Now, and Not Yet

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For the past three years I have been a part of BSF, Bible Study Fellowship. BSF is a really sound Bible Study organization that brings together people from all Christian denominations to learn the Bible. This year the study is Exile & Return, a course that focuses on the books of the Bible relating the events involved in the exile of people of God to Babylon and their return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple. It is fascinating with the connections of events and prophecy which show God’s sustaining hand through it all.The books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Haggai, Nehemiah, and Zechariah, to mention a few, have details of the current events as well as prophetic verse that point to the coming of the Messiah; the state of the world then, and what the state of the world will be in the future. It’s been a fascinating study.  A lot of learning about God’s kingdom now, and not yet, a phrase used within the study. 

God’s kingdom now. God’s kingdom not yet. Through this study I have been amazed at the hand of God causing a forward movement of establishing His kingdom in the midst of sin and chaos, in the setting forth of redemption while announcing judgment to come. It has certainly caused me to see myself less as the central figure in the living of my life. I am a believer in the kingdom of God, now, and not yet. I am within a process of God’s. And that is the locus of this writing. We, as believers, live in the promises of God in the now, and the not yet. We have journeyed to now, and we are journeying to the not yet, all within the context of the Kingdom of God.

 I am currently reading through the Gospel of Mark. In the eighth chapter of Mark, as Jesus is foretelling His death and resurrection to His disciples, He tells them that they need to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. He tells them that He will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and will be killed. As I read that I thought about the Old Testament scriptures I have studied recently regarding the children of Israel returning to Jerusalem to rebuild their lives and very importantly, the Temple. The priests and scribes were so important in that process of rebuilding to remind the people to follow the Law of Moses and to build according to precepts set forth in times past…but now these priests and scribes, the same positions of authority that were necessary in the return, were being called out by Jesus as His future assassins. It made me sad of this reality  - those who were important in times past to the rebuilding of the Temple are now being the ones who rejected THE Temple, Jesus Christ. (John 2:19-21)

How does this happen? So, a slight digression…

Back in 1998 and 1999 as the time grew shorter and shorter to the turn of the century, there was much being made of what we know as Y2K. In the church setting my husband and I were within, this preoccupation with Y2K preparation was maybe more so. People I knew and loved were acting very strangely indeed with purchasing big, blue water containers and bags of wheat with hand cranked wheat mills. Even a few who were preparing underground living quarters. And my husband and I were not alarmed. We were not alarmed for a variety of reasons but this is not the place to explain all that. What I do want to point out is that I had done some research on the general tendencies of human beings at the turn of a century - were there common traits in human beings associated with living during a turn of the century? I found that there were. Increased superstition. Fear of the unknown, among other traits that were common to mankind during this event in the past. When I tried to explain that to a few friends in my attempt to reason with them that perhaps they were taking this way too far, I was ignored and even slightly scoffed at because I believe that they thought that I wasn’t attuned enough to this “end time” phenomenon - maybe not spiritually aware. Yet we clicked over from 12/31/1999 to 01/01/2000 with barely a whisper. It seems to me that there was a lot of wasted time in the run-up to 2000 by many people. 

What is my point?

The children of Israel began their Exodus from their current/now situation in Egypt and began their journey to the Promised Land. They began their not yet destination to the Promised Land. It wasn’t very far in their journey when they made the golden calf idol. Something to see. They demanded a god that they could see. They wanted to see what they believed…a common trait. The scribes and the Pharisees couldn't believe what they saw in the person of Jesus, and even His miracles. It wasn't what they expected...a common trait. And the falsity of the belief that Y2K would be a cataclysmic event? Just common tendency of mankind to follow.

So back to the point of this all…

As we journey through our lives as believers we are simultaneously journeying with the now and coming Kingdom of God which is a journey of uncommon faith. Faith that God is true to His Word, the scriptures. We must rely now on the truth of the not yet, for it is surely coming.