Longing for Eden

As I study Habbakuk, I'm not feeling the love as I did with Nahum and Joel.  I'm not sure why except Matthew Poole's description of the Chaldeans are not quite what I want to think about as we face this virus.  I guess if I could say anything positive about my reading and studying Habbakuk, it would be, "yes, things could be worse!!"  But with Nahum and Joel, I learned that I need to be learning in my affliction.  Maybe it's just my mood and the uncertainty.  However, as I thought about this after my study time, I know I've always loved the end of Habbakuk.  It's a famous passage I've heard and read for many years.  You can read it in chapter 3:16-19.  It's the "though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine..." passage.

But for my post today is the  "I've always loved the end of Habbakuk" thought.  Is that not like human nature?  Let me get through this, so my life will be what I want it to be again.  I want it to be normal.  I want to enjoy things again, like I did before.  I want to go on a vacation, a hike, fly a kite, etc.  The reality of it is that when sin came into this perfectly ordered world, Eden was not to be enjoyed again.  Not that there would not be joy in the Lord, in just the beautiful presence of knowing we are His.  But perfection in life would be no more until one day we see Him face to face.

Adam and Eve were banned from Eden until their dying day.  They faced major heartache with the death of one son by the hand of the other.  But their most dread pain was losing fellowship with their Maker.  Horrors of all horrors!!!  And no more Eden, no more perfect beauty and life and love.

We, too, long for order.  We long for things to be made right.  However, we have no concept of what that "really" looks like.  For our order is only a dim picture of what's to come.  And Eden, in all it's beauty, holds no comparison for Zion, the place purchased by the blood of the Lamb of the world.  Only He can make us completely ordered, perfect and presentable to the "Eden" the depths of our hearts truly desire.  "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life."  Revelation 21:27