Tues.’s Devo - Wordly Priests vs. God’s Priest

Read: Ezekiel 7:1-9:11; Hebrews 5:1-14; Psalm 105:1-15; Proverbs 26:28 Ezekiel saw the disaster coming before it got there. He described to the people what was coming. Their sins were being called into account and they were going to pay for them. Sin had reached its maturity and it was time to judge. No one would escape God’s fury. During the sixth hear of King Jehoiachin’s captivity in Babylon, all the leaders of Jerusalem were in Ezekiel’s house. Ezekiel had a vision of the Lord. He appeared in his glory and reached out and took Ezekiel by the hair. The Lord transported him to Jerusalem to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple and shoed him a great idol near the altar. Then he took him through the wall down a hidden doorway into a room where the walls were covered with engravings of crawling animals and detestable creature. The room was full of idols and 70 leaders standing with incense burners offing them to their idols. Then he took him to the north gate of the Temple where women were crying for their god Tammuz. Next he brought Ezekiel into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s Temple at the entrance of the sanctuary by the bronze altar and there stood 24 men facing east and bowing down worshipping the sun. God wanted to show Ezekiel what Judah was doing in secret that they though He didn’t see. God called his six angels to punish the city. One of the men was dressed in linen carrying a writer’s case. He was instructed to go and mark the foreheads of the men who wept and sighed because of the detestable sins being committed in their city. The other five were to kill everyone who was not marked. They began by killing the 70 elders. In Hebrews, we learn that the high priest was a man chosen to represent people in their worship to God. He is able to have compassion on their humanity because he is also a man and understands their weaknesses and frailty. That is why Jesus had to become a man so he could have empathy for people. He learned obedience from the things he suffered just like we do. He became the perfect High Priest because he suffered without sin. If we obey Him, he becomes the source of our eternal salvation. Lord, thank you for what you did on the earth. Thank you for the suffering you endured to purchase my salvation and to become my High Priest.