Does God call us to be “square”? What does the Bible have to say about being “foursquare”?

<p>Does God call us to be “square”? What does the Bible have to say about being “foursquare”?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Ouachita Hills College

Scott Burgess

Are You Square?


Okay, so here we have it. Are you square? So let me just toss out a question to you right here. And here it is. What does it mean when people square accounts?

I heard a response but I couldn't make it out. What does it mean to square accounts? I heard you go, get out of debt. Is that what you said? Right.

Make sure that everything's balanced the way that it ought to be. You're not owing somebody anything. It's your current. Okay. What does it mean if someone eats a square meal?

Yeah, it's balanced, right? It doesn't necessarily mean there are 4 parts to it, it just means that everything is balanced. You're not having 90% of 1 thing and just a little bit of another. Since we're in a school setting, what does it mean when hopefully a good algebra student completes the square? Not so sure on that 1, okay.

Is it a good thing to do that? If you have a quadratic equation and it looks a little bit icky, you complete the square and suddenly it becomes trivial to solve it. You should learn that. It's a good thing. So now, let me give you 1 more question.

What does it mean if a person is square? You said they're rounded? Well, probably not rounded because they're square, right? I know, what do you mean? If somebody were to come up to you and tell you you're square, what would you think?

You'd say it's a compliment? Okay. Who here would say it's a compliment? Who here would say it's maybe not a compliment? The not compliment has it.

Well let's make sure we've settled this. So we're going to go to the source of all wisdom. We're going to go to urban dictionary. Okay. Because I want to be sure on this.

So You know, you got to go to the good sources, right? Okay. So according to Urban Dictionary, we know they're going to have it right. They say, they recognize it's a slang term. So understood as slang, it's a person who is regarded as dull, rigidly conventional, and out of touch with current trends.

Okay, so if somebody for whatever reason were to say that you're square, they would have something along these lines of mind. So, if this were true, would that be a compliment or not? No, okay, not a compliment. Funny thing though, language does have a way of changing over time. It used to be that if somebody were described as square, it was more in harmony with those other 3 questions.

It meant that you were forthright, upright, honest. Something's changed. So it's gone from good to, you know, not cool. It's not with it, right? So I thought, well, rather than relying on the urban dictionary, maybe we got a better source we can go to.

What would that be? Okay, Webster, no. Right. No, the Bible. What does the Bible tell us about square of all things?

Ever thought of studying, I don't know, a little bit of geometry in the Bible? It talks about these things. So let's just take a look at a few things here and see what we can call from that and then maybe come to a better, a biblical understanding of square. Oh, by the way, yes, You can probably figure out an expression for this, right? You've heard of people trying to put a square peg in a round hole, right?

It doesn't work. And it kind of goes along with this understanding of someone being rather, you know, they're just not with it. They don't conform. They're not easy to work with. Or another picture like this.

Everyone's got their little cubby hole. They're working with the group and then there's just 1 difficult person that's just, you know, out of the place there. So anyways, That's the idea. But now, let's take a look here. Oh yeah, I forgot I had this too.

Okay, so yeah, a square person doesn't conform to accepted norms. That could or could not be good. It depends on the circumstance. And the implication is that yeah, those kind of people are just difficult. So they call you square, they're not complimenting you.

But now for the Bible here, we're good Bible students here. What is that a picture of? No, not the Ark of the Covenant. Look again. Okay.

No, no, no, not the Ark of the covenant. No, no. This is the altar of... Okay, sacrifice, burnt offering, that's right. Okay, now why do I have that up there?

Well, it probably has something to do with square. According to Exodus 27, it says that this was to be made, and it tells us, it's kind of a large object here, that it's going to be 5 cubits long, somewhere in the neighborhood of eight-ish feet, And it's also going to be that broad. Okay, so if the laying thing was the breadth, it is square. Okay, it's square. The altar shall be 4 square.

Okay. Now that's just 1 item. But it is interesting to note that when you first walk into the sanctuary, the first thing you would see would be the altar, and it does have a square footprint. It's not as tall as it is the other 2 dimensions, but those 2 dimensions are square. Now, let's see if we have a little better success with this.

What is that a picture of there? Yeah, that's the breastplate on the high priest's costume, right? By the way, too, just a little note for you, for whatever it's worth, We call it a breastplate because that's just sort of the accepted term. When I heard that, when I think of a plate, I think of something fairly rigid. If you check into modern translations, they actually capture it.

If you've just studied the Bible, it's made out of fabric. It's not a plate. So modern translations kind of are willing to break out of the mold and say it's a breastpiece. That's actually correct. But that's not our goal for tonight.

The point is it had those 12 gemstones in it, and it also had the Urim and the Thummim in it, but the Bible gives us a description of this breast piece. It says that, giving the directions to Moses there, you were to make this breastplate or breast piece of judgment. 4 square shall it be when folded double. A span, which is about this length. A span is its length and a span its breadth.

It's 4 square. Okay. Now maybe thinking, okay, so we got 2 square objects, so what? Well let's just wander a little bit further, but not too far. Let's see if we see a trend here.

Okay, what's this? Okay, Yeah, we got that. Okay, that was good. We got that 1. It's the altar of incense.

Okay. By the way, where do you find the altar of incense? Okay, or well, okay. Yeah, I was just going to say the sanctuary, but yes, okay. In the holy place, that's correct.

And guess what? Oh dear, I thought we'd be quicker than that tonight. Guess what? Yeah, yeah, it's square, that's right. According to Exodus chapter 30 right there, it says that a cubit shall be its length.

Now you understand a cubit is not big. It's a little over a foot and a half, so yeah, about this big. And the breadth is also going to be a cubit. 4 square it shall be. Okay.

Bible, you said it's in the holy place, right? But the Bible also tells us that it belongs to the most holy place. That may help you to put the pieces together, but we'll come back to that in just a second. All right, what do we have a picture of here on the screen? Yeah, it's it it's a little dark, I understand.

This is a picture of the high priest ministering at the Ark. Now no, the Ark is not 4 square. However, there is something that is 4 square. The Most Holy place itself. The Bible tells you in 1 Kings 6, when it gives the directions for Solomon's temple, it calls it there the oracle, the place of speaking.

It's the most holy place and it's 20 cubits long, so around 30 feet, a little bit more, and 30 cubits wide. So though it doesn't say it's 4 square, it's pretty obvious it's 4 square. Okay, so we've got 4 things square so far. We've got the altar of burnt offering. We have the breast piece.

We have the altar of incense, and we have the most holy place. Good Washington Hills Bible students, what is common to those 4 things? Well, okay, yeah, square. Okay, something else besides the square. What do these square things have in common besides their shape?

Okay, they're all holy. They're all part of the sanctuary. The sanctuary has a lot to do with the square. Not every aspect of it, but many aspects. Now let's think about this.

The altar of burnt offering symbolizes something. It was to point forward to what final truth? Oh I heard somebody say it. Where was it? The crucifixion.

Jesus' death on the cross. His atoning sacrifice was represented by a square object. This thing right here, what did we say this was called? The what? The breast piece.

The breast piece. And it's called the breast piece of judgment is square. Okay? This is worn by the high priest. The judgment, we're in the judgment hour right now.

It's the same as the day of what? Atonement, which takes place in this apartment, the Most holy place, right? Jesus moved out of the holy place, into the most holy place. But when he did, he took the censer with him from, let's go back just a couple of pictures here, from the altar of incense. It belongs, the Bible says, to the most holy place, he's still interceding for us right now.

The altar of burnt offering is where Jesus made the perfect atoning sacrifice. Right now, he's in the second great phase of atonement, the judgment, making atonement for us, making us at 1 with him. This is described as being square. When you square accounts, you settle them, you make it right. When you use a carpenter's square, a carpenter's tee, you kind of need that when you're making a room like this, you think?

Yeah, that, a level, a few other things, right? But it will help you to get things balanced, right? Otherwise, you're going to have a real crooked room and it's going to be bad. Everything that's square, that fits with atonement. God gets everything into alignment in our character, right?

This is a picture right here. I tried to get 1 that would highlight the squareness of the object. What is that supposed to be? It's not 1 of our standard pictures, but I think you can figure it out. Yeah, that's the New Jerusalem, which is described in the Bible, not just as 4 square, but also as a cube.

It says that that city lies 4 square. The length is as large as the breadth. And it's described in Revelation 21, where God, the angel says, I'm gonna show you the bride. I'm gonna show you after the work of atonement is done what she looks like. This is where God's people are going to live.

It's going to rest on a perfectly square foundation. Also if you're just a numbers person, You might be interested to know that the length, the breadth and the height are all equal. 12, 000 a piece. How many edges does a cube have? How many edges?

Not corners. No, not 8. It has 4 on the bottom, right? Where it rests on the ground. It would have 4 on the, shall we say, roof, but it also has 4, if you're drawing it, 4 poles going up, right?

It has 12. What's 12 times 12, 000? The home of 144, 000. Do you want to live in that city? God's got some work for us.

He's got to make a square. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2.5 that you also as lively stones are built of a spiritual house, the temple. Here's some observations about how he puts this together as this temple. From the book Christian Experience and Teachings, notice what it says here. His church is to be a temple built after the divine similitude and the angelic architect, I like that phrasing, has brought his golden measuring rod from heaven that every stone may be hewed and squared by the divine measurement Polished to shine as an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions, the bright clear beams of the sun of righteousness.

So he makes us a temple by squaring us. I don't think that language is accidental. The book Early Writings, should be familiar with that 1. It tells us this, many were neglecting, we might say many are neglecting, the preparation so needful to fit them to stand the day of the Lord and to live in his sight. And then continues the paragraph it says those who refuse to be hewed by the prophets, in other words the scriptures, and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth and who are willing to believe that their condition is far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues and then see that they need it to be hewed and squared for the building, the temple.

Last 1 is this. Great controversy. Just 30 some pages before the book ends. Page 645, it says, before entering the city of God, the Savior bestows upon his followers the emblems of victory and invests them with the insignia of their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up in the form of a hollow square.

No wonder, they've already been squared. And he says, now I'm gonna put you in your positions. You're ready to be like the foundation of the temple. This is a fascinating thing about their king. And he'll be right there in the center, like the center peg or something.

Now, told you to be short. Do you want a spot in the Holy City? Okay. So you want a spot in the Holy City. Are you willing to be squared for his use?

You know, polished after the similitude of a palace, it's really a temple. We know that the squaring process, okay. Are you willing, if that's your choice, are you willing to risk being regarded as what Urban Dictionary told us was dull, rigidly conventional, and out of touch with current trends? Now, are the current trends really good, you think? No, you might not want to focus too much on the news, but just glance for a few minutes and tell me if you think any of it's worth sacrificing for heaven.

I would gladly want to be squared. Maybe we should be a square peg that just doesn't fit in all the round holes where we know we ought to fit in. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you

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Are You Square?

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