Is God at your Church?

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Opening Prayer

God of Glory, teach us to cultivate Your presence in our midst.

Read Ezekiel 43:1-12

^[1] Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, ^[2] 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. ^[3] The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. ^[4] The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. ^[5] Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. ^[6] While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. ^[7] He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The people of Israel will never again defile my holy name-neither they nor their kings-by their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings at their death. ^[8] When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. ^[9] Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will live among them forever. ^[10] “Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider its perfection, ^[11] and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple-its arrangement, its exits and entrances-its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations. ^[12] “This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.

Meditate

“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of his presence” (AW Tozer).

Think Further

The return of the glory of God to the Temple is, perhaps, the most dramatic scene in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s vision mirrors in reverse his earlier revelation of God abandoning the temple (chs. 8-11). Although the Jerusalem Temple continued to function for six years after Ezekiel’s earlier vision, the glory of God’s presence was absent. The customary rituals and sacrifices continued, but the glory of the Lord, the ambience of transcendence, the awe of supreme majesty, had gone. God was hiding his face (Ezek. 39:23). Does the departure of the glory of God from the Temple mean that God might absent himself from his church?

In Ezekiel’s vision God returns to the sanctuary, never to leave it again (7,9). The return is the grand climax of the description of the new Temple (chs. 40-42). We can still be sure that when we gather together in the name of Christ, he is in our midst (Matt. 18:20). However, absence of love for the one who loves us too often renders us oblivious to his presence. Self-love and self-confidence can quench our thirst for God and cloud our awareness of him. The architecture of Ezekiel’s Temple provides a helpful resource in counteracting our coldness and lethargy. Following the prophet as he is led from outer to inner court and then from the Temple portico to the inner sanctuary, we climb up three sets of stairs, each step taking us ever higher (Ezek. 40:22,31,49), a reminder that the God we are approaching is greatly exalted (Psa. 47:9; Isa. 6:1). As we pass the altar in the inner court we are forcibly reminded of the cross where, thank God, we can confess all our self-sins, find forgiveness and experience the wonder of intimate fellowship with Almighty God. The church need not famish; God’s presence awaits us beyond the veil!

Apply

“You, God, are my God. . . my whole being longs for you” (Psa. 63:1). Bow before the holy God of Israel and let him fill you with fresh wonder of his glory.

Closing prayer

Holy Spirit of God, we the church are stones built together to be a living temple in which You dwell. Let Your glory fill Your church and Your name be made great in all the earth.

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