July 29, 2023 - Ezekiel 40-44

Ezekiel’s temple visions, which begin, “In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city. In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south” (40:1-2). And what was that structure? It was the temple! And there was a man who showed him around. So much detail about the layout and the contents. We must be careful, though, not to miss the import of what is shown. The glory of the Lord had departed from the old temple, now to be returning, and the man said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever” (43:7). And there in that place atonement would be made for his people’s sins. The writer of Hebrews clarifies for us: “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. . . . Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Hebrews 13:10-12). Not through the temple do we come. Not by way of a stone altar do we come. Only through Jesus!

Would you be free from the burden of sin?

There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;

Would you o’er evil a victory win?

There's wonderful pow’r in the blood.

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r

In the blood of the Lamb;

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r

In the precious blood of the Lamb. --Lewis E. Jones (1899)