“But who is able to build Him a temple?”
(2 Chr. 2:6, NKJV)
Strictly speaking we are meanwhile still engaged in a detailed unpacking of the important key verse of Isa. 35:10: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing,
with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
We have already gained valuable insights about the Bride’s ransom, and what this could possibly entail. A few concluding thoughts (for now, at least), to end this subtheme, where we look at the Bride of Christ, and the fact that she has been elected from aforetime.
As we explained earlier in the teaching of Day 1581, every chosen one (AND ALAS, NOT EVERYONE IS CHOSEN, or the term would be a contradiction in terms!) had their origin in Jesus, and they existed in Christ before creation took place. According to Eph. 1:4, the Bride had then already been chosen. God made His glorious plan public in His scroll (Heb. 10:7), regarding creation and the redemption of His spiritual sons – who were then already chosen in Christ. He chose us to be His sons, and devised the blueprint of the fulfilment of all things, long before the fall! [For the sake of completeness: in the teachings of Day 513-517 and 1161 the faulty Reformed view on predestination was made clear.]
In Isa. 4:5 the following is prophesied concerning the chosen ones on Zion: “Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering.” The “gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4) is what the Bride has been called to (2 Thess. 2:14), a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 3:1). Your calling thus seals your chosenness, the guarantee that you will not miss your mark! The protection of which Isa. 4:5 speaks above, is what Neh. 8:10 makes clear: “the joy of the Lord is your strength”. Only in the third dimension, on Zion, can this uncontaminated joy and gladness be found – only in Christ, the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24) – “For wisdom is a defence.” (Ecc. 7:12).
The word defence has a much richer meaning in Hebrew, and is known as a chûppâh. In The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary it is lexicographically defined as: “A feminine noun referring to a chamber, a cover, a canopy. It refers figuratively to the ‘bridal chamber.’” The latter is of course a reference to Ps. 19:5-6, where the Psalmist refers to the movement of rhema-words across the earth: “Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle (chûppâh) for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.” When Paul quotes this Old Testament Scripture in Rom. 10:7-8, he uses the Greek word rhema, for words. In 2 Chr. 2:6 Solomon asked, “But who is able to build Him a temple?” Now it is clear – the Bridegroom functions on earth in His earthly tent of heavenly rhema-words. The Son of man has indeed found a place on earth where He can lay His head (Luke 9:58) – it is “the place of righteousness” (Ecc. 3:16), from which “the sun of righteousness” (Mal. 4:2) arises each day, and moves across the earth in/through His words.
- Selah: What is your contribution, and how are you, within your rhema-identity, part of God’s “earthly dwelling”?
- Read: 10-12
- Memorise: 12:2
