The unfolding of a plan
From inception to completion,
The narrative, not the myth,
Of man’s redemption.
From Eden’s perfection
To that horrendous fall
But thank God, in His agape love,
That was not all.
Thus, came offerings
That were only types:
Of the symbolic and ceremonial
But weren’t quite right.
Until Shiloh came
That was to be the Light
Shining out of gross darkness
And blackness of night.
From a stone as a pillow
To a pillar of stone,
Angels ascending and descending
Showing God’s throne.
From a stone to an altar
With many a stone
Bearing the sacrificial offerings
Whereupon burn.
To a crudely looking tent
But heavenly designed
Where man approached God
At an appointed time.
To tabernacle with man
Though not in fulness
But symbolic of what was to come
In man’s eternal rest.
To an impressive edifice
Built by David’s Son,
The third king of mighty Israel,
Who was King Solomon.
But this was not all;
These were mainly types
Signifying greater was to come
In the form of the Light.
This centre-piece temple
Became the wherewithal
And just like in Eden’s Garden
Denoted another fall.
Destroyed then rebuilt
By Nehemiah and Ezra
It later became a sight to behold
When refurbished by Herod.
Monumental in significance
It was to the Jews
When in relation to its future
Jesus gave terrible news.
It was the Jews ultimate
But to God: part of a plan;
A plan that was steadily unfolding
In the redemption of man.
Destruction was coming,
Its time near at hand
And soon very little would remain
Of this temple grand.
The unfolding of a plan
From inception to completion,
The narrative, not the myth,
Of man’s redemption.
From a stone to an altar,
From an altar to a tabernacle:
All bespeaking itinerancy
Before the temple.
Then came the temple:
A more permanent stay
But then that was removed
And Jesus is here.
And now we, lively stones,
Are built up into him,
Pardon of our transgressions
And relieved of our sin.
No longer strangers
From Israel’s Commonwealth
But one in the Lord Christ Jesus
Growing in spiritual health.
The plan has unfolded;
“It is finished!” said Christ,
He is our temple and we, his,
No more sacrifice.
Our bodies are temples
In which Christ dwells,
It’s a wonderful transformation
Of which we can tell.
We have come to Mt Zion
Leaving Sinai behind,
Never to return to that mountain
Now or at any time.
The unfolding of a plan
From inception to completion,
The narrative, not the myth,
Of man’s redemption.
Stewart Russell © January 5, 2025
