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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far
enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is
just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You
are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah and an accurate bath. The ephah
and the bath are to be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer
and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for
both. The shekel is to consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus
twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina.’”
“‘This is the special gift you are to offer: a sixth of an
ephah from each homer of wheat and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of
barley. The prescribed portion of olive oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth
of a bath from each cor (which consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten
baths are equivalent to a homer). Also one sheep is to be taken from every
flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These will be
used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make
atonement for the people, declares the Sovereign Lord. All the people of the
land will be required to give this special offering to the prince in Israel. It
will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings
and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths—at all the
appointed festivals of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain
offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the
Israelites.’”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In the first month
on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the
sanctuary. The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put
it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of
the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court. You are to do the same on
the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through
ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple.’”
“‘In the first month on the fourteenth day you are to
observe the Passover, a festival lasting seven days, during which you shall eat
bread made without yeast. On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin
offering for himself and for all the people of the land. Every day during the
seven days of the festival he is to provide seven bulls and seven rams without
defect as a burnt offering to the Lord, and a male goat for a sin offering. He
is to provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each
ram, along with a hin of olive oil for each ephah.’”
“‘During the seven days of the festival, which begins in the
seventh month on the fifteenth day, he is to make the same provision for sin
offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and oil.’”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The gate of the
inner court facing east is to be shut on the six working days, but on the
Sabbath day and on the day of the New Moon it is to be opened. The prince is to
enter from the outside through the portico of the gateway and stand by the
gatepost. The priests are to sacrifice his burnt offering and his fellowship
offerings. He is to bow down in worship at the threshold of the gateway and
then go out, but the gate will not be shut until evening. On the Sabbaths and
New Moons the people of the land are to worship in the presence of the Lord at
the entrance of that gateway. The burnt offering the prince brings to the Lord
on the Sabbath day is to be six male lambs and a ram, all without defect. The
grain offering given with the ram is to be an ephah, and the grain offering
with the lambs is to be as much as he pleases, along with a hin of olive oil
for each ephah. On the day of the New Moon he is to offer a young bull, six
lambs and a ram, all without defect. He is to provide as a grain offering one
ephah with the bull, one ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he
wants to give, along with a hin of oil for each ephah. When the prince enters,
he is to go in through the portico of the gateway, and he is to come out the
same way.’”
“‘When the people of the land come before the Lord at the
appointed festivals, whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out
the south gate; and whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north
gate. No one is to return through the gate by which they entered, but each is
to go out the opposite gate. The prince is to be among them, going in when they
go in and going out when they go out. At the feasts and the appointed
festivals, the grain offering is to be an ephah with a bull, an ephah with a
ram, and with the lambs as much as he pleases, along with a hin of oil for each
ephah.’”
“‘When the prince provides a freewill offering to the Lord—whether
a burnt offering or fellowship offerings—the gate facing east is to be opened
for him. He shall offer his burnt offering or his fellowship offerings as he
does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out, the
gate will be shut.’”
“‘Every day you are to provide a year-old lamb without
defect for a burnt offering to the Lord; morning by morning you shall provide
it. You are also to provide with it morning by morning a grain offering,
consisting of a sixth of an ephah with a third of a hin of oil to moisten the
flour. The presenting of this grain offering to the Lord is a lasting
ordinance. So the lamb and the grain offering and the oil shall be provided
morning by morning for a regular burnt offering.’”
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: If the prince makes
a gift from his inheritance to one of his sons, it will also belong to his
descendants; it is to be their property by inheritance. If, however, he makes a
gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, the servant may keep it until
the year of freedom; then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance belongs
to his sons only; it is theirs. The prince must not take any of the inheritance
of the people, driving them off their property. He is to give his sons their
inheritance out of his own property, so that not one of my people will be
separated from their property.’”
Then the man brought me through the entrance at the side of
the gate to the sacred rooms facing north, which belonged to the priests, and
showed me a place at the western end. He said to me, “This is the place where
the priests are to cook the guilt offering and the sin offering and bake the
grain offering, to avoid bringing them into the outer court and consecrating
the people.”
He then brought me to the outer court and led me around to
its four corners, and I saw in each corner another court. In the four corners
of the outer court were enclosed courts, forty cubits long and thirty cubits
wide; each of the courts in the four corners was the same size. Around the
inside of each of the four courts was a ledge of stone, with places for fire
built all around under the ledge. He said to me, “These are the kitchens where
those who minister at the temple are to cook the sacrifices of the people.”
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Today is the next to last message in the devotional series
on restoration taken from the final chapters of the Book of Ezekiel. In it, we
find God addressing the ones who would lead His people after their return from
the Babylonian captivity, those who would carry the title of prince.
Now before we go too much further, I think it’s important to
remember that before God sent His judgment on the Israelites, their leadership
was mostly evil, or at least that’s how God labeled them. Go back to the Books
of 1 and 2 Kings or 1 and 2 Chronicles and run through the list of kings of the
northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah and you will
quickly find you can categorize those kings in one of two ways: good or evil.
There really wasn’t any middle ground but what was evident was that a majority
of kings chose to lead apart from God and accordingly, their actions in sight
of God were wicked and sinful. And often times, the people the kings were
supposed to be leading and caring for, the very people of God, were the targets
of the king’s evil ways.
Given this, you can see why the Lord was interested in
providing guidance to the leader of His people to ensure they would be faithful
and obedient to Him and Him alone first, an action that would lead to them
treating their people the way God desires. God wanted to make sure that the
restoration of someone to leadership over His people would include a
reformation of the past leadership ways.
In other words, God was interested in transforming His
future leaders by having them conform to His word, will, and way.
What specific guidance did God have for the prince who would
rule over Israel?
First, they were to do what is right and just. There would
be no place for the former violence and oppression against the people of God,
violence and oppression manifested against the Israelites by former kings.
There would be no dispossessing of land or the use of illegal practices used in
the sale of goods such as using inaccurate scales. Proper allocations were to
be made as well. If a person paid for an ephah, then they were to get an ephah.
Ditto for a bath, shekel, and mina.
Secondly, Israel’s leader was to play an active role in the
worship practices in God’s temple. Note that God made it the duty of the prince
to ensure that the proper amount of materials were available for the temple
sacrifices (a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, a sixth of an ephah
from each homer of barley, one sheep from every flock of two hundred, etc.),
sacrifices that would take place to “make atonement” for the Israelites”.
Thirdly, the prince was to make sure that all of the
prescribed holy observances took place just as God commanded, actively
participating in observances such as:
- The Passover
- The Sabbath day
- The New Moon festival
Finally, the Sovereign Lord gave the prince specific
instructions on how to handle his inheritance to ensure it was doled out fairly
and equitably whether give to one of his sons or one of his servants. And note
the prince was not to take an inheritance away from any Israelite. In other
words, he was not to take property that was not his own.
With this, Israel was once again ready to have a leader over
them, one who would lead them in fairness and righteousness because he would be
required to keep his focus on God, His worship, and His word, will, and way as
it applied to the way he carried out his leadership duties.
So what’s our takeaway? What can we use from this scripture
passage to apply to our own lives?
I think there are three key things:
1. When God restores
us, He will always give us direction as to what He wants us to do.
The prince of Israel didn’t have to worry about how to lead
the people because God told Him how he was to do it. When we go recommit
ourselves to God daily and go about the business of serving Him, He will always
provide us clear guidance as to what He wants us to do and how He wants is to
do it.
2. When God restores
us, He will always reform us at the same time.
We’re all sinners who fall short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23). God’s word makes that clear. And so as we seek forgiveness of our sins
and restoration into the good favor of God through repentance, we never do so
without being reformed in some way, changed in a way that takes us closer to
being the people God wants us to be.
3. When God restores
and reforms us, He does so with the intent of transforming us.
God created us in His own image (Genesis 1:27). We know
because the scriptures tell us so but we aren’t always so good at living up to
the way we were intended to be because sin will always drag us away from the
righteousness God expects from us.
This is why restoration and reformation is so important when
we err because God ever longs to transform us more and more to be the people He
wants us to be but we have to turn to Him, repent of our transgressions, and
show a desire for the Lord to change us for the better. When we do these
things, God will always deliver and the end product is a more faithful and
obedient servant to fulfill His desires and make a difference in the lives of
those He gives the servant to care for.
Yes, God’s restoration is also about reformation and
transformation. If you have a testimony about this, feel free to leave a
comment under this message.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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