When God Brings Us to See
You were brought here in order that I might show it to you. (Ezekiel 40:2b)
Ez. 40:2, 36:26-36 and 37:11-14; Jer. 29:11-13; Jn. 4:21-24; I Cor. 2:9-10, 3:16-17
What Is God Saying?
Ezekiel was a prophet during the Captivity. His great interest in the restored Temple may be traced to the fact that he was also a priest. He was taken to Babylon eleven years before Jerusalem fell. In the worst of times, he spoke to a depressed people of bright hope for the future if they would take his warning. Bad times had come to Israel and would come to Judah because they had compromised with sin and had ceased to worship the Lord their God, but God had not forsaken them, they had forsaken God. Jerusalem did fall in 586 B.C., but Ezekiel continued to bring hope to the captives in Babylon (Ez. 36:26). The powerful vision of the Valley of Dry Bones revealed God's plan for reuniting the House of Israel (Ez 37: 11). They would be brought back from the despair of desolat10n (37·35). Ezekiel spent time describing his vision of the rebuilt Temple.
The Temple shown to Ezekiel was never built. Yet, ‘The Temple would be God's dwelling place forever’ (Ezek. 43:7). Does this suggest that the true place of God's abode would be in the hearts of His people? John 4:21- 24 lifts us beyond a literal and particular place where God is to be worshipped. Acts 17:24 insists that God does not dwell in temples made with hands. According to Paul, the true place of God's dwelling is in the heart of the believer (I Cor. 3:6-13). There He is worshipped. There He is loved. From that place, He is to be obeyed and honored and served.
How Does This Apply To Us?
The view that God's dwelling place is in the hearts of believers, makes our text glow with even greater meaning. The Holy Spirit, as He did with Ezekiel and the Temple, always brings us to places and shows us things that will bless us and make us a blessing. God brings us to the place where we can have a new and true understanding of His love and see His plan and purpose for our lives. Sometimes He must bring us to the place of understanding through discipline and disappointment. Sometimes it comes through the surrender of ambitions or failure, or even an unwanted change in our plans. However He brings us, it is always to show us wonderful things of eternal value (Jer. 29:11). That is a verse to learn by heart and to take to heart.
Pray With Me
Ezekiel was brought to a place where he might be shown. Lord, forgive me for the times I have failed to recognize Your gracious bringing. Forgive me that I have so often resisted Your bringing me from the place of my imagined contentment to the place of Your higher purpose and clearer vision. I know now that I must be brought before I can be shown. Until I am there, I see the truth in scattered fragments just as one sees, yet does not see, through a fog. Until I am shown, my vision must be limited. Until I am there, I will see many things whose ephemeral worth is less than nothing, but little of Your glory which is more than everything. Let me be content in all Your bringing until my soul is visited with the glory that never departs and my eyes behold the King in His beauty. Divine grace and wisdom, bring me. Holy love and truth, show me. When I reach the end, I will not resent the means.
In His name who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
We should all be more ready to learn what God wants from us than to tell Him what we want from Him. Let the Spirit bring our thoughts in prayer to the place where we earnestly listen to what God wants us to do and anticipate the things He wants us to see. ‘Saviour, like a Shepherd lead us.’ You know where the pastures are green and the waters are still.
