Sun.’s Devo- The New Heaven and the New Earth

Read: Malachi 1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24
It may be hard for us to fathom but Esau stands for Satan’s kingdom on earth and Jacob stands for God’s kingdom on earth. Esau despised his inheritance that God had for him so Jacob went after it. God blessed Jacob because he had a desire to build his kingdom. God cursed Esau and his heritage. Esaus’ descendants were Edom and they wanted to rebuild their kingdom. God said he would destroy it if they did. Edom had no honor or reverence for God or his priests. Edom had claimed to worship the Lord but they brought the maimed and blind animals to God.
God had said that his name would be great among the Gentiles but they had profaned his name and his table. They had good animals but kept them for themselves.
In Chapter two, God addresses Israel’s priests who didn’t give God glory. The priests were suppose to be teaching God’s laws but instead they had added to and subtracted from God’s laws and made laws that were impossible for the people to keep. The priests were unjust, took bribes and showed favoritism.
They were putting their first wives away dealing deceitfully with them. They were not giving them a writ of divorcement so they had no legal obligation to provide for them. Also, if they did marry, they caused them to commit adultery because they were still legally married. Jesus addressed this very sin in Matthew 5:31, 32.
God told them that he was weary in their crying out for justice when they called evil, good.
Finally, the end will come. The new heaven and the new earth will appear and the new Jerusalem will come down out of heaven in all its glorious splendor. Pain and tears will be done away with and there will only be rejoicing for the elect. The unbelieving sinners will be receive their inheritance also. They will be thrown into the lake of fire.
The temple of the Lord is described in all it’s glory and majesty. There will be no more sun or moon because the glory of the Lord will be the light and Jesus will be the lamp. The gates will stay open and nothing impure will ever enter it only those whose names were written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Lord, help us to be a wife of noble character to you and to our husbands on earth.