(tm) One day we shall be able to behold God’s Face
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One day we shall be prepared to minister to Him and have His name impressed in our personality—body, soul, and spirit. God dwells forever in the beauty of His holiness, the same holiness that now is being created in us.
The holiness of God includes more than refraining from indulging in a prescribed list of behaviors. The radiant beauty of holiness is the transparent Nature of God Himself. There is no darkness, no uncleanness whatever in the Nature of God. His holiness is so pure, so clean, so shining, so blameless, so loving, so single-minded in purpose and intention, that we by contrast are seen to be very small and mean.
Indeed, we have been called by the Lord to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Since God has called us to Himself, to love Him alone, to be a peculiar treasure to Him out of all the peoples of the earth, should we not lay aside all other ambitions and enthusiasms and direct the springs of our desires and energies toward obeying diligently His every desire?
It will require our whole attention and willingness if we are to bear faithfully with the rigorous training to which we shall be subjected.
We must, as did Paul, look toward the glory that is to be ours if we are willing to endure with steadfast patience the circumstances God sends our way. To minister as a priest before God is a calling so high that no other destiny can be compared with it in any manner.
Whoever has difficulty deciding what calling to pursue, that of God or that of his own, will have trouble until he makes a decision. God will not be spurned. He is jealous over those whom He has chosen.
Let us Christians, each having been chosen as a priest of God Almighty, be diligent to make serving the Lord the first business of our life. If we do, His training program will result in our being able to behold His Face forever and to represent Him throughout His creation to the ages of ages.
We have mentioned that the feast of Tabernacles parallels the new heaven and earth rule of Christ in that each is associated with the maturing of all crops sown in the land of promise. We have discussed the fact that both the feast of Tabernacles and the new heaven and earth rule of Christ have to do with the "tabernacling" of God with mankind through His Church. The thought has been presented that the water of life, with the Tree of Life growing along its banks, is also part of the feast of Tabernacles and of the new heaven and earth.
The role of priestly service to God was emphasized in the annual dwelling in booths of the Israelite families. The perfection of priestly service will occur when "his servants shall serve him" in the new Jerusalem.
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