Ezekiel
42 reminds me of a behind the scenes tour of Walt Disney World. We
were able to see the very ordinary things like laundry facilities,
but the most fascinating part was visiting the tunnels that run under
the entire complex. Disney characters walk unseen by the public from
their dressing rooms to their posts. Walt thought it would be
inappropriate for a child to see a Disney princess riding in a golf
cart. All of the magic happens in rooms and corridors separate from
the guests. In today’s chapter Ezekiel is continuing his angelic
behind the scenes tour of the yet to be built temple. Outside the
main building, across the courtyard he describes the rooms used by
the priest. These rooms sound much like the changing rooms we might
see at any store, “In front of
the rooms was an inner passageway”
connecting them. These rooms were stacked 3 high, “the
upper rooms were narrower… than from
the rooms on the lower and middle
floors“. He tells us the
purpose of these rooms, “The
north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests’
rooms, where the priests… will eat the most holy offerings“.
There is a wall separating the holy things from the common things.
He
makes it very clear that these rooms have a second purpose, “Once
the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the
outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they
minister“. He says of the
priestly garments, “these are
holy“. The priests “put
on other clothes before they go near…
the people“.
Holy means, set apart for a specific purpose. These changing rooms
were a reminder that they were putting on something holy, ordained by
God, and set aside for His purpose. Are there walls separating you
from God?
The chapter continues with a tour of the
exterior walls. “When he had
finished measuring… inside…
he led me out by the east gate“.
We are told the exterior wall was a perfect square, “he
measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five
hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide“.
And the chapter closes with another reminder that the wall’s
purpose was “to separate the
holy from the common“.
We can get access to Disney’s tunnels with paid access, but how
can the common become holy? Roman’s 8:3 says, “What
the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,
God did by sending his
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering“.
Friend, we enter the changing room by faith. Are you ready to ask
for God to make you holy and set apart for His purpose? Our access
has been paid, by the blood of the Savior. My changing room was
alone in my apartment on my knees. Now, I know this: “I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Romans 8:39). There is no magic; you just need to ask in faith.
Don’t be Goofy, it is time to leave the common stuff behind and
experience peace with God.