death

God’s Dwelling Place

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“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

First, there was a Garden of Eden. This was the first dwelling place of God amongst His people. Adam and Eve, as you know, were said to be naked and to know nothing of clothing. This may have been literal, but it was certainly figurative. They were without sin because they didn’t know anything of good and evil or the separation it could give them from God. Therefore, they had nothing to hide and lived vulnerable, unafraid, and unashamed. Once they did sin, they covered themselves in fig leaves to symbolically hide their sins. (It’s interesting to note that the fig tree came to be a constant symbol of the tribe of Judah, who would come to be known as simply Jews, throughout the Bible.)

They attempted to cover their own sins, but fig leaves did an inadequate job. So, God made the first sacrifice, performed in the first type of temple, the garden. There, he slaughtered a lamb (symbolic of Jesus) and covered their nakedness (which exposed their sins). There was now death that stood between God and mankind.

Later, the tabernacle and then temple would be a new type of garden for God’s people to be in His presence and make necessary sacrifices for their sins.

However, in the temple and tabernacle, there was a place called the Holy of Holies, the only place God would visit His people. It was an area of the structures that was separated from everything else, even normal priestly rooms. The high priest himself only went into the Holy of Holies once a year, and it was covered with a thick curtain to keep it from stray eyes (symbolic of the sins and death that separated God and mankind). When Jesus died, that veil was torn, ripped from top to bottom. Let’s put this into more perspective. The curtain was about sixty feet tall, thirty feet wide and four inches thick. Four inches thick. This was torn from top down, because it was an act from above.

It is important to note that Jesus rose again because God’s people never die. True death would never again stand between God and His children, so neither would the curtain that stood for it.

As His children, we are now filled with the Holy Spirit that once only came to Earth within the Temple and Tabernacle’s Holy of Holies area. We are literally His temples.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22

This should be a sobering thought. First, God communed with us in his garden, then his tabernacle and temple, and now, he communes WITHIN us.

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 7:3-11

We must be careful where our heart lies, as we are not only symbol of God’s people and His message. We are literally His temple! If you wouldn’t do or say something before God’s face, you should not do or say that thing at all. You are an organic church, made to reach the world! It’s not enough to say “I am a temple” as if you being a “believer” is enough. What stems from your heart will show. The seeds you water in your heart will grow.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” Matthew 23:27

A garden, tabernacle, and temple are teeming with life. The opposite would be a tomb, filled with death and decay. Don’t cover your sins with fig leaves and white-wash paint. You can’t cover up sins or its stench with your own actions. The only one who can eradicate death and fill you with life is God, and as His child you, as His temple, can spread that life and light to the world.

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Sources besides Bible:
https://www.challies.com/book-reviews/the-temple-and-the-tabernacle/
https://heritagebbc.com/bible-question-and-answer-archive-1/i-1-why-did-adam-and-eve-cover-themselves-with-fig-leaves/

But a Sword: Schism of Faith

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“Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

‘A man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’”

Matthew 10:34-36 & Luke 12:49-53

And thus began the struggle between Jews and Christians (who called themselves the New Israel). Jesus’ death was only the beginning, a battle cry that began a war of faith. Most of His disciples died for their beliefs. Peter and Paul were both martyred in Rome about 66 AD. After Andrew spread the gospel to what is now the Soviet Union, Turkey, and Greece, he was crucified. Thomas traveled with the word through Syria and possibly India where he was stabbed through by soldiers. Bartholomew went to many places including Arabia and Ethiopia, and although the details of his death are unclear, they mostly point to martyrdom as well. James was mostly within Syria, where he was stoned and clubbed to death. Matthias (the replacement for Judas) ministered in Persia (Iran) where he was killed for not sacrificing to their sun god. John was the only one generally accepted as escaping the others’ fate and dying of old age after writing Revelations.

Paul himself, before becoming a Christian, was a very successful hit man against Christians, a hired hand of the Roman empire. The Roman government, although outwardly very tolerant of various religions, hated anything considered superstitious (although what that would mean might change). Many of their emperors would also execute anyone who didn’t follow the Roman practices of sacrifice as not sacrificing to their gods meant possible devastation for everyone.

Christians were greatly persecuted in the early years, eventually enacting some sort of revenge through growing anti-Semitism. There is no clear cut delineation where one side rose as definite victor, but there are certainly eras where Christians or Jews could be considered more as the aggressor or oppressor.

By the Middle Ages, many Christians had fed on a steady teaching that Jews were the devil. Jews were already blamed for everything from pestilence, to upheavals, to diseases. Then, the Black Plague hit Europe.

They didn’t keep very accurate records, but some claimed Jews died at half the rate of others in Europe. The reason for this: far better sanitation practices. Within the book of Leviticus, one can see teachings of washing hands, disposing of human filth and corpses properly, and even determining contagious diseases for quarantine purposes. This made Christians, who generally had very little access to the Bible in their own language, very suspicious.

Pope Clement VI declared Jews were innocent, but most people, who by now resented both the Church and the King, seemed to believe Jews poisoned the drinking wells. In the 1300’s several Jewish communities were exiled and burned to the ground. The town of Mainz defended and killed several attackers, but Christians returned for revenge and destruction. Several communities were destroyed by mobs & some were entirely exterminated. By 1351, there were almost no Jews left in Germany or Low countries.

After the age of enlightenment in the 1500-1600’s, religious ideas began to wane. So, leaders used more secular outlets for anti-Semitism, which brought perverted versions of evolution, used already ingrained hatred and fear of the masses, and created a ticking time bomb that Hitler used to create the Holocaust in the 1930’s.

Is all this what was meant by Jesus when He said He came to bring a sword? Possibly. His life and death created a schism in Judo-Christianity for generations because we’ve had a hard time considering each other brothers and sisters. The problem with this is ironic and obvious: We are all followers of the same God. In the present times, we are experiencing a relatively unusual peace between the two faiths. As the world turns against both Jews and Christians, there is a need for brotherhood as it will only get worse. As it says in Mark 3:25, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

“When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Matthew 27:50-51

Sources:
jewishhistory.org
sixmillioncrucifixons.com
christianitytoday.com
Bible

Let It Go (Not the Song) ;-)

/ EloquentMuse / Leave a comment

Sometimes, we all have to accept help from others. It allows others to feel good about themselves, strengthens relationships, and reminds you that you can not do life alone. Not if you want to actually live and enjoy it.

I have decided to go to my grandmother’s burial in New Hampshire. It will be a complicated plan in order to get me there and back without a plane (I am terrified) and in time for work the next week, making sure my parents cat is taken care of, and that my child is being watched since my husband works nights. Both my husband and my mother-in-law will end up taking a day off work just to let me go. Then, my husband will be driving non-stop from here to New Hampshire (a 12-15 hour drive) and then back to South Carolina since my parents will not be leaving for home for a week. Deep breath. I originally was not going to go.

My first thoughts, when I heard of the burial, spiraled out of control, and I could not get past my sudden anxiety. How would I be able to accomplish all this? So many people have to pitch in to help me? Suddenly, I was creating excuses on why I did not need to show up. I have not shown up there in years. Now, after my grandparents have passed way, now, I am showing up to bury them. It seems lame. I am making too many people miss work. Cadence will miss me. I will miss her too much. This will be the longest I have been away from her. Can we afford all this gas? Can I face all these remote family members without having a panic attack (I have social anxiety issues)? Who is going to take care of everything back home? The house will end up too messy. Everyone and everything will go under if I am not there to singlehandedly keep things running smoothly!!

Yeah, do not laugh. This is serious business.

Then, my sweet husband stopped me abruptly and gave me a reality check. We got this. If you want to go, he said, do not worry about how we will make this happen. Just go, and I will figure everything out on this side. It did not stop my flooding thoughts, but it did feel like a breath of fresh air. It gave me pause enough to reconsider the flooding thoughts. It made me realize how foolish I was being. Of course, my responsibilities matter, but we were not meant to do all this alone. God made us, and God, even God, comes in a trifecta of power. Even he is connected with others. He wants us to be connected too. It almost makes me cry to think on it. I finally decided to go. My grandmother’s burial is more important than all this worry. My feelings are good for guidance, but they were never intended to be my master. Only God is. He would want me there, even if just to support my dad. Seeing that father’s day is coming up, this is even more important, seeing he is missing HIS dad AND his mom. I wish I could have known my grandparents more, but distance and the illusion of singlehanded independence blinded me to the fact that time was passing on things that matter. Let Jesus take the wheel, let the Father calm your heart, let the Spirit show you the way. Reality check in more than one way and more than just this situation.

If I am doing this here, I am doing this in many places, and I may end up regreting much more. I would regret not going. I wish to be there for my dad, to let go of my grandparents, to say goodbye even if I did not say hello enough, to see the relatives I never get to see, to not make the same mistakes again, to feel the sunrise in the north, to have one-on-one time with my husband and parents in the car, to let go. Let it go. Relax. God’s got this. Ask for help. That is my lesson. I hope to take it to heart and work on this throughout my life in many ways. I have to make a note for myself to remember. This is what matters. Love matters. Sometimes, the ones who try to carry it all need to be carried.