Everlasting Pillars

"The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God" Revelation 3:12

Although we only see a part of all that God sees with our dim earthly views, while with our finite minds we try so hard to understand all of God's infinite ways, only soon to be reminded again that His ways are so much higher than our own. I am again reminded this new day that we are to be a people who walk by faith not by sight. As we trust in the LORD the Bible says we are "overcomers" which is a continual process...and as we faithfully press forward will be made steadfast and immovable pillar's and we can be so very confident that we will soon see ALL things when we are as Everlasting Pillars in His Heavenly Home...in the great and finished Temple in Eternity!

The cedars who stood majestically in the forests of Lebanon with their green feathery foliage made to glorify God's splendor while providing shade for weary travelers from the midday heat and protection from the storms...even these were soon cut down by 'Hiram King of Tyre' (2 Ch. 2:3) to be used in Solomon's Temple as polished beams and used in David's 'house of cedar' (1 Chronicles 17), for God's glorious purpose not man's.

Spurgeon writes that "even the great cedar, made by God, planted, cared, watered and pruned by God....the Lord, even the Lord, alone, has been everything unto the cedars and, therefore, David very sweetly puts it in one of the last Psalms, “Praise you the Lord, fruitful trees and all cedars.” .....the cedar’s silent song is, “Let Jehovah, God of Israel, be praised, and when we fall, let our split timbers build a temple to His praise, for unto Him, and unto Him alone we grow.”

If God cares for the cedars and all His Creation, how much more does He love and care for us? How He never ceases to love us, how His plans for us are so very good despite what are eyes can see. Can we praise God, our Creator and our Redeemer, praising Him like the cedar's who when they fall, they rejoice in confidence allowing their 'split timbers' to build a temple to His praise? Can we praise Him when we stand tall and when we fall as God's 'axes of great trial' cuts us down? Can we rejoice in Him believing He will bring us to the holy place and use us for His eternal purposes?

Once standing in the forest, the cedar of Lebanon was eventually cut down, crashing to the ground, stripped of it's branches. Once appearing as a proud pillar of a tree in nature's temporal temple, now cut down it appeared to be broken and destroyed as the 'workman of Hiram' brought it down the mountain and then floated it on the sea only to then be taken to Jerusalem, the holy place. In Jerusalem, waiting, it was soon then made into a beautiful polished beam to be placed in Solomon's Temple of God! This majestic tree once standing and looking so perfect and grand, was not just cut down for no purpose but only cut down to then be made into something even greater! Even though it looked destroyed by what human eyes could see, God allowed it all, to be made for God's eternal purpose....that the cedar tree would be cut down only to be brought to the holy place, and be used as a polished pillar to build the temple of God!

How we are as the cedar, although cut down and stripped bare by various trials, God always has a bigger plan that we often cannot see at the time. When God's axes, our trials, touch our lives may we remember He has a glorious end as we trust in Him to take us to the holy place making us into a polished pillar. He desires to use us as everlasting pillars, making us into "a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of our God". Such beauty He makes of our lives and of our circumstances, circumstances that may appear broken and hopeless as the broken down tree, but when we place our lives in His hand He makes us into a beautiful pillar to be used to build His temple. He makes us into everlasting pillars in His Heavenly Home.

Solomon was chosen and used to build God's House, God's Temple in Jerusalem. As beautiful as the temple was how much more beautiful is it that God chose us, making us into a beautiful pillar, carved into the image of His Son, to build His eternal temple. David too was chosen to build God a House, but a House that is Eternal through which God will establish His throne forever in Christ and "whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end" Hebrews 3:6.

Since the beginning of time God has chosen us, known us, loved us and has been thinking of us so He must surely have great plans for us while here on earth until He takes us home. We think often that God's choosing is paralleled with doing something so great for Him, but how He wants us to just rest in the 'being', of being placed in His hands and allow Him 'to do' and to shape our lives, chiseling us into something so beautiful for His glory to be displayed...as the great cedar who when cut down seen destruction and doom but along the ride to Jerusalem eventually was made into something even greater.

"I do not ask my cross to understand, My way to see--Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand, And follow Thee." (anonymous)

Despite the very dim and partial view we have regarding the plans and purposes of God, may we remember the cedars of Lebanon and walk this new day with a confident dependence and trust upon God. May we be blessed with the internal joy and peace that only God can give as we rejoice as the cedars rejoiced singing, “Let Jehovah, God of Israel, be praised, and when we fall, let our split timbers build a temple to His praise, for unto Him, and unto Him alone we grow.”

I praise Him for the glory of His grace...for choosing us before the foundation of the earth and for His precious blood that saved us...for the hope we have been given....for building our house that will continue forever as was promised to David as he penned, "Lord, You are God, and have promised this goodness to your servant, that it may continue forever" (1 Chronicles 17:26)....Thank you Lord, knowing that we shall be Everlasting Pillars, eternally loved, accepted in the Beloved.

'Be persuaded, timid soul', writes Fenelon, 'that He has loved you too much to cease loving you.'

Michelle A. Guerra