 |
Home | Mission Statement | Video Gallery | Audio Gallery | Photo Gallery | Daily Manna | Testimonies | | Links | Contact us |
 |
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit Rom 15:13 |
 |
| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The “Above Jerusalem” Bible Verse: Galatians 4:24-27 (BSB) "These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”" Message:
Having defined Hagar and Ishmael as a symbol of the Law (because she was a slave) and tying them to “the now Jerusalem,” Paul introduces something called “above Jerusalem” which he ties to “our mother.” He then returns his attention to Hagar, quoting a bit of slightly unsettling Scripture.
The passage is difficult to follow; I have tried to iron it out a bit in the paraphrase “Daily Prayer Readers Bible” version. Paul differentiates between two Jerusalems. The Jerusalem that is tied to the Law — and thus to slavery, Hagar, Ishmael, and the desert — he describes with the attributive adverb “now.”
He uses the adverb “now” as an adjective to describe Jerusalem in the present time. We also do this in English when we must, but when we do it, there is always an inherent idea of change. We might say “the then-President” and might even say “the now-President”, which are awkward expressions, but they get the point across; the speaker wants to emphasize that things did (or will) change, that the person’s presidency is or was temporary.
Emblem of Jerusalem
Emblem of Jerusalem
So when Paul says “the now Jerusalem,” he is undoubtedly anticipating that there will be another Jerusalem, or that the character of Jerusalem will change fundamentally in the future.
Then he throws us a curve ball. Instead of comparing Sarah to the “new” or “coming” Jerusalem, he connects her to something he calls “Jerusalem above.” As in English, the basic meaning of “above” can be extended to an abstract sense of superiority, in almost any way: The rank “above” captain is major; the Joneses acted like they were “above” eating catfish. So the Jerusalem of Sarah is “above” the Jerusalem of earth in two ways. 1) It exists in heaven, which we conceive as above us, in the sky; and more strongly, 2) we get a sense that there is a “Better Jerusalem” than the one we see now.
If you have read Revelation, you might remember that the term “New Jerusalem” is used for the City of God: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2) And there are theologians who will claim that Christ in heaven already inhabits the New Jerusalem. But Paul is talking more abstractly here than is John the Divine in Revelation. He has drawn an allegory of two worlds, the world of slavery with a very real but also symbolic center in the earthly City of Jerusalem, and the world of freedom, with its center in a place superior to Jerusalem.
We can see Paul’s “Jerusalem-above” as either an actual place or as an abstract concept — it doesn’t matter. What matters is to see the impact Christ had upon us: Isaac has surprisingly become, not the patriarch of Judaism, but the patriarch of Christianity. On the other side of the coin, Ishmael, who was the patriarch of a Gentile nation, became in essence one of the enslaved, the same as a Jew who continued to embrace the Law as the means to righteousness. So when Paul said earlier, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile,” this is part of his meaning. It is not that Jews and Gentiles have become equivalent and equal; rather, among those who have found Christ, the distinction has simply ceased to exist in the eyes of God.
Meditation : Prayer : Finally, let me go forth in thanks for the victory I have been given through our Lord Jesus Christ. May I be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and always remembering that in the Lord our labor is not in vain.. Amen. |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
