New Direction

This next subject matter runs the risk of attracting spiderwebs and dust to this blog, but I'm willing to take the risk. I have learned that in Christian circles the most action comes from taking prayer requests. A close second, though more dangerous, is to bring up something controversial, like predestination, homosexuality, or speaking in tongues, though it's important to steer away from any solid answers. Third, talk about something obscure like the Nephilim or the mysterious undeaths of Enoch, Elijah, and Moses. That always helps to keep the eyelids from sagging. Why are we so easily bored? Maybe it's because everything seems to gravitate around something we've already heard a billion times. We know that Jesus died for our sins, we're on our way to heaven, we're doing our daily devotions, avoiding sin as much as possible, and now we just want a little support. Since we have to meet every week, it also might be fun to find interesting or controversial tidbits from the Bible to keep us talking, though we're not always sure what good it will do on a practical level. Back to prayer requests. The subject I want to bring up doesn't often come from the pulpit, but to ignore it would be to ignore the very thing that, for me, has shed a great deal of light on the Scriptures and has erased any doubts I have of the existence, character, and work of God. In fact, when the Holy Spirit began to teach me, this is where He started. The concept was presented to me while I was at Bible school back in '98. Every student was required to read through the Old Testament, so I cheerfully read through books like Genesis and Exodus, and dutifully pushed through books like Leviticus and I Chronicles. As I was chewing through the log of mid Ezekiel, I came across a passage that stuck in my brain like a splinter. In chapter 40, the prophet has a vision of an angelic man who takes him through the temple with a measuring rod and proceeds to measure every single item in great detail. Every single item. After several chapters of mind-numbing geometry, the man said something that struck me as odd: "As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the plan. If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws and write it in their sight, so that they may observe its whole design and all its statutes and do them." If they are ashamed of their sin, tell them . . . about a building? Be sure to mention that the width of the entrance gate is ten cubits and the length is thirteen cubits. Also, don’t forget, the porch of the gate is eight cubits and the side pillars are two. How could these numbers do anything for the sin of the Jews? I thought about this for a long time before coming to an interesting conclusion. Before I could understand the meaning of a created object, I had to understand the perspective and intention of the creator. In other words, God designed the temple with more than practical uses in mind. There is also symbolic meaning, and the symbols should be enough to expose our sin and show us how to deal with it. A look at Hebrews 8:4-5 only reinforces this concept: Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law, who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle, for, "See," He says, "that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." Copy and shadow of heavenly things? The pattern of this physical object is important. And as we see in John 2:19, Jesus was staring at this building when he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (speaking of his own body). In a sense, he was the building. The temple is full of symbols of Christ, from the sacrificial system in the outer court; to the bread, incense, and golden candlestick in the inner court; to the red, blue, and purple veil, and the Ark of the Covenant behind it. The temple is the ultimate sin exposing/sin expelling machine. But the building is only a big, complicated advertisement for the TRUE sin exposing/sin expelling machine--the person of Jesus Christ. Interesting how Jesus called the temple his Father's house. Isn't that what his body was? No wonder he threw those money changers out of there. But this was just the beginning of a concept that would unravel so much of my own superstition and bring so much clarity in the years to follow.