Holy is the Lord, God Almighty
The earth is filled with His glory
Holy is the Lord, God Almighty
The earth is filled with His glory
The earth is filled with His glory

Yeah, it’s rising up all around
It’s the anthem of the Lord’s renown
It’s rising up all around
It’s the anthem of the Lord’s renown

Together we sing
And everyone sing

Holy is the Lord, God Almighty
The earth is filled with His glory…

(Excerpt from Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio)

This is the anthem I hear in the background of the reading today as the Glory of God ascends and fills The Temple in Ezekiel’s vision of what is to come for Israel.

Ezekiel 10, The Message

The Temple, Filled with the Presence of God

10 When I next looked, oh! Above the dome over the heads of the cherubim-angels was what looked like a throne, sky-blue, like a sapphire!

^2-5 God said to the man dressed in linen, “Enter the place of the wheels under the cherubim-angels. Fill your hands with burning coals from beneath the cherubim and scatter them over the city.”

I watched as he entered. The cherubim were standing on the south side of the Temple when the man entered. A cloud filled the inside courtyard. Then the Glory of God ascended from the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the Temple. The cloud filled the Temple. Court and Temple were both filled with the blazing presence of the Glory of God. And the sound! The wings of the cherubim were audible all the way to the outer court—the sound of the voice was like The Strong God in thunder.

^6-8 When God commanded the man dressed in linen, “Take fire from among the wheels, from between the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel. One of the cherubim reached into the fire, took some coals, and put them in the hands of the man dressed in linen. He took them and went out. Something that looked like a human hand could be seen under the wings of the cherubim.

^9-13 And then I saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub. The wheels radiating were sparkling like diamonds in the sun. All four wheels looked alike, each like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they went in any of the four directions but in a perfectly straight line. Where the cherubim went, the wheels went straight ahead. The cherubim were full of eyes in their backs, hands, and wings. The wheels likewise were full of eyes. I heard the wheels called “wheels within wheels.”

¹⁴ Each of the cherubim had four faces: the first, of an angel; the second, a human; the third, a lion; the fourth, an eagle.

^15-17 Then the cherubim ascended. They were the same living creatures I had seen at the Kebar River. When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved. When the cherubim spread their wings to take off from the ground, the wheels stayed right with them. When the cherubim stopped, the wheels stopped. When the cherubim rose, the wheels rose, because the spirit of the living creatures was also in the wheels.

^18-19 Then the Glory of God left the Temple entrance and hovered over the cherubim. I watched as the cherubim spread their wings and left the ground, the wheels right with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Temple. The Glory of the God of Israel was above them.

^20-22 These were the same living creatures I had seen previously beneath the God of Israel at the Kebar River. I recognized them as cherubim. Each had four faces and four wings. Under their wings were what looked like human hands. Their faces looked exactly like those I had seen at the Kebar River. Each went straight ahead.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

In response to Ezekiel’s concern and prayer, the Lord revealed His glory once again in the same vision he had went he first encountered God’s Glory.  The burning coals were significant.  Not only would the city be visited by famine, pestilence, and sword, but it would be burned by the Babylonian army. This was not a fire of purification, such as Isaiah experienced (Is. 6:5–7), but a fire of condemnation and judgment for their obscene acts of perverted sins.

“One new feature is the fact that the living creatures “were full of eyes all around” just like the wheels, which suggests God’s omniscience. God’s providential working in this world is not aimless or haphazard. Everything is done by the One who ‘works all things according to the counsel of His will’”. (Ephesians 1:11). –Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible

Ezekiel was learning that the most important part of the nation’s life was to magnify the glory of God. The presence of God in the sanctuary was a great privilege for the people of Israel to see and feel the Glory of God, but it was also a great responsibility. The glory of God cannot dwell with the sins of God’s people.  So, the Glory of God left the sanctuary and sin-filled people were judged.

Before Jesus came to earth people were lost without God.  People had little to no relationship with God.  Access to God was broken.  Why?  Simply because of their sins that stood between God and mankind.  God cannot be or dwell where sin is living.  God still loved His created people so He made a way for mankind and this sin problem to be reconciled once and for all the people of the earth.  God wanted to reconnect with us!  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

Jesus, His only Son, God in flesh, came to earth, leaving His glory behind, to dwell with mankind.  He came “not to be served but to serve”.  He came to seek and to save the lost.  Jesus was and is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Jesus pointed the way to God in all that he said and did.  His final mission was to pay for our sins, not in part but the whole, once and for all. Jesus sacrificed his life and stood in our place of judgment for our sins and laid down his life and took our punishment.  Those who believe are redeemed and set free.  Debt paid in full.

WE are God’s Temple

Jesus now lives in all who believe in all that He is, said and did for us.  He forgave all our sins and set us free to love like He loves—without conditions.  Paul describes our bodies as temples in which God’s glory can now dwell as believers, saved by the grace of God through Jesus, His Son.  God no longer desires a building but he desires us!

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.  1 Corinthians 3:16-17

When we repent of sins, our sins are forgiven!  The glory of God, His Holy Spirit, comes to live in us!  Wow!  What a blessed thought!  My sins forgiven—all of them—and the glory of God lives in me!  Holy is the Lord, God Almighty indeed!

Paul goes to emphasize the responsibility we have as believers with whom Christ dwells in His glory within us as His “temple” …

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Upon forgiveness from our sins, God helps us to flee from sin, resist the temptations to sin and avoid allowing the sins of the past to revisit His temple—us!  His Holy Spirit living in us will help us when we ask.  Remember God cannot and will not live where sin resides. If we desire God to live in us, then we need to repent and clean house, the temple—us.

One final thought from Paul, the Apostle of Jesus, who teaches us…

“This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.”  Colossians 1:26-29, Msg

Yes, Paul, we hear you, it is just that simple.  Believe and be saved.  Forever.  Keep the temple clean for God’s Presence. 

Lord,

Create in me a clean heart in which you can enter in and live forever.  Renew my spirit with Your Holy Spirit.  Restore the joy of your salvation in and through me.  May my face reflect the Light of your glory and grace. 

In Jesus Name, Amen

And I’m singing…

Lord prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Pure and holy
Tried and true
And with thanksgiving
I’ll be a living
Sanctuary, oh for You