Today’s Reading, Ezekiel 23-24
Focal Scripture: Ezekiel 24:21 “Say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the desire of your heart. Also, the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.”
Have you ever had something taken away from you that was important? When you were a child this was a common practice with parents when you misbehaved. If you cared about something deeply they would take it from you to demonstrate that they were in charge. It would be taken from you to show you that your need for that item was more pressing than your obedience. I have done this as punishment with my own son. Not to harm him but to awaken him to the reality that choices have consequences.
In today’s reading we see this same principle applied from the Lord towards his people. He clearly states they he was going to desecrate the temple. He calls it the pride of their power. They loved how it looked and even looking at it daily. They longed for the religion of the temple but not the God whose presence dwells in it daily.
So what does this have to do with us? Just as the Jewish people elevated the temple above God so we can elevate our places of worship the same way. I have seen churches get more upset over painting walls than they ever do over lost people. People even will take ownership of their church and claim that they have the final say in how things will be done.
We need to be careful with that type of attitude. Yes, the church matters and we should love our place of worship. However, it’s doesn’t belong to us and we have no authority over the building or the people. I believe just as the Jewish people elevated the temple so we elevate our places of worship above our Holy God. I urge you today to love where you worship but don’t make it more important than God.
To test yourself ask yourself this question. If everything changed at your church would you be upset? If your place of worship was taken away would it cause you more harm than caring about people? As believers we can’t care more about a building than we do people in our communities. If we do we are missing the gospel. The enemy would love nothing more than for people to get upset over the carpet instead of loving on those we live with in our cities.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Ezekiel 25-27
