THE LIGHT IS LEFT BURNING

 

  Some can never see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes, but spiritually, they cannot see Jesus for the trees. Jesus, of course, is God manifested in the flesh (John 1:1-14) but is God manifested in other ways as well. He is Emmanuel— “God with us” (Mat 1:23). Well, God was IS always with us!

  John saw the invisible God when he wrote the gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke saw God each in one dimension.

  Matthew, in that gospel, focuses on Jesus as a Jew and Jewish Law. That Jesus had a consecrated bloodline is imperative because his shed blood while on the Cross was fulfilment of the Law. Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The Abrahamic Covenant had been fulfilled, but not only that, but the Adamic, Noahic, Davidic, and the Priestly Covenants. They were all fulfilled by the Covenant of Grace.

  Mark saw Jesus from another dimension; that not only is Jesus flesh but that He is Power. The most prominent idea is that Jesus loses “virtue” to heal the blood of the sick, as with the woman at the well. (Mark 5:21).

  Luke looked at Jesus from another direction: He wrote of the compassion of Jesus and communion with both His Father and man. Luke saw Jesus as the Displayer of love.

  The Book of John was written by him, but there were many contributors to his view of Jesus. John had a four-dimensional view of Jesus and put Jesus in perspective. John most certainly saw that Jesus is God With Us.

  The first chapter reveals that God had always been with them, and he was especially with God’s chosen and peculiar people — the Hebrews (Deut 14:2). The significance of that is that Christians have been chosen by God to also be his peculiar people (1 Pet 2:9).

  Gentiles were chosen because the Hebrews always failed God. Now is the time that both Jew and Gentile are failing God. Why is that so? Because the lampstand is not kept burning!

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12) As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:5)

  Jesus remains in the world, but He is now silent and silenced, just as in the “Four-hundred Years of Silence” between Malachi the prophet and the conception of John the Baptist.

  Before the “storm” comes the wind always gets quiet, and the apocalypse is no exception. A “wind” of hurricane proportions is coming!

  From John’s perspective on High, he saw Jesus as the Word, the LORD GOD, in the beginning. The phrase “on high” is from God’s perspective.

  Lucifer desired to ascend to the heaven and be like the Most High. (Isa 14). John saw Jesus from that perspective from which God revealed to him in both the Books of John and Revelation.

  If Jesus is the Word made flesh and was there in the beginning, where was He? Jesus was “hidden” in a tree. Adam and Eve failed to see Jesus because they saw only a tree. John also revealed so much more:

⁴ Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. ⁵ And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. ⁶ Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. (1 John 3”4-6)

  Apply that now to Adam and Eve; they both sinned. The Light was lit but they looked away. They did not see Jesus nor the Serpent. They saw both trees in the middle of the Garden, but in the Tree of Life, they saw nothing, but in the Tree of Knowledge, they only saw Lucifer — the false “bringer of light.” They failed to see the Serpent in Lucifer because they were blinded by some element emitted by Lucifer. He had no light, so perhaps they were blinded by the “earth” itself; perhaps Lucifer made light with phosphorus!

  Worse yet; the two failed to see “Jesus” in the Tree of Life! Not that He was not there, but that they failed to look that Way. They walked away from the Tree of Life surely because God had dimmed the Light from it for them to make a very significant choice — Just whose light would they follow?

  Now, jump ahead to what God revealed to Moses. God revealed every detail of His Will to Moses, down to the size and content of everything. Moses saw the Image of God in the Burning Bush. That too was God Manifested as John saw Jesus (from his letter above). The Burning Bush was God With Him. Moses saw and heard the Word of pre-incarnate Jesus. He saw the Light from the Image of that Bush! That “bush” was for that time, the “Tree of Life.”

  Thousands of years passed; and Jesus encountered blind Bartimaeus, or was it the blind man who encountered Jesus? Jesus led Bartimaeus by the hand outside the city. Jesus spit on his eyes, and with that “virtue” leaving Jesus, Bartimaeus’s vision changed, “And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking” (Mark 8:24).

  Mark had seen Jesus from neither the perspective of John, nor the perspective of the blind man. Mark saw God With Them, and focused only on flesh.

  To Mark, at that time, Jesus was God in the Flesh, who was only a three-dimensional image of Yahweh. He saw God in three dimensions but only one substance. He could not comprehend at that time the Mind of God nor the Invisible attribute of God (the Holy Ghost that Luke wrote about in Luke 3:22 as the “bodily shape” of the Holy Ghost).

  Luke saw some of what John saw, but he focused on compassion. He barely noticed that the Holy Spirit of God was the shape of the flesh of Jesus. Had you noticed that yourselves or were you blinded by the motion like a dove?

  Bartimaeus was blind, but Jesus first revealed to him the ability to see beyond the physical. Had you noticed that? Jesus took Bartimaeus away from the crowd into the country. He saw nothing on the way. With just a little virtue from the water from the mouth of Jesus, the Word spoke much. He gave Bartimaeus the power to see from on High. Bartimaeus saw men; as trees walking. But only one Man was there! He saw Jesus as a Tree walking.

  God manifested something for him to see that Mark failed to notice; that Bartimaeus recognized Jesus as the Tree of Life! Had you noticed that?

  John saw it! “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him” (Rev 22:3). The Tree of Life that was in the middle of the Garden of Eden remains in the heavenly realm on High to the end. That “Tree” is the Alpha and Omega; the Beginning and the End. It holds the throne of God, and the Lamb shall be in it! The Lamb of God is Jesus (John 1:29). Jesus is in the Tree of Life just as He was in the Burning Bush! How obvious can it be but most failed to see what Bartimaeus and John saw.

  It turns out that the Tree of Life is not only the manifestation of Jesus but His “throne” as well. Of course, the “throne” of God manifested on Earth were both the Mercy Seat and the Holy Cross on Calvary.

  Can you now see the Tree of Life? Adam and Eve turned their heads from it and were ashamed. On the Cross, God put out the lights for three hours so that the spiritual blind could see the Light of Jesus. They still could not see God With Us!

  Tomorrow will continue with the Light of God and the importance of the Menorah that remains so long forgotten.

(picture credit: Facebook; "Seven Golden Lampstands:)