Today’s reading: Ezekiel 44:1-46:24
My selection: Ezekiel 46:19-20
19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 20 And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so communicate holiness to the people.”
My reflections: The temple would be rebuilt and God gave Ezekiel a clear vision of how it would be built and how it would be used. There was a time and place for everything. There were designated priests and Levites to handle the work to be done. Care was to be taken, because the people of Israel and Judah had failed to keep God’s law carefully prior to the captivities of Assyria and Babylon.
I have heard people disclaim the importance of an orderly approach to the worship and service of God, indeed, to all of life. For some it seems too regimented. It lacks spontaneity and freedom. Yet worship in Israel was not to be conducted willy nilly according to each person’s own whims. Order according to God’s instructions shows reverence and submission, not coldness and heartlessness. God was clearly not pleased with superficial, perfunctory worship, nor with worship that disregarded His law.
My challenge: We ought not be “frozen chosen” but neither ought we be disorderly in worship. Seek to serve God in private and public worship in spirit, truth, and order (John 4:23; I Corinthians 14:40).
Tomorrow’s reading: Ezekiel 47:1-Daniel 1:21
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