6-29-15<\/p>\n
As sure as there are troubles in our lives, there is deliverance. Not always, or so it seems to some of us. Not immediately: that is certain. It can come. When it comes \u2013 any manner of relief, answers, healing, comfort, understanding, peace \u2013 we often to pray thanks to the God whose pity and mercy we so recently sought. Or, we do give thanks or do penance or share with the world what God has done.<\/p>\n
It is a tempting thing to suppose, especially when the Creator of the Universe wonderfully has intervened in our affairs, that the crisis is settled, that God has done His work. We adjust our sandals and move ahead, refreshed, toward the next goals in life.<\/p>\n
But that is not exactly God\u2019s way, not the Bible way. It is more the case, when He has delivered His people, His children, that He not only saves us from something\u2026 but for something.<\/p>\n
St Augustine, before the year 400, preached the following words in a sermon. This important man is an essential figure in the theology, cosmology, and philosophy that is a continuum that includes Plato, other early church fathers, and Martin Luther, as readers of this column know (or at least know of my sympathy and wellsprings). It is a miracle that so many of Augustine\u2019s sermons, lessons, and books have survived, lighting our paths through the centuries.<\/p>\n
Anyway, he wrote about the idea of deliverance, and God \u201cbringing His people through\u201d: <\/p>\n
Brothers, look and see: The Judeans [Jews] were liberated in the sea, the Egyptians were destroyed in it\u2026. The Judeans go beyond the Red Sea and walk through the desert. It is the same way with Christians after baptism: they are not yet in the land of promise, but they live in hope\u2026.<\/p>\n
The Egyptians who chased the Judeans out of Egypt were not their only enemies \u2013 but they were their old enemies. In the same way, our past life and our past sins\u2026 continue to haunt us. There are enemies in the desert as well\u2026 <\/p>\n
Interesting! We know the story of Exodus; and we think of other examples in the Bible of God saving His people. When we think of it, many individuals and populations were saved\u2026 only to face greater challenges. Is these the acts of a kindly God? Yes! God is love! We remember the \u201cHall of Fame of the Heroes of Faith\u201d in Hebrews chapter 11: the Bible\u2019s greatest champions of faith and obedience are there honored. <\/p>\n
And every one of them came short of his goal, never making it to each one\u2019s \u201cpromised land.\u201d Also interesting, and instructive. The Promised Land, the Land of Milk and Honey, the desert after captivity, \u201cover the Jordan,\u201d Canaan Land, Beulah Land \u2013 have you heard these terms?<\/p>\n
Exodus 33 has the account of God speaking to Moses:
\n\u2018Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.\u2019\u2026 \u00a0And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.\u00a0For the Lord had said to Moses, \u2019Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you.\u2019\u2026 [But] He said, \u2018My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rest? These people yearned for even more, and more, and more, deliverance. Free of the Pharaohs, they wanted also to be free of\u2026 God. They wanted to live as they wished \u2013 to sin and be rebellious \u2013 and not merely trade metal shackles for moral restraints. They were free of the bondsman\u2019s lash, and thought they deserved license to revel in decadence and debauchery. (If this sounds to you like a description of America-up-to-date, we share the same shrinking desert island\u2026)<\/p>\n
But God knew the basic natures of His children; He knew the desires of their hearts; and He would not answer those prayers to be free of responsibilities as well as actual chains.<\/p>\n
The Promised Land, the Land of Milk and Honey, the desert after captivity, \u201cover the Jordan,\u201d Canaan Land, Beulah Land\u2026 many people believe these were earthly symbols of Heaven in the Bible, poetry and hymns. But they were not, never were. Heaven is\u2026 Heaven. If there were a physical Promised Land with miracle blooms, and flowing milk and honey, why should any inhabitants desire the real Heaven?<\/p>\n
\u201cBeulah,\u201d in the Bible and in many hymns through the years, refers to \u201cmarriage,\u201d a word, and a land, where believers might commune with God, even be in a relationship akin to marriage with the Son. But. That all precedes Heaven. Paradise, Eternity, Heaven is our final home. <\/p>\n
As sweet as God\u2019s promises, His deliverances, His dwelling-places of communion on earth, are\u2026 Heaven will be sweeter. A wise-guy skeptic friend of mine once challenged me: \u201cIf Heaven is so wonderful, why don\u2019t you end it all, and go straight there for eternity?\u201d Apart from the proposition that God hates murder, including of one\u2019s self (and, by the way, that includes morally, not just physically), that is not in His plan, either.<\/p>\n
We stay on earth, and should desire to, to serve Him. We cling to this life in order to fulfill whatever plans He has for us. We embrace life so that we can share His glory, bring others to saving grace, to minister to a hurting world as \u201cimitators of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that perspective, we need to see, first, that the mercies He offers us here \u2013 in ways represented by Beulah Lands, \u201cmilk and honey,\u201d Promised Lands \u2013 are havens of rest, foretastes of Heaven, gifts to make our days here sweeter as we work for the Master. Not Heaven\u2026 but on the way! We have jobs to do for Him, and they become easier, perhaps; or maybe more challenging. But the Hope, and Victory, are within view.<\/p>\n
Truly \u2013 and always \u2013 when God saves us from something, He saves us for something.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
An old hymn, Is Not This the Land of Beulah, and a more recent gospel song, Sweet Beulah Land, share the distinctions and the reality of that place we may all seek. Wonderful words. Here, the two are explained and performed by the composer of the latter song, pastor and singer Squire Parsons. \u201cI\u2019m kind of homesick for that country, where I\u2019ve never been before\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n