When reading Jeremiah 23. 23, it is profitable to notice that the word “am” is in italics, which means that it is an added word and is not in the original manuscript. This changes the sense of the Word entirely. When speaking to the people of Judah by Jeremiah, God did not ask a question, but made a statement: “I, a God at hand, and not a God afar off. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth?” Our unconscious thought tends to hold the idea of heaven as a distant state, where God dwells and where his throne is set, for he himself has said, “Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool”.1
A footstool is a place of learning. Saul sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and learned all the laws of the Old Covenant and the traditions of the elders, and writing to the Galatians he claimed that he profited in the Jews’ religion above many his equals.2 Mary, sister of Martha, sat at the feet of the Mediator of the New Covenant and heard his words, and that she profited therein is testified in the words of Jesus, “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her”.3
We are familiar with the idea of the earth as a place where we can learn about God, but it needs a deepened spiritual perception to realise that because God is nigh at hand, therefore his ministers that do his pleasure are all around us.
The poet Browning said, “Not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home”.
While this may sound very pleasing to the natural mind, a knowledge of God’s Word will have so enlightened us that we perceive Browning to have been very far from the truth in this poem. There is no remembrance of God in any child or adult as a natural human being. Although the preacher says, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth”,4 this remembrance is not such as we have of one whom we have formerly known but from whom we are now parted, but rather a calling to mind of the things already learned about God. David said, -I will remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches”.5 This remembering would be of the knowledge gained in prayerful communion, both as a fugitive and as a warrior-king. The comfort, encouragement and enlightenment he received are embodied for all the people of God in the psalms of the sweet singer of Israel.
Those who were gathered about our Lord at the last supper were bidden by him, “Do this in remembrance of me”.6 They had companied with Jesus; they had seen his zeal for God and his compassion for sinners, and had been cheered and strengthened by his warm, human personality. After the “Spirit of Truth” came upon them at Pentecost, they would know Jesus no more after the flesh,7 but would be enabled to recall whatsoever Christ had told them about God and his desire to win men to know and love him. All that they had learned of Jesus had been literally at the footstool of God, for he told them, “The words which ye hear are not mine, but the Father’s which sent me”.8
We disciples of a later day, who have believed through the word of the Apostles, also assemble ourselves in obedience to this command, but the depth of its meaning and its value to us can only be to the extent to which we have accepted and assimilated the “Bread of Heaven” given that we may grow unto life eternal. Even if we must break bread in solitude, by reason of sickness or isolated circumstances we are not alone, for he who revealed God’s very nature said, “If a man love me and keep my words, my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him”.9 What a precious communion a solitary breaking of bread can be when this presence is realised!
So far we have been considering the footstool, or place of learning, but now let us lift up our thoughts unto heaven, the place of God’s throne. I say “lift up” in the sense that whereas fleshly thoughts are grovelling, of the earth, earthy, spiritual thoughts elevate the mind or lift it up to consider those things which can only be spiritually discerned.”
A poet said, “Heaven lies about us in our infancy”. This is not far from the truth, and can be made to express it by the insertion of a single letter. If we put the letter “v” in the middle of the word lies, then we are able to say, “Heaven lives about us in our infancy”. But this is not to be confined to the stage in which the power of reasoning has not been developed. From the testimony of the Word of God, we are emboldened to express the glorious truth, “Heaven lives about us all the days of our mortal life”, but, alas, many will be unaware of this to their enduring loss.
Paul spoke of the fact of our physical entity existing in the Creator. Speaking to the Athenians, who were so superstitious that they feared the wrath of any god to whom a sacrifice had not been offered and had erected an altar with the inscription, “To the unknown god”, Paul seized the opportunity of declaring to them something of the nature and purpose towards mankind of a God of whom they had never heard. In the course of his exposition he used the words, “In whom we live, and move, and have our being”.”
He then quoted their own poet, who said, “For we are also his offspring”. This poet was expressing the same idea of which Browning later wrote, and which is entirely unscriptural.
Granted then, as Paul says, that our very existence is in God, God cannot be far from any one of us, and where God is must he heaven. We are not conscious of the angelic beings who do God’s will so gladly, but they are all about us. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth (from the presence) to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?”2 When children were brought to him Jesus said, “In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”,13 that is, they have always free access to the presence of God. The angels who are caring for the children, and those who are ministering to the “people called out for the Name of God” have not to travel through realms of boundless space to receive the loving instructions of the One who pitieth them that fear Him, like as a Father pitieth his children. (The word “pitieth” here used is of understanding love, for “He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust”.14)
What Scriptural authority is there for saying that heaven is all about us? In addition to the passages already quoted about the angel-messengers, a very striking proof is given in 2 Kings 6. 17. The king of Syria had encompassed with a very great army the city in which Elisha was dwelling, and the servant of the prophet was afraid and said, “Alas, my master, how shall we do?” Elisha answered, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them”. Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see”; and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Let us not think, “Oh that was specially for a prophet of the Lord, and we are humble folk”.
Jacob, a tent-dweller, unknown to the rich and mighty, was fleeing from the anger of his brother Esau, who had threatened to kill him. Jacob sat down to rest and he remembered the tales his grandfather had told of the Ziggurat, a staged temple erected for the worship of Nannar, the Moon-God, upon which there was a continual stream of priests and worshippers ascending and descending. Falling asleep, Jacob reproduced in a dream that which Abraham had so graphically described, but now it is not Nannar, but the God of Heaven who is above it, and his angels are passing on their errands of mercy. Jacob awoke, but he did not look upward and exclaim, “That is the gate of heaven”, but, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not . . . this is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven”.15
Perhaps someone may object that Jesus said, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me”.16 The word “heaven” in Scripture is used in several ways; frequently of the firmament, as in Gen. 1. 14-19. Sometimes it merely means “above”, as in Exodus 20. 22, where the Lord said, “Ye have seen that I talked with you from heaven”, yet we know it was from Mount Sinai; or when Nehemiah speaks of God giving bread from heaven to Israel for their hunger.17 Often this word “heaven” is used with eastern exaggeration, as when men said, “Let us build a tower whose top shall reach to heaved.,18 or as when the spies reported that in the promised land there were cities “walled up to heaven”. These would be the military watchtowers, which were always built at the top of a hill and from the valley would indeed appear to reach unto heaven.
The most important use of the word “heaven” is to denote ruling powers, and it is in this sense that Jesus came down from heaven. Jesus rightly claimed, All power and authority is given unto me”,19 for when the Holy Spirit descended upon him at his baptism he received unlimited power. Jesus had humbled himself during his temptation in the wilderness, and it was then that he came down from ruling and made the choice of his Father’s will, not his own; and so he ministered among men as one that serveth, but he was still in heaven.” He had the Spirit-power without measure, but used it only to fulfil God’s purposes among men.
We are all familiar with the words of Isaiah, “How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning”, and we know that they were addressed to an earthly ruler, the king of Babylon: “son of the morning”, because his kingdom being in the east would get the first benefit of the sun’s rays; “fallen”, because the kingdom was to be taken away from him. God and his angels are busy with the affairs of earth, and Nebuchadnezzar learned that “the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men”.21 We know that the time is not far distant when that rule will be in Christ and the saints and the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.22 This will be the Creation of the New Heavens and New Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.23
Well, if heaven is all about us, why do we read that the angel descended to roll away the stone from the tomb of Jesus or that the angel ascended in the flame kindled for Manoah’s sacrifice? Every time an angel becomes visible to men he has humbled himself from his high estate, and the ascension is merely the, disappearance again into the spirit world. So with the ascension of Jesus. A cloud (of angels) received him from the upturned gaze of the disciples. We know this was the cloud mentioned, for the angels said that he should so come in like manner, and in Matt. 24. 30 we read of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven. From the context we gather that these clouds will be the saints who are to share his throne and reign for God. Solomon said that the “heaven of heavens” could not contain God.24 His power is not exhausted in the highest ruling. David tells us, “He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth that He may judge his people, “Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice”.25 That is, those who have united themselves with the sacrifice of Jesus. The blood is the life,26 and our resisting unto blood, striving against sin.27 will mean our offered-up life, or, being “crucified with Christ”, as Paul expresses it.28
God is still looking down from heaven, to see if there are any that will understand and seek after him.” And for what purpose? That they may please God by walking with him as Enoch did, and as God himself commanded Abraham, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect”.30 We are told that Noah was a just man and walked with God.31 These men knew that God was not far off, but nigh unto them. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Let us open our minds and hearts to this great truth. It will make our prayers more vital; for the Lord is nigh to all that call upon him in truth.33
In Revelation there are two notable instances of the word “heaven” being used for ruling powers. “Michael (meaning ‘for God”) and his angels fought, and the dragon and his angels fought, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven”,34 is explained by Dr. Thomas as being the victory of Constantine over Licinius whereby he became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Constantine had seen the favour with which his father, Consantius, had regarded the Christians and when the power is in his hands he casts down the pagans from ruling and gives all the positions of State to the Christians. In chapter 11. 11 we have the record of the resurrection witnesses being called up to rule by Louis I 4th who was the “great voice from heaven”. The French Revolution came exactly 3 z clays, or 1, 260 years, after the witnesses had been put to silence by the decree of Justinian, and it was the first time in French history that any commoner had been allowed a voice in the government of the country.
As a further extension of the subject, it will be interesting to hear the words of Moses about the “clouds of heaven”: “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the heavens in thy help”,35 is truly El-Shaddai being manifest in his mighty ones. Surely there is a prophetic strain in the words of Moses, that if Israel would keep God’s commandments and lay up His words in their heart, their days should be as the days of heaven upon the earth.” There will be many of God’s ancient people to whom immortality will be granted, if they believe the things concerning the kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ.
What will be the “sign of the Son of Man in heaven”?37 Could that not be when first the nations become conscious that a new ruler has arisen on the world’s horizon and is enthroned at Jerusalem? Jesus sitting at the right hand of power means that, in accordance with eastern custom, as the one most deserving, he has been accorded the highest place of honour. The second place of honour is next to the host, on the left. The mother of James and John petitioned for these two highest places for her sons. Jesus said that one who unduly exalted himself would be asked to give place to one more honourable and then begin with shame to take the lowest place.” This would be to go and sit in the extreme left place furthest from the host. “He that exalteth himself shall be abased”.39 Jesus is not literally “sitting” at the right hand of power. He walks among the ecclesias and trims their lamps that they may give a clear shining (Rev. 1. 12; 3. 22).
David knew that no man had ascended into heaven and so he asked, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee?” and with utter dedication he added, “None upon earth that I desire beside thee”. If we can reach this height of dedication, we shall be part of the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, having been presented by Jesus to the Father, and seen as “without fault before the throne of God.”40 41
References-
| 1-Isaiah 66. 1 | 15-Gen. 28.16&29 | 29-Psalm 14. 2. |
| 2-Gal. 1. 14 | 17. 16-John 6. 38 | 30-Gen 17. 1. |
| 3-Luke 10. 42 | 17-Neh. 9. 15 | 31-Gen. 6. 9. |
| 4- Eccl. 12. 1 | 18-Gen 11. 4 | 32-Psalm 34. 18. |
| 5-Psalm 63 | 19-Matt. 26 | 33-Psalm 145. 18. |
| 6. 6-Luke 22. 19 | 18. 20-Jn. 3. 13 | 34- Rev. 12. 7-8. |
| 7-2 Cor. 5. 16 | 21-Dan. 4. 17 | 35-Deut. 33. 26. |
| 8-John 14. 24 | 22-Dan. 6. 26 & 7. 27 | 36-Deut. 11. 21 |
| 9-John 14. 23 | 23-2 Peter 3. 13 | 37-Matt. 24. 30 |
| 10-1 Cor. 2. 14. | 24-2 Chron. 2. 6 | 38-Luke 14. 8-9 |
| 11-Acts 17. 28 | 25-Psalm 50. 4 | 39-Luke 4. 11 |
| 12-Heb. 1. 14 | 26-Lev. 17. 11 | 40-Rev. 21. 2 |
| 13-Matt. 18. 10 | 27-Heb. 12. 4 | 41-Rev. 14. 5 |
| 14-Psalm 103. 13 | 28-Gal. 2. 20 |
Daniel The Prophet – (Part 3)