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‘ ... And the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment’

HEBREWS 1:10-11

God hath not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God hath not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

by Ian Campbell

WHAT GOD HAS PROMISED

But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labour,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love

Author unknown

The napkin – final, tender touch

That veiled the face beasts marred so much,

Is placed with loving care:

No regal blue enshrouds God’s Ark

Just perfumed silence and the dark,

And simple linen square.

Can it be so, that He who lies,

Stretched as a curtain starry skies,

And fastened Plei’des bands;

Who on the closing day will fold,

The universe that waxes old

And change them with His hands?

But this impressive feat of power,

Surpassed, eclipsed one early hour,

The Ark moves on again;

With unrushed ease He takes the square,

“I live again”, He does declare,

Then He folds the napkin

THE NAPKIN

The Universe with its billions of starry galaxies was created by the Lord Jesus - “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” Psalm 33:6. One of these starry clusters was called Pleiades, or Seven Sisters located in the constellation of Taurus. The Bible informs us that one day, the One who created the universe will bring it to close with the ease with which one folds a garment - “And: "You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment; LIKE A CLOAK YOU WILL FOLD THEM UP ...”

The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the ‘Ark of God’ and the ‘Ark of the testimony’ was a wooden box overlaid with the purest gold. The lid, known as ‘the Mercy Seat’, was made from solid gold. Two cherubim, with their faces turned toward each other and their outspread wings over the top of the ark, crowned the Mercy Seat. Three different items were housed inside the Ark – a pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the Ten Commandments. It was very important item in the Tabernacle, for God had said, “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony” Exodus 25:22. The Ark with its Mercy Seat is a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact He is called the Mercy Seat by the apostle Paul – “whom God has set forth a MERCY SEAT, through faith in His blood” Romans 3:25 Darby Translation. Whenever the Ark was transported it was always covered with a “cloth wholly of blue”: this being a lovely picture of the Heavenly Man!

In death the Lord was covered, not with a regal robe of blue, but will a simple napkin tied around His face. On the resurrection day, the disciples, when coming to the tomb, found His body gone and the napkin “not lying with the linen cloths, but FOLDED up in a distinct place by itself.” This power to rise from the dead is a power greater than that which will FOLD the universe! “The exceeding greatness of His power ... according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead “ - Ephesians 1:19-20

Poems