Psalm 107:33-43, 108; Ezek. 43:1-12; Heb. 9:1-14; Luke 11:14-23
The heading for this reading is the Glory of the Lord fills the temple and it is an important reading for us. It is an amazing sight to imagine the “coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.” These are images familiar to us from the book of the Revelation, our expectations concerning the new Jerusalem and here Ezekiel sees it first. What he hears the Lord say to him is important to understand. The Lord will abide with His people but He will have the place of pre-eminence and He will have no hero worship alongside Him. His people have become too familiar, failed to recognize the great divide between God and man and failed to respect His holiness. We are His children but there remains an inapproachability of holiness that we need to always keep in mind. Too often we lose sight of the magnificence of God and focus too much on His immanence. We should never completely lose the fear of the Lord. As the beavers say of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, “Of course He isn’t safe, but He’s good.”
Jesus’ power was indeed frightening. No one had ever seen anything like Him and in their fear they made false judgments about Him. Because none of them could cast out demons as Jesus did they determined that His power must be from another source, satan himself. When Jesus uses the phrase, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons” He is referring to Exodus 8.19. The third plague has come upon Egypt, the plague of gnats, creation out of the dust of Egypt and the court magicians are unable to produce them as God has done through Moses. They tell Pharaoh that this was the finger of God that had produced the gnats. Indeed, the magicians had made a right judgment, unlike the people here in this passage and those words would have resounded with all those who heard Jesus say it. They are seeing God at work through Jesus and have attributed the work to the enemy. A decision point is reached, they must choose what they believe.
The writer sees the temple and its design as serving a function prior to the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus that is no longer appropriate. The design of the temple maintained an understanding of God’s holiness and His inapproachability before the people at all times. They could enter the courts of the temple but there stood the altar that reminded them that they were in covenant and the constantly burning fire at the altar reminded them of the continual need to make sacrifice for sins because they had failed to fulfill the requirements of the covenant. They could pass no further yet the priests who had been consecrated and who had done all that was necessary for their own purity could enter the holy place to deal with the bread there and the lampstands but even they could not pass into the holy of holies. Once a year the high priest could enter that place after elaborate and careful preparation according to God’s commands and then with blood of sacrifice in a basin to throw on the ark of the covenant to make atonement for their transgressions against the covenant contained in the ark so that the judgment of God did not break out against the people beginning here with the high priest. It was a tense moment as the people waited for the high priest to re-emerge, would God destroy Him in the encounter? Jesus’ return from the dead says to us that His sacrifice was found acceptable to God and His coming back as high priest tells us the same thing, our sins are forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus but this forgiveness is certain and eternal as we continue to rely on Him. Hallelujah!
A new creation comes to life and grows
As Christ’s new body takes on flesh and blood
The universe restored and whole will sing
Alleluia!
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