God gifted mankind a new and better covenant of grace in Jesus Christ. He knew that apart from Him man could accomplish nothing of eternal value.
Christ humbled Himself to be born as a man and take on the Cross. He had such a love for His creation that the plan of redemption became Him. As a man He could pray to the Father while always retaining His deity. How many of us consider how great is His salvation that He offers as a gift to mankind. In Him He is bringing many sons on to glory.
Ezekiel 44:16 “They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.
God knew that it would be impossible for mankind to understand and know Him by themselves. He sent Jesus, in the form of a man, to show us the way. The sufferings of this present time cannot be compared to the glory that awaits those who trust in Him. The sufferings that we endure God will use for His good and for the good of others.
Jesus redeemed mankind in His suffering and death for us. He is the captain, the author, of our salvation. He will lead us home to His glory.
James 1:22 (ESV) "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."
After Jesus' resurrection, Jewish believers in Christ began to experience something they never could have imagined: They worshipped the risen Messiah, Jesus, alongside gentile believers! Jews had been taught to remain set apart from gentiles (non-Jews). Now they intermingled socially and culturally and had to discern which lifestyle choices honored Christ and which ran contrary to His teaching. First5
I liked this, from Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger, “My mantra this year has been the Hebrew words, Lev Basar, which means ‘a heart of flesh,’ from the biblical verse, ‘I will take from you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, ‘There's nothing as whole as a broken heart.’ In these traditions, you cultivate a broken heart which is very different from depression or sadness. It's the kind of vulnerability, openness, and acute sensitivity to your own suffering and the suffering of others that becomes an opportunity for connection.” Yes indeed, Martin Luther King’s reminder, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” Sabbath Moments
A few years back, three questions came from different people in the span of a month. Question number 1: Had you been a German Christian during World War II, would you have taken a stand against Hitler? Question number 2: Had you lived in the South during the civil rights conflict, would you have taken a stand against racism? And question number 3: When your grandchildren discover you lived during a day in which 1.75 billion people were poor and 1 billion were hungry, how will they judge your response?
I did not mind the first two questions. Those choices were not mine. But the third question has kept me awake at night. We are given an opportunity to make a big difference during a difficult time. We are created by a God to do great works. He invites us to outlive our lives, not just in heaven but here on earth. Max Lucado
Ezekiel 41:21-22
21 The doorposts of the temple were square, as was the front of the sanctuary; their appearance was similar. 22 The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits. Its corners, its length, and its sides were of wood; and he said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord. The New King James Version
The last part of Ezekiel represents a sudden change of tone. With the fall of Jerusalem, God’s terrible judgment had finally come. The weary and disillusioned exiles had lost all hope. But God filled Ezekiel with a new message. Although all immediate evidence pointed to hopelessness and despair, God invited His people to return to Him and to place their confidence in Him. Whatever their temporary setbacks and suffering, God was still in control. His purposes would win out, and His plans were specific. In fact, His plans were so definite they could be measured. Ezekiel received a vision of the dimensions of a new temple to demonstrate that fact. Many efforts have been made to understand the details of Ezekiel’s vision in such a way that the prophecy might be described as fulfilled. However, attempts to do this have failed. Those who eventually returned from exile did not use Ezekiel’s plans to rebuild Jerusalem. It is also difficult to interpret this prophecy as a symbolic description of the church in our age. The most confident statement we can make about the vision and its accompanying instructions is that it is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled. At the same time, we can apply these chapters to the present as examples of God’s planning, precision, and sovereignty. He maintains control of the events of history. When events seem chaotic, God reminds us to rest in His ability to bring order. Ezekiel’s vision of a new temple when the temple in Jerusalem had just been destroyed reassured the exiles: God would create beauty out of ashes. The people in Ezekiel’s day needed that vision of hope, and we still need it today.
To Ezekiel’s eye, this piece of furniture resembled an altar. His angelic guide clarifies that it is a table. It likely represents the table for the bread of the Presence in Exodus 25:23–30. This table has different dimensions from the one in Exodus 25, and it is made of wood instead of wood overlaid with gold. Faithlife Study Bible
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