I WILL AWAKE IN HIS LIKENESS

                                 

                              

                                    Welcome home my son

Evangelist Charles Inglis records the following story told by a lady in a prayer meeting “some years ago my husband was in Europe and I was left with my maids in a large lonely house. One evening after our usual Bible reading and prayer, we retired to our rooms. As I entered my room, I happened to look into a mirror at the opposite side of the room and was horrified to see a man crouching behind my wardrobe.

I was tempted to cry aloud for help but I knew it would be useless. So I decided to put my faith in God by practicing the verses we had just read. I walked across the floor as courageously as possible though trembling in every limb. I took my Bible, sank into a chair and began reading aloud the fifty third chapter of Isaiah. I then knelt and prayed aloud telling God how we were unprotected women and implored him to protect us from thieves and robbers.

 I had barely risen and sunk once more in the seat when a hand was laid on my shoulder and a voice said “do not cry out or be frightened, for you are perfectly safe. I came here to rob this house but that chapter is one that I used to hear my mother read and your prayers reminded me of the prayers she offered. I am going now, you need not fear anything.

Psalm 139 is a song of David adoring his Almighty creator and preserver. In verses 17-18 he declares “How precious to me are your thoughts, God…when I awake I am still with you”. The Living Bible (TLB) translation says, “How precious is it Lord to realize that you are thinking about me constantly. I can't even count how many times a day your thoughts turned towards me and when I wake up in the morning, you are still thinking of me”.

God told Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer.1:5).  In Acts 13:36 we are told “now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation he fell asleep”. God has a unique plan for everyone’s life; when he creates people he fashions them for their unique purpose.  

Jeremiah wrote to the captives in Babylon” For I know the plans I have for you, plans of welfare and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). They did not know yet the plan he had for them but God knew it. Even though they were in captivity far away from home, God had not stopped thinking about them. His thoughts were too deep for them to understand. They had to take steps of faith believing what Gods had said that his plans for them were of peace and not of evil to give then a future and a hope.

These words were written to people in exile, possibly the devil was robbing them of their sense of future and hope. One of the great outcomes of captivity years is that places of worship (synagogues) were built in everywhere. It’s through these synagogues that the gospel was later spread. We hear of Jesus and Paul going into synagogues whenever they visited a new place.

We read that “Jesus went throughout all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news” (Matt 9:35). Have you ever wondered where these synagogues came from? Remember before captivity the Israelites had a central place of worship - the Jerusalem temple. God in his own way caused all things to work together for good.

No one and nothing can frustrate his plans, Job found out this in his time. At the end of his painful experience he said to God “I know that you can do all things, no purpose of yours can be thwarted…my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:2, 5). His tough experience was an eye opener; he no longer relied on information from others, he had personally encountered the creator of the universe.

In his great hymn God moves in a mysterious way William Cowper wrote “you fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. His purpose will ripen fast unfolding every hour, the bud may have a bitter taste but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to error and scans his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain”.

In psalms 40:5, David pondered “many Oh Lord my God are your wonderful works which you have done and your thoughts towards us cannot be recounted to you in order. If I would declare or speak of them they are more than can be numbered”.  He reflects on a past full of wonderful works already performed by God. He thinks about a future full of God’s wonderful thoughts and plans.

God takes pleasure in His people (Ps. 149:4). The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love (Ps. 147:11). The “Lord your God is in your midst , a mighty one who will save , he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord but those of blameless ways are his delight (Prov.11:20). Is the Lord taking pleasure in you?

God’s thoughts are precious and highly valuable to David.  Nothing can be more delightful than to know that God is always thinking about us individually. God’s thought run upon his children just as a father’s upon his children. How often He has screened us from trouble! How frequently He has prepared us for a trial, so that, when it came, it did not crush us! How often He has rescued us out of perils! How often He has visited us in the night season and given us songs amid our sorrow!

In Psalm 127:1, David’s son Solomon says “Except the Lord keeps the city; the watchman stays awake in vain”. The securities we put in place are good but without God they are vain. God thinks of David even when he is sleep.  He says “when I wake up in the morning, you are still thinking of me”. David knew that God would be awake all night watching over him.  God would neither sleep nor slumber (Ps. 121: 3-4).

He would cover him with his feathers; so he needed not fear the terror of the night nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness (Ps. 91). In Psalm 4: 8 David declares “in peace I will lie down and sleep for you alone, Lord makes me dwell in safety”.  In Psalm 3: 5 he says “I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety for the lord was watching over me. With unwavering confidence that God would watch over him, his mind was at rest and he slept peacefully.

David’s word “when I awake, I am still with you” could have a deeper meaning still.  In psalm 17:15 he prayed “show me the wonders of your great love …keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings… as for me I will see your face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake in your righteousness”. Here David looked beyond this life into eternity.  He was confident not only of life after death, but that he would one day see the face of God.

 David knew that the transition from this life to the next was like waking up. He knew that the world beyond was more real than the present one. He knew one day he would sleep and awake in God’s presence. He also knew that he would awake in God’s righteousness (likeness). Jude committed his readers “to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy (Jude 1:24). John wrote “we know that when he appears we shall be like him,” (1 John 3:2).