Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 44 Listen: (5:32)
Read: 2 Peter 2 Listen: (3:52)

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 44:15

15 But the Levitical priests, who are descendants of Zadok and who guarded my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereign Lord.

Reflection: Priests in More Than Just Name

By Erin Newton

From the first pages of Genesis, we have witnessed God fill the realms of creation. He created space and filled it— with Jupiter, the Big Dipper, our sun and moon, and so much more. He made the seas and filled them—with dolphins, beluga whales, sea turtles, and species we have yet to discover. He made the land and filled it—with redwood trees, bluebonnets, sugarcane, and crops to cover every valley or hill.

In Genesis, God joined creation to dwell with humanity in harmony—the first ever temple. But through the ravages of sin, that union and harmony was defiled and destroyed.

Ezekiel is testimony to the de-creation of the Temple. God’s people treated their relationship with him flippantly. It was not a holy place to seek the presence of God; it had become a commonplace hangout where it didn’t matter what you believed or what you did—anyone could enter this sacred space.

And so, God left. “Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple” (Ezek 10.18).

What is creation without its Creator? What is a Temple without its God? What is an altar without divine communion?

But the story was never intended to end there. God returned. “And I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters and the land was radiant with his glory” (Ezek 43.2).

Ezekiel begins to describe the new Temple and its new filling—with renewed purpose, new design, and new inhabitants.

The priesthood was slightly different this time. Much scholarly speculation has explored the differences in this temple compared to the first, far more that we could delve into here. But what we see clearly is God’s focus on those who treated their relationship with him seriously. The Zadok lineage of priests was noted for their obedience when the other priests had gone astray. Being a priest in name was not the same as being faithful.

Because of the reconciliatory work of Christ, we are all the priesthood of God. We have access to him and his spirit dwells within the temple of our own bodies. But this passage should remind us that God desires for us to treat our union with him seriously and faithfully. Are we a priesthood in name only? Or shall we be remembered as faithful when some of the Church was not?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Temples—Gardens of Grace

Believers are Christ’s temple—his garden of grace.

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