1 Corinthians 6:19

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

The Holy Spirit makes His home in me!  That means he hangs out here, relaxes here…  Well, I’m not sure if the Holy Spirit actually hangs out, but if I am the temple of the Holy Spirit that means He’s close to me.  This is His home.  It also means that I have the responsibility to keep it habitable for Him.  Throw out the junk and keep it clean!  Here’s an interesting article on what it means for the Holy Spirit to make His temple inside of us.  It’s really good (except for the replacement theology bit about half-way down).

Leviticus 16:21

Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send [it] away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.

This is an interesting verse.  When Aaron lays his hands on the live goat (aka. the scapegoat) the Hebrew text says he cast the punishment for the sins of the children of Israel on it.  It wasn’t just the sin that was transferred, it was the guilt and punishment for those sins.  The goat was then sent into the wilderness (where it was probably eaten by lions or other animals in short order).  The symbolism is that their sins were removed, and they never saw them again.  This is what Jesus did for us on the cross, too.  Our guilt and our punishment for our sins were placed on Him (our scapegoat).  He was killed in the wilderness of our world and our sins were completely removed from the eyes of God.

I once read somewhere that the Israelites would place a scarlet thread outside or inside the temple and that after the scapegoat was removed it would miraculously turn from red to white.  However, once Jesus died, the miracle no longer occurred.  Jesus removed the need to offer continual sacrifices.

I think God has a remarkable imagination and an amazing way of using symbols to help us understand what He does in our lives.  Sometimes this makes it a little tricky, but maybe that makes the search more satisfying.

Zecharaiah 6:12-13

Tell him that the LORD Almighty says: Here is the man called the Branch. He will branch out where he is and build the Temple of the LORD.  He will build the LORD’s Temple, and he will receive royal honor and will rule as king from his throne. He will also serve as priest from his throne, [fn] and there will be perfect harmony between the two.

Here is a prophecy of Jesus.  However the he that is being referred to is Jeshua, son of Zephaniah.  Jeshua sounds an awful lot like Jesus, huh?  Interesting.  Anyway, here Jesus is referred to as the Branch (notice the capital letter – it’s a name).  It’s metaphorical as the man will branch out and rebuild the Temple (physically or spiritually?).  This man will also be a king and a priest at the same time – Malshizedek (or however you spell his name) – and there won’t be any conflict there.  Sadly, that’s the limit of my prophetical knowledge… but it’s interesting that the high priest’s son has such a similar name to Jesus and that he was given a crown to go along with this prophecy.  Metaphors and symbols…  interesting stuff.

Haggai 2:18-19

“On this eighteenth day of December–the day when the foundation of the LORD’s Temple was laid–carefully consider this:  I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn, before you have harvested your grain and before the grapevine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have produced their crops. From this day onward I will bless you.”

The Israelites laid the foundation for the new Temple and that same day God gave them a promise to bless them!  God didn’t wait until the Temple was finished, nor did He wait until it was partially done.  All that had been done was the foundation… but isn’t that the most important and most difficult part?

When you build a building it always seems that the foundation takes the longest.  The digging and preparing and all that seems to take forever.  Then they have to pour the concrete for the foundation to make it strong and firm so the house doesn’t fall over.  But once that foundation is done, the rest seems to go much quicker.    Once that foundation is laid, there’s a commitment to finish.

Maybe it’s the same with us.  Building the foundation for growth is probably the hardest because it requires us to go through testing and difficult situations so that we soften up enough for God to work in us.  We have to learn it’s not about us and that we can’t do it all alone and that we aren’t the center of the universe.  But if we’ve committed to getting through that really painful part of the process, we show that really do want to grow.

So, God doesn’t wait until we’re finished.  He doesn’t wait until we’re perfect and all that growth is done.  He doesn’t wait until the walls are up or until we’re making it all look pretty.  The base foundation has been laid, the commitment is there, and God blesses us in the beginning.  That’s pretty cool, I think.  It’s a little encouragement to go on.

Haggai 1:9

You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the LORD Almighty, while you are all busy building your own fine houses.

I read this and immediately thought about my life and finances.  We hoped for rich harvests, there were promises of great things to come, but they were poor and nothing came to pass.  What we were able to bring home flew right out again in children’s medical bills, car repairs and diapers (sooooo many diapers).  It seemed that we would never have enough to do more than just scrape by (thank goodness for the help and love of family, and for the grace and faithfulness of God’s provision).  This same thing happened with Israel.  Why?  According to this verse, it’s because God’s house lies in ruins.

A loooong time ago when this was written, God’s house was literally in ruins.  It had been destroyed by invaders.  The Israelites who had started to rebuild had rebuilt their homes, but not the Temple.  Today, most of us don’t have a physical temple building in ruins laying around our homes and neighborhoods.  But the principle still applies.  God’s home is our hearts.  Have we been so busy trying to build our homes, businesses, and families that we’ve neglected to care for God’s home?  Do we spend time with Him?  Do we talk with Him?  Do we allow Him to work in us?  Do we do good for others and love them?

I know that for a long time, I was so busy with life that I didn’t have time to spend with God.  It wasn’t that I never thought of Him or completely ignored Him, but finding some time to read God’s Word and pray in chunks of time was nearly impossible with two small children!   I neglected to build that relationship with God – I neglected to build His temple in me.  Maybe that’s part of why we’ve struggled so much these last few years.  It may not be all of it.  There’s probably a lot of good lessons in there, too, I’m sure.  But it could very well be a part of the problem.  There’s a reason this chunk of text made it into our version of the Bible…

So, nothing earth shattering, but lots of questions about this portion of Ezekiel…  Anyone have any answers?

Ezekiel 44:19b

They must leave them in the sacred rooms and put on other clothes so they do not harm the people by transmitting holiness to them through their clothes.

I have to admit, this is pretty  strange to me.  First, I didn’t know holiness could be transmitted through clothes.  Second, I didn’t know it could be harmful.  But, I think it’s like Moses after he received the ten commandments.  His face shone with the holiness of God and the people were frightened.  His face transmitted the holiness of God.  That can be an overwhelming thing, and if the people were not prepared it could be deadly, maybe…  Remember how the priests would die if they went into the holy place without offering a sin sacrifice and being ritually clean?  The ordinary people of Israel weren’t clean.  They didn’t have the salvation through Jesus that we have today… so to be in the presence of such utter and true holiness could have been deadly.  Even the glory shining from a person who had been in God’s presence was too much.  Moses had to cover his face because he was so shiny.  Similarly, the priests had to leave their clothes behind because they would be too much to behold.  I wonder if they shone when they came out of the presence of God the way Moses did?  If their clothes transmitted holiness, did their faces and hands transmit it, too?  And ultimately, it leaves me with the question:  do I transmit holiness after I spend time in the presence of God?  I am blessed with His Words and His presence all the time (sometimes it’s more physical than others).  Do I transmit holiness?

Ezekiel 43:12

And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness!

Ezekiel has another vision.  In this one he is watching the Temple being measured.  My thoughts… this thing is huge!  Some of the walls are 8 feet thick!!!  Crazy!  Anyhow, God enters the Temple (sounding like roaring, rushing waters) and speaks with him about this coming Temple.  But the law of the Temple is absolute holiness!

For humanity, on our own, holiness is a pipe-dream.  We can’t be holy because we are imperfect…  However, there’s hope!  Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection gives us the ability to be holy.  No, not on our own or on the merit of what we try to do (imperfect beings can’t achieve perfection since our very nature is flawed), but through the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus.  Being washed in His blood we become like Him.  Not God, certainly, but in His image.  So through Jesus we can at least attempt holiness.  He does, after all, say “be holy as I am holy” (although that definition of holy may not be the traditional meaning – you can read my other post on that one).  So, there is hope!  By the blood of the perfect Lamb we are made clean and holy… and therefore we can come before the Lord of Hosts in His absolutely holy Temple worshiping Him and bringing Him glory!