Today we introduce a new writer to you, Darren Colwell whose site is called To See Jesus. Darren is a pastor in Ogden, Utah. Click the title below to read at source.
An Empty Tomb and Shaking Mountains
Mount Sinai
18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.
Heb 12:18–19*
When God met with Moses on Mt. Sinai the holiness of God descended and there was darkness, gloom, thunder, and earthquakes. The whole mountain shook under the weight of the glory of God. One man went up that mountain to meet with God and reveal him to his people. The result was the 10 commandments, God’s moral and perfect law, and the pattern for an earthly meeting place, the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a design of sheer grace. God, the Most High, would meet with his people in a tent. But the Tabernacle also signaled complete separation. The Levites were encamped around it to ensure no one came close, and within it there was the outer court, the Holy place, and the Holy of Holies, and it was only in this last place that God would meet with his people. He would meet with one person, once per year (on the Day of Atonement), and only through blood. That blood would be poured out on the Mercy Seat and it was there that God would meet with his people (Ex. 25).
Mount Calvary
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
Mt 27:45, 50-51
Jesus, likewise, went up a mountain to meet with God on behalf of his people. As the holy wrath of God was poured out on Christ there was darkness and gloom and the earth shook. But this time God didn’t send our representative down the mountain with an earthly pattern for a meeting place. Jesus, himself, was the meeting place. He is the temple of God. And as Jesus entered into that Holy of Holies for us his blood was poured out upon the Mercy Seat (the word in Ex. 25 is the same word for propitiation–the wrath-absorbing sacrifice) so God could meet with us. Through Christ’s death the earthly temple and all of its separation was ripped in two by the very hand of God. Jesus met with God so we could meet with God face to face, covered in the blood of Christ. The God who dwells in unapproachable light became approachable! But this isn’t the last time the earth will shake.
Mount Zion
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Heb 12:22–24
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
Heb 12:26–27
Jesus will shake the earth one more time. The first time he revealed his law and his holiness (this was grace that a people might know and worship him). The second time he destroyed the spiritual separation we have from God and made a way into the Holy of Holies for us. The third, and last, time he will shake the earth to remove all that is temporary and usher in the New Heavens and the New Earth where we will dwell with God forever.
When Jesus left the tomb that Easter morning so long ago there was another earthquake. Death was defeated and tomb was emptied. Jesus walked out victorious. His death on the cross, the empty tomb, the shaking of the earth, point us forward the last shaking when all will be removed except God and his people in his permanent kingdom. So let us draw near to him while we still have time, for, “Our God is a consuming fire!” (Heb. 12:29).
*All scriptures ESV
| Today is Christianity 201’s 8th Birthday! While Christ’s resurrection is the dominant theme in our thoughts today, Christianity 201 concluded its eighth year yesterday, and now begins year nine of providing devotional content and Bible study discussion material. Our motto continues to be “digging a little deeper.” My hope is that we’ve provided helpful resources for your devotional and Bible study reading and have introduced you to many new authors who are doing the same online. ~Paul |
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