JEHOVAH SHAMMAH

What a miserable time it was when God departed from the temple and city. Israel’s house was soon left to them desolate. No longer His, in a short time it was to be no longer theirs.

When the prodigal nation returns to their Messiah, what a change will occur! God will redistribute the land, but differently from the division in Joshua’s time. The temple design in that future kingdom will also be quite different than either the wilderness tabernacle or Solomon’s temple. The city will get a new name, for the old things are done away, behold, all things will become new. In the new covenant, Israel will make a fresh start. The nation of Israel will be reborn.

The ten tribes carried away to Assyria, as well as the two tribes carried to Babylon will be reunited and take their allotted place in the land. ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!’, Ps. 133.1.

In the new layout of the land of Israel the sanctuary will be in the midst of them. There will be seven tribes to the north of it, together with a portion for the Levites, the prince, and the city. Then five tribes will be to the south of the city.

The name of the renewed city will be Jehovah Shammah - The Lord is there. The returning captives will enjoy obvious tokens of God’s presence. No one will be asking, as their fore-fathers did, ‘Is the Lord among us, or is He not?’ It will be obvious that He is with them. Though their former troubles were harrowing and fierce, they will see that they were like the bush which burned but was not consumed. And why? Because the Lord is there. Likewise today, the assembly has, by His Spirit, the presence of God. Where the gospel is faithfully preached, and God is worshipped in the name of Jesus Christ only, it can be truly said, the Lord is there. He is faithful that said, ‘lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’, Matt. 28. 20.

The glory and happiness of heaven consists chiefly in the fact that ‘the Lord is there’. The happiness of the glorified saints is that ‘God himself shall be with them’, Rev. 21. 3. ‘He that sits on the throne shall dwell among them’, Rev. 7.15. This will crown their bliss.