READING FOR JANUARY 1, 2025: JOSHUA 9, REVELATION 21, PSALM 133 JOSHUA 9 Now that Israel had defeated both Jericho and Ai, other inhabitants in the promised land were more anxious than ever about the looming threat Israel posed to their existence. All these people knew that they needed to think outside the box to stop this oncoming jugger-- naut. The Kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites followed the same playbook as NATO did when it formed an alliance to face the threat of the USSR. This is usually good conventional strategy, although no match for God. The Gibeonites, however, took a different approach, which in the long run likely saved their lives. They pretended to be from a distant country, deceptively making themselves look like they had indeed been travelling for a long time. When they gave Israel some of their provisions and stated their interest in forming a peaceful covenant with them, Israel’s leaders didn’t suspect they lived within the land God told them to conquer. Israel was tricked by the appearance and deceptive kindness of the Gibeonites and made a treaty with them. Israel later discovered the truth, but unlike when promises are made today, did not go back on their word. Thus, the Gibeonites cleverly escaped death, but served Israel as laborers. God’s people need to be alert to deception: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ” (Col. 2:8).
Revelation 21: Imagine you have just won a 3-week vacation anywhere in the world. You can take up to ten friends with you. Wherever you choose to go, everything will be first class, the flights, the hotels, and the food. Do you think you would look forward to that trip? Would you pour over the travel brochures and websites as you prepare for your trip? That is the way we should think about heaven. Revelation 21 gives us a small picture of our eternal home and helps clarify two misconceptions we often have about heaven.
Misconception 1: Our Eternal Home is the Present Heaven
Some believe that when we die, we go to heaven and that is where we will be for eternity. But Revelation 21 and 22 clearly talk about our eternal home appearing AFTER the first heaven and earth have passed away. (21:1) This has not happened yet, so he must be talking about a future event. In his classic book Heaven, Randy Alcorn says,
“When we die, believers in Christ will not go to the heaven where we’ll live forever. Instead, we’ll go to an intermediate Heaven. In the intermediate Heaven, we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and new earth. If we fail to grasp this truth, we will fail to understand the biblical doctrine of heaven.”
Misconception 2: Heaven is a Non-physical Spiritual Realm
Many have come to believe that heaven is in a spiritual dimension with no physical realities. They assume we will spend eternity as spiritual beings in a wonderful spirit world. Revelation
READING FOR JANUARY 1, 2025 CONTINUED: REVELATION 21, PSALM 133
21:1 doesn’t speak of a spirit world, but rather a “new earth.” New is an adjective that modifies the noun earth. Why would we assume that a new earth would be non-earth-like? We know what earth is…a place of mountains, cities, nations, food, drink, people, trees, sky, clouds, animals, flowers, waterfalls etc. Revelation 21 and 22 use physical words like these in describing heaven: mountains, city, throne, tear, spring, water, bowls, jewels, gates, walls, pearls, gold, streets, foundations, nations, kings, books, leaves, and river. Our eternal home will be a physical place, in a physical location, designed by God with physical people in mind. To be fully human is to experience life through our five senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. Why assume these will stop on new earth?
Revelation 21:3-4 make it clear that the Holy City comes down out of heaven and God comes to dwell with men. It doesn’t say we will go up to God, but He comes down to us. We were made for the earth, and we will live on the earth forever. Our eternal home will be living on a new earth w/o curse. (22:3) This is the ultimate story of the Bible. The first chapters of the Bible tell the story of the creation of the earth and the heavens. The last two chapters tell of the creation of new earth and the new heaven. In between is the story of man’s fall and God’s plan to restore things to what they once were.
PSALM 133 This is such a short Psalm, but as difficult as any in the Bible to understand and obey. First of all, we can agree with the Psalmist that it is good and pleasant for a group of believers to be unified. It’s like an overflow of blessings. Jesus made the following comments:
- “Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).
- “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21).
Jesus also made these comments:
- “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Matt. 7:15).
- ““If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over... If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (Matt. 15, 17).
Those who are Jesus’s disciples are obedient to God’s word. They can and must be “brothers who live together in unity.” There can be no Christian unity, though, with those who reject and disobey God’s word. Paul gives good direction about not allowing secondary matters to cause disunity among believers: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them” (Rom. 15:1-3).
