Today’s Scripture Reading (April 11, 2017) Ezekiel 21
Jews
(and admittedly Christians) from all over the world are drawn to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The Wall is believed to be the outer wall of the western perimeter section
of the partition that separated the court area of the Temple in Jerusalem from
the rest of the city. More more precisely, it is the Western Wall of the Second
Temple which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. (Nothing remains of the
destroyed Temple of Solomon that Ezekiel knew in his day.) The wall stands as a
testimony of the power of Holy places in our lives. The temple itself is
no longer standing, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy relics are lost in
antiquity, and yet this one wall still exercises its strange attraction over
literally millions of people on our planet. And for every one of these people, the wall provides a very tangible
connection with God.
Maybe
for the Christian, the wall that we worship at is a lot closer. A few weeks ago
a gentleman walked into the church that I pastor looking for a connection with
God. He asked if he could just take some time to pray in the sanctuary. After I
had said he could, he walked into the sanctuary
and then returned to my office looking a little confused. Why didn’t our church
have a cross? I smiled and said that it did, but it just wasn’t where he
expected it to be. In our sanctuary, the cross is in the middle of a side wall
over the baptistery. My new friend returned to the sanctuary and located the cross.
A few minutes later when I went to check on him, I found him kneeling at the side of the church as close to the
cross as he could get. For him, the cross was his Western Wall – his connection
with God.
What
sometimes surprises people is that we are often more attracted to these Holy
Places than God would seem to be. God’s requirement has always been for us to live
in obedience to him. And sacrifice and prayers at a particular Holy Place
always take second place to that absolute obedience. Therefore God instructs
Ezekiel to set his face against the city of Jerusalem, and more specifically
against the sanctuary – against the Temple of God. It seems that as far as God
is concerned if there is no obedience,
there is no need for a Holy Place.
As
God sets his face against the Temple, he seals the fate of the Holy Place.
Without God, the Temple could not stand. Some experts think that it was not
just the destruction of Solomon’s Temple at the hands of the Babylonian Empire
that God is speaking of, but also of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70
C.E. at the hands of the Romans – the very
destruction that left only the Western Wall standing. So we continue to travel
to the wall; to pray, to wail, and to ask God what his plans are for our
future. And as we come to the wall God reminds us that we don’t need a Holy
place – we never have. We just need to decide that we will be obedient to him.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 22
Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my Sister,
Cheri-Lynn.
No comments:
Post a Comment