For the last four Sundays we've been experiencing the ASCEND CAMPAIGN, and the truth of Scripture that formed the basis of our study. Three major biblical events have taken place at Mt. Moriah---Abraham offered Isaac; King David made sacrifice when he purchased the threshing floor of Ornan the Jeusite; and, Solomon laid the cornerstone of the first temple on that very site. Sometime in the future, the third temple will constructed there, and the Lord's sanctuary will be defiled by the man of lawlessness. It is an incredible place in redemptive history. One lesson involves the way God can use a place for His purposes in history. We've asked each week: what can God do with a small place then there is a generation willing to GO UP with Him? What can God do with our little few acres if we are willing to go with God to the next level?
Psalm 24:3-6 asks the question, "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob." It is an important question, and especially so for the Jewish nation. Th Israelites people, even to this day, talk about the pilgrimage that can take them UP to Jerusalem.
Jewish people around the world dream of making "aliyah", that is, going up to Jerusalem. Since nation-hood in 1948, more than 3,000,000 Jews have returned to their homeland under the invitation to GO UP, OR ASCEND. Each week hundreds and thousands more arrive to at least visit the land of Abraham. Many go their to die and be buried in the Promised Land.
Isaiah's vision involved GOING UP! "...many eoples will come and say, 'Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord..." (Isaiah 2:3). The final verse of the Hebrew Bible, 2 Chronicles 36:23 offers the invitation, "Whoever among you of His people may go up, and may the Lord his God be with him". It is the precious desire of every Jewish person to go to that land, the land of promise. That is why the Jewish nation is referred to as the "am ha eretz", the people of the land.
In the Revelation there is another invitation. "After this I looked, and there is heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this" (Rev. 4:1). It is the invitation to be issued at the end of all things, the final notes of human history, the invitation to us to GO UP.
Who can ASCEND to that special place. The ones He invites and are obey.
What a thrilling vision of that place. What a joy for His people.
Rejoice and be glad!
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