Ezekiel 43:1-12  Then he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east.  ² And there, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east; the sound was like the sound of mighty waters; and the earth shone with his glory.  ³ The vision I saw was like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like the vision that I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face.  ⁴ As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east,  ⁵ the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.  ⁶ While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me out of the temple.  ⁷ He said to me: Mortal, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will reside among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their whoring, and by the corpses of their kings at their death.  ⁸ When they placed their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they were defiling my holy name by their abominations that they committed; therefore I have consumed them in my anger.  ⁹ Now let them put away their idolatry and the corpses of their kings far from me, and I will reside among them forever.  ¹⁰ As for you, mortal, describe the temple to the house of Israel, and let them measure the pattern; and let them be ashamed of their iniquities.  ¹¹ When they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the plan of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, and its whole form-- all its ordinances and its entire plan and all its laws; and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe and follow the entire plan and all its ordinances.  ¹² This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. This is the law of the temple.

What good is a church without God’s divine presence dwelling there?  What good was the temple built in Jerusalem if God did not dwell there with the people?  The above lesson shows the divine presence of God coming back to the temple and dwelling within.  Like the sound of mighty waters, God’s divine presence comes rushing in from the east and enters the temple. He makes clear the instructions about the temple as well:  “this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will reside among the people of Israel forever.”  To me, that prophecy sounds a little like our NT lesson from yesterday. 

But the question about God dwelling within the temple goes much farther than a building in Jerusalem.  If we are created in the image of God, then we too are temples, built by God to serve God and to give God a place to abide and dwell.  What a wonderful image we then have of God coming as the sound of mighty waters, and the glory of the Lord filling us always as he did the temple.  Furthermore, because God lives inside this temple, it and all the surround it is holy.  In other words, we are holy, made holy by the presence of God who dwells within us and guides us on our journey.  The Spirit brings us into the presence of God, who desires to dwell among his people.  May everything we do be for the glory of God, so that God’s glory may indeed shine through all the earth, being a beacon to those who need him most.

In our prayers this week:  Robert (Room 803 in the Tower), Wendi, Ann, and Catherine

God’s Peace,