The Blood Of Jesus Christ Brings Atonement With God! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ezekiel 45:18-20,

""This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court. You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple."

As Ezekiel's vision continues he is given instructions that sound much like what Moses was given as he met with the Lord: a design for a sanctuary for the Lord, identification for who is to serve as priests, their garments, instructions on propriety relative to temple worship and instructions for sacrifices and offerings. I note a central theme of both sets of instructions surrounds that which provides atonement: blood. It is blood that makes atonement.

"The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." Leviticus 17:11. And so, as we read of our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ, we find that blood - his blood - was necessary to make a once-for-all atonement for all mankind, "He [Jesus Christ] did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" Hebrews 9:12-14.

The value of this currency of atonement that Jesus brought with him into the Most Holy Place is far beyond any wealth this world has to offer. Peter puts it this way, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Peter 1:18-19"

The "precious blood of Christ" is a theme found throughout all of God's revelation to us, whether through Moses or Ezekiel or in the New Testament. It was and always has been the blood of Jesus Christ that brings atonement!

How wonderful he offered it up for all of us! What love has been expressed by this one sacrificial act!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

The Glory Of The Lord Is Headed Our Way! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ezekiel 44:4,

"Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw the glory of the Lord filling the temple of the Lord, and I fell facedown."

In his vision Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord filling the temple he has been shown. His response is that he fell facedown. I find a similar response from Moses, Peter, James and John. All who have had the opportunity to witness the glory of the Lord have been impacted by it. We are told the Israelites worshipped at the opening of their tents whenever they saw the glory of the Lord at the Tent of Meeting when the Lord would meet with Moses.

Over the past few weeks I have had a recurring thought that the world is desperate for a view of the Lord's glory. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, a huge consequence has been the separation and isolation we have had from our Creator. As we read the account of Adam and Eve prior to their sin we clearly see we were originally designed for a relationship with God where we regularly experienced God's presence.

That presence is a glorious presence. A presence in our sinful and weakened state that is a blinding brilliance in the physical and a breathtaking sense of beauty and awe in a myriad of perfections of qualities in the metaphysical. As I read of the reactions of those who have encountered the Lord's glory in the pages of Scripture like Ezekiel, it must be a presence of such holiness that one is left feeling contrite and humbled; horrified at the contrast of a felt sinful condition in our present state of humanity compared to the moral excellence and pristine purity of our holy God.

My thought of this desperate need the world has of tasting, of seeing the Lord's glory, comes from the acknowledgment that we have a need to experience something much bigger than ourselves. We have a need to encounter that which is real and true, that which "yanks" our thinking straight about who we are and where we stand in God's economy of things. The befuddled thinking of our day, the perverse and warped things folks get involved in, the desperate drive to elbow others out so we can get ours - all must become instantly scorched and scoured in the burning penetration of this unspeakable brilliance we call the glory of the Lord.

Surely this is one of the worst consequences of our fall in the Garden of Eden: we have had our exposure to the wonderful and penetrating glory of the Lord withdrawn from us! What the world needs, what each of us needs is an encounter with the awe-inducing, stop-dead-in-your-tracks brilliance of the glory of the Lord! And, this is exactly what is headed our way! Just like a big freight train that has already left the station down the tracks and headed our way, the glory of the Lord is headed our way… unstoppable, and certain to arrive at exactly the right time! I'm not sure when it is best to "buckle up" for it, but today can't be too soon!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

What We Have In The Lord Is Grand And Magnificent! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ezekiel 43:10-11,

"Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations."

Ezekiel's temple is a mystery. We have no record of it ever being built and there is no evidence it ever has been. The Lord had Moses build the tabernacle to be carried in the wilderness and to the Promised Land. Solomon built a beautiful and magnificent temple on the temple mound which was destroyed by the Babylonians when they took the remainder of Israel into captivity in 586 B.C. Following the Jews release from captivity Zerubbabel built a much more modest temple (so much more modest that we are told the people wept as they viewed this new temple in remembrance of the grand temple built by Solomon). This temple was rebuilt by Herod and the one we read of in the accounts of Jesus' ministry in the gospels. It was later destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. (or something like that).

In Ezekiel 43:18, the Lord says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: These will be the regulations for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood upon the altar when it is built…" And yet, as noted by many, the Lord never commanded anyone to build the altar, let alone the entire temple.

Some feel it will be a temple that will be built during and for the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, in the future from now. This makes for a difficult explanation for me as the animal sacrifices outlined for this temple, the burnt and sin offerings called for in the worship that is to take place make little sense as we read that all these looked forward to, and were replaced by, the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ's own body. Additionally, the priesthood called for in Ezekiel's temple, any human priesthood for temple worship, has been superseded by our great high priest, Jesus Christ who intercedes for us now on our behalf and forever.

So, this temple of Ezekiel is a bit of a mystery to me. One thing that is not a mystery for me is the grand scale of its design. This is one magnificent temple! In these verses the Lord tells Ezekiel to describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. They are to consider its plans and if they feel the appropriate sense of shame for their sins, Ezekiel is to "make known to them the design of the temple-its arrangement, its exits and entrances-its whole design and all its regulations and laws."

What God offers is that which is grand, sweeping and magnificent. The best result we experience when sin has its way with us (or the other way around) is always less than what God offers us. I don't know if that is the intended message of Ezekiel's temple or not, but what strikes me today is just that: in our sin, we have what might be considered small, insignificant and lacking the grandeur and magnificence compared to that which we have in the Lord!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

Jesus Christ Is Our Way To The Father! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ezekiel 42:15-20,

"When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate and measured the area all around: He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits. He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common."

By my calculations this temple area was about 750 feet by 750 feet or so, maybe about 13 acres. What does not escape my attention is that there is a wall around it, just like the temple that Solomon built. The purpose of the surrounding wall is "to separate the holy from the common" – that is, the holy from the unholy.

This separation declares the contrast between sinful man and a holy God. Our God is separated from this cursed and fallen world, from sinful man - all mankind. Access to God is restricted as this wall portrays.

But we read of One who has removed this separation from our heavenly Father. "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:19-22.

Jesus Christ has breached that wall for us! No longer does there have to be a separation between us and our God. As he himself has said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

How wonderful is our Lord Jesus Christ who is our way to the Father!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

The Sacrifice Of Jesus Christ For Us Is Always Before The Father! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Ezekiel 41:22,

"There was a wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits square; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood. The man said to me, 'This is the table that is before the Lord.'"

As I read of this temple, and as we will be reading of the glory of the Lord entering into it in the next chapter, and of the burnt offerings and sin offerings that are prescribed, I am reminded of the ultimate sacrifice that all sacrifices under the old covenant were a foreshadow of.

This table "that is before the Lord" reminds me of some things that exist in front of our God today and for all eternity, that have been wrought for us on our behalf by our Lord Jesus Christ.

"…because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." Hebrews 7:24-28.

Just how wonderful is this?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.