Thursday, August 3, 2017

3 August 2017 - treasured revelation



"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old."

This is the nature of growth. It is to hold fast to what is good but also to be willing to learn and accept new things. The disciples have a covenant relationship with God going back thousands of years. He guides his people since day one.

Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling,
the children of Israel would set out on their journey.

The disciples must continue to learn. At the time of Moses the presence of God is restricted.

He brought the ark into the Dwelling and hung the curtain veil,
thus screening off the ark of the commandments,
as the LORD had commanded him.

In the Kingdom the presence of God is available to all who want it. It is seeks to catch "fish of every kind" rather than merely allowing Jews into the inner courts of the temple. It invites us all directly into the presence of God rather than only the high priest once a year. This is something quite new for the disciples. It is something which could be hard to accept if they simply insisted on what they already knew.

For us to, we must be ready to learn, to change, and to adapt. It is not as though the truths we know will change. God's revelation has come in it's fullness.

"In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." (see Hebrews 1:1-2).

We are too avoid having itching ears, predisposed to seek novelty:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions (see Second Timothy 4:3).

When we can avoid this we become solid and mature.

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes (see Ephesians 4:14)

However, although the revelation of God is complete we are still growing. We are still learning. We must be docile to the teaching of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to bring forth the new treasures God has for us as well as the old ones we already know.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good (see Second Thessalonians 5:19).

The Spirit still speaks to us. We need to allow him to guide us even while we hold fast to the truth we know.

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him (see First John 2:27).

The treasures of the Kingdom of God are inexhaustible. We need to hold on to the ones we have and cast our nets wide for the ones we still lack. The goal of all of these treasures is to enter more and more fully into the presence of God, to the intimate relationship to which he calls us. Even Moses cannot enter the meeting tent when the cloud of glory settles upon it. We are called to enter that cloud.

I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.


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