Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Ezekiel 40-41; John 18:19-40
Before and after reading the portion from Ezekiel 40-41 I did some research to get some background information on these chapters and found a few different authors says this was one of the most difficult potions of scripture in the whole bible to understand. I thought then that what chance do I have of understanding it then? The Matthew Henry Commentary even states that the Jews won't even allow anyone under 30 years of age to attempt to read and understand it (I guess that gives me an excuse to not even try.... kidding).
These verses mainly talk about how Ezekiel is shown by God how the new temple should be built. It is believed this temple will be built after the tribulation.
Regardless how difficult these chapters are to understand, we can be glad that our salvation does not depend on this and that God has made those things involved in salvation plain enough for us to understand. He will one day explain the importance of this portion of scripture to us as well, because everything that God put into the Bible has importance.
In our New Testament reading from John 18 we see how the officials who are questioning Jesus were getting frustrated with Jesus' answers,
(V22) When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. [23] 23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me ?”
Being exposed to the light makes people feel uncomfortable and they will lash out eventually. I've done this myself sometimes when I realize I'm wrong about something but I'm not ready to admit it. We need to be the light of the world, the Bible tells us this, but it may lead to others "attacking" us because it exposes their wrong ways. Light exposes all that's hidden in the dark. We need to remember to live like children of the light, and do this in a humble way.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Ezekiel 42-44; John 19:1-22
2 comments:
I appreciated the thoughts in my Life Application Bible....
This vision of the temple has been interpreted in four main ways:
(1) This is the temple Zerubbabel should have built in 520-515 BC and is the actual blueprint Ezekiel intended. But due to disobedience (43:2-10), it was never followed.
(2) This is a literal temple to be rebuilt during the millennial reign of Christ.
(3) This temple is symbolic of the true worship of God by the Christian church right now.
(4) This temple is symbolic of the future and eternal reign of God when his presence and blessing fill the earth.
Whether the temple is literal or symbolic, it seems clear that this is a vision of God's final perfect kingdom. This gave hope to the people of Ezekiel's time who had just seen their nation and its temple destroyed with no hope of rebuilding it in teh near future. The details given in this vision gave the people even more hope that what Ezekiel aw had come from God and would surely happen in the future.
The belief that we will experience the ultimate splendor of God's kingdom, with Jesus in the midst of it, should impact our lives, our attitudes, our words, our conduct. This is HOPE!
Ezekiel has been a challenging read for me....it was kind of nice to hear I am not alone!
What amazes me through these instructions of building them temple is that God's directions are so precise. Every detail is carefully planned. It reminds me that God has everything planned out for me too.
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