1 Corinthians 2:9-10
Eye Has Not Seen...
We visited a church where the preacher spoke about heaven and used the Scripture that says “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him”. It may not be incorrect to say this, because we cannot even imagine what heaven will be like and what God has prepared for those of us who love Him. However, the context reveals some exciting truths about redemption and deliverance, rather than about heaven. That passage first appears in Isaiah 64:4 in a context where it explains God’s miraculous deliverance – very possibly referring to when Israel was in captivity in Egypt - they had no idea what God was going to do regarding their deliverance – the Passover, the whole of the Exodus, the Red Sea crossing, the manna, the revealing of the Law, the Tabernacle, etc. No human eye had foreseen, no human ear had heard ahead of time, nor had any man even thought or dreamed of, what God had planned to do for His people Israel. This passage is then cited in 1 Cor. 2:9 in context, not about heaven, but about what God had planned in the way of Jesus being the sacrificial lamb and paying for our sins and the sending of the Holy Spirit, etc. The exciting thing (to me, anyway) is that in the Corinthians passage, after quoting Isaiah, the very next verse (1 Cor. 2:10) says: “But God HAS revealed them to us through His Spirit”.
I guess what we are saying, first of all, is that the passage he used really does not specifically have to do with heaven, but rather with God’s plan of redemption, and, second of all, it WAS unseen (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-12) in the Old Testament, but it is no longer hidden – it has been revealed ! Furthermore, we believe there is a really neat connection between the context in Isaiah 64 and the passage in Ephesians 3:20 but I’ll let you pursue that on your own if you wish to do so.
Eye Has Not Seen...
We visited a church where the preacher spoke about heaven and used the Scripture that says “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him”. It may not be incorrect to say this, because we cannot even imagine what heaven will be like and what God has prepared for those of us who love Him. However, the context reveals some exciting truths about redemption and deliverance, rather than about heaven. That passage first appears in Isaiah 64:4 in a context where it explains God’s miraculous deliverance – very possibly referring to when Israel was in captivity in Egypt - they had no idea what God was going to do regarding their deliverance – the Passover, the whole of the Exodus, the Red Sea crossing, the manna, the revealing of the Law, the Tabernacle, etc. No human eye had foreseen, no human ear had heard ahead of time, nor had any man even thought or dreamed of, what God had planned to do for His people Israel. This passage is then cited in 1 Cor. 2:9 in context, not about heaven, but about what God had planned in the way of Jesus being the sacrificial lamb and paying for our sins and the sending of the Holy Spirit, etc. The exciting thing (to me, anyway) is that in the Corinthians passage, after quoting Isaiah, the very next verse (1 Cor. 2:10) says: “But God HAS revealed them to us through His Spirit”.
I guess what we are saying, first of all, is that the passage he used really does not specifically have to do with heaven, but rather with God’s plan of redemption, and, second of all, it WAS unseen (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-12) in the Old Testament, but it is no longer hidden – it has been revealed ! Furthermore, we believe there is a really neat connection between the context in Isaiah 64 and the passage in Ephesians 3:20 but I’ll let you pursue that on your own if you wish to do so.