Where is the Temple?

Morning Devotions Thursday November 19, 2009     Merredin, Australia.   Revelation 21:22

“I did not see a temple in the city ….”

In the Book of Revelation, John has this powerful vision of heaven, of the things that are and that which will take place later. Imagine the way in which this vision of the New Jerusalem comes upon him. “I looked and I saw a new heaven and a new earth … and the Holy City, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”

Once John has got over its size, the magnificence of the walls, the twelve pearl gates, the foundations of precious stones and the streets of gold, he does what we all do … he looked for that which in his perception made the city what it was. He looked for the Temple. It wasn’t there!

And he suddenly realizes that the Temple was only a “picture” of that which was to come. And “that which was to come” had taken its place. Actual reality had taken the place of the image of the reality. No more Temple! Aha! “Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.”

How often in our lives do we not substitute the reality with the image of the reality? We elevate the idols of church, tradition and so on, instead of looking to He who is the Beginning and the End. Praise be to the Lord forever and ever. Amen

Are you looking around for Temples or are you looking for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb?