Pure in Heart

[Most Happy] are the pure in heart, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 5:8

The happy is in the promise, and when you believe it, the emotion comes as a byproduct.  The beatitudes, then, are the man of perfect faith.  He’s happy all the time, but most happy in these situations, including persecution, because He knows it is when he doesn’t have any more of His own that he truly possess all of God’s.

Jesus said of Nathanael that he was a man with no guile.  Upon hearing a word of knowledge, that Jesus had seen him under the fig tree, Nathanael believed.  Jesus replied,

Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

John 1:50-51, portion

Nathanael was told he would see angels in Jesus’ ministry.  Compare this to the Jesus’ words to Nicodemus a couple chapters later.

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

John 3:12

Nicodemus did not have the same purity of heart.  He struggled to believe the basic things Jesus was telling him.  One man with no guile saw God, Jesus, for who He really was.  Because of his guilelessness, his lack of deceit, he was to see angels.  For the other, burdened and concerned by many things, struggled to believe even the basic things that Christ told him.

Many other stories retell the account of those who have seen the Lord.

Again he said, Therefore hear the word of the LORD; I saw the LORD sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left.

2 Chronicles 18:18

In the kingdom of Israel, a prophet by the name of Micaiah saw the Lord.  He had been locked in a prison cell because he had kept his heart pure, and refused to worship baal like other prophets who were prophesying to the king.  Yet, when he told the truth, after begin summoned from prison by the king, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah slapped him in the face, in fitful jealousy, and mocked him.

God also visited Abraham and Moses, and even the 70 leaders of Israel all saw the Lord seated on His throne in the book of Exodus shortly before Moses went up by himself.

They saw God in His Kingdom, for a king sits on a throne.

God has always had a throne, and alone is King.

The Kingdom is not new to Christ, is not new to the Millennium, nor will it ever change.  Though earth be dissolved by fire, the Kingdom is Forever.