In close with Jesus

I am jealous of Isaac. He lived in paradise. His home from childhood to adulthood was a constant haven of rest. His father had studied in the school of Christ and had learned all the lessons of goodness and greatness before Isaac was born. His mother also had learned holiness and righteousness. They could provide a peaceful, loving home to their only child. They could love him without worshipping him. The family could have been dirt poor and Isaac would have been a happy, healthy, holy youth, destined to greatness in all things.

Isaac had no dangers or threats to dwell on and be influenced by. Evil words and practices stayed out of their home because God shined in it. Their homestead was His sanctuary. As it is written, “And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” (Ex. 25:8). Every square inch God was there. If Abraham moved, God went with him. His covenant with that family was, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” (Ex. 33:14). And Abraham’s covenant to God was, “For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.” (Ps. 84:10-12).

Isaac knew perfect happiness. His name meant laughter and he knew by experience that a joyful heart does good like medicine. The faith of Abraham was transmitted to the son. As his father walked in perfect communion with God, so did Isaac. The fallen human nature existed in Isaac as much as in anyone, but his continuous meditation and prayer to god, even amid the busy transactions of running the family farm, kept him true and faithful to righteousness. The divine nature displaced his human nature.

Isaac lived in heaven, as Paul described the rebirth of the Abrahamic experience in the new church,

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace;
Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will:
That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ…. And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 1:3-12;2:6).

As Abraham prefigured Paul, so Isaac represented the apostolic church, “the seed [that] should come to whom the promise was made.” (Gal 3:19). The church was sealed—sealed in that holy walk of faith and in the blessings of heaven that attend faith; not walking in condemnation of the law, but under the promise of acceptance by heaven.

The law had done its perfect work; condemnation had humbled and prepared the sinners; their presumption was renounced and their hearts had accepted subservience. Now Jesus could be Master of the saints as He had been with Isaac. So He could be just in justifying them, overlooking all their iniquity as He had done with Abraham and Isaac. This restoration of the life of faith had been predestinated from ancient times. Heaven had looked forward to it for nearly 2,000 years.

Now the Son of God had in the church what He worked toward since the days of the patriarchs—peace on earth and a home in the hearts of men. They had prepared a place for Jesus, and He and His Father could come to them and abide with them, as He had promised. (Jn. 14:23).

I dedicate Psalm 84 to those who, in the past, took part in the great revivals of righteousness by faith, and I look forwarded to the next great revival of it just before Jesus comes when we’ll be able to say, “This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face.” (Psa 24:6 ).

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
Who passing through the valley of Baca [tears] make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.