Word of Encouragement (5/22/2020)
We have been thinking about faith as heavenly-mindedness. The patriarchs showed their heavenly-mindedness by living in tents in the Promised Land, which God gave to them and to their descendants. We may romanticize this action of theirs as something admirable and charming. But if you took yesterday’s challenge seriously and thought about how to show our heavenly-minded faith in a tangible way, we will see right away how difficult and challenging it is. Practicing heavenly-mindedness in this world most likely involves some kind of worldly sacrifice. This is not easy because we feel the gravitational pull of what the world has to offer.
It is not hard to imagine how the patriarchs’ tent-dwelling seemed to the Canaanites. By God’s blessing, the patriarchs were far from being poor. But their tent-dwelling could not have been viewed as a symbol of high social standing. It’s like living in an apartment as opposed to a detached home. What is more, their tent-dwelling ostensibly reinforced the fact that they were “outsiders.” Not only did the patriarchs feel and live like strangers; they were also treated as strangers and aliens by the Canaanites because of their mode of living.
But I’m certain that there was a world of difference between the patriarchs who chose to live in tents and those who had no choice but to live in tents because they were poor. The real difference between the two is not due to the fact that the patriarchs were quite wealthy; it is due to their heavenly-mindedness. If so, the same difference should be there even if the patriarchs were poor and could only afford to live in tents. Their heavenly-mindedness, by which they taste the coming glory of their heavenly life and the nearness of God, enables them to deal with their worldly lowliness differently from the lowly people of the world. Vos describes it in this way:
“He who knows that for him a palace is in building does not dally with desires for improvement on a lower scale. Contentment with the lowest becomes in such a case profession of the highest, a badge of spiritual aristocracy with its proud insistence upon the ideal. Only the predestined inhabitants of the eternal city know how to conduct themselves in a simple tent as kings and princes of God.”
I just love the last sentence! We know how to conduct ourselves in a simple tent as kings and princes of God! Paul describes it this way:
“We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Cor. 6:8-10).
Whatever condition God is pleased to place us at the moment, let us live by faith, by heavenly-mindedness, so that even our worldly lowliness may be “a badge of spiritual aristocracy with its proud insistence of the ideal”—i.e., holding on to the reality of our heavenly glory in Christ!
Have a blessed day!