God.
(emphasis added)
Revelation 21:1,3) KJV
J.R.R. Tolkien writes in one of his letters,
“We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing, in our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of exile.”
The end of the Bible finds us not longing anymore for the perfection of Eden. This deep desire will have been fulfilled in the New Heaven and New Earth.
John continues to write of this:
“I saw NO TEMPLE therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it. “
(emphasis added)
(Revelation 21:22) KJV
All the TEMPORARY meeting places which were established, the TABERNACLE, even the TEMPLE, will no longer be necessary in that glorious day. God and Jesus will replace them with their PERSONAL PRESENCE.
You recall how God had been compelled to close the GATES to Eden and place guards there to prevent man’s returning and, disastrously eating from the Tree of Life? John goes on:
“ And the GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT at all.” (emphasis added)
Revelation 21:25) KJV
As we wrote last week, God’s perfect plan was eternal life for mankind in Eden. This will be restored in the New Heaven and New Earth:
“…there will be no more death…”
(Revelation 21:4) KJV
God’s cosmic goal for His children will be met because of His enduring love for us. He will, again create an Eden-like world. What it is, is otherworldly, both literally and figuratively. It’s beauty will be beyond description.
But what about God’s presence between these two Edens? Last week we saw that when God sent Adam and Eve from the Garden, He did so out of love and at great cost to Himself. Michael and I wrote that Jesus was, in time, going to be sent to Earth, leaving Heaven to take on a body subject to human frailties and, ultimately, facing a Roman cross. As we stated, until this time came, God did not retreat to His Heavenly comforts, resigning mankind to fend for themselves. As future blogs will set forth, God’s love in the Old Testament will manifest itself in action. He had a plan of monumental proportions. It would be a process to prepare for Jesus to arrive as a baby in Bethlehem. What exactly was that process? I address this in How to Find God in Under Five Hours:
“How would Jesus come to Earth? It would be as a direct descendant of a Chosen People whom God the Father would form, love, be with and teach. Eventually, Jesus’ Incarnation, or coming to Earth, would be predicted and yearned for by these Chosen Ones. He would be the Messiah, the promised and expected deliverer of the handpicked Chosen People and of all mankind…The drama begins!”
This was the means God chose, and it would be a lengthy one, taking up most of the Bible. We think that this brings to mind the most logical question one could ask at this point: Why this long way of going about the saving of mankind? Why didn’t God just send Adam and Eve away from Eden and, in a few years, send Jesus to rescue them and their progeny? In upcoming blogs, Michael and I will answer that complex question. Next week, that answer will unfold as we return to exploring “God’s Love in the Old Testament.”
This week we glimpsed ahead to the end of The Book. To return to the tapestry analogy, we have seen the glorious future that awaits, the splendor of the New Heaven and New Earth, the restoration of an even more amazing Eden. Yes, this is “the other side of the tapestry,” that Michael spoke of. The story ends as idyllically as a tapestry of God’s glory, prepared by God Himself.
But there will be a story to lead up to this. Let’s explore it together. It is the page turner of all time, the story for the ages!
You’re on a journey and you want us to come with you. Bring it on!