Fri.’s Devo - The Temple of God

Read: Ezekiel 39:1-40:27; James 2:18-3:18; Psalm 118:1-18; Proverbs 28:2 I listened to the prophet Robin Bullock today and he said that Obama was Gog personified. That is interesting in the fact that Ezekiel was told to tell Gog that He would knock the bow from his left hand and the arrows from his right hand and leave him helpless. Him and his allies would all die on the moutons and be fed to the vultures and wild animals. All his allies who live safely on the coasts would all burn with God’s fire. The people in the towns will turn their weapons into fuel that will last for 7 years. They will plunder the ones who planned to plunder them. It will take 7 months to bury all the people and cleanse the land. After that, crews would be sent out to find corpses and mark them for the Valley of Gog’s Hordes. God will call the birds and wild animals to come and drink the blood of the evil ones. This is the picture of the Feast of Leviathan where the evil spirits will drink the blood of the ones who drank the blood of innocent people. Israel will accept the responsibility of their own sins and repent. They will come home to live in peace. Chapter 40-48 is the description of the new Temple of God. Ezekiel was taken in a vision to this new Temple and told to have spiritual eyes, ears and heart that he might understand what he was seeing, hearing and doing. He was given a measuring tool and told to measure everything in the Temple. This chapter has to do with the two outer courtyards. This is what I found out in my commentary: The description involves things which, taken literally, seem to be naturally impossible. The square of the temple, in Eze 42:20, is six times as large as the wall enclosing the old temple, and larger than all the earthly Jerusalem. Ezekiel gives three and a half miles and one hundred forty yards to his temple square. The boundaries of the ancient city were about two and a half miles. Again, the city in Ezekiel has an area between three or four thousand square miles, including the holy ground set apart for the prince, priests, and Levites. This is nearly as large as the whole of Judea west of the Jordan. Most of the measures were taken from the human body. The greater cubit was the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, a little more than two feet. This exceeded the ordinary cubit (from the elbow to the wrist) by an hand-breadth (twenty-one inches in all). The palm was the full breadth of the hand, three and a half inches. This makes me wonder if this Temple was to be a picture of the New Man of the New Testament where we embody the Temple of the Holy Spirit. James says that faith and good deeds work together. Our actions follow our heart. Rahab acted on her faith when she hid the spies. Teachers are held to a higher measure of judgment because what they say affects those they teach. James speaks much about the tongue and how powerful our words are. It takes great self-control to guard our words. Our words reveal our hearts. The way to guard your words is to guard your heart. James tells us to be peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. Peacemakers plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. Lord, I need so much help in guarding my heart during this season. Please help us all to have eyes to see, ears to hear and Your heart to understand how to navigate this season. Bless our nation and may it bring you glory.