Have you ever tried reading through the Bible in a year? While some books and chapters are easy to breeze through, there are parts that can make your eyes glaze over a little.
For me, Ezekiel 40 is one of those chapters. The building instructions for the temple aren’t a super interesting read. It’s easy to feel more like you’re standing in a home improvement store than reading the inspired Word of God. But God has been showing me He has something for us to learn here, too.
In Ezekiel 40 and 41, the people of Judah are twenty-five years into their Babylonian exile. It’s then that God gives Ezekiel a description of a temple restored where His presence would dwell. And in Ezekiel 41:4, God makes a statement that I’m sure not even Ezekiel fully understood at the time. He said,
“This is the most holy place” (Ezekiel 41:4).
What they didn’t know in the middle of their exile was the incredible gift to come for God’s people. The gift wasn’t just their restoration. It was the coming of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
No longer would they have to come to a building to present a sacrifice and be set right with God. God would become human. And through His sacrifice, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit—God dwelling inside of us (John 1:14). In the New Testament, Jesus Christ speaks of a temple that is not a physical place but His body (John 2:21). He has become our Temple and High Priest.
But first, His people had to wait.They had to fully experience exile as they waited for the promise.
Not sure about you, but this is something I can relate to, especially during this Lenten season. None of us like waiting, but the waiting time and reflecting are often when God shows us His grace!
We may experience painful, frustrating waiting times while we wait on God to rebuild what was lost. But often, He has something so much better planned than what we once had. Something different than what we’ve ever seen or experienced before because that’s just how God works.
Have you ever had to wait a long time to see the fulfillment of one of God’s promises found in Scripture? The waiting is hard. And in the middle, in that awkward space, it can be hard to imagine anything being better than what you had before. But even in the waiting, before you see the rebuilding, He offers grace upon grace. That means it’s constant, and it doesn’t run out. It’s more than we could ask for or even begin to understand (John 1:16).
As we spend time reflecting, we are reminded that God works in the details at all times, even when we don’t see yet what He is building. Will you trust Him with the details and accept His grace in the middle?
God is always working even when we don’t realize it. I’m so thankful for His grace to carry me through.
Found a YouTube rendering of the temple! That helped me while reading today!
In this passage, I feel like what I really took away was that God has a plan. A really specific plan. No detail is left out, and nothing is forgotten. We can trust Him completely.
Dear Lord,
Please forgive me for my sins of distrust and unbelief. Help me to grow in faith and nurture my trust in You. I love You so much and I want to live my life in the way You plan it out for me. Thank You for Your grace. Amen.
More than meets the eye, with Yahweh, Lord of lords, King of kings, the one true God of Israel. We are the newly built temple through Christ. He destroyed the physical building along with the need for sacrifices and atonement. He became the sacrifice, He atoned and made a way for us to access God directly. So beautiful. The Old Testament backdrops Christ and the prophecies surrounding Him is mind blowing. Ezekiel is not the kind of book you can rush through and read expecting to understand it. I truly appreciate this SRT community and how well meaning responses are trying to help with the questions of others. If anyone wants to dig deeper, I recommend listening to Dr. Michael Heiser’s series on Ezekiel in The Naked Bible podcast channel. His approach to the Bible opened my eyes to many things, and especially now with Ezekiel. Dr. Heiser is an Old Testament biblical scholar with an authoritative tone, yet he lets scripture interpret scripture. Check it out if you are curious. His book The Unseen Realm really brings the supernatural stuff to light where I believe it has been lost due to our desire to understand and comprehend things that cannot be comprehended fully. I pray over the spoken and unspoken prayers, and hope the truth and peace in Christ covers and comforts your hearts today.
I love the ‘grace upon grace’. It is a continual flowing of undeserved grace – so encouraging.
I very much appreciated the HRT devotional for today, it helped me with today’s scripture.
I am looking out my window on this April 1st, and it is snowing. This is not an April Fools joke (except maybe by God). :) Then, I think about all the exact measurements for the temple. The uniformity and plan. That everything God does has a purpose, and the purpose is for good. So, as I trudge through the literally snow-covered grass this morning, I thank you Lord for how He purposely plans and orchestrates all things. I thank Him, and am amazed that this body that He gave and breathed life into, is the temple for the Holy Spirit. And, it makes sense, a little bit more, why it is so important to lay down ourselves and “be-like” our God in attitude, action, and deed. Which then, because I know myself, humbles me even more with the fact that God chose me. Perfect, Holy, Righteous, Almighty, God and King chose me to be His temple, intimately, personally, in Jesus. He has a plan, purpose, call…and it is good because He is good.
This weekend my sister is visiting my mom and I will be spending time with them also. She has not been “home” in almost a decade. We have had a couple talks about Jesus. I pray for God’s purpose, plan, and words.
I completely relate to “eyes glazing over” concerning the detail. Thank you Jesus for your attention to detail!
I will trust You Lord. In Jesus name, Amen