Post by Lee on Dec 19, 2014 1:18:06 GMT
When will God dwell with men whose vile bodies have changed into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body—invested with God’s Spirit? Going back to the dedication of Solomon’s temple, it was seen that the Spirit descended at that time—at the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast celebrated in the seventh month. Will God’s Spirit descend on the saints during the same feast? We pass on to the time of the restoration of Israel after the expiration of the seventy years exile in Babylon. We find that the prophet Haggai speaks of the greater Temple which Jesus will build. And he said:
“And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts.” He says, moreover, “and in this place will I give peace,
saith the Lord of Hosts.”
The time of this message is given at the opening of the chapter: it is at the Feast of Tabernacles—“in the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month” (Hag. 2:1).
Now as to the saints themselves. When will be their glorification by being filled as the Temple of God with the Spirit of God? For answer, we follow Jesus in the seventh chapter of John. It is at the same Feast of Tabernacles (see verse 2) that we read as follows:
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive . . .”
Here is a promise given on that same day, the one and twentieth day of the seventh month. This suggests very powerfully that this is the day when the saints are to be glorified: nay, is it not more than suggestion? May we not say—this is the day, in the seventh month, in the Feast of Tabernacles?
When we review once more the circumstances and conditions of the feast, we are really looking at the future state. There was peace—there will be peace; there was rest—there will be rest; there was but memory of pains all past, and so will there be triumphant retrospect of great tribulation: moreover there will be “great gladness,” for the Israelities rejoiced in this feast. There will be abiding places, and the living Temple composed of saints will be filled with the glory of God. And how great the supreme joy of having Jesus in the midst. Loud, loud will be our praises:
“For the Lord is good, and his mercy endureth for ever.”
(1933). The Christadelphian, 70(electronic ed.), 61.