Study – Grow – Know

An Eternal Unfulfilled Longing

June 12, 2024 at 12:42 PM Leave a comment

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We all know what it’s like to have serious longings, cravings or desire for something. It’s different for everyone based on their genetic disposition and the way they were brought up. For me, as long as I can remember, I’ve had serious sugar cravings. To this day, those cravings can overtake me. Sometimes, while I’m eating some sweet treat, I will think, “Ug, this is not that good,” but I’ll continue eating it anyway. Go figure.

So for a moment, take your strongest desire, craving or longing and try to imagine what life would be like if you were never able to satisfy that longing, even for a little while. No matter what you did, it always had your attention, but no known way of satisfying it. It’s fair to say that longing might tend to grow over time and become a sole focus. Because you can do nothing that will satisfy it, you are left always thinking of it. Your mind and body want it satisfied. But there is no relief since you cannot fill that longing.

Most of us don’t have this problem because we always find a way to satisfy our cravings. I’m simply providing a what-if scenario where a person experiences this massive craving for something, but can never fulfill or satisfy that craving. How horrible would that be? I’m pretty certain readers would agree that it would be akin to mental torture.

In Mark 9, there are a number of things happening. Jesus is transfigured on the mount. He then heals a boy who had a mute spirit. Following this, Jesus again predicts His own upcoming death and resurrection. He then, in response to John’s statement to Him, tells him that sectarianism should be avoided at all costs. Starting in Mark 9:42, Jesus speaks of offenses and about those people who cause one of His “little ones” to stumble because of those offenses. Jesus then goes onto say that it would be far better for those people who cause others to stumble if they would tie a millstone around their necks and be tossed into the sea. Strong words of condemnation.

42 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 44 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ (Mark 9:42-44 NKJV)

Interesting words and you might be asking what this has to do with longings. We’ll get there. In the above text, Jesus talks about the absolute danger of sinning in general and what happens to people who do so as a practice. This is exactly what John talks about in his letters (1 John 3:5–6; 5:18). What this means is that authentic Christians should experience a decline in the practice of sinning in this life over time, though we will never be completely sinless here.

In Mark 9, Jesus makes several good points and I like the way He uses the reference to “…Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched” from Isaiah 66:24.

They will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.

That text of Mark 9 and Isaiah 66:24 refers to several things. First, it references hell (from the Greek word, gehenna, which connects to the Hebrew for a place where fire burns continually). Jesus uses the Valley of Hinnom for hell, because of the constant burning of trash, including human bodies that were not properly buried elsewhere. The fires were kept continually burning so that everything became purified through the flames.

Now the reference to the “worm” (grub or maggot), not dying means that when people die, worms start to eat the dead physical body. Those worms, though they are eating a dead person, do not die themselves and will eat until there is nothing left to eat, then move on.

In essence, this is what hell (or the Lake of Fire), is truly like. There is constant fire along creating unimaginable pain because of it, which never ends. Jesus was describing the concept of hell to His listeners so that they could begin to comprehend what was in store for all people who rejected the truth He presented.

Growing up and knowing about the concept of hell (as most of us are), I could only shake my head and hope that more people’s eyes would be open to allow them to see the true grace and love of God Almighty, repent and receive the only salvation available to all people. As we know, many refuse His grace.

In the extra-biblical Book of Enoch, there are some interesting sections. We’ve already prefaced remarks about the book in other articles with the fact that it is not authoritatively Scripture and never claims to be. While first, second and third century church fathers read it, they also never saw it as God-breathed. I find it fascinating actually because there’s so much there that resembles many portions of Scripture.

One particular passage in Enoch labeled simply Third Parable, #63 highlights what will happen to those who have resisted God’s grace in this life and actually spent their lives working against Him, denying His truth.

In those days will the mighty kings who possess the earth implore Him to grant them a little respite from His angels of punishment to whom they were delivered, that they might fall down and worship before the Lord of Spirits, and confess their sins before Him. And they will bless and glorify the Lord of Spirits, and say, “Blessed is the Lord of Spirits and the Lord of kings, and the Lord of the mighty and the Lord of the rulers, and the Lord of glory and the Lord of wisdom, and every secret is clear: Your power from generation to generation, and Your glory forever. Deep are all Your innumerable secrets, and Your righteousness is beyond reckoning. Now we know that we should glorify and bless the Lord of kings, who rules over all kings.”[1]

In looking at the above quote, that particular section of Enoch is about the Second Coming of Jesus and the judgment that will follow His return. Now in Matthew 25:31-46, we learn of the upcoming Sheep and Goats Judgment that will take place right after Jesus returns to this earth. The text tells us that all nations will be gathered before Him (v32). He will separate everyone into two groups, not by culture, gender or ethnicity but by a person’s ideology and belief system by which they lived their lives. One group on His right (sheep), and one on His left (goats). Jesus will tell the goats why they are going to everlasting punishment and to the righteous why they are going into eternal life.

Please note in the quoted text above from Enoch that it describes the way the “mighty kings” react to their just punishment. They acknowledge that they deserve what they get. But they implore Jesus to grant them a little respite from punishment because they desperately want to “…fall down and worship before the Lord of Spirits, and confess their sins before Him” and have that worship received by God. Ultimately, they want to “bless and glorify” God, in spite of the fact that they never did this when they were alive on earth because they clearly see the error of their ways. They are essentially begging for an opportunity to do what they now know they should have done in life.

Consider this please. God made all of Creation including all human beings to reflect His intended purposes. He made all things for His glory, which means in part that our lives should always glorify Him in thought, word and deed. This is how we were made and this is how Adam and Eve lived until their fall. It’s how Lucifer/Satan lived until his fall as well.

Sin blinds us to the main purpose of our life here and that blindness is only removed when we receive Jesus. Instead of living lives that bring glory to God continually (as authentic Christians will do in eternity with Him), sin makes us believe lies, causing us to think that God is there for us, to make our lives happy. The problem is that He most certainly wants us to be fulfilled according to His will, but that only comes when we do things His way starting with receiving His salvation. Since He created us (and all Creation), to glorify Him and we often don’t, we are ruined. We don’t glorify Him because we are blinded to the fact that this was our supreme purpose in being created in the first place.

But look at the mighty kings. After they pass from this life to eternity and after they are judged, they all of a sudden realize and are fully impacted with the knowledge that they lived a life of lies. Instead of giving God glory in everything, they amassed power and lorded it over their subjects, living a Self-glorifying life. It reminds me of globalists today. Everything they do is borne of Self and self-aggrandizement. That is their reward, but how terrible it will be for them if they slip into eternity never acknowledging in this life that God reigns, that His purposes are supreme and that our purpose is to glorify God here and now.

What I’m trying to say is that once a person leaves this life without the salvation that only Jesus provides, the blinders upon entering eternity are removed and truth is seen as it was never seen before. The next paragraph in Enoch provides more information for us.

They will say, “Who will give us rest to glorify, give thanks, and confess our faith before His glory? Now we long for a little rest but cannot find it. We are driven away and cannot obtain it, and light has vanished before us, and darkness is our dwelling-place forever. For we have not believed before Him nor glorified the name of the Lord of Spirits, but our hope was in the sceptre of our kingdom and glory. And in the day of our suffering and tribulation He did not save us; and we find no respite for confession that our Lord is true in all His works, judgments, and justice and His judgments have no respect of persons. We will disappear before His face on account of our works, and all our sins are reckoned up in righteousness.“[2]

Tragically, those people will know and acknowledge the truth, realizing that they embraced abject lies in this life. Because of it, they will spend eternity with a terribly strong longing that they can never fulfill. Right after they leave this life (or are judged at the Sheep and the Goats judgment), they will perfectly understand all they need to know about God in Christ and His purposes. Because of this newly discovered understanding, they will have such a longing to worship God with all of their being, but unfortunately will never be given the chance. They will be thoroughly rebuffed in that longing, leaving them to experience the absolute worst craving they’ve ever had that will stay with them and quite possibly grow throughout all eternity.

Now they will say unto themselves, “Our souls are full of unrighteous gain, but it does not prevent us from going into the painful flames of hell.” After that their faces will be filled with darkness and shame before that Son of Man, and they will be driven from His presence, and the sword will abide before His face in their midst.[3; emphasis added]

This reminds me of when Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden and an angel with a sword positioned himself there to keep them from going back in and eating of the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24). But did you notice? Not only do they know that burning in hell is their just punishment, but the added fact that they will always see God in judgment (“the sword will abide before His face in their midst“), will make hell truly unbearable. The idea that they will be “driven from His presence” simply means that they will be fully rebuffed by Him. No one can ever truly leave God’s presence.

Folks, is there anything more tragic? People were created to glorify God and yet we know that multitudes have not done so. Not even Christians do it perfectly in this life.

When people arrive in hell, it is very reasonable to believe, besides the physical pain, they will experience the most dreadful, unfulfilled emotional longing they could ever have and it will last for all of eternity. This craving will constantly drive them to want to worship God, but they either cannot or their worship will simply never be accepted. When they look toward God all they will see is a constant reminder of His wrath and judgment on them – “the sword.” Do you shutter at that? We should.

I don’t know about you, but my heart is very heavy. I had never considered this aspect of hell before. I always thought it was about physical pain from the darkness and fires. While it is that absolutely, it seems the worst part of hell is within each person who completely realizes the true reason why God created them and that realization rises to the surface; to worship and adore Him without end. Yet, they will never have the opportunity to have their worship received by God. This terrible condition will remain throughout all eternity and will possibly grow in intensity.

I really cannot bear that. I used to think that people who do not receive Christ in this life will only have themselves to blame. While that’s true, the part I’ve missed is that the tremendous longing they will experience in hell to worship God will always go unrequited. How absolutely tragic is that?

In seeing this, it has made me even more willing and desirous of witnessing to the lost, by my words and my life. I know I won’t do it perfectly, but I pray God will be blessed and glorified because of it. The thought that people in hell will live with the tremendous yet unfulfilled agonizing longing to do what they were created to do but are not allowed, is tremendously frightening to me.

Do we love people? Do we want them saved and come to know the Lord we serve and worship? We are not responsible for whether a person receives or rejects salvation. We are responsible for telling them so that they can choose.

Brothers and sisters, let’s be about fulfilling the Great Commission especially in these difficult and trying last days. May the Lord bless you mightily as you endeavor to serve Him in this way.

[1] Ancient Book of Enoch, by Ken Johnson Thd, p 78

[2] Ibid, p 78-79

[3] Ibid, p 79

Entry filed under: Atheism and religion, christianity, Demonic, eternity, Global Elite, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, second coming.