As we read of the vision for the Temple in great detail with exact measurements, I can almost hear the voice of Joanna Gaines, the Designer, as she sits down with clients with pictures of what could be and will be for their new home.  The Temple is way more than a “Fixer Upper”!  God wants so much more and will give His best to supply our need to worship WHO is real and the true object of honor and praise.  We are the fixer-uppers who need to renew our minds!

We read and hear “the man” (of God’s vision) explain every nook and cranny, massive hallways, alcoves, rooms on the side along with the Holy of holies with great care.  Can you see it, Ezekiel?  Come and see! This will be a holy, significant place where God comes to man and dwells with all who believe in Him.

Ezekiel 43, The Message

^1-9 The man led me north into the outside courtyard and brought me to the rooms that are in front of the open space and the house facing north. The length of the house on the north was one hundred seventy-five feet, and its width eighty-seven and a half feet. Across the thirty-five feet that separated the inside courtyard from the paved walkway at the edge of the outside courtyard, the rooms rose level by level for three stories. In front of the rooms on the inside was a hallway seventeen and a half feet wide and one hundred seventy-five feet long. Its entrances were from the north. The upper rooms themselves were narrower, their galleries being wider than on the first and second floors of the building. The rooms on the third floor had no pillars like the pillars in the outside courtyard and were smaller than the rooms on the first and second floors. There was an outside wall parallel to the rooms and the outside courtyard. It fronted the rooms for eighty-seven and a half feet. The row of rooms facing the outside courtyard was eighty-seven and a half feet long. The row on the side nearest the Sanctuary was one hundred seventy-five feet long. The first-floor rooms had their entrance from the east, coming in from the outside courtyard.

^10-12 On the south side along the length of the courtyard’s outside wall and fronting on the Temple courtyard were rooms with a walkway in front of them. These were just like the rooms on the north—same exits and dimensions—with the main entrance from the east leading to the hallway and the doors to the rooms the same as those on the north side. The design on the south was a mirror image of that on the north.

^13-14 Then he said to me, “The north and south rooms adjacent to the open area are holy rooms where the priests who come before God eat the holy offerings. There they place the holy offerings—grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. These are set-apart rooms, holy space. After the priests have entered the Sanctuary, they must not return to the outside courtyard and mingle among the people until they change the sacred garments in which they minister and put on their regular clothes.”

^15-16 After he had finished measuring what was inside the Temple area, he took me out the east gate and measured it from the outside. Using his measuring stick, he measured the east side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

¹⁷ He measured the north side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

¹⁸ He measured the south side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

¹⁹ Last of all he went to the west side and measured it: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

²⁰ He measured the wall on all four sides. Each wall was eight hundred seventy-five feet. The walls separated the holy from the ordinary.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God sets apart the holy from the ordinary.  God sees what we do not and cannot imagine until he puts a vision before us.  God see what lies ahead.  God selects the holy and sets them apart to do His work among His people.  Trust God.  He knows what He is doing.  He is God.  We are not.  Worship God alone.

Is there anything keeping you from entering God’s presence in worship? Make a list of any distractions you encounter. Confess any sins that distract you from your fellowship with him.  Then worship God free of those distractions turning your eyes from Him.

God reveals his perfect kingdom. The details of his vision gave the Jews hope for a restored worship and show us the importance of true God-centered worship.

Lord,

Is our worship of you truly God-centered? Are we distracted by budgets, promotions and programs?  Have we become so organized that we are missing the reason we come to worship corporately?  Has it become more about pleasing us and meeting our needs and less than pure and holy worship of You alone?  Are we calling on you to bless our mess? I repent of making it about me.  I worship you.  I worship you. 

Forgive us for we know not what we are doing… 

In Jesus Name, I worship you, for Your glory, Amen