Homesick For Eden

I am starting to love this guy. Today, he posted this:

We are homesick for Eden.


This week, as we're getting into a series of messages about Heaven, Hell, eternity, et al, this is a passage upon which I have been meditating:

   For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;
  And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God,
  Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. 

               How my heart yearns within me!  --Job 19:25-27

Often I've heard that the Old Testament was all about the grave, Sheol, and not much about resurrection. Job clearly here is expressing hope in afterlife, as he will see the LORD after his "skin is destroyed" only then would he behold God. The hope of resurrection then runs cover to cover in the Bible, it was not only a New Testament doctrine.

And to yearn for Eden! As we watch tsunamis, earthquakes, possible nuclear meltdown, revolutions, hurricanes, etc., we can easily get dragged in to despair--but even one who lost as much as Job can find the hope, knowing that our Redeemer lives and that this life is not all there is.

Last year, I read G.K Beale's The Temple and the Church's Mission. Being the nerd I am, I tend to get more out of a book like this than say, something from Max Lucado. One of Beale's premises in the book is that the Bible's big plan included (and he's not the only one that believes this) designing Eden to be His original temple. Man was created in this beautiful place and given the job to tend and keep the garden (Gen 2:15). The Hebrew for "tend" and "keep" carry the idea of "obey" and "serve", and these same words are used in several instances referring to the work of priests in the tabernacle/temple.

Hmmm... were we created for the purpose of serving in the beautiful temple of Eden, the coming New Jerusalem? No wonder we long for Eden; it was meant to be our original home! And a homecoming is planned--cue up the Gaither bunch with "Beulah Land."