Reading: Devotional

December 29

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The Lord Returns to His Temple

Ezekiel 43:1–12

Jesus told the merchants and money changers: “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

John 2:16–17 (ESV) (see Psalm 69:9)

Ezekiel’s visions culminated in a temple that would surpass what the Babylonians destroyed. This temple would be fully as large as David’s kingdom. Moreover, foreigners would be included so long as they had become part of God’s new community—those circumcised in flesh and heart (Ezek. 44:5–9). The new temple and all who ministered in it had to be holy, free of the contamination that plagued worship in Solomon’s temple and land prior to the exile.

This temple was originally Paradise itself. After that fell apart, God made plans to restore the communion that was there.

·   The first significant advance in that was with the moveable tent of meeting with its different courts and places for sacrifice and furnishings—all in service to God.

·   Next came Solomon’s temple, a permanent structure that improved on what Moses had built. 

·   But all along, God’s presence was greater than a mere building; God wanted his dwelling place to be the whole of Jerusalem—the city of God. And the temple would be more than a city too; it would be a people—Israel, the people of God, living by God’s laws for life, and with the Lord in their midst.

So the zeal for God’s house that consumed the Psalmist, and Jesus after him, was really an intense desire for God’s people to experience the reality of his presence with them. Ezekiel’s vision, too, was of a pure and holy communion between God and his people, a communion in which the glorious God would live forever among a priesthood and a people cleansed from evil. Hence Ezekiel’s conclusion: “And the name of the city from that time on will be: the Lord is there” (Ezek. 48:35). 

December 30

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The Life-giving Presence of God

Ezekiel 47:1–12

Solomon’s prayer at the temple dedication: But will God indeed

dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven can-

not contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

1 Kings 8:27 (ESV)

In Ezekiel’s vision, the return of the Lord would recapture the glory of the paradise God originally created for us. Although the venue had changed from garden to city, the essential thing was the presence of the Lord. It’s the very same essential that Jesus conveyed through his words and deeds. He didn’t want people to get hung up on the symbols of a connection with God only to have the real connection escape them. The temple pointed to the reality of this connection. Jerusalem, also, was a holy city as long as it contributed to the connection with the Father that Jesus had. Even Israel itself was a worthless nation if it did not represent and model the Kingdom of God where there was harmony between God and his creatures.

As Jesus preached, and in harmony with Ezekiel’s vision, when the Lord returns in all his glory to fill his temple it will be for the benefit of those who are truly devoted to him; there will be an inheritance for them all. (Galatians 6:16 calls them the Israel of God.) Ezekiel also saw a vast life-giving river flowing from the temple and transforming the wilderness. (It sounds very much like God’s creation of “new heavens and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17-25) and also the new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21:1.)  

The book of Ezekiel begins with a vision for a people who have lost their land and temple through sin and rebellion. And it ends with a vision of the Lord returning in glory to a new temple in Jerusalem to reside in the midst of his people once again, never to leave them. This is the life that now belongs to those who are in Christ and which will be completely realized when Christ comes again. Until then, we can do nothing more important than heed Ezekiel’s call to be faithful to our Savior and Lord. 

December 31

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The Eternal Presence of the Lord

Micah 4:1–5

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured

possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 7:6 (ESV)

We are in the last days Micah speaks about, although not yet at the point where the Lord reigns unopposed and his people enjoy the fullness of his peace.  But in Christ we have come closer than all of the faithful under the old covenant to that better country for which they longed (see Heb. 11:16). The sacrificial system that God used to postpone our punishment for sin has been done away with once and for all by the sacrifice of our eternal high priest, Jesus Christ. By one sacrifice Jesus removed the curtain that kept us separate from God (see Heb. 10).

So, unlike the faithful Israelites who couldn’t even think of going into the Most Holy Place, you, if you are right with God in Jesus Christ, may live in it. You wear the robe of Christ’s righteousness and bear on your soul the seal of God, which reads: “Holy to the Lord.” Along with the clothing, you see the Bread of the Presence in God’s every provision for you. The Golden Lampstand is the light of Christ in your life and in our world. In fact, you’re even part of the lamp whose light drives away the world’s darkness; what feeds the flame are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And the incense is the prayers of God’s people, arising morning and evening before the throne of God, all of which he uses to accomplish his purposes.

As you live in the presence of God, let it show. As Moses, fresh from meeting God, continued to reflect his glory (Ex. 34:29)—so can you. If you live in God’s presence, it can’t help but show, not for your glory, but for God’s. Finally, remember this sure hope: what you experience on your best days, in your closest walk with God, is just a shadow of what heaven will be. Then “we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” (Mic. 4:5).