In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, “Let there be light” and there was light.
He gave borders for water that cause rivers to appear and that the sea whose struggling waves will never overflow the dry ground. He clothed the ground with fresh green grass and different kinds of plants whose flowers seemed to be competing with their beautiful colors and fragrance. He made trees of different kinds, bearing variety of fruits that provide nutrients for those who will eat. He made different kinds of animals, big and small, flying and creeping, jumping and swimming, all for the benefit of the man He will create. He cause mountains and hills to rise; forms of land that declare the greatness of their Creator. He made the sun to give heat and light in day, and moon and stars to shine at night. He provides rain to water every trees and plants, and air to sustain the life of everyone. And then on the sixth-day, He created man according to His image, the crown of His creation. This is how the Lord God formed and beautified man’s habitation; a planet perfect in beauty and order; without single stain of anything that is unpleasant in the sight of God… until sin and death entered.
After the entrance of sin, Adam and Eve, with all of their sons and descendants suffered its consequences; misery, pain, sickness and death. Before his own eyes, Adam witnessed all the terrible results of his own transgression. Grass and leaves withered, beautiful flowers faded, animals and beasts became no more subjected to him, and his physical stature and endurance and moral and intellectual power were all deteriorated, and the world was filled with misery of every type. And upon the earth, God declared, “Curse is the ground for thy sake.” The earth, with all the things in its surface, suffered with that curse. Thus, as plants, animals, and man die, the earth will fade also. Isaiah said,
“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate…
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.” (Isaiah 24:5-6, 19-20)
The earth is the habitation of life, but it is a temporal life, a life that bound to die. All things in it are not eternal. They will all pass away. The withering of grass, the drying of rivers, the death of both animals and man, all these suggesting that the earth is a temporary habitation. Paul stated, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:18) This was the reason why Christ taught His disciples to love not their own lives more than the cause of God neither seek friendship with the world for it is enmity against God, but rather seek those things that are eternal; things that will never fade; things that are prepared by God for those who loved Him. Yes, there is a place, an earth, prepared by God; New Heavens and a New Earth unstained by wickedness or death but a place where righteousness and beauty dwell. “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Rev. 21:5; Isa. 65:17) There shall be no hunger, neither thirst anymore; neither the light of the sun, nor any heat, and God shall wipe away all tears in the eyes of the saved.
This earth is not worthy to be inherited by the saints. The everlasting life that they will receive upon the return of Christ is not worthy to enjoy in a place consumed by curse and misery. Things that are eternal are always for eternal things, and this is what the saints should always look for unlike the others whose hope rest only in this earth. By leaning with temporal things, and by hoping for the things that are seen, hopes for heaven and eternity seemed to be an illusion for them. But this is not what Christ had taught. The apostle said, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col. 3:1-2)
Try to look upon the great patriarchs of old such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who, in spite of the rich land that God promised to them, they choose to become sojourners in that land because they look not to an earthly inheritance but that which is in heaven.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God…
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” (Heb. 11:8-10, 13-16)
THE WATCHMAN'S CRY 