What’s New in the New?

As the New Year beckons, we make new resolutions, hope for new things, and aim for a new level of self-actualisation in a new cycle of twelve months. But what’s new in this new orbital cycle around the sun?

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, 14
That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? Already it has existed for ages which were before us… I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

While there is nothing new to what man aspires to do under the sun, there is always something new to what God is doing under heaven in preparation for the coming of His Son on earth.

Matthew 24:37-39
For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Indeed, there is nothing new to “eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage” around a ‘golden calf’; there is nothing new to following the impulses of the heart and desires of the eyes while beholding the providence of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; there is nothing new to self-transcendence in the ‘Babel’ of human development. All is vanity and striving after wind.

Yet, on the other hand, there is something new in the progressive unfolding of God’s eternal plan from heaven; there is something new in the rising glory of the continuing work that God has predestined the elect from the foundation of the world; there is something new in the hastening of God’s prophetic word towards fulfilment in God’s appointed time; there is something new for the ‘Noahs’ who separate themselves from the worldly culture of “eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage” to finish the will of God for their generation.

Genesis 6:22
Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

In the last days, like the days of Noah, we are either ark-builders under heaven or pleasure-seekers under the sun; we are either building something of eternal value on earth as it is in heaven or striving after vanities under the sun in the prime of our lives.

Matthew 16:17-18
And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

The ark is a type of the church – the temple of Christ’s body and consummating administrator of Christ’s kingdom – that Jesus Christ is building through His elect in the last days. Eschatologically and prophetically, there is a new work concerning the ark which God has commanded ark-builders to build amidst the pleasure-seekers in 2019.

In this new year,

• let us see a clear theological vision of all that God is, all that God has, and all that God wills for His creation from eternity to eternity;
• let us understand the progressive workmanship which God has appointed for this season from the foundation of the world;
• let us study the heavenly blueprints of the church and kingdom that God has designed and carried out in Christ;
• let us recalibrate our lives to walk in a manner worthy of our calling in the Spirit;
• let us muster every passion and intensity of our being to build as Jesus builds on earth;

or else we will find ourselves striving after wind for another year under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 12:1, 6-7, 13-14
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”… Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it… The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

As we close out 2018 and begin 2019, we can choose what’s new in the new: Will you be an ark-builder or pleasure-seeker?

May God grant to you fresh grace of His Spirit to do His will and to work for His good pleasure in this new year, so that you may enter into a place of deeper depths and higher heights in Him, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Shalom.

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