A Bed, A Table, A Chair and A Lamp

Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If not, I would have told you. I am going to away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. – John 14:1-3

This is a famously misunderstood verse from the KJV “in My Father’s house are many mansions”. Though it has spawned countless references in hymns and gospel songs, the correct concept is not of some English manor or a home in Beverly Hills. Rather Jesus is talking about a resting place of travelers. It is related to the idea of ‘abiding’ or ‘dwelling’ so prominent in John’s Gospel.

Also, the meaning is not predominantly about death or heaven. Becoming a child of God, a son of the Father gives us admittance to the Father’s “house” – e.g., the house of David, meaning someone in the family.

When I am done with this world, or when God is done with me in this world, I will leave this physical body behind. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul compares the body to a tent, subject to destruction. He reassures us that should it be destroyed we need not fear or worry as we have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” He is expanding the metaphor of the tent or tabernacle – recalling the move of the Ark of the Covenant from a tent to a temple.

Not only is there no reason for my heart to be troubled, it is imperative that I not allow the things that happen in this world to trouble me. Reading through the Proverbs, I see that diligence, integrity, and prudence are commended, but not unending toil and struggle. “The Lord’s blessing enriches, and struggle adds nothing to it” (Proverbs 10:22). To fret and fear, to be troubled in heart are indications that I do not fully trust God. “Believe in God,” Jesus says, “Believe also in Me.” Knowing Jesus, I can believe and enter into a place of rest and peace.

It is good, I think, to be reminded that we are strangers in a strange land.

This world is not my home,
I’m just a’passin’ through.
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue.

We are in this world but not of it.

My mistake is often to put that rest and reward ahead – in the sweet by-and-by. Jesus, though, promised it in the present. Sure, heaven will be a place where the “wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest”, but it is not the traveler’s rest of which the Lord spoke in John 14.

One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to eat some food. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. Then she said to her husband, "I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God, so let's make a little room upstairs and put a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp there for him. Whenever he comes, he can stay there." 2 Kings 4:8-10

It's not a vast mansion, just a place to stop and rest, to be refreshed. It is a place where I am welcomed and loved. I find it a refuge of contentment and security along the way.