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Under the fig tree
After a lengthy tour rich with details of God’s new temple, Ezekiel watches his guide measuring the external temple dimensions. The section ends with the image of a wall and God’s purpose for this temple: “to separate the holy areas from the common” (Ezekiel 42:20).
Holiness is key for God’s glory to return and fill this temple in the vision (Eze 43:2-5). After all, a lack of holiness caused God’s glory to depart from the temple. To His people, God instructs, “No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name.” (Eze 43:7)
We, too, have the great honour of receiving the Holy Spirit today and becoming God’s temple (1 Cor 3:16-17). But this is more than just accommodation logistics.
Being God’s temple has much to do with beating death and receiving everlasting life through holiness.
When God resurrected the dry bones of Israel into an exceedingly great army, being the Spirit’s temple was part of it. God declared to them, “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live” (Eze 37:10, 14).
As God’s temple, we are called to live out holiness:
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor 3:19-20)
But we are not alone, for we live when we overcome our sinful nature with the Spirit’s help (Rom 8:13).
Having the answer to history’s perennial question of achieving immortality is a wondrous thing. So is witnessing God’s glory fill the temple. Thunderstruck, Ezekiel falls on his face.
Isn’t it incredible that the glorious God chooses to make you His temple and home (Jn 14:23)? We need to be renewed in our sensitivity to God’s awesomeness.
So shatter the shell of numbness cementing over your heart. Brush away the sediments of sin and the dust of doubt.
Renew your actions through this glorious truth: God chooses to make you His temple. Let His glory be shown to the world through you.