Leave by a Different Gate

Ezekiel 46:9b No one is to return through the gate by which they entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate.

This was my last morning of reading the book of Ezekiel, and it has ended with a powerful lesson for me.

This verse is talking about the people who come to the temple in Jerusalem to participate in worship. They were not to leave the temple the same way they came in.

Although here Ezekiel was talking about the Jews coming for their regular worship and doing so in an orderly manner, I see something there for myself as well.

My encounters with God in worship should have me leaving by a different “gate.”   

I need to be different in some way whenever I leave God’s presence.  

If I am always coming and going the same way, if I am no different from my encounter with God in worship, that means I am stale.

If my life does not change after being in God's presence, I have missed the point of worship.

If my view of God, myself and/or the world around me does not change after worship, I have not listened carefully to God's voice.

If I am not more conscious than ever of God's power and authority over my life, I have not heard His message to me.

All through the book of Ezekiel, he, as God's prophet, was reminded that all God does has God's one goal in mind: "That they may know that I am the Lord."

If I do not go away from every encounter with God in worship knowing that He is the Lord of the universe, I will be leaving by the same gate I entered.

If I am leaving out from the “opposite gate,” the implication is “change.”  That is what God wants for me.

 

Am I a Hoarder?

Ezekiel 44:28 This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession..

 I have watched a couple of episodes of the TV program about hoarders, people who cannot dispose of anything.  What they owned, even their trash, is so valuable to them that it ruins their lives, including their relationships with people.

Hoarding is the extreme example of loving things too much, but I think we all have to be careful about this. 

It is easy to love things more than I love God.

The priests were God’s representatives to the children of Israel as well as the people’s representatives to God so theirs was a very important task.  They needed to be able to be fully attentive to their responsibilities.

For this reason, God wanted them unfettered, unhampered, by things that could distract them.   

Possessions have a way of doing that to us.  Possessions and inheritances have a way of taking us over if we are not careful.   

As a follower of Jesus, I am a member of the "holy priesthood." 1 Peter 2:5 says: "You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

This is my reminder that God wants to be my number one “possession” with everything else taking second place.  It is only then that I can honor and serve the Lord in my own life.

I cannot allow myself to be a hoarder in any sense of the word if I want to continue to love God above all else.

 

Vindication

 

Ezekiel 36:23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name … and the nations will know that I am the Lord when I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

I looked up the word “vindicate” in the dictionary because it is not a word we use very often. I am glad I did so because it gave me much more food for thought as I meditated on this verse.   

To vindicate means to clear, as from an accusation. 

God is frequently accused of being an unloving or harsh dictator. 

What is the first thing most people say when something bad happens? "Why did God allow that to happen?" "If God is so loving, then how could He allow such terrible things to happen?" "There can't truly be a hell if God is so good and so loving as you say He is."

God's goal is to clear His name from such accusations by saving people from sin and wickedness.   

He explains this goal in Ezekiel 36:26-27.

✅"I will give you a new heart." 

✅"A new spirit I will put within you."

✅"And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

        God's goal is to transform me, to turn me into a person who reflects His true character to the people around me. Jesus called it being "born again."

✅"And I will put my Spirit within you."

✅"[I will] cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." 

          God's goal is to give me the tools I need to live a transformed life by giving me His Spirit to guide my earthly journey. Jesus promised that to His followers just before He left earth (Acts 1).

By His powerful actions of salvation, His miraculous ways of rescuing people from spiritual and physical danger, God is defending Himself. He is vindicating His holiness.

When I see God at work in my own life or in the lives of those around me, I am seeing God vindicate His great name.  

And when I reach heaven, whether at death or at Jesus’ Second Coming, God will have vindicated His holiness completely, without question, for eternity.  

He has done, is doing, and will continue to do everything He can to vindicate His holiness, to convince people to worship Him and Him alone.