Category: Ezekiel

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Fairness and justice, honesty and trustworthiness are the backdrop of heaven. Consider what the prince offered when He came. The Book of Hebrews gives us good guidance of how to understand the fulfilment of this vision. Hebrews 7 & 8 have more.

SJA Notes

* Dear God, please open our hearts to Your word today.

“You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.”

(ephah and bath were units of measurement)

God’s people then as now are called to act justly.

In Deuteronomy chapter 16 we read,

“Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent.”

In Leviticus chapter 19 we read,

“Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.”

God shows no partiality (He is the definition, the prime example, the absolute of an incorruptible nature).

How can we be like God in this?

Paul gives us one helpful mechanic in Philippians chapter 2, where we read,

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”

Other-centeredness is a big important thing! For us an individuals, and outwards in the various groupings we make up (all the way up to nations, where you see a strong correlation between corruption and selfish ambition and vain conceit).

How do we protect ourselves from perverting justice or showing partiality?

Let us look to the interests of others.

* God Above,

Thank You for Your word, that every part of it is worthy of our time, every piece has value for us throughout each day, for all our lives.

Thank You for Jesus, Your word become flesh!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

This portico is the very one that Jesus entered in Jerusalem Below, riding on the donkey’s colt. It is presently walled up. Dwell on verse 2 and what it says! We do right to trust in the Lord!

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, please show us today from Your word how we should behave as Your people.

“… and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD. And I fell on my face.”

See how Ezekiel responds to being in God’s presence.

The idea of falling on our face might be strange to us today.

To be so overcome in the presence of such awe and majesty that the only response is to fall on our faces.

Is this a foreign understanding for us today?

May it be something we wrestle with. Especially as we come together in our Sunday corporate worship, as we are brought into the throne room of our God, the heavenly realities.

Are we humble before our King as we enter His presence?

We should be. And if not now, then it will be an absolute truth for all mankind on that final day (but better by far to be humbled now than then).

May we wrestle with our pride and continually strive to put on humility as our heart-clothing.

* Loving God,

Thank You for doing what we could never do.

Taking the just punishment for our rebellion against You on Yourself, so that we (the rebellious) could obtain grace and mercy, Your favour.

Please humble us each day Lord, that we might be Your people in spirit and in truth.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The Glory returns! We know the joy that the Apostles felt when Jesus rose again! Jesus’ atonement is one cornerstone of the true Temple. Read Hebrews 7:27,28.

SJA Notes

* God Above, thank You for Your word. Please teach us from it today.

“… and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”

Ezekiel had borne witness to the glory of the Lord leaving the temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10).

In today’s passage we see the glory of the Lord coming to rest and filling this new (not made with human hands, instead heavenly reality) temple.

God’s glory is a significant concept.

When the Lord met with Moses on the mountain, it was the _train_ of His glory that Moses saw (Exodus 33).

At the dedication of the temple built by King Solomon, the glory of the LORD filled that earthly-built temple (2 Chronicles 7).

God has GLORY in and of Himself. He manifests the full truth of what glory means, without any human interaction or intervention, such that our humanity cannot be in the presence of this glory and live.

And yet.

This heavenly-reality temple is where God rests His glory.

This Zion where the cornerstone was placed by God (1 Peter 2), where we are living stones being built up as a spiritual house.

This now and not yet deep truth, that God will dwell with us, in us! We the mini-tabernacles of His presence, God making His home in us (John 14).

So while we humanity cannot approach God’s glory and live, God approaches us through Jesus, living in us, His glory come to shine bright through frail clay jars.

This is our God, this is His glory!

* Father God,

Thank You that through Jesus You come and make Your home in us.

Thank You that we are able to dwell with Your glory and not die, but instead in Your steadfast love and faithfulness, we have life … And life to the full!

Amen.