Can you imagine being in Heaven, and walking down the street of that Celestial City? And you see a figure in the distance. As you draw closer you see that it is a man with a sign. Perhaps he does not appear very clean; and his clothes have seen better days. The homemade sign he holds reveals these words: Homeless, Hungry, will work for food, God bless.
Of all the things we might commonly list as not being in Heaven: sickness, death, etc., I’ve never heard anyone mention this one! And certainly Heaven will never know of even one homeless soul. A homeless soul bearing a sign, and that, within the Gates of Pearl?
Ludicrous! But, the thought might be worth pursuing!
Home.
Let’s start at the beginning; the first “home” on record. What was it like? Who built it?
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he putthe man whom he had formed.” “And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it” Gen. 2:8.15.
“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and it became four heads” Gen. 2:9,10.
There is yet another “home” that bears a striking resemblance; another “Eden” of sorts, being in the realm of Eternity.
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” Rev. 22:1,2.
Did you notice their similarities? Let’s compare a few.
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“a river went out of Eden” |
“a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” |
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"the tree of life also in the midst of the garden” |
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life.” |
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“every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also” |
“the tree of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits” |
It might well be said that Adam’s home was “heaven on earth!” He paid no property taxes (but then, neither was he the builder [creator] of his habitation.) His home was maintained by its owner - and very well, we might add! The Lord was his Sufficiency then: He alone is our Sufficiency now! Who would have thought that this man would ever enter the state of being utterly bankrupt? That he would lose such a home. But we need not ask how it happened. We know full well why and how he became bankrupt, how he became Homeless.
Homeless
“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man” Gen. 3:23,2a.
My dear friend, Adam became the first homeless man! Fitting it might have been if Adam had carried a sign: Homeless. Hungry. Will work for food! And work he shall.
Hungry
“And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” Gen. 3:17.
This is the only occasion that I know of where anyone was ever made hungry from eating!
Will Work For Food.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” Gen. 3:19.
For 42 years now, I have gone through the constant ritual of getting out of bed and getting ready to go to my job, my place of employment. The farmer arises early, for he knows of the many chores that must be done. And we work until we get old, hoping for a retirement and social security. Why do we do this? It is by Divine appointment. It is because we are the sons of Adam; and having the “wages” of sin as our due.
“As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. . .Rom. 3:10-12. “Gone out of the way? Unprofitable? Does this not well speak of the homeless ones? Are we not to be included also in that group?
“Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” Rom. 5:12.
Let there be, no not a hint of misunderstanding. Man was made homeless by sin. Do we not see daily, those who have been rendered homeless; many who stand on street corners bearing signs to that effect? But dear reader, they were made homeless long before they were found in that state. They were made homeless because they are sinners, the sons of Adam. But consider this: man need not be poorly in his appearance, nor bear a sign to be homeless. No indeed. That man who wears an expensive suit and tie, who may carry a briefcase instead of a sign; who drives an expensive automobile – apart from saving grace he is just as homeless as the homeless one on the street. He too is made homeless because he is guilty of sin and a descendant of Adam. (How fitting, a descendant of Adam) for man has fallen and ceases not to descend into greater depths of iniquity. May God help us to look beyond the veneer, the appearance of success and accomplishment. All who are outside of Christ are in desperate need of help; of a Savior. They are poor and naked; they are homeless and hungry. and there is but One who can meet their need.
The Homeless Son.
The one of whom we speak is traditionally called the prodigal son; prodigal meaning wastefully or recklessly extravagant. And we agree. But after his wealth was spent, after it was gone, including his fair-weather friends, he no longer qualified as prodigal or recklessly extravagant. No, he became hungry;he would work for food.
“And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would fain [gladly, willingly] have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him” Luke 15:14-16. His own testimony: “I perish with hunger.” Well might he have born a sign, Homeless, Hungry, Will work for food, for he truly portrays the part. For a more detailed picture read our article, Looking Again at the Prodigal.
Hope for the Homeless
Because of their unbelief the children of Israel would not enter into Canaan, their promised land, the place of rest. And almost they would have attempted the return to the bondage of Egypt--but no. They would wander in the wilderness for 40 years. For 40 years are they made homeless. Homeless wanderers are they. . .
“Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness” Neh. 9:19.
“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness. . .And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” Deut. 8:2,3.
Homeless and hungry wanderers in the desert? Yes they were. But by his “manifold mercies” the Lord “led them” and he “fed them”- in spite of their murmuring and unbelief.
We have just looked at an Old Testament picture as related by the prophets. We now are going to move to the New Testament and what I want us to see at this point is the way that they are linked.
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. . .” Heb. 1:1,2. Take a moment if need be, to let the comparison sink in. In the O.T. we were given the manifold mercies of God, who led and fed the multitude, the children of Israel. Now let’s focus on the Lord Jesus. Is His heart and His purpose truly in union with his Father?
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” Matt. 9:36. In other words they were homeless and hungry; they were wanderers in the wilderness.
“In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude because they have been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” Mark 8:1-4.
This is interesting. Here we find identified a “multitude.” In the O.T. account we found the children of Israel, a “multitude.” Jesus said, “for divers of them came from far.” Israel likewise “came from far;” from the land of Egypt. The children of Israel followed God, being witnesses of many miracles. This other multitude followed Jesus; they too having witnessed His miracles. By the testimony of the disciples the multitude was “here in this wilderness;” again just as the “Children” were in the wilderness. Was Israel faint with hungry? Yes, for He said, “He. . .suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna.” Was the multitude “faint with hunger?” Then do we not find our Lord “feeding them?” Did they know how he was able to take the loaves and fishes and feed them? Neither could the children of Israel know how God fed them with manna: “and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know.” Finally, we find the ultimate purpose of the O.T. wilderness experience: “that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” Should we be surprised at this point that the message of the Lord Jesus should exactly parallel that of the O.T.? “I AM that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I AM the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” John 6:48-51.
So here we have it--the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Revealed and in total agreement, being found in Old and New Testament, and Divinely linked together as one. In both pictures we found a multitude, homeless, hungry, and needing a Shepherd/Savior.
But we have one other thing to address, and it almost invariably appears at the bottom of the homeless one’s sign.
God bless.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them” Gen. l:27,28a.
God bless. And he most assuredly has - and will. The blessing of God toward the homeless ones is far beyond any expectation we could have had. Who would have thought that there dwelt in Heaven a God of such an abundance of Love, Mercy and Grace! And the manifestation of it is exceedingly beyond our understanding or comprehension!
Jesus, the "Homeless" One.
“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” Phil. 2:7,8.
“And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” Matt. 8:20, Luke 9:58.
Even from his birth we have that all-familiar verse, “there was no room for them in the inn” Luke 2:7.
“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not” John l:10,11.
Jesus Christ was truly the “homeless” One. He became homeless for me. He became homeless for you.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” Rev. 3:20. When Jesus comes in, the hungry are fed, our hearts become home; an abiding place for Him who became homeless in our stead.
But not only was He the Homeless One, He was forsaken in the darkest hour, there as He suffered the anguish and death of the cross.
“He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. . .he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. . .the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. . .for the transgression of my people was he stricken” Isa. 53:3,4,5,6b,8b.
It is we who were the transgressors; we were justly due the righteous judgment of a Holy God. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;” II Cor. 5:21a. When Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” it was in our stead. It is we who were destined to be eternallyforsaken. Our Lord, on the cross was the portrayal of the unrighteous. He received the fury of God upon sin; he was forsaken in our place, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” II Cor. 5:21b.
A Home for the Homeless.
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing. . .” John 6:37,39. No cast outs? No. And no homeless ones either!
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” John 14:2,3.
If Christ has prepared for us a place, then it must be reckoned as equally true that he is working in our lives, every moment of every day, to prepare us for the place!
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