SOMETHING BETTER!

"God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect."
(Hebrews 11:40).

Devotion 8 of 10

A BETTER AND ENDURING SUBSTANCE

There were numerous benefits under the Old Covenant. A synopsis of some of them is found in Deuteronomy 28:3-8. "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."

As wonderful as those promises may appear, they are all temporal. No promise of glory! No promise of sins forgiven! No promise of eternal life! No promise of being with the Lord forever! No promise of inner peace! No indwelling Spirit, names written in heaven, or eternal inheritance! None! The Israelites were not spiritually equipped to have their goods taken from them. That was a grievous condition.

Note the superiority of the New Covenant. It offers better substance to us; enduring substance. "For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance" (Heb 10:34). We do well not to neglect this aspect of our salvation. A religious posture that leaves us anchored to this world is one fraught with jeopardy. The New Covenant is preparing us to exit from this world, not settle down in it. For this reason, it provides us with enduring substance in heaven, where moth and rust do not decay and thieves do not break through and steal.

A better country

In Scripture "country" denotes the place of citizenship; the place where we are at home. It speaks of a place with which we are compatible. Such a place does not exist in this world. In this world, we are "strangers and pilgrims" (1 Pet 2:11; Heb 11:13). Because our hearts have been uprooted from this realm, we cannot be satisfied with its offerings. Our hearts are set on a "better" place! It is as true of those in Christ as it was of the saints of old; "But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city" (Heb 11:16).

The heavenly country is better because it is eternal. It is better because there "the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest" (Job 3:17). In that fair land there is "no more curse" (Rev 22:3). The total absence of trouble and turmoil is depicted by the phrase "no more sea" (Rev 21:1). Truly, it is a "better country!" We will fit in there! There we will have uninterrupted and full peace and tranquility, world without end.

A better resurrection

Of old time, there were some remarkable resurrections. The son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17), the Shunammite's son (2 Kings 4), and the young man cast into Elisha's grave (2 Kings 13). All were really raised from the dead. Our Lord Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son (Luke 7), Jairus' daughter (Luke 8), and Lazarus (John 11). Peter raised Dorcas (Acts 9), and Paul raised Eutychus (Acts 20). These were all a marvelous display of divine power!

But there is a "better resurrection" than those mentioned above. "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Heb 11:35). What is that "better resurrection?" It is one that will put us beyond the realm of suffering and death. So far as we know, all of those raised from the death died again; but it will not be so with the "better resurrection." In this resurrection we do not merely come back from the region of the dead. "Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor 15:51-54, RSV). That is a "better resurrection."

PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Your exalted Son, my Savior, give me grace to focus on the better and enduring substance I have in heaven. Help me to be so sure of it, I will not regard the plundering of my earthly possessions as something of greater importance.

-- TOMORROW: SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE --