My wonderful wife brought up a contemplative thought this morning after reading our morning devotional for us, a morning and evening habit that I would encourage all of you to undertake. She wondered what language we will all speak in heaven, my response was “The one we all understand.”
It was absolutely no problem for the Lord to modify the brains and speech patterns spoken and understood by everyone at the tower of Babel, it will pose no greater effort to do the same for all of those who will reside in His kingdom. Have you ever given any thought to why all of those individuals at the tower did not just sit down in groups along with a few of the others, and simply started to learn the new languages that were being spoken by those around them, why just give up, find those that you can understand, and then head off in a different direction from the ones that you cannot. Perhaps the Lord also placed an animosity within each of them against the other, we will find out someday.
The body of Christ, as we are called in the Scriptures, will finally all be together one day, finally able to proclaim the glory of God as a whole, entire unit, as it were, and so it would stand to reason that at least in the area of language we will be able to understand quite clearly each other. It will not be a learned trait that will take an extensive amount of time, but that begs the question of the here and now, and must be fit together with 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
We have all been blessed in the first place to even be born, and not only that but saved by His grace, (Eph. 2:8) now we are able to show ourselves approved, and you have a very limited amount of time in this life to do that. If you were to think on it this way, perhaps you will begin to admonish not only yourself but your brothers and sisters in Christ as well, what if you knew that before you entered into the presence of the Lord, before the narrow gate (Matt. 7:14) was opened which granted you access into the kingdom of God, that there was going to be a test, not just a test of your knowledge of the Scriptures in word, but of the deeds that you have performed for the service of the Lord.
Our Lord is not so much concerned with whether or not you know the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve apostles of Christ, or how many men Gideon finally ended up with and how, although that is beneficial knowledge, He is going to ask you to prove the faith that you have, He is going to question you not only on the deeds of your life, but your motives behind them. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matt. 7:22)
Most individuals fear to have to give an answer to some questions, they revert back to their school days when they knew that soon there would be a test, forgetting that all the questions on that paper before them held all the answers, all they needed to do was remember the correct one. Not so on that day, your memory will not be in question, your motives will be. The lost will have almost a thousand years if they die in the time of the tribulation period to ponder their answers, some have already had much longer than that, you will not be so fortunate in that amount of time, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8) That means that in the moment after you depart your earthly temple, you will begin the question and answer period. Now, does that strike fear in your heart, or joy and relief.
You cannot miss this moment, you cannot call in sick, it is inescapable, it is going to happen, if you are a born-again believer, count on it. I have always wondered, those who are going to be ashamed at His coming, those who are indeed His children but have been unprofitable, what are they expecting, grace has already been given to them, by His mercy is the only reason they will be standing where they will be, the same place each and every one of us will be, one at a time, right in front of the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, and He wants answers. I do not believe that “I don’t know” is going to be sufficient, I believe we all will know, and already do.
“Because you were not that important to me;” “Because I cared too much about my own life;” “Because I figured that you would say ‘Oh, that’s all right, don’t worry about it, everything will be okay.’”
No my friends, with no rewards waiting, you have nothing to offer the King as a gift when you enter His presence, a very sad state to be in indeed. With no treasure you have no way to share your joy with those who now all speak the same language, and with no crown, you have nothing to cast at His feet in thanksgiving and praise. I cannot say what purpose these individuals serve either in this life or in the life to come, only God knows, but I do know this, no matter your age, you do not have near the amount of time you think you do to change that reception that is coming. He may profess the name of many before the father that He is ashamed of on that final day, just as they were ashamed of Him.
