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Thursday, October 17, 2013

In My Father's House are Many Mansions

In John 14:2, Yeshua says that His Father's House has many mansions.  To what is He referring?  

It's interesting that in the context of Ancient Israel the "father's house" did actually have multiple dwelling places:
"Each pillared house in a cluster may represent the living space of a nuclear family or parts thereof, but the shared courtyard space and common house walls of the linked buildings indicate a larger family grouping.  Early Israelite dwelling units were thus complex arrangements of several buildings and housed what we might call extended families," (Families in Ancient Israel) [emphasis added].
I know that there are a lot of Messianic Non-Jews out there right now who are hurting because you feel you have been excluded from G-d's People.  Please remember Paul's encouragement:
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God," (Eph. 2:19)

6 comments:

  1. ""So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God," (Eph. 2:19)"

    We are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of G-d, (not Jacob) which we know is in heaven because he said he was LEAVING to prepare a place for us.

    How can we be excluded from G-d's people?

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    1. Let me see if I understand you. You're saying:

      (1) the household of G-d is in heaven;

      (2) you are in this heavenly household;

      So are you saying that you are in heaven right now?

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  2. 2 Corinthians 5:1
    For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.

    And we know from Hebrews that Abraham lived as a sojourner himself, not as having recieved the promised land although he lived in it:

    "By trusting, he lived as a temporary resident in the Land of the promise, as if it were not his, staying in tents with Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, who were to receive what was promised along with him. For he was looking forward to the city with permanent foundations, of which the architect and builder is God".

    If even Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, lived in the land of promise in temporary dwellings because they were waiting for an eternal city, one not made by human hands, but by G-d.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous,

      Here's how I understand the following concepts:

      (1) there is a heavenly Temple;

      (2) there will be an earthly Messianic Temple in the Messianic Era;

      (3) after the end of the Messianic Era, the universe will be destroyed and there will be a new universe and a new earth;

      (4) the ancient Israelites understood a household to mean a community in which there is a head patriarch and many sub-patriarchs, each with his own family and house, including houses for slaves and/or sojourners who have joined the family;

      (5) the household of G-d is composed of all who have accepted Yeshua, those on earth as well as those souls who are no longer living. I believe that this Household of G-d is synonymous with Paul's expression, "the Israel of G-d".

      Those are just my opinions. But I welcome other points of view.

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    2. Peter, those seem to be good things to believe :)

      So then, how is it possible (if those things you state are true) to be sorrowful because we are excluded?

      The promises to Abraham and his seed have a heavenly aspect as well as a temporal aspect....that you see this is clear by your bullet points.

      Israel received the physical promise of the land and the temple, we see this clear back in the book of Joshua "Nevertheless, just as all the good things Adonai your God promised you have come upon you, likewise Adonai will bring upon you all the bad things too, until he has destroyed you from this good land which Adonai your God has given you."

      So why am I commenting here on this issue?:

      The eternal promises have also been given,
      1) G-d's son took on the seed of Abraham and inherits all things in heaven and earth.
      2) He sent the promise of the Holy Spirit from heaven upon The Church, Jew and Gentile
      3) he has given promises far beyond the temporary promises of tribal lands, etc. (you yourself agree they will be destroyed, and I believe Abraham understood this as well).
      4) The promise of eternal life is given to all who believe and do not turn back

      Summary: "In the world we will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"

      Why should we sit around feeling sorry for ourselves when men mistreat us, considering all these things?

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