Clara and I returned from our Mid-East tour last Sunday. We are past the jet lag, but still processing all we have seen and learned. Most people who visit the Holy Land discover that scripture takes on new dimensions when standing on the biblical sites, and I am no exception. Though I’ve always known that our faith is based on history rather than myth, my mental images of stories set thousands of years ago in a far away land were fuzzy at best. The stories played out in my head like a great epic novel where good defeats evil, and while there IS a wonderful arching narrative at the core of our faith, these stories are not merely symbolic. I am realizing that many phrases I have interpreted spiritually or metaphorically in fact have a literal, material meaning. This does not mean that my spiritual interpretations have been wrong - just incomplete, lacking the awesome multi-dimensional fullness intended. Our God has always been a God of incarnation - displaying His glory in creation, making spiritual truths visible, inviting us to “taste and see” His goodness. He is the God who dwelt in a Tabernacle of skin before taking on flesh Himself. And He is a God who instructs us ways before calling us to live in the “city prepared for us.” Since the time of Abraham, He has been making us ready for the day when the veil is lifted and we are drawn - spirit, soul and body - into the fullness of His reality.
Unlike most pilgrims, Clara and I began our Israel tour in Be’er Sheba. This is the desert where Abraham pitched camp in the Promised Land. I am a big fan of Abraham to say the least, but I did not know he had built a city! By modern standards the collection of buildings discovered at Tel Be’er Sheva would hardly qualify as a city. There were no permanent residents living there. Rather, it was refueling station for Abraham’s numerous shepherds, and also a seat of justice. Shepherds came the cistern to water their flocks. They visited the storehouse to stock up on supplies. And if they had a complaint against a fellow shepherd, they climbed up to the city gates where judges were seated to hear disputes. These judges were the only residents who remained in the city day after day. No soldiers or craftsmen or merchants. I had always thought of early cities as fortresses built for protecting, but apparently our first father in the faith saw more need for judges than for warriors.
I am sure Moses would have agreed. Forty years he led a mobile city through wilderness - more than a million souls under his care. I cannot imagine what a management headache that must have been! Granted, Moses had help. God handled the food and water. The Lord even provided shade from the sun and warmth at night. But the job of settling disputes fell to Moses, and that was the task which almost wore him out. Day in and day out, Moses sat listening to angry people who grew angrier the longer they had to wait. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came to congratulate Moses for his victory over Pharaoh, and he is the one who recognized this tinderbox in the making. Jethro proposed to Moses the establishment of a hierarchy of judges to serve thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. He urged Moses to instruct these judges in the ways of God and delegate the simpler matters to them. Moses heard the wisdom in the counsel and implemented the plan. I find it interesting that scripture records this story in such detail.
Once the Israelites entered the Promised land, judges ruled the people for four hundred of years. They had no king until Saul was anointed. They had no capital city until David moved the tabernacle to Jerusalem. Mount Zion became the center of worship for the Jewish people, and also their seat of justice. I did not realize how inextricably worship and judgment are related in scripture, and thus in the mind of God, until I visited Jerusalem in person. The morning of our planned ascent to the holy city, I began singing Psalm 122.
”I rejoiced when I heard them say, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.
And now my feet are standing within your gates Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, the city build compact and firmly bound,
There the tribes go up to give thanks to the LORD.”
Then my memory gave out. What comes next, I wondered? What else does the psalmist say about Jerusalem? I opened my bible and discovered:
“There the thrones for judgement were set,
the thrones of the house of David.”
The people give thanks to the LORD because He has set thrones of judgment at the gates of the city of David.
Tel Be’er Sheva, Moses, Joshua, and David’s Jerusalem all point forward to the eternal city - the place Jesus has prepared for us. John saw the New Jerusalem in a vision given to buoy our hearts until its fulfillment. John tells us that the New Jerusalem boasts twelve gates made of a singe pearl, each inscribed with the name of an apostle. I do not believe these gates are memorials, nor are they built for ornamentation. I believe the apostles, the pearls Jesus bought with price of His blood, will sit in these gates, just as the judges sat in the gates of Te Be’er Sheva. From there they will do the work Jesus for which Jesus called them.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” - Matt 19:28
The apostles will share in Christ’s authority, but they are not the only ones. Jesus has promised to share His Throne with all who overcome. (Rev 3:21) He will put His anointing on those who know His ways, just as the Lord took from the anointing on Moses and shared it with the elders of Israel. We will work with Jesus, the Righteous Judge to implement the justice of His Kingdom. The glory and the weight of this thought makes my head spin, but Paul regarded this truth as an obvious fact.
”Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!” - I Cor. 6:3
The New Jerusalem will have no temple for God Himself will dwell there, and we with Him. But there is a Throne which stands in the center of the city. The Holy One is a Judge and His justice will endure forever!