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Colonizing the Creation
The focus of our hearts is Christ. The writer to the Hebrews instructs us to contemplate and to fully observe Him. After all, if He has the attention of all of heaven, so also should He have ours.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider (Greek, KATANOEO – to observe fully, to look closely at) Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
As Heaven’s Apostle, He came revealing God to us. And as our High Priest, He has gone back to the Father bearing us before Him. And we can hear His intercessory cry as the Holy Spirit anoints His holy priesthood on earth to pray what is in His heart. If it is true that He was totally successful in His apostleship on earth, then we must also believe that He will be just as successful in His priestly ministry in heaven. As Isaiah said: And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied (Isaiah 53:10 - 11 NKJV).
Indeed, what is emerging on earth from heaven through His priestly ministry will in its consummation bring full satisfaction to our God and will be far more glorious than we have had faith for (Ephesians 3:20).
Think of the glory revealed through Moses. As amazing as God’s works were in and through him in leading Israel from slavery, in the giving of the Law, and in the building of His house, the glory revealed in Christ – past, present, and future will be comprehensively far greater both in this world and in the ages to come.
He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.
As glorious as a house might be, it is but a reflection of what was in the mind of its designer and builder. Obviously, a house cannot build itself. Its very existence speaks of the ingenuity of its creator in envisioning its design, and of his labor in laying its foundation, in the ongoing work of its construction, and in its final finishing touches. As we observe the present condition of God’s house, it seems that there is yet much work to be done in bringing forth the full expression of what was in His heart when He started the project.
For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house – whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
While Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, Jesus is the faithful Son over His house. And the amazing works done in and through Moses, as glorious as they were, were primarily a testimony of the greater glory to be revealed in Christ. How amazing were the works of God revealed in and through Moses in his day – simply astounding demonstrations of the activities of Heaven. Yet in looking to his future, Paul the apostle asks the Corinthian believers a significant question. If the Old Testament ministry came with glory, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory (2Corinthians 3:8)? That glory is still emerging on earth in our day. O Lord, teach us how to pray in accordance with Your high priestly ministry that what is on Your heart would come to full fruition before the eyes of the whole earth.
And notice in the above verses that God’s house was being redefined from the physical temple in Jerusalem to the believing disciples of Jesus. Today, He continues His project of building His house consisting of living stones (1Peter 2:5).
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED ME BY TESTING ME, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.
We tend to think of Israel’s forty-year journey in the wilderness as a time of testing for them. And it was. But God says it was a trial to Him. And yet He continued to do mighty works among them. And so, in our day we must question the conclusion that simply because God is doing impressive works among us that we must be pleasing Him in our priorities. It would probably be wise to consider the question – “To what degree are we a blessing to God and to what degree are we a trial?”
”THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY (Greek, PLANAO – to wander) IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS (Greek, HODOS – My road)’.
Israel’s physical wilderness wanderings were but the outward reflection of their internal wandering hearts. As a result, they could not learn God’s ways, His road. After all, how can one wander and yet learn a road? Thankfully, His highway came into much greater clarity when Jesus announced in John 14:6 that He was the way (Greek, HODOS – the road). Here is Heaven’s thoroughfare – even Christ. And as we learn to continually come into harmony with Him, we will notice both personally as well as across all of Christianity, the diminishing of the all too prevalent tendency to wander spiritually that marks so much of God’s Church. Imagine – a unified people expressing one heart and one mind.
The unity that Jesus prayed for in John Chapter 17 will not be realized among us except as we gather around and come increasingly to know Him. Only then will Heaven’s road come into corporate clarity in the sight of the nations.
AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST (Greek, KATAPAUSIS – from a word meaning to settle down, to colonize).”
God’s creation of man was the inaugurating of His work to colonize the creation, to establish on earth the culture, the ways, and the priorities of Heaven. When Adam rebelled, God did not simply pull back and cease His colonizing project. No. In the giving of the Law, in the taking of the Promised Land, in the sending of the prophets, in the incarnation of Christ, and in the ongoing outpourings of the Holy Spirit beginning from Acts Chapter 2 through today, His project has continued on unabated. And He will succeed in this work because of both His priestly ministry in heaven and also the outpouring of His presence/His power to fulfill what He is articulating before the Father.
Some have asked where is the gospel of the Kingdom in the Book of Hebrews. Here it is – God’s colonizing work. But the only way we will participate is if we stay in tune with Him who is our life. When people experienced Christ on earth, they encountered life, the source of illumination for the human soul. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4). It remains the same today. People desperately need to see their way through the world’s pervading spiritual darkness. Mere external religious forms are simply no help. Heaven’s strategy is a people filled with His life. The first century readers of this letter needed to stay true to the living God.
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
Since He was living in and among them, any decision by these Hebrew believers to turn away from our Lord’s active presence in their simple house gatherings so as to fully go back to Old Testament temple worship was to evidence hearts that had fallen to unbelief.
I can imagine that since the pressure on them was great from a society so influenced by temple formalism, they would surely need each other’s consistent encouragement.
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
When should they encourage each other? Every day that was today (i.e., every day). But why was it so necessary to be such consistent encouragers?
For we have become partakers of (Greek, METOCHOS – partakers of or participants in) Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
Israel needed to see their Messiah. And Jesus’ disciples were now participating in Heaven’s revelation of Him. Now that He had ascended back to the Father, His strategy was to fill His people on earth with His life and to reveal Himself in a corporate integrated body. One people, one heart, one mind. They were literally participating in Heaven’s messianic grace. God’s Anointed One was now arising in Israel (and across the Roman Empire) among common people by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But organizational unity effected through the strength of persuasive leaders would not suffice. In fact, such an approach would undermine God’s work. The unity He was establishing was miraculous and would only be realized through the active presence of the Holy Spirit along with humility in the hearts of His people – the humility to wait and listen for His voice and then to integrate with others who though imperfect were also seeking to respond to His voice. Though such an approach might seem rife with the potential for chaos, yet God’s ways are higher than ours. And today like every generation before us, we face the same choice. Christianity/God’s house will either be organizational or miraculous. Either elders will give servanthood oversight and train God’s people to hear His voice or they will improperly insert themselves into the equation, speak from a position of authority within an organizational structure, and thus contribute to an obscuring of God’s road in the sight of the nations. God’s revelation of His road/His ways has always been rooted in an active relationship with His people where they hear His voice and respond to Him. Christian leadership must prioritize and contribute to that process. In doing so, they will be an integral part of God’s ongoing colonization of the creation.
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