The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
The LORD Is There
On Monday our escrow in Susanville closed and we spent a grueling morning emptying our house to pack up a 26’ U-Haul truck. A big thank you to the 15+ people who helped us accomplish that in a very short amount of time. Tuesday our escrow closed here, a paint crew began painting the entire interior of the house, and we off-loaded the truck into our garage, again in a very short amount of time thanks to the seven people who came to help us. We have been in a hotel all week but it has not been a vacation. We have been taking care of the business of settling in a new state ‒ new insurances, new licenses and auto registrations, retrieving our loaded pickup truck that was stored at our daughter’s house, changing contact information with various entities, setting up postal delivery, etc.
Yesterday I finished a personal study through Ezekiel. As we are in the middle of transitioning to a new-to-us house, city, and state, the final phrase caught my attention: “…and the name of that city from that day shall be ‘The LORD is there’” (Eze. 48:35b). The Hebrew words commonly translated “the LORD is there” are “Yahweh Shammah”. Shammah can be translated “there”, “everywhere”, and other similar generalized location designators.
Under the Old Testament covenant, Israel was the nation/people through whom God had chosen to communicate to the world. His temple in Jerusalem was the dedicated place of worship and sacrifices for the Israelites. Throughout the Old Testament there were other places that altars were set up, some for sacrifices and others as simple memorials related to specific events at those places. Other than occasional pre-incarnate visitations and direct spiritual inspiration to certain individuals, the perception of access to God’s actual presence was limited to Jerusalem.
Since Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and the subsequent pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, God has been accessible worldwide to all who seek Him. Sacrifice is no longer needed because Jesus did all that was necessary for our salvation on the cross. As His children, we carry the spiritual mark of God’s presence, His Holy Spirit in us.
In our move to a new place, that does not change. We are the house of God and, although we have changed our residence, we continue to carry the Holy Spirit within us wherever we go. We pray that our new home will be known as a place of Yahweh Shammah, “the LORD is there”, by virtue of our hope and peace in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the resultant presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
