This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?”declares the LORD (Isaiah 66:1-2).

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King (Matthew 5:33-35).

In my last post I made reference to John Walton, Old Testament scholar at Wheaton, and to his conclusion that the Genesis creation account, when seen in the context of the nations surrounding Israel, demonstrates all the attributes of a temple inauguration ceremony common to that era.  The prime difference, of course, is that in Genesis the Creator of the heavens and earth is inaugurated, not fanciful man-made idols.  It was in essence the very lamp of truth that Israel was to lift up for the nations around them to see so that they could be drawn to worship the one true God also.  And Israel’s miracle-filled establishment and existence was the evidence. [Walton's PowerPoint lecture on this is here.  Click on his photo to see the presentation.]

Walton’s colleague Gregory Beale, a New Testament scholar, has taken this concept and brought it through the Old Testament and all the way through the New Testament to the end.  He shows that Eden, the wilderness tabernacle, and the Jerusalem temple all have similar attributes and are places of God’s presence on earth—with His priests,  servants, and stewards occupying and being nourished by the surrounding area.

And as Eden had a river that watered the gardens and became the headwaters of many rivers going out to the nations (Genesis 2:10-14), so from God’s throne in the coming New Jerusalem there flows a river (Revelation 22:1-2) along which grows the tree of life which provides for the healing of the nations.  This is clearly the same tree of life we see in the garden of Eden—and from which mankind was banished.  Losing access to the sustenance of that tree led to the death of Adam and Eve—and all the rest of humankind.  But in the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of the new heaven to the new earth, people will gain access once again to the tree that provides such nourishment that those who eat of it will not die.

Man, this is exciting stuff: the Bible has perfect bookends!  So what should all this mean to us who are between the bookends?  Well that’s a study that clearly will not end until the End—in part because in the books that rest between is the story of Jesus, God in human flesh, and the salvation He provides for us and the restoration He provides for the creation.  At the culmination of all things where the New Jerusalem becomes the worship center of the cosmos, we will see the final proof of Jesus deity: the last chapter of the Revelation tells us that the throne in the Holy City rests on the dais “of God and of the Lamb.”

What does this mean about the wonder of creation, the theme of this website?  The implications are huge and provide food for thought and study that will no doubt occupy us and influence our living until the coming of the Lamb, who will be greeted with exuberant joy by all the creatures of earth: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:13).

If all nature is expectantly waiting for that grand finale, as Paul tells us it is (Romans 8:18-21), it means that believers have more affinity with the natural world than we do with the world of men who are rejecting “the Lamb who was slain” for them.  The natural world is filled with fellow worshipers all yearning for the enthronement of that Lamb—and for its release from the curse and its coming blessed coexistence with the children of God, who will also be finally free.

It is proper to weep over creation’s pain and abuse, but all the while remembering that we do not “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Both followers of Christ and the suffering creation will share in the glory to come.

[Jesus as Lamb and Lion painting by Spencer Williams.  Be sure to look at his site.]