This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”
Revelation 14:12-13
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days.
Revelation 12:6
But she was given two wings like those of a great eagle so she could fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness. There she would be cared for and protected from the dragon for a time, times, and half a time.
Revelation 12:14
And he came on a place and stayed the night there, for the sun had gone. And he took stones of the place and placed them at his head; and he lay down in that place. [LITV]
Genesis 28:11
I am sure you are wondering what is happening! I told you at the end of the last Gem that it is time to move on to Revelation 14:14-20. Yet, here I am again ‘rabbiting on’ about Ha Makom. The reason is because some of you, my readers, are still confused. I believe in being thorough; in making sure you have grasped the right end of the stick. I used the passing comment by Leroy Eims about maintaining a consistency in the place where you have your Quiet Time. I suggested that only so you develop consistency and expectation that God will speak to you in your special place. Yes, Jacob met God at Bethel (Genesis 28), but that did not transform Bethel into a Holy Place as a result. In fact Bethel became a false worship centre after Jeroboam tried to use it as a place to justify a different worship centre to the Temple in Jerusalem.
I have been taught by my Hebrew and Greek professors to pay close attention to repetition in the Word of God. Here is an example:
There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the LORD said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
1 Kings 19:9-10
When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
He replied again, “I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
1 Kings 19:13-14
The background to this passage is that Elijah had been challenged by Jezebel when she said that she would have him killed like the prophets of Baal. So he fled; ultimately he went looking for God. Where would he find God? Of course, he should go to the Mountain of God, where Moses found God. So Elijah is found on Mt Horeb (Sinai) waiting to hear from God. How did God speak on Sinai? Through a mighty wind, an earthquake and a fire. Elijah had gone to Sinai expecting God to communicate as He once did at Sinai. But God didn’t speak through wind, earthquake or fire. To Elijah he spoke in a gentle whisper. Don’t get locked into thinking God speaks in traditional ways; the ways God always speaks. Don’t think you have to go to a certain place to hear God speak. One place is as good as another. Hence God told him twice, “What are you doing here Elijah? Go back the way you came and . . . anoint Elisha to replace you as My prophet.”
Sobering!
On our first Sunday morning living in an Indonesian Muslim village, we left the headman’s house and went up the hill to the tree line to have ‘family church time’ with God. We took song books from our home church, our Bibles and had a time of worship and meditating on the Word of God. When we went back to the house, the Kepala Desa called me and told me we didn’t have to do that. They knew we were having a Christian service, but they were nervous when we went up to the tree line, as something could happen to us. They didn’t mind us holding our service in the village; in fact they preferred “knowing we were alright”.
The next Sunday, we held church in the Kepala Desa’s house built of rough sawn timber from the forest. We prayed and read the Word and sang some worship songs in English. After a time of singing, Marissa, our eldest daughter whispered, “Dad, Dad look!” I looked in the direction she was indicating and all around the house were pairs of eyes peaking through the wall boards to see what we were doing. The women and children of the village were spying on us to see what we were doing. There were even pairs of eyes looking up between the floorboards under the house.
The Kepala Desa assured me as Muslims they didn’t mind us doing what Christians do on a Sunday. They didn’t want us thinking we had to do it secretly. But they didn’t want us to be harmed by going up to the bushline. But of course they were inquisitive enough to want to see and hear what we were doing. It didn’t take very long before the children of the village were singing our songs in English.
It was hard worshipping God in that village when you knew there were rows of eyes looking on as you did. It is one thing worshipping the LORD in church when your favourite worship team is on, who’ve chosen all your favourite songs. But can you worship when all eyes in the village are watching. Or what about when you’re crammed into a 3 foot by 4 foot bathroom with 7 other women?
Judging by some of your comments and questions, some of you appear to have picked up the idea there is one place to meet God. Quite the opposite, as I told you, God is everywhere; Bethel was only transformed because God was in that ordinary place. By saying one of the names for God is Ha Makom, I am not suggesting you have to find a specific place to find God. Quite the contrary, as Tina from Turners says in a current TV ad screening here in NZ. “You don’t have to come here, the internet is everywhere’. So too, God is everywhere, but the remarkable thing about Ha Makom is He will be with you in your darkest place on earth. Corrie found God in a Nazi internment camp in Barracks 28, packed with 1,400 women, complete with black lice, bed bugs and fleas. Immaculee found Him in a bathroom in Rwanda, crammed with seven other women and girls, while Hutu killers called her name, focused on finding her to hack her into little pieces.
While pondering this concept of finding Ha Makom, I thought it is akin to finding the North pole and the difference between True North, Grid North and Magnetic North. It struck me as an analogy that True North is that point on the compass directly above us toward the North Pole. Grid North is the north point for all points of latitude in relation to the north pole. Magnetic North is the point where the compass points according to the attraction of the earth’s magnetic field. True North is a fixed point (‘heaven’) but Magnetic North is not fixed and ever changing dependant on the strength and directional changes in the earth’s magnetic field. There is not ‘one point on earth’ where God dwells. Rather Revelation makes it clear that His throne is in the Heavenly Sanctuary. I told you in Gem 2321 that the Rabbis say, “God is the place of the world, but the world is not the place of God.” Rather in asking the trainee rabbis, “Where is God?” the expected answer is ‘Wherever we let Him in”. God has told us in numbers of places in His Word – He will never leave us, He is always with us, He dwells within each one of us. The conclusion we must draw therefore is that it is not a matter of a change of location we must seek. Rather it is a change in our awareness of God. We need to learn to hear His Voice in the Spirit such that we are aware of when we have lost contact with Him. We increase our awareness of God’s Presence by practising the Presence of God. That is exactly what Corrie Ten Boom and Immaculee Ilibagiza did.
The action of practising the Presence of God led to each woman’s awareness of God increasing to the point where it changed their perspective on where they were, which led to them overcoming their reticence to forgive their enemies or persecutors. Their willingness to forgive opened the door to their God-given response to forgive their tormentors. For me personally the most powerful moment in both books was the moment Immaculee came face to face with Felicien. He was the man who had chopped her mother and brother into little pieces and had sought her daily to do the same to her. How could Immaculee possibly forgive him? She confounded Semana in saying, “I forgive you.” How could she do that? By having been in the Presence of the Lord and understanding the power of forgiveness. “Why did you forgive him?” I answered him with the truth. “Forgiveness is all I have to offer.”
How many times must I forgive when my bother sins against me? Seven times, seven times seven or seventy times seven? All readings mean the same thing; forgive until perfection! Ah but whose perfection? The forgiver’s ability to forgive or the one forgiven to the point of changing? Well actually both!
I felt I needed to make it clear. It is not that you have to find the geographic place on earth where God is. Rather it is a matter of finding out that you are rooted and grounded in God’s love and growing in your awareness of the dimensions of it to the point that you come to KNOW God. The words of the children’s song “Jesus Loves Me This I Know for the Bible tells me so” have to change because you have come to the point of KNOWING.
Not because of anything one thing:
- your trust in the Bible
- the answers to prayer God has given for you
- the power of the testimony you can tell
- the times He has protected you
- the times He has provided for you
But because you have come to KNOW God through the Lamb of God intimately.
Congratulations you are a Child of God by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of your Testimony because the Holy Spirit of God bears witness to it.
It is time to move on to the last segment in Revelation 14, now that we have our compass correction set. I promise, no more course corrections.
We need that reassurance in order to be able to face what is ahead. Are you at that point yet? If not, you know what to do.
Ian
On the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.
Athanasius of Alexandria
Nothing in or of this world measures up to the simple pleasure of experiencing the presence of God.
A. W. Tozer
When in your worst moment, you can shout or sing with Jacob, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it! . . . What an awesome place this is! It is The Ha Makom, the very gateway to heaven!” you will know you can persevere to the end.
Ian