Bible Study Seattle

“The Lord, the Lord Almighty,
called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
“Let us eat and drink,” you say,
“for tomorrow we die!” Isaiah 22:12-13

How many people do we know who live like this? How many Christians? They assume heaven will be some monotonous eternal vacation of playing harps and bowing to The Lord. Since their concept of heaven is so vague, it is really nothing to look forward to. Hence the attitude – you only live once!

Wrong! Very wrong. Notice how so many of Jesus’ parables say something like, “What shall we say the kingdom of heaven is like…” It then talks about judgment or how someone’s work is magnified. Like this:

“For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“Now after a long time the master of those slaves *came and *settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

“Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:14-23

Notice this line – you were faithful with a few things, I will put you charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master. That is heaven! Work, purpose, and meaning on a grand scale. Imagine; The Lord might say to you, ‘you have raised your two children well, raise these 1,000 for me’. Or, ‘you have tended to a few sick, tend 1,000 sick for me’. No boring floating and playing harps! Not everyone likes to play the harp anyway. Some women will be so exalted, they will hardly believe it. Women that wished to have children but could not: “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.” Isaiah 54:1