Psalm 84:11: No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Is that true? Has God withheld something good from you?

Or state the question this way: Haven’t you experienced loss?

We all have lost something we value and treasure, something that is now gone and unrecoverable. A serious example: a wife loses her husband to a rare disease. He is a good man, a good father; theirs is a good marriage. She understandably asks: Isn’t their future life together a good thing that God has withheld?

We also experience loss when we realize that some good thing we have desired and worked for is now unattainable. Our hopes are dashed. Here’s a trivial example from my life: I was a serious runner for many years, and ran personal best in the marathon at age 29. An injury at age 30 set me back; a set of more serious injuries at age 38 prevented me from running even 10 miles again, let alone a marathon. Running is good. Did God not withhold that good from me?

Most all of us can say: It sure seems as if God has withheld something good from me.

Now, perhaps the end of the verse gets God off the hook: “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (or, in other translations, “have integrity,” “are blameless”).

So if I have suffered loss – am I the reason, not God? In my trivial case: If I had lived a more obedient life, would I have had decades more of serious, enjoyable running?

If we are to rightly understand Psalm 84:11 – or any Scripture – we must examine it in context: both the immediate context and the context of the entirety of Scripture.

Note that Psalm 84 is part of book 3 of the psalter, Psalms 73 to 89. These were all written during a time of trial, loss, and grief for God’s people. So our key verse cannot mean, “All is going wonderfully for us because we have been walking uprightly!”

Instead, we’ll see that the psalmist is saying: if we continue to walk in His paths, He will be our sun and shield, He will bestow favor, honor, all good things. So whatever loss you have experienced, whatever worries you many have, God will give you Himself – and that is the greatest good imaginable.

Let’s now turn to the psalm.

The Greatest Joy and Security: God’s Loving Presence (verses 1-4)

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.  (Psalm 84:1-2)

What is the psalmist’s desire in the midst of pain, loss, danger? Not the end of pain. Not the restoration of loss. His desire is for the living God. Indeed, God is his greatest joy; he longs for Him with all his being (soul, heart, and flesh).

So, because He longs for God, he longs for God’s courts, God’s dwelling place, saying it is “lovely”. For us, “lovely” implies primarily physical beauty. But the underlying Hebrew word emphasizes how much it is “loved.” Indeed, every other occurrence of this word in Scripture refers to God’s beloved people – and His people were so often not acting beautifully!

Thus, the psalmist loves the temple because it is a picture, a pointer to God’s great love for His people. He is present in midst of His people, and provides way for them to approach Him in worship.

Do you feel that privilege?

The equivalent for us is saying: “How I love worshiping the one true God thru Jesus!”

Verse 3 then speaks of security

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young, at your altars,
O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

Sparrows are common. They are not worth much. But even such birds feel secure enough to make the temple their home. So if even sparrows are secure in God’s house, how much more His beloved people!

The psalmist underlines the security that is ours by then calling God “Lord of Hosts” – that is, the God who is Himself armies – and declaring that mighty God to be “my king and my God.”

Verse 4 then concludes the first section with the first of three “blessed” statements:

Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!

That is, blessed or happy are those who are secure in Him, who praise Him, who are loved by Him and so love Him. They thus praise Him forever.

When God Seems Distant (verses 5-9)

So the temple reminds the psalmist of God’s presence and love.

What about those who don’t have such a reminder when they suffer pain, loss, weakness, or depression? This section of the psalm speaks to such people.

Verse 7 tells us they are travelling to Zion – that is, to His temple courts, and thus to God Himself. But verse 6 tells us to get there, they must travel through valley of Baca. We don’t know the specific location referred to, but the underlying Hebrew word implies it is a place of weeping. Thus the image is of traveling through a dry, bare valley.

So imagine that you are on a long journey on foot. You thirst, so descend into a valley hoping to find a stream. But you only find rocks and sand. Now your situation seems hopeless. If there is no water in the valley, where can you possibly find any?

The psalmist tells us in verse 5: Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

Why are these blessed and happy? Because their strength is not in what is around them, but in God Himself. Because of that strength from Him, the driest valley, the most depressing place, is refreshing. They know these hard paths are roads that lead them to God’s presence. And so they are refreshed along the way. By God’s indwelling strength they make the dry place of weeping a place of sustenance and joy – indeed, a place covered with pools.

The Lord Jesus exemplifies this. On the way to the cross, He is scourged and mocked; He stumbles and falls. He is nailed to the cross. He suffers God’s wrath for all our sins. This is the driest valley anyone has ever experienced. Yet His strength is in God. He knows He is on the highway to God the Father’s presence, to God the Father’s glory. So Jesus finished His work and entered into that eternal joy.

The psalmist knows that truth. And so in verse 7 he promises us:

They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

Thru Jesus, God strengthens each one of us for the road ahead, and so we all make it! Not one is lost!

The Apostle Paul highlights the same truth in Romans 8:29-30: Exactly the same ones who are foreknown are then predestined, called, justified, and glorified. None are lost.

So realize: If you are in Jesus, whatever trial, whatever trouble, whatever hardship, whatever loss you may face, God will enable you to go from strength to strength by His grace. There will be weeping. There will be weakness. You won’t feel strong. But in Jesus, the Father will never let you go. He will bring you to Himself.

In verses 8 and 9 the psalmist, confident in God yet in pain, cries out to Him:

Hear mighty one! Give ear!
Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed

What does “shield” refer to?

God’s “anointed” is the king. So the psalmist identifies God’s anointed king as his shield, saying, “Bless us Your people, strengthen us, give us security through Your chosen ruler, the descendant of David.”

For us today, this has an even deeper meaning. We are weak, we are not blameless, we are indeed rebels. But we pray to God: “Look upon Your anointed One, upon Your Son, upon Jesus who suffered, who went through that dark and dry valley, for us. We are in Him by faith, and so, work for us His Bride, His Body, Your People!”

When God seems distant: In Christ go from strength to strength, and He will provide what you need in the valley of weeping, in the valley of hopelessness.

In Christ, We Don’t Lose (verses 10-12)

We have seen that in his sorrow, the psalmist cries out to God to hear him and to bless the people through their anointed king. He then says in verse 10:

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere

Think about this: A thousand days is a bit under three years. Consider all the joys of the last three years. Food. Friendship.  Family. Vacations. Gifts you gave or received. Kisses and hugs. Conversation and laughter. Accomplishment and worthwhile effort.

Now: Take God out of those three years.

The psalmist is saying: One day with God has more good in it than three years worth of good without Him.

Or put it this way: If you were to lose all the possible joys of three years without God and then had God for one day – you wouldn’t lose.

So the psalmist goes on to say in the second half of verse 10:

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness

A doorkeeper has little status. In our parlance, think “janitor.” For those who “dwell in tents” don’t think of campers! Rather, these are the most prominent, the most honored, those who live a life of ease.

So the psalmist is saying: “I’d rather serve You, Lord God, Lord Jesus, as janitor than to have a life of wealth and ease without You. I’d rather have a life devoted to You than to have all that I could possibly get through working 24×7 and having nothing to do with you.”

In effect, this is the question Jesus asks the rich young ruler in Mark 10. The man asks Jesus what he must to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments – that is, to walk uprightly. The man says he has done that.

Now, the man is mistaken. He has not loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength every minute of every day. But that failure is not what keeps this man from eternal life. Nor does that failure keep us from eternal life! So Jesus, rather than pointing out where he has failed, tells him to go, sell all he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and come, follow Him. Only in following Him will the man find eternal life.

You see, Jesus asks: “Is a day with Me worth more than all your possessions? Is even an eternity with Me worth more than all your possessions?”

The psalmist explains why that day with God is worth more in verse 11:

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor

• God is the sun – He gives brightness, light, love, an honor, shining through the darkness of life in this fallen world.
• God is the shield – providing protection and security.
• God grants grace and favor, honor and glory.

The second half of verse 11 then states the promise we focused on in the beginning:

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

He concludes in verse 12 with the third statement of blessing:

O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

This psalm tells us: Do what Jesus did: Depend on the Father. Value Him. Follow Him. Trust Him. Be that janitor, or whatever God asks of you, because He gives you what is best: He gives you Himself.

In Jesus, you are conformed to His likeness. Jesus – your shield, your anointed one – will be glorified in your life, and you will get to bask in His glory. Jesus – through whom the God all grace grants favor – will give you strength to endure to the end, to become like Him. The Father will shine the light of His glory on you in the face of Jesus – and so you have all good.

You will experience loss. Indeed, eventually, you will lose all good in this world. But you have Jesus. You have God. In Christ You are welcome in the household of God. Not only as a guest, but as a beloved child. Your cup overflows.

Conclusion

Think of the rich young ruler again. Would he have lost if he had obeyed Jesus? If he had sold all and followed Him? By no means!

Now, you might respond: “Coty, the ruler’s riches were keeping him from following Jesus. In your trivial example in the introduction, running wasn’t in the way of your following Him. More seriously, the good husband who died surely wasn’t keeping the wife from following Jesus! It still seems to me that God withholds good things from His people.”

That’s an excellent question. What’s the answer?

In this life, from our perspective it often seems as if God is withholding good. Similarly, from a two-year-old’s perspective, it often seems as if her parents are withholding good. But parents are always doing more than two-year-olds can understand. And God is always doing millions and billions more than we can understand

He occasionally gives us glimpses of why we experience loss. But most often He does not.

Thus the psalmist concludes in verse 12:

O Mighty One, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Trust Him for salvation. Trust Him with your issues today. Trust Him with your future in this world. Trust Him with eternity.

You will rejoice, today, in this life, in the presence of loss, and then in eternity when there will be no more loss.

Jesus trusted Him to the cross. Because of that cross, we too can go from strength to strength. Because of that cross, we have God’s unchanging love. Because of that cross, we have God Himself – now and forever.

And if we have Him, we have all things.

Blessed is the one who trusts in Him!

The King’s Cup of God’s Salvation

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.  Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:22–25).

The first cup we’re introduced to is the King’s cup of God’s salvation. Jesus describes the cup at the Last Supper with his disciples as, “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 12:24). Jesus speaks into redemption history the salvation promise that the Mosaic covenant pointed to when Moses on Mount Sinai sprinkled the blood of a sacrifice on the people. Jesus says, his blood, which the cup points to, is what will lead to salvation. His blood secures the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 and the everlasting covenant of peace in Ezekiel,

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31).

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them (Ezekiel 37:26).

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you (Ezekiel 36:25).

This is what God’s sovereign plan of salvation was always driving toward. Every sacrifice, every Passover Lamb, every covenant, finds its fulfilment in the man Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is God’s promised salvation that will cleanse his people from all their uncleannesses and sins. And King Jesus holds in his hand, the cup of God’s salvation for his people. And here he gives that cup to his people, all his people, to drink. And notice again that it is for many. That is, the all, is ultimately many—from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. King Jesus’ cup of salvation is for many. There is only one requirement to sit at this table of God’s salvation and drink from the King’s cup. You must be a sinner, who recognizes your only hope is not in yourself but in Jesus because this cup is for the forgiveness of sins.

The Sinner’s Cup of God’s Wrath

And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:35–36).

Here we’re introduced to the second cup, the sinner’s cup of God’s wrath. Jesus goes farther than his disciples, who being of Adam’s race are not able to drink this cup and live, into the darkness of the garden. How distressing is this moment? Distressing enough that Jesus asks of God that it might pass from him. He cries out intimately to his Father—his Father with whom he has walked more closely than any man. His Father, with whom he is one in his divinity. He cries out, “ABBA FATHER! You can do anything. Take this cup from me!” How much did Jesus in his humanity endure temptation and testing and suffering? More than any other man the author of Hebrews tells us. He endured the full weight of it and never sinned. Thank God he never sinned. And this was the perfect opportunity to. But he says instead,

“not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).

Jesus is obedient to his Father, even unto death. He resists sin to the point of shedding his blood, a reality Luke alludes to as he describes this moment saying that Jesus sweat became “like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Does Jesus anticipate the torture and death that awaits? Sure. But the true wrath he sees is the forsakenness that awaits him. He will be forsaken by his Father. And the reality is, he is he Son of God. He is the King. At any moment he could call down twelve legions of those angels (Matthew tells us) that are peering down. He could call—do some math—thirty-six to seventy-two thousand angels to come and wipe out all humanity so that he can take his throne. But this is not the Father’s will…so he stands fast. He submits himself to the Father’s will.

Consider the contrast with Adam’s helpless race. While Jesus prays what evangelist Leonard Ravenhill said is ” the most wonderful thing human lips have ever uttered,” Peter and James and John don’t hear it. At least not all of it. Why? Because they are sleeping! They are not strong enough in their physical flesh, let alone in their sin-sick flesh, to even stay awake and pray. They can’t even obey Jesus’ command to, “Watch and pray” for the sake of their own souls. While Jesus endures and resists temptation for the sake of all.

The picture Mark offers here is one of completion. This scene illustrates the complete weakness of Adam’s race. Three times Jesus comes and finds the disciples asleep. Three times they fail. Adams’ race, sinful man, is completely lost. The cup of God’s wrath, not the cup of God’s salvation awaits their lips…if not for Jesus. He is their hope. They’re not strong enough to drink it and live, and yet it is their destiny. If not for Jesus, the last Adam. The new Adam does what the old Adam and his race could never do. He trusts God completely. He trusts his Father, and he gives up his life for the sake of the kingdom of God. And he drinks the cup reserved for sinners.

The Cross and the Great Exchange
At the cross, Jesus drank to the dregs the full cup of God’s wrath so that the cup he gave us to drink, the cup of his perfect blood, truly is the cup of God’s salvation.

Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath, tasting the poisonous agony of every sin, small and great, mingled with the fiery torment of God’s wrath crying out, “My God, God, why have you forsaken me?” And the cup had its full transforming effect. The man who knew no sin, became sin for us.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin…(1 Corinthians 5:21).

And at the cross, King Jesus gave to us, sinners, his cup of God’s salvation. He was the only one who deserved to drink from this cup, and in his death, he gave it to us. And because of the cross, the cup of God’s salvation has its full transforming effect. We become the very righteousness of God in Jesus.

…so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (1 Corinthians 5:21).

No man in history ever perfectly loved, trusted, and submitted to the Father even when he promised him life. But Jesus perfectly loved, trusted, and submitted to the Father even when he promised him death. He knew his Father would not abandon his soul, though all others would. This was a death leading to life. And Jesus, our champion of the faith, the true disciple of God the Father, our King invites us into his reward of eternal life.

This Good Friday remember that at the cross, our King took our sinner’s cup of God’s wrath and gave to us his King’s cup of God’s salvation. Long live the King.

In Jeremiah, God promises a new covenant. Consider the text, noting, first, what was wrong with the old covenant; second, God’s four promises; and, third, the relationships among the promises.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers … my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband…. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days…: [First promise] I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. [Second promise] And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [Third promise] And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…. [Fourth promise] For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (From Jeremiah 31:31-34)

What’s Wrong with the Old Covenant

What does God say was wrong with the old covenant? Does He say anything was wrong with the Ten Commandments, or the sacrificial system, or the annual feasts?

No! The problem with the old covenant is that the people broke it! As we have seen in our Core Seminar, all biblical covenants have both promises and requirements. The people violated the requirements.

Now, realize: The problem is not sin in and of itself. Within the old covenant, there is provision for the forgiveness of sins – the sacrificial system. When the people sin, they are to confess, to repent, to return to God, and to offer the designated sacrifice. When they respond rightly to sin, they remain in the covenant.

The people become covenant breakers when they not only sin, but when they reject God, when they despise Him, when they place no value on His Word, His revelation, His promises.

The Logical Relationship Among the Four Covenant Promises

Jeremiah has emphasized the guilt of the people. So there is a need for forgiveness.  Thus the fourth promise is the basis, the logical ground, for the other three promises. Without forgiveness, guilty sinners can’t be the people of God.

Thus, Jesus fulfills the old covenant insistence on sin requiring the penalty of death. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV).

So the fourth new covenant promise logically precedes the other three. Without forgiveness, sinful people cannot be in relationship with a holy God.

Which promise comes next?

God forgives us, enabling us to enter His presence, to be among His people. But what happens when we sin again?

We know from 1 John 1:9 and other texts that we are to confess. That’s how we should think of the first new covenant promise: God’s writing the law, the torah, on our hearts.

Remember, the torah includes not only statutes and requirements but also instruction. The torah tells us who God is, what He is like, how we are to have a relationship with Him. When that is written on our hearts, when we sin, we repent!

God speaks of leading the people to do this in Jeremiah 31:9: “With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back.”

Just so for us. The law being written on our hearts does not imply that we lead perfect lives. Rather it implies that we see sin for what the torah tell us it is, and we see God as the torah describes Him. We thus recognize sin, know it is the path to destruction and not to joy – so we hate it. Furthermore, we know He offers us forgiveness through Jesus, so we come to Him humbly confessing and repenting. He then cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

Thus, the requirement for staying in the new covenant is not sinless perfection; if it were, there would be no hope for any of us. The requirement is to make use of the new covenant method to restore the relationship with God.

This then leads us to the third promise of the new covenant. When the torah is written on the hearts of all God’s people, they all know Him.

The torah includes this great description of God:

“A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (From Exodus 34:6-7).

To know God, we must know of these attributes. But knowing Him implies more than knowing about Him. We must respond with joy, with worship, with delight, as God describes in the near context of Jeremiah 31:31-34:

Jeremiah 33:11 Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Jeremiah 31:14 My people shall be satisfied with my goodness.

So the third new covenant promise implies that we respond rightly to the truths God has told us about Himself. As Jesus says, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Finally, the new covenant culminates in the fulfilment of God’s plan to create a people for Himself: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” the second new covenant promise. God’s people are in an eternal, life-giving, joyful relationship with Him, in Jesus, through Jesus, as Bride, as children, as redeemed.

This was the goal of the entire history of redemption, as hinted at in the Garden, shown a bit more clearly to Noah and Abraham, then shown yet more clearly to Moses and even more to David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets. God’s plan has always been to fulfill the old covenant through the perfect seed of the woman, through the perfect offspring of Abraham, through the perfect Davidic king, through the perfect suffering servant – that is, through Jesus Christ. He is the only human who ever loved God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength every minute of every day. He is the only human who loved every person He encountered as He loved Himself. He is the faithful Israel of God.

And through His life, death, resurrection, reign, and return we can be united with Him. We can be God’s people; He can be our God – forever and ever.

Entering into and Enduring in the New Covenant

We must never think of Jesus or His work as a means to achieve a greater goal. For example: Don’t think of Jesus as a tool to cleanse you from the guilt of sin. Jesus is not a tool. Jesus is not a means to an end. Rather, Jesus is the Goal. He is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in a field. As the Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1:18, in everything Jesus must be preeminent.

So we enter into the new covenant – as pictured in baptism – by praying something like this:

Father, I gladly acknowledge that I am a sinner. I have closed my eyes to keep myself from seeing You; I have shut my mind to Your Gospel. I deserve Your judgment. But now I confess – that was the path to death, not life. That rebellion was not a pursuit of my greatest joy; rather, it was walking away from my greatest joy. Jesus is worth more than all the world has to offer. You, Father, invite me to be among your people by grace through faith in Him. I believe Jesus provided the payment for the penalty of my sins, and I believe that knowing Him is eternal life. Please accept me into His Kingdom, uniting me with Him and thus with You forever.”

Psalm 51:17 assures us, “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

If you are not in Him, God calls upon you now: Come to Him, like that. He will incorporate you into His people.

If you are in Him – How do you endure in the new covenant?

Baptism pictures our entrance into the new covenant; the Lord’s Supper pictures our enduring in the new covenant. Jesus says “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). The Lord’s Supper is God’s gift to help us endure.

Note that our Lord uses new covenant language when instituting the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22:20: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” So whenever you partake of the Lord’s Supper, consider all four new covenant promises:

• Through the new covenant, we have forgiveness – as pictured in the bread and the cup
• Through the new covenant, the law/torah is written on our hearts. As you partake, ask Him to highlight part of that torah.
• Through the new covenant, all who are in Christ Jesus know Him, from the youngest to the oldest, from the least knowledgeable about Scripture to the most knowledgeable. As you partake, ask Him to deepen and to personalize that knowledge of Him.
• Through the new covenant, we are His people and He is our God. As you partake, ask Him to satisfy you with His goodness and to delight in the relational shalom He provides to guilty rebels like yourself. And know: He rejoices to do you good.

As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we get a foretaste of the final day described in Revelation 21:3: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Then, after reflecting on the new covenant promises while partaking of the Lord’s Supper, commit yourself to reflecting on them daily – and thus to feeding on Jesus daily. For if you are united with Jesus, all these new covenant promises are yours, now and forever. He forgives you; He writes His torah on your heart; you know Him; you are His people, and He is your God. Whatever happens in this life, whatever tragedies and sorrows, whatever triumphs and successes, these promises hold, and are far more important than all the rest.

So delight in that new covenant hope.

Home. The story of the Bible is the story of God getting us back home with him. This is enchanting in its own right. Whether a warm home life has been your experience or the elusive dream you’ve wished for but never had, we have all experienced homesickness. God weaved the desire to finally make it home to find a warm welcome—the warm glow of the light left on for you, warm bread on the table to nourish and comfort you, and the warm embrace of your family who loves you—into his story and, thus, into the human experience. In order to be properly enchanted by the richness and depth of this story and what awaits us in the new creation, we can’t hurry past the bits and pieces that make up this big story. What is this home for which we long like? Well, hopefully I can unpack that a bit for us through a series of articles. But for now, let’s look ahead at how Scripture describes the New Creation so that we can get just a wee taste of our future home.

And, I summed up the most recent post this way:

Your home with God welcomes you with promises. Your home with God promises warm light to greet your arrival from your sojourn in a dark world. And your home with God promises warm bread on the table to welcome you and satisfy the hunger you worked up on your long journey. Both the light and the bread are your King, Jesus. He, the light of the world and the bread of life, your God and King will say, “Welcome home.”

Also consider the way I summed up the second and third installments of this series, Home—The Mountain of God Part 1 and 2, which had the same conclusion,

“Our home…The mountain of God will be the joy of the earth (Psalm 48:1–2). And Jesus will reign there as our king. And when we finally come home we will come with singing. And everlasting joy shall be upon our heads. And we shall obtain gladness and joy. And sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35:10). And when we get there, our brother, the High King Jesus, will say, “Welcome home.””

Welcome. That is an emerging theme. God welcomes you home. While, as we explored in that recent post, God welcomes you home with light and bread, that light and bread indicates another element of that welcome: joy. God welcomes you home with joy. Consider some of the images Scripture offers us to point to the joy God has over you.

God’s Welcoming Joy In Scripture
Zephaniah 3:17 describes God’s joy over you whom he has saved. God rejoices over you with gladness before you have a chance to do anything. You will be so stunned by his joy over you that you will be moved to silence, Zephaniah says—he will quiet you by his love. And while you try to gather your thoughts, you’re again interrupted by his singing—he will exult over you with loud singing.

Perhaps Zephaniah adds a little color to the joy that we see alluded to Luke 15:8–10. There we see the parable of the lost coin. The woman searches and searches until she finally finds it. And in her joy she calls and gathers all of her friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me!” And Jesus then says, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). Notice Jesus doesn’t say that this joy is the angels’ joy, though it is safe to assume that they are certainly joyful. Jesus says this joy is before the angels of God. That is, God whom they behold erupts with joy before their covered faces at the return of a sinner. It’s the type of joy akin to a shepherd who at finding his lost sheep, throws him up on his shoulders rejoicing (Luke 15:5). The return of a sinner, the coming home of the repentant and redeemed prompts powerful joy in your heavenly Father.

Perhaps the best image of this joyful welcome is in the familiar parable of the prodigal son. When the long lost, rebellious son finally comes to his senses and decides to return home to his father as a servant, we see that even he couldn’t anticipate the type of joyful welcome that awaited him. Jesus describes it best:

And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate (Luke 15:20–24).

Joyful welcome. That is what awaits you when you finally get home with God in Jesus. Or, rather, when Jesus comes to make his home with you. Yes we are journeying home to him through this world in a spiritual, pilgrimage sense. We are exiles now. But chronologically and eschatologically speaking, Jesus is coming back to make his home with us. And Jesus had something to say about that too.

In Luke 12:37, Jesus says that his people who faithfully work and faithfully pilgrimage through this life—people who hope in and await his return—are in for a stunning turn of events. Jesus says this regarding those faithful servants who look for his coming:

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them (Luke 12:37).

The stunning twist in this scene is that the master, King Jesus, will come home and even as you are trying to welcome and serve him, he will welcome and serve you. He will sit you down at his table and he will serve you.

Your God and King rejoices at the prospect of your coming home to him. And when this spiritual reality of being at home with the Lord in Jesus transforms into the eschatological reality of being at home with Jesus in the new heavens and new earth, you will be welcomed with joy. Again, Isaiah 35:10 (51:11) makes for a fitting conclusion:

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Christian, you will be welcomed home with joy. King Jesus himself saying to you, “Well done. Welcome home. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).

Home. The story of the Bible is the story of God getting us back home with him. This is enchanting in its own right. Whether a warm home life has been your experience or the elusive dream you’ve wished for but never had, we have all experienced homesickness. God weaved the desire to finally make it home to find a warm welcome—the warm glow of the light left on for you, warm bread on the table to nourish and comfort you, and the warm embrace of your family who loves you—into his story and, thus, into the human experience. In order to be properly enchanted by the richness and depth of this story and what awaits us in the new creation, we can’t hurry past the bits and pieces that make up this big story. What is this home for which we long like? Well, hopefully I can unpack that a bit for us through a series of articles. But for now, let’s look ahead at how Scripture describes the New Creation so that we can get just a wee taste of our future home.

In that very first post, from which this excerpt is taken, I pointed to C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle and a memorable scene where all the characters are racing to the new Narnia, that is, the new creation to get to at the same point. There, the Unicorn says it best,

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!”

God intends the elements that he weaved into his story of redemption to draw our gaze and our hearts further up and further in to what awaits us in the new heavens and new earth, our true home. The things we see in this story of redemption that naturally evoke a sense of home shouldn’t be written off as mere coincidence. God intends them to offer us a foretaste of our future home where he dwells with us and us with him. We see some perhaps unassuming, easily passed over pointers to home in Scripture’s description of the tabernacle.

I once had a professor point out that in God’s house, he always leaves a warm light on and warm bread on the table for his people.[1] Let’s consider those elements and what they promise.

Light
Consider Leviticus 24:1–4 (cf. Exodus 27:20–21),

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.”

The High Priest has the responsibility to always keep the lamp of God in the tabernacle burning. Consider what that tells us. The tabernacle sat in midst of the camp of people of Israel. It was the place where God dwelled so that he dwelt in the midst of his people. This camp with this set up, God dwelling in the midst of his people, was the home of God’s people. Imagine being an Israelite at this time who was coming home from a long journey or even just catching up with the rest of the camp to set up your own tent (When millions of people travel together, you have to move in stages [Exodus 17:1]. Thus, not everyone arrives at the same time to the destination). As you get close to camp it’s already dark, what do you see? The light of fires in the distance. Each family of each tribe lighting their fires for cooking and for warmth and lighting their lamps for light. What does it signal to you? Home. We’ve made it. As you get closer, these lights begin to burn out one by one as the people settle in for the night. But, there is one light that stays on. There is one light that beckons to you. There is one light that says, “You’re home.” The lamp of tabernacle, God’s house, remains ever burning. What the burning lamp of God in God’s house would tell the weary Israelite or sojourner among God’s people is this: “I, your God, am home. I am with you, and I’m leaving the light on for you. You are home and you are welcomed.”

You are a sojourner on this earth looking for a better country, a heavenly home, the city God has prepared for you (Psalm 119:19; Hebrews 11:10, 16; 12:22; 14:14; 1 Peter 2:11). In this world, there will be darkness. But Jesus is the light of the world that leads you to life (John 8:12). And when you finally make it to your eternal home with God, you will not find a dark, cold house, shut up house. The warm light of our King will greet and welcome you:

“And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

Bread
Consider Leviticus 24:5–9 (cf. Exodus 25:30),

“You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”

The High Priest had the responsibility of always ensuring there was fresh bread sprinkled with fragrant frankincense on the table of the Lord in the tabernacle every week. Again, imagine if you were an Israelite in the camp. You’ve finished a hard day’s work, and you are on your way back to your family tent. You decide to walk past the tabernacle. As you walk by the pleasant smell of fresh baked bread, spiced with frankincense greets you. In fact every time you walk past the tabernacle—every time—this is a smell that greets you from the house of the Lord—warm bread, frankincense. While it may promise to cause your already hungry stomach to rumble, what else does this perpetual fragrance promise? You won’t be hungry much longer. It’s the promise that in the house of God, you will always be provided for, your hunger will always be satisfied. God welcomes you home with fresh bread and the promise of provision.

While you sojourn in a world of uncertainty, your king promises to provide you with your physical daily bread (Matthew 6:11). And, in your sojourn through this life you will not only find your physical hunger satisfied by your king, but he will satisfy your hunger for righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world (Matthew 5:6). Indeed, your king is the bread of life that nourishes and satisfies your hungry soul in the life of your sojourn (Luke 22:19; John 6:33, 35, 48, 51). And when you finally make it to your eternal home with God, your King welcomes you and promises you will hunger no more:

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore (Revelation 7:15–16).

Home: Light and Bread
Your home with God welcomes you with promises. Your home with God promises warm light to greet your arrival from your sojourn in a dark world. And your home with God promises warm bread on the table to welcome you and satisfy the hunger you worked up on your long journey. Both the light and the bread are your King, Jesus. He, the light of the world and the bread of life, your God and King will say, “Welcome home.”

[1] Jason DeRouchie offered this insight during a lecture.

1. God chose you (Acts 13:17; Deuteronomy 7:6–8; Ephesians 1:3–5)
2. God has made you a people, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and his treasured possession (Acts 13:17; Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9)
3. God redeemed you from slavery, giving you freedom (Acts 13:17; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Exodus 14)
4. God has patience with you (Acts 13:18; Romans 2:4; Romans 3:25)
5. God destroys your enemies (Acts 13:19; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:10, 14)
6. God is giving you an inheritance (Acts 13:19; 1 Peter 1:4)
7. God has given you a prophet and king, who speaks God’s Word, gives you ears to hear, and rules and judges justly (Acts 13:20–22; Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15–20; 34:10–12; David)
8. God has given you the promised offspring who crushes the serpent’s head (Acts 13:23; 2 Samuel 7:12–16; Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 3:15)
9. God has given you repentance (Acts 13:24–25; Romans 5:19)
10. God has given you salvation (Acts 13:26; Romans 1:16; 5:17)
11. God has given you the perfect substitutionary sacrifice (Acts 13:28–29; Hebrews 10:12–14; Genesis 22:1–14)
12. God has given you a perfect, risen great high priest (Acts 13:30; Hebrews 4:14–15; 5:5–6; 10:11–13; Psalm 110:4)
13. God has given you witnesses (Acts 10:31; Romans 10:14–17; Hebrews 11; 12:1–3)
14. God has given you his the good news of his written Word (Acts 10:31–32; 2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12–13; Isaiah 52:7)
15. God has given you His Son, a risen, eternal, holy king (Acts 13:33–35; John 3:16; 1 John 5:12; Psalm 1–2; 2 Samuel 7:12–16; 1 Chronicles 17:11–14; Psalm 16:8–11; Psalm 72; Psalm 110; Isaiah 52:7)
16. God has given you an eternal covenant with all its blessings (Acts 13:34; Isaiah 55:3; 2 Samuel 7:13–16; 1; 1 Chronicles 17:11–14)
17. God has given you forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38; Colossians 2:13–14; Hebrews 10:17–18; Jeremiah 31:34)
18. God has justified you (Acts 13:39; Romans 3:21; Galatians 2:16)
19. God has made you his new covenant people of grace, purified and unified—the church, conformed to the image of his Son (Acts 13:40–42; Romans 8:29; Ephesians 2:4–22; Habakkuk 1:5; Isaiah 29:14)
20. God has given you to suffer for Christ’s sake (Acts 13:49–50; Mark 8:35; Romans 8:18; Philippians 1:29; 1 Peter 1:6–7; James 1:3–4; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 5:3–5)
21. God has given you eternal life (Acts 13:46, 48; Colossians 2:13; John 3:16; John 4:14; Romans 6:23)
22. God has made you a light (Acts 13:47; Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 60:1, 2–5; Isaiah 66:10–14; Philippians 2:15; Matthew 5:14)
23. God has given you joy (Acts 13:51–52; Psalm 16:11; Romans 5:3; Psalm 16:11)
24. God has given you hope and purpose (Acts 13:51; Matthew 28:18–20; Romans 5:1–5; 8:28; Ephesians 1:5; 2:10; 3:10; 1 Peter 1:3)
25. God has given you the Holy Spirit, adopting you as his own (Acts 13:52; John 7:37–39; Acts 2:1–4; Romans 5:5; Galatians 4:6; Numbers 11:29; Ezekiel 36:27; Joel 2:28–32)

And here is, then, God’s consolation, the sum total of these twenty-five gospel consolations, for you—The God of glory gives you himself (Act 13:52; Romans 1:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Peter 3:18; 2 Peter 1:3–4; Revelation 21:3–4; Psalm 27:4; Psalm 84).

So, when the cares of your heart are many, let God’s consolations for you in the gospel cheer your soul (Psalm 94:19).

There have been millions of such martyrs over the centuries. Here is the story of two from the 1930s with a tenuous but genuine link to our local church.

John and Betty Stam met at Moody Bible Institute in the 1920s. Betty had grown up in China as the daughter of missionaries. Sensing a call, John left a promising career to prepare for the field. Betty graduated a year before John and left for China, having been accepted by China inland Mission. Though they desired to marry, they delayed engagement, not knowing if John too would be accepted by CIM.

He was – and proved to be an adept student of the language and a passionate witness for Jesus. He preached a sermon in Chinese less than a year after entering the country. John and Betty then married in October 1933. Betty gave birth to their daughter Helen Priscilla the following September.

At the time Mao Tse Tung’s communist forces were rebelling against the nationalist government. By early December 1934 the communists were near the Stams’ residence. John and Betty made plans to evacuate if necessary, but the rebel army arrived much sooner than anticipated. John responded to their banging on the door by inviting  them in and offering tea. That initially calmed the situation. The rebels told John to write a letter to his superiors demanding a ransom – he communicated their request, concluding the letter by saying, “As for us, may God be glorified whether by life or by death.”

The letter was never sent. Evidently, the communist general found out that the nationalist forces were approaching rapidly. The following day John, Betty, and Helen Priscilla were taken 17 miles away and imprisoned in an abandoned farmhouse. By this point certain that they were to be killed, John and Betty hid their three-month-old daughter as well as they could, placing extra diapers and ten dollars near her.

At 10am December 8, the communists proclaimed, “Come and see the foreign devils killed!” They then stripped John and Betty to their underwear and marched them through the town. A shopkeeper who pleaded for their lives was killed. The rebels then forced Betty to watch while they nearly beheaded John. They then did the same to Betty.

What about Helen Priscilla? Some townspeople had pleaded for the baby’s life. We don’t know whether those pleas were effective or somehow in the excitement of the executions the communists forgot about her. But in any event, God sustained her through more than 24 hours alone in that house. A man named Lo Ke-chou then found her. He brought her with the bodies of her parents miles away to safety. On December 14 at long last John and Betty’s families in the US received the hoped-for telegram: “Stam baby safe.”

Five years previously, Frank Houghton of China Inland Mission had written the words we sang a few weeks ago – words that apply to the testimony of the Stams:

We bear the torch that, flaming,
Fell from the hands of those
Who gave their lives proclaiming
That Jesus died and rose;
Ours is the same commission,
The same glad message ours;
Fired by the same ambition,
To Thee we yield our powers.

O Father who sustained them,
O Spirit who inspired,
Saviour, whose love constrained them
To toil with zeal untired,
From cowardice defend us,
From lethargy awake!
Forth on Thine errands send us
To labour for Thy sake.

What is the link to Desiring God Community Church?

The first few years we held Perspectives on the World Christian Movement courses in Charlotte, one of our speakers was Pete Stam who lived in Wilmington. Then in his late 80s, Pete had served as a missionary in the Congo and for decades as Executive Director of Africa Inland Mission. We had several long conversations, and I much enjoyed getting to know him. John Stam was a brother of Pete’s father. Only 10 years younger than John, Pete was seventeen when he heard the news of the martyrdom of his aunt and uncle in China. He knew his cousin Helen Priscilla well.

Our God is at work, in life and in death. His power is overwhelming. His love cannot be stopped. His victory is certain. As Frank Houghton wrote, may we realize that we share the same commission, that we have the same glad message, and that the same Lord empowers us to complete the task He has given to us, His church. May we share the Stams’ certainty that Jesus is Lord, and that He is worth more than all the world has to offer.

[By Coty Pinckney. You can read more about John and Betty Stam at this link.]

For Christians we can learn from this lesson in history. As we have seen in our Image of God and Sanctity of Life series to begin this year our calling is to be Image Bearers of God who impact the world by spreading Kingdom Culture—living out the Gospel in our everyday lives. If the church enters the public square as though it is in a conventional culture war, seeking to defeat political opponents or gaining power by any means necessary we may enjoy some victories but the end will be defeat. Scripture reminds us that our struggle is not against “flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). The real battlefield is spiritual and the weapons of the kingdom — prayer, truth, love of enemy, witness, and sacrifice — are not the ones the world expects because the church is seeking to build a Kingdom Culture that this world does not know.

The Bride does not fight to defend the Bridegroom’s throne; she prepares herself in faithfulness, patience, and love

Culture is more than politics or social trends. It is the shared way a people live, a shared  set of values, who they collectively worship, and how they understand what is good and true. It not only impacts patterns of life like attending church on Sunday but also what people within the culture see as beautiful and praise-worthy. It shapes the stories we tell, the laws we pass, and what we celebrate. In the Bible, we see Kingdom Culture form wherever God’s people live under His rule. In the early church in Acts 2:42–47, after Pentecost, believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. They shared possessions, cared for the needy, worshiped all under the authority and care of the King, Jesus who was risen.

The kingdom culture that valued generosity, unity in Christ across social class, joy in suffering, and worship of Christ stood in contrast to the Roman Empire, which valued  power, hierarchy, and worship of the emperor. The early church did not dominate Rome through politics or a culture war but by embodying the culture of their King. So as Christians who want to see Christ reign we must fight the right battle with the right end in sight. So how do we ensure we fight the right battle? Let’s listen to our King and gain wisdom.

The Image of God is most clearly displayed not in power, but in Christlike character that shows conviction with compassion and proclaims truth shaped by humility.

Jesus said “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) so our primary threat is not cultural decline but the decline of dependence on our King. The church has survived emperors, revolutions, persecutions, and moral collapse before. What it cannot survive is prayerlessness, Wordlessness, and a neglect of the ordinary means of grace. God does not depend on the church to secure his Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is not fragile, nor is Christ awaiting our strength to accomplish what He has already guaranteed by His death and resurrection. The risen King advances His rule by His Spirit and through His appointed means. The church is the Bride, not the bodyguard. The Bride does not fight to defend the Bridegroom’s throne; she prepares herself in faithfulness, patience, and love, trusting that her King is more than able to defend His own crown. Our task is not to seize power for Christ, but to reflect Him — confident that the victory of the Kingdom rests in His hands, not ours.

Culture wars also tempt us with the same hypocrisy that Jesus rebuked in religious leaders when he said “This people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:19). It is possible to advocate for righteous laws and yet have unrighteous hearts. We can dominate cultural conversations and still fail to reflect the image of the God we claim to represent. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were deeply concerned with moral order, yet Christ rebuked them because their zeal lacked mercy, humility, and love. Kingdom Culture is not merely about doing what is right but having a heart for God and neighbor. The image of God is most clearly displayed not in power, but in Christlike character that shows conviction with compassion and proclaims truth shaped by humility.

So let us resist the temptation to fight a culture war with worldly weapons. Let us instead build Kingdom Culture. Let us be a people devoted to prayer, saturated in Scripture, faithful in worship, joyful in generosity, bold in witness, and marked by love — even for our enemies. When we live this way, we display something the world cannot manufacture: the image of God restored in Christ.

“This was man’s home, the mountain of God. A place of freedom, flourishing, and fellowship. And it was lost in an instant. And, we’ve been longing and looking for that home, the mountain of God, ever since. But, given our sin, we find we cannot climb back up the mountain of God. Thus, the question man has been left asking ever since the Fall is, Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? (Psalm 24:3). The answer: Not a sinful man in Adam, but a holy man. A new Adam…He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psalm 24:4–5). Thankfully, Jesus ascended that mountain. God set Jesus his Son on his mountain as king and those who seek refuge in him will find their home there again in the new creation (Psalm 2:6–7, 12). What will that home, the mountain of God, be like?”

To know what our mountain home with God will look like in the new creation, look at Eden, and then read with the grain of the redemptive narrative.

The Mountain Home Itself
God’s intention was always to spread his glory through the spread of the borders of his kingdom and the walls of his mountain home to fill the earth through his image bearers (Genesis 1:28). This remained God’s intention after the Fall,

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

And God will accomplish this through the last Adam, Jesus saving his people from all nations (Matthew 28:18–20).

Like Eden, there will be a mountain of God in the new creation that will be our home...Only it will be even greater than Eden. It will be what Eden as it should have been and was going to be. Imagine Eden, the mountain of God, covering the whole earth, housing a people made up of peoples of all nations. That’s what Isaiah foresaw.

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it (Isaiah 2:2).

Jesus establishes this global kingdom that conquers and outlasts every earthly kingdom by building his church on the rock of his resurrected life, the substance of the gospel. Daniel prophesied this day when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The great kingdoms of the earth would be toppled by the rock of God’s kingdom, which grew into a mountain that filled the earth (Daniel 2:34–35).

Our future mountain home marked by beauty, joy, and the presence of our King,

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King (Psalm 48:1–2).

And as I noted in Part 1, “…Our future home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be much like Eden. It will be a place of freedom, flourishing, and fellowship but in a new, escalated, and qualitatively different way.”

Eschatological Freedom, Flourishing, and Fellowship
Consider the eschatological, perfect freedom, flourishing and fellowship we will experience in our mountain home with God in the new creation. Here in this section I will primarily include complete passages rather than simply verse references in hope that the living and active Word drives the promises of our future mountain home with God deep into our hearts.

Perfect Freedom
Our home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be a place of perfect freedom. Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isaiah 61:1). The mountain home of God, Zion, will welcome ransomed, free people (Isaiah 35:10). And, unlike Eden before the Fall, God will not need to tell us, “don’t do…!” because the new creation will be a place free from sin and temptation.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8).

So, while Eden was a place of a lot of freedom and one particular restriction, in the new creation there will be no need of such restriction because man will be free of sin, walking in lock step with his Creator. And there he will eat from the tree of life and drink from the water of life for free (Revelation 2:7; 21:6).

Our home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be a place of perfect freedom.

Perfect Flourishing
Our home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be a place of perfect flourishing. Man will not know want and will have perfect security in God’s mountain home. Isaiah foresaw this day,

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth (Isaiah 25:6–8).

Like Eden, a river will flow down from God’s mountain to nourish the land and the inhabitants. Only this river will flow with the water of life and cause to sprout up a grove, an orchard of the tree of life, or perhaps a giant tree of life that spreads its roots and boughs to span the river, from which all peoples will be nourished and healed year round in the city of God,

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:1–2)

Our home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be a place of perfect flourishing.

Perfect Fellowship
Our home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be a place of perfect fellowship. God will dwell with his people forever. And the benefits of his fellowship are abundant. He will comfort us,

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1–5).

He will be our temple and light,

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations (Revelation 21:22–26).

And we will worship in perfect joy an perfected relationship as his people beholding his face,

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads (Revelation 22:3–4).

And God will be with us, and we will be with him forever,

…the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever (Revelation 22:5).

Our home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be a place of perfect fellowship.

Conclusion
Perhaps the best way to conclude Part 2 here is the same way I concluded Part 1. Our home…

“…The mountain of God will be the joy of the earth (Psalm 48:1–2). And Jesus will reign there as our king. And when we finally come home we will come with singing. And everlasting joy shall be upon our heads. And we shall obtain gladness and joy. And sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35:10).”

And when we get there, our brother, the High King Jesus, will say, “Welcome home.”

“…the story of redemption is the story of God getting us back home with him, in the New Creation. Think of it this way, if the story of the Bible were a map, it would have a dot that says, “You are here” and then as we traced the gospel route we would see that it leads to our homeward destination, “The New Heavens and New Earth.” That’s the story. The Bible is the story of God getting us home.”

Where is this home and what is it like? How does the Bible portray that location and life there? Well, often times Scripture describes our home where God dwells as a mountain. Not just any mountain, but God’s mountain. The mountain of God is our home. In order to best understand our future home on the mountain of God, we first need to grasp securely what our home on God’s mountain was like before the Fall.

Mountain of God
The first place we get catch a glimpse of the mountain of God is in the creation account. While we don’t see the word mountain there, the concept seems to be there. Eden itself seems to be a place of higher elevation, a mount of some sort compared to the world around it, including the garden which perhaps sits at its base. How do we know? Consider Genesis 2:10,

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. Natural revelation tells us something about the flow of a river. They always flow downhill. And most rivers find their headwaters where? A mountain. Eden was a mountain. And not just any mountain. It was the mountain of God. Consider what we know about Eden as the mountain of God.

The mountain of God is a place of freedom. God placed his image bearers, Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden. There in that garden at the foot of God’s mountain was a whole lot of “do whatever you want” for man!

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

God says to the first man and first woman, “This whole earth and the fullness there of that is mine (Psalm 24:1), I give to you! Work it as you will. Explore. Spread out. Fill it. And carry my glory wherever you go.” What freedom! But there’s more.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food… The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden…” (Genesis 1:29; 2:15–16).

God says to the first man and first woman, “Oh, when you get hungry, eat the fruit of any plant or tree you desire! It is all for you.”

Now that is a whole lot of freedom. In fact, in the midst of all of this freedom of “do what you want” there is only one “do not.” Genesis 2:17,

“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So the garden of Eden, the mountain of God, is a place of freedom.

The mountain of God is a place of flourishing. Going hand-in-hand with the freedom at God’s mountain home is the gift of flourishing life and beauty for man’s security and enjoyment. Man need not worry about what his next meal will be. The fertile garden itself that bursts with fruits for man to enjoy, the LORD God himself planted (Genesis 2:8). The river cascading down the mountain of God irrigates and nourishes the fruitful vine and the productive tree and verdant shrub, that the LORD God causes to spring up (Genesis 2:9–10). The borderlands of the garden pop and sparkle with gems and precious stones (Genesis 2:11–14). Creatures abound in various sizes, shapes, varieties and assortments (Genesis 2:19–20). And, the tree of life itself with its roots running deep spreads wide its boughs over the middle of the garden (Genesis 2:9). There is nothing but life, security, and beauty for man’s enjoyment. The mountain of God is a place of flourishing.

Finally, the mountain of God is a place of fellowship. In Eden, the mountain of God, man enjoys unmediated fellowship with God. God is present in the garden and with man. Consider the personal interactions. The LORD God forms man, intimately from dust, breathing his divine breath into man’s nostrils and lungs (Genesis 2:7). When the first man opened his eyes, he saw his maker. The LORD God planted a garden (Genesis 2:8). The LORD God took man and put him in the garden (Genesis 2:8). The LORD God blessed man (Genesis 1:28). The LORD God spoke to man, telling him how to live and why he lives (Genesis 1:28–20; 2:16–17). The LORD God brings to the man all the animals to name  (Genesis 2:19). The LORD God put man to sleep, made from his rib a woman, and gives the woman to him as a bride (Genesis 2:21–22). And we know man knew regular fellowship with his Creator because Adam and Eve recognized the familiar sound of his walking in the LORD God walking in the garden (Genesis 3:8). Furthermore, they hid, which intuitively registers as “not the normal response,” suggesting that their typical reaction to hearing the LORD God walking in the garden was perhaps to run to him, not away (Genesis 3:8). The mountain of God is a place of fellowship: God with man and man with God.

This was man’s home, the mountain of God. A place of freedom, flourishing, and fellowship. And it was lost in an instant. And, we’ve been longing and looking for that home, the mountain of God, ever since. But, given our sin, we find we cannot climb back up the mountain of God. Thus, the question man has been left asking ever since the Fall is,

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? (Psalm 24:3).

The answer: Not a sinful man in Adam, but a holy man. A new Adam…

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psalm 24:4–5).

Thankfully, Jesus ascended that mountain. God set Jesus his Son on his mountain as king and those who seek refuge in him will find their home there again in the new creation (Psalm 2:6–7, 12). What will that home, the mountain of God, be like? Well, we will consider those details in a future article, but for now, we can consider what we learned from just the creation account. Our future home, the mountain of God in the new creation, will be much like Eden. It will be a place of freedom, flourishing, and fellowship but in a new, escalated, and qualitatively different way. Here’s at least a little foretaste from the OT: The mountain of God in the new creation will be the highest mountain and the nations will flow to it (Isaiah 2:2). The mountain of God will fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:35). The mountain of God will be the joy of the earth (Psalm 48:1–2). And Jesus will reign there as our king. And when we the ransomed come home to Mount Zion, as it is called, we will come with singing and everlasting joy shall be upon our heads, and we shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35:10).