Gratify Your Appetite

On Sunday, my Bible reading plan brought me to the start of Joshua. I've enjoyed reading the Pentateuch probably more than ant any other time this year, but something in me loves to arrive at narrative, at a story. One thing i've noticed about Joshua this year is that the genealogies continue, but they're genealogies of land, rather than people. Kings Moses defeated, Kings Joshua defeated, land conquered and land to be conquered. Why the switch from people to place? Because the story is about God's people in God's place, enjoying God's presence. The lists of place names teach us we're moving on with the story, we've got the people, now let's get the place.

But what about the presence? Well the Temple is built later on, and the glory descends, and the people shout and the priests can't enter. But then, sin. Sin. Sin. And division. And idol worship. And the promised land becomes a wept over memory. We were created for unadulterated communion with God. Enjoyment of God. Pleasure in God. We cram this desire with so much that the world has to offer, slowly slipping further and further from Him, and, in a way, from ourselves.

But it won't always be like this. The hebrews in the promised land refused to enjoy God alone and were exiled, but as Edwards tells us below, that is not something we have to worry about when we reach the promised land. Bathe in these paragraphs, from the end of Edwards' sermon, The Excellencies of Christ.'

'Yes the saints conversation with Christ in heaven shall not only be as intimate and their access to Him as free as the disciples with Jesus on Earth, but in many respects much more so; for in heaven the vital union shall be perfect, which is exceeding imperfect here. While the saints are in this world there are great remains of sin to separate or disunite them from Christ, which shall then all be removed...

When the saints shall see Christ's glory and exaltation in heaven, it will indeed posses their hearts with greater admiration and adoring respect, but will not awe them into separation but will only serve to heighten their surprise and joy when they find Christ condescending to admit them to such intimate access and so freely and fully communicating Himself to them. So that if we choose Christ as our friend and portion we will hereafter be so received by Him that there shall be nothing to hinder the fullest enjoyment of Him to the satisfying of the upmost cravings of our soul. We may take our full swing at gratifying our spiritual appetite after these holy pleasures. Christ will then say as in (Song of Songs) 5:1 'eat, o friends, drink yea, drink abundantly o beloved.' And this shall be our entertainment to all eternity! There shall never be any end of this happiness, or anything to interrupt our enjoyment of it, or in the least molest us in it!

Christ has brought it to pass that those whom the Father has given Him be brought into the household of God; that He and His Father and His people should be as one society, one family; that the church should be, as it were, admitted into the society of the blessed Trinity.'

The Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards, P689