The 4th Tent, His Glory

[HKHaugan]

We have talked about the 4^th Tent being the glory of God (Rev.7:14).”  And rightly so, it is the final tent, shelter, cover, for eternity.  Now when I say eternity I do not mean an endless succession of days, months, years and millennia.  When we come into the full presence of God there is no time because God is timeless.  We will simply be with Him in the fullness He intended for us, each of us.  Heb.13 gives us the same picture when referring to Jesus.  It says He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  If we want to pursue that thought look back into the moment when the Lord reveals Himself to Moses as “I AM (Ex.3:14).”  And in all the God-moments in every generation it is the same non-changing, consistent, caring, loving and directing God reining in His people to His present ‘I AM’ness. 

The prophets are always leading people back to the fact, the reality, the definitive present atmosphere of God.  The Law He gave on Sinai does not change with generations, or cultural movement or individual desires.  The Law reflects a One God whose residence is the eternal stability of His Kingdom.  When God made us in His image and likeness it was an image and likeness of a consistent, unchanging, personal, relational, spiritually identifiable and unique Being, the very essence of perfection, clarity and complete embodiment of Mind, Heart and Spirit. 

Built into each of us is the desire to be like Him, to be an image of Him.  When the devil tempted Adam and Eve to try and be like God on their own by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he knew exactly what he was doing.  He had already done it.  Every self-centered act, every self-centered thought and every self-centered plan, each conceived apart from God is the devil’s plan. 

 The illusion is that we can be like God without God.  What happens is that when we think and act apart from God we go through a process that drags us into the pit of growing aloneness, isolation and alienation.  We become time-consciousness.  We begin rolling down the slope of self-gratification where our desire shifts into satisfying ourselves every next moment.  It’s called instant gratification.  ‘Get it while you can.’ ‘Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you will die.’  ‘If it feels good do it.’ ‘Follow your bliss.’ Life becomes avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure in every next moment. 

 This pursuit is not only physical.  It is social, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.  Socially, it finds its outlet in joining clubs, having friends and looking for avenues of safe interaction demanding no intense personal interchange.  Everyone is great because I’m great and I need to keep them thinking that way.  Keep the focus on a project, an idea, fun, going places, maintaining shallow conversation, avoiding conflict and never allowing the mind to question one’s own vulnerabilities. 

 Intellectually, the absorption is to get a degree, perhaps even a doctorate, to keep one step ahead in the world of ideas, be a competitor in conversation and establish a safe haven in employment.  If you earn ‘brilliance,’ you earn the right to be superior and escape personal challenge.  Arriving is everything.

 Emotionally, the chase is to keep conflict at a minimum.  Find the kinds of associations that offer no challenge to who you are since you already have everything you need, like good intentions, acceptable goals and adapting to the ideas and opinions of others as much as possible so that everyone likes you.

 Spiritually, the search is to find a group or an idea that handles the invisible dimension with logic I can control.  If it is something that explains the universe like astrology, messages I can control abound there.  Maybe even join a church that satisfies where I am, one that gives me a structure.  I may not understand its theology but the people in charge seem to know what they are up to. All I have to do is follows them.  After all, we’re all going to the same place in the end anyway, I hope.

 The energy, the work, the effort to be able to go through life like that only finds every night’s end walking into a dark empty living area, having to turn on the light, exhausted, feeling alone even though you may have a family.  Then, trying to sleep, but sleep is fitful.  So what lies ahead but the next day and the same cycle starts again.  Life apart from God is a descent from Heaven to hell, from birth to aloneness, from awareness to escape and from life to death.

 Now think about what lies ahead for the believer.  The 4^th Tent, is the tent of Glory, the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness can’t grasp it.  God’s light, the light of Christ, shining from the light that God created to represent the light that is His presence.  We need to see the glory that emanates from the presence of Jesus, the glory that radiates from God through Him.  It was seen in His miracles (Jn.2:4), His teaching, His challenges, His impact on the people who followed Him, who met Him, who betrayed Him, who denied Him, who put Him on trial, who crucified Him and who saw Him after His Resurrection. 

 Today His glory is seen in those who have accepted Him, in the missions and ministries that have sprouted up in the world because of Him.  It is seen in the heavens and in the very Creation in which we all live.  His glory abounds in the immensity and vastness of the universe and in the space calling for its exploration.  His light moves in and through us at the moment we yield to His presence and feel the energy of His Spirit as we read His Word. “One of the Seven Angels who had carried the bowls filled with the seven final disasters spoke to me: "Come here. I'll show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb." He took me away in the Spirit to an enormous, high mountain and showed me Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God…….The City doesn't need sun or moon for light. God's Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp!  (Rev.21:9-11,23 The Message).”