Jesus, alone in His memories

I’m listening to a high definition video of an orchestra playing Rachmaninoff - Symphony no.2 opus 27.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvuitFzDxDg. And Tchaikovsky - Pianoconcert no. 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yya-rNwuxnc. The sounds are wonderful and must be reminiscent of the heavenly choirs.

 

Yet, the music of heaven puts earth to great shame. That’s hard to imagine after hearing the amazing fullness coming from this world’s instruments and those accomplished artists who have mastered them. The sounds which those experts create pull on our heart strings, and call forth chills and a yearning in the hearers for goodness and peace on earth. But, as heaven is higher than the earth, so great is heaven’s music higher than earth’s most heavenly music.

 

To anyone who has never heard the beauty of instruments combined in harmony can never conceive of what I’m hearing from these HD videos. The comings and goings of instruments and groups of instruments, the harmonies, the melodies, the dissonances, the major sevenths, the minor sixths and sevenths, the augmented and diminished chords, other chords stretched in four dimensions, all defy reality. High violins and low cellos; high flutes and low tubas, with clarinets and oboes in between. Only the person who has experienced the pathos of orchestral pieces can know what I mean. Likewise, no one who has ever heard heaven’s music can imagine its glory.

 

Lucifer was the conductor of the heavenly choirs. “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created.” (Eze. 28:12-15).

 

Shining forth the colors of the high priest over the “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Rev. 5:11) of angelic hosts, Lucifer also led their praises to the Most High. His leadership in song to God was perfect, simply exquisite, filling the immense sanctuary with the loftiest music. The different sounds musicians bring forth from machine-crafted instruments, the angels brought forth from their throats. As the vocalist was born with a more natural sound from the divinely formed instrument and by birth has more control of sound than an instrument made by human hands, so the chords and trills of heaven far surpass anything devised in the musical instruments of our modern world.

 

At His incarnation, Jesus left such an environment. “When He cometh into the world, He saith, ‘…A body hast Thou prepared Me.’” (Heb. 10:5). Still, His voice often soared in praise to God for His Father's glory that filled the earth. “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” (Num. 14:21). The great Creator is worthy of all praise, “there is no searching of His understanding.” (Isa. 40:28). The angels carried His melodious barotone syllables to His God. It was all music to His Father’s ears. And the same privileged seraphim carried back the message from the King,  “Thou are My beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11).

 

The music teacher who has played with other masters of music seeks to inspire the pupils with what music is supposed to sound like. The teacher exemplifies the sounds of paper scores; she or he transfers the written chords to the audible chords for the benefit of the students. Yet, only the teacher knows the other sounds from the whole orchestra that are missing at the home or studio. The teacher has been surrounded by the whole, polished symphony. But, the dreamy memories of past glorious strains pop! and silence ensues. The pupil cannot know the loss felt by the teacher.

Jesus knew the symphonies of heaven. He had had the atmosphere that could detect double, triple, and quadruple the seven octave range that we use here. He walked alone in the earth because no one else could fathom the glories that He had known. Those heavenly symphonies had played for Him and His Father. He had had the front row seat next to the great King. As Lucifer, the morning star, brought the hosts to attention, the mirror-like sea as the backdrop, “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.” (Luke 2:13). “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9). “The voice of harpers harping with their harps” (Rev. 14:2) had thrilled the Son’s deepest soul. God had joined with the choirs and Jesus had shone with a brilliance that lightened the heart of every angel around the throne. “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5).

 

“The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old…. Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” (Prov. 8:22,30). “Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” (Ps. 45:7). “The LORD Thy God in the midst of Thee is mighty;… He will rejoice over Thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over Thee with singing.” (Zeph. 3:17).

 

After all of the glowing commotion from eternity, now all Jesus could hear were peeps of the grandiose music that surrounded Him, only the faintest echoes of that heavenly home. The multiplied songs and calls of birds, the moo’s and baa’s of humble animals must satisfy. And the Prince of peace mercifully accepted their challenged disabilities to imitate heaven’s choir. Their love for Him made up the difference. But, oh, if only He could hear again heavenly sounds of perfection during His earthly sojourn!

 

That day of restored glory came, the day when Jesus would be embraced with glory of His Father’s own self. “Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” (Matt. 17:1,2). The seven lamps beamed forth from His head once again.

 

The Father deemed His Son’s work worthy of a respite. One oasis of pleasure to again have the fullness of joy and fellowship that He had left to live in this world darkened from the glory it had had before sin. The very throne of heaven on earth, Jesus was transported to a heaven brought near by the King Himself! The familiar orchestras and choirs once more filling the ears of Messiah the Prince! Oh, the reprieve from the constant sights and mourns from the Father’s judgments in the abominations and desolations by Satan. Humanity had asked for a better master than their Creator and loving Father. The Son of God must suffer all that we received in judgment. Yet a deeper draught of woe must be brought to the lips of the Saviour, and the meditations of that were weighing heavily on Him; the cross was leaving a shadow upon His eternal Spirit. So, the Father’s omniscience chose two servants to commune with His Son concerning the Gethsemanes that they had faced. No one better, no angel more beloved of the Son than these two men, could speak the very words He needed. Heaven on earth. A fellowship safe from the enemies always hating Him and plotting His death. Resting in His Father. Forgetting, at least for a moment, the fast approaching taste of damnation for every man. The smile of peace from a concert pianist amongst a swelling movement by her musical compatriots returned to the Saviour’s countenance.