The Fair King and the Far Country
Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.
Isaiah 33:17
The vision of the King is followed by the View of The Land of Far Distances. After the Vision, the Vista. First, there is the Christian life itself opening up in all its limitless outreaches. We need not stand on Jordan’s stormy banks casting a wishful eye to Canaan’s fair and happy land, where our possessions lie. Canaan for the Christian is not heaven beyond but the heavenlies now, and he may follow his Joshua (“Jesus” is the same name) across Jordan and possess his possessions. The life that is hid with Christ in God is boundless in its possibilities, even in its earthly chapter now before the believer gets to glory.
Alas, too many of us are slack to possess the Promised Land. Like the Israelites in Canaan, we settle down in a little portion of it and compromise with what we should conquer. The average Christian needs to see the Far Country of a life of Spiritual victory wherein we reign now as well as after death. Blessed is he who having seen the King sees also what he himself may be now, as well as what he may become hereafter!
It is well to read in Revelation of what lies in the millennium ahead. It is also glorious to see in Ephesians the far country visible from the milestones today.