YouVersion

It must have been a surreal and glorious occasion for these Israelite refugees to worship in the land of Promise after such a long enslavement. The years and years of dreaming of the day when the Hebrews would have their land restored to them so that they could properly worship the one true God finally came to fruition. They must have had collective goosebumps as they offered burnt offerings for the first time on that newly constructed altar. What a picture of what it will be like for us as we worship God in our final dwelling place, the New Jerusalem, after Christ's final victory. Here, we will worship and adore him without reservation, unfettered by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. What a glorious eternity we will have with him! (Of course, one of the wonderful distinctives of the New Jerusalem experience for us is that God will wipe away every tear (Rev. 21:4). Could it be that the tears that are cried in the New Jerusalem, in contrast to the rejoicing, at least in part, are those cried by God's most faithful servants who anticipated that day the most - those who suffered the most and waited the longest for the full restoration of humanity? It's no wonder that it was the "old men" who wept as loudly as the others rejoiced when the foundation of the temple was laid. As I heard John Piper recently say, one day we will look back on the pitiful pleasures of this life, in contrast to God's glory, and wonder how it could have been that we were carried away and manipulated by sexual immorality and greed, for those things pale in comparison to God Almighty.