“In The Land of
Fadeless Day”
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s we continue
the series on hymn devotionals, today we want to consider the beautiful song,
“In The Land of Fadeless Day.” This hymn is important because it takes the
minds of faithful Christians into heaven and gives everlasting hope. The words
of this hymn are based on a vision that John saw when an angel carried him away
in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed him a preview of the
great holy city Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10). It was not the
earthly Jerusalem, but the new one descending from God (Revelation 21:2).
Please consider with me three important truths to be learned from this hymn.
The
new city that
John saw was reflecting the glory of God with its light compared to a most
precious stone—like a transparent jasper stone capable of reflecting various
colors; especially red like fire.
The city was clear as crystal. John also saw that the city was fully
secure with its four walls of Jasper with twelve foundations garnished with all
kinds of precious stones, and bearing the names of the apostles written on
them. The city and its street were pure gold, like clear glass. The twelve
gates of the city were twelve individual pearls.
The
angel with John measured the city with a golden reed and found it to be laid
out foursquare. It was a perfect cube with its length, width and height
measuring the same. It is interesting to note that the Most Holy place in the
tabernacle of the Old Testament was also a perfect cube that measured 15 feet
long, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet high (1 Kings 15:20).
Even
though John saw heaven in the form of physical things, the mansions that are
being prepared for the saved are spiritual in nature. Why is this true? Because
those who dwell there will have spiritual bodies. Paul gave the following
description of the kind of body that will be raised from the dead: “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural
body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians
15:44).
John
saw the most precious things that are known to mankind, to describe a place
that is more beautiful and precious than anyone can ever comprehend. To know
the full beauty of this city foursquare, one must experience it!
In
this new and holy Jerusalem that came down out of heaven from God, John was
assured that God would be with His people. That He would remove all tears,
sorrows, pain and death from them (Revelation 21:4). In the physical world,
persecutions and all of these harmful things are present, and we either
experience them in our own lives, or we see others involved. However, in this
beautiful heaven that John saw, none of these will be present. “…”for the
former things have passed away.” All the fears that we experience in this life will
be gone forever.
The
darkness of night that is often used by evil ones to commit their awful sins
will also be gone. In fact, those who are fearful, unbelieving, abominable,
murderers, sexual immoral, and sorcerers will be in the lake of fire and
brimstone! These evil ones who bring so much pain on earth will not be present
in this precious city to inflict any pain! They will spend eternity in
darkness! The apostle Peter described evil ones as
being; “wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Peter 2:17).
This
hymn announces the biblical fact that nights, along with all the darkness of
the world, will be replaced by the light of the Lamb. Light is fully associated
with God. On the very first day of creation, God said, “Let there be light,
and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).
When John introduced Jesus as the Word who existed in the beginning, he said of
Him, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Light is exactly what Jesus brought to
the world! Even though the majority refused His light, it was still made
available to all who would receive it. However, Jesus spoke about the light
being refused as being a problem: “And this is the
condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
In
this vision, John saw this same Lamb who brought light to the earth, as being
the light of heaven (Revelation 21:23).
This hymn announces the good news, “For the Lamb is all the light, and
there is no night there.” Therefore, those who love darkness here on earth
because their deeds are evil will hate the darkness in eternity, because the
darkness there will be outside of heaven and away from the glory of God. Just
think, the glory of God will be seen and enjoyed by the saved that are in
heaven throughout all eternity!
We then can conclude that heaven is—
A place of love, because God is love (1 John 4:8).
A place of light, because Jesus Himself is light (John
8:12).
A place of glory, because God and His Son have glory
(John 1:14).
The
most important question that anyone can ask is this: “In the land of fadeless
day, where will I spent eternity, inside or outside this city that is foursquare? —BBBristow