The Holy One calls to me this morning. It's a new day and I praise Him that His mercies are new every morning. I grab my Bible and journal and head into our early morning counsel session.
The Holy One always seems to start me off with a sentence or two that provokes deep thought and sometimes His statements make me wonder if I am hearing Him correctly.
Today He said, "Nothing on earth is so sacred that it cannot be rebuilt if it has been destroyed."
Written in the Chronicles of the history of the Jews in exile, there came a day on the calendar when it was recorded that, "The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia" who declared, "The Lord God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a Temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah". 2 Chron. 36:23.
That proclamation set the stage for the rebuilding of the beloved Temple in the Holy City of the Jewish people, Jerusalem in Ezra Chapter 3.
I am beginning to understand the statement Holiness has just made to my heart and mind. The remnant of the Jewish people were sent into exile. They were sent into a land not their own, under the authority of a foreign king, surrounded by a world of people they neither knew nor trusted. They were captives but their lives had been spared.
Life continued for them, but always with the heartache that they had lost the most important symbol of their faith and life, The Temple. It had been destroyed in the invasion and was left in ruins as they were carried off into captivity. All of it's grandeur, all the treasure it housed, all the elements that gave meaning to their faith with the reminders that they were a chosen people and their God was the One True God, was plundered and destroyed.
The Counselor knows my thoughts. Over the years, seasons have brought destruction to things that seemed to me to be indestructible. Our country as "one nation under God". A marriage and family within our "family nation" divorced and dismantled. A business that had supported us for all these years no longer viable as it once stood. Even visions of sure ministry have been dashed and taken out of the hands of those I love.
The things I see lost and stolen are not the bad things. On the contrary, to me, they were the sacred, the good, the right, the Holy and what even might be termed the necessary for our life in exile. The Holy One has taken me to the book of Ezra to give me a hope and a future.
When we understand just how important the Temple was to the Jews, I doubt there is anything in our lives to compare. It not only symbolized their individual lifestyle but it defined their nation, corporately. Without the Temple, where the sacrifices were made daily for the sins of the individuals and the nation, they had no ability to have relationship with their God because their faith rested on obedience to God's commands, and the Temple represented His presence within.
Since Jesus came, died, and is now our Resurrected Living God, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are the temple. Our bodies are the temple of God's Holy Presence within.
The statement He spoke to me and the subject of the book of Ezra deposited a hope in my heart. All is not lost even as we witness the destruction of sacred things. Our God is the Creative Force that spoke all things into existence. His promise to me is that He will provide what is needed and will oversee the rebuilding of what has been lost or destroyed and the replacement of what has been stolen.
With the Temple of old as a symbol, the Lord reminds each one of us that He does not reside in a temple built by human hands and He is not limited by any destruction brought upon us by evil, whether through dark forces or humans under their control. The world is the Lord's and everything in it.
God Himself, set up the plan for the rebuilding of the temple and He has the plan for the rebuilding of our lives as well. Even as we agonize over what was lost; what it was to us and what it might have been had it not been destroyed, let us look to our Eternal Savior, Christ Jesus, and what He will provide in it's place.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Holy One always seems to start me off with a sentence or two that provokes deep thought and sometimes His statements make me wonder if I am hearing Him correctly.
Today He said, "Nothing on earth is so sacred that it cannot be rebuilt if it has been destroyed."
Written in the Chronicles of the history of the Jews in exile, there came a day on the calendar when it was recorded that, "The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia" who declared, "The Lord God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a Temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah". 2 Chron. 36:23.
That proclamation set the stage for the rebuilding of the beloved Temple in the Holy City of the Jewish people, Jerusalem in Ezra Chapter 3.
I am beginning to understand the statement Holiness has just made to my heart and mind. The remnant of the Jewish people were sent into exile. They were sent into a land not their own, under the authority of a foreign king, surrounded by a world of people they neither knew nor trusted. They were captives but their lives had been spared.
Life continued for them, but always with the heartache that they had lost the most important symbol of their faith and life, The Temple. It had been destroyed in the invasion and was left in ruins as they were carried off into captivity. All of it's grandeur, all the treasure it housed, all the elements that gave meaning to their faith with the reminders that they were a chosen people and their God was the One True God, was plundered and destroyed.
The Counselor knows my thoughts. Over the years, seasons have brought destruction to things that seemed to me to be indestructible. Our country as "one nation under God". A marriage and family within our "family nation" divorced and dismantled. A business that had supported us for all these years no longer viable as it once stood. Even visions of sure ministry have been dashed and taken out of the hands of those I love.
The things I see lost and stolen are not the bad things. On the contrary, to me, they were the sacred, the good, the right, the Holy and what even might be termed the necessary for our life in exile. The Holy One has taken me to the book of Ezra to give me a hope and a future.
When we understand just how important the Temple was to the Jews, I doubt there is anything in our lives to compare. It not only symbolized their individual lifestyle but it defined their nation, corporately. Without the Temple, where the sacrifices were made daily for the sins of the individuals and the nation, they had no ability to have relationship with their God because their faith rested on obedience to God's commands, and the Temple represented His presence within.
Since Jesus came, died, and is now our Resurrected Living God, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are the temple. Our bodies are the temple of God's Holy Presence within.
The statement He spoke to me and the subject of the book of Ezra deposited a hope in my heart. All is not lost even as we witness the destruction of sacred things. Our God is the Creative Force that spoke all things into existence. His promise to me is that He will provide what is needed and will oversee the rebuilding of what has been lost or destroyed and the replacement of what has been stolen.
With the Temple of old as a symbol, the Lord reminds each one of us that He does not reside in a temple built by human hands and He is not limited by any destruction brought upon us by evil, whether through dark forces or humans under their control. The world is the Lord's and everything in it.
God Himself, set up the plan for the rebuilding of the temple and He has the plan for the rebuilding of our lives as well. Even as we agonize over what was lost; what it was to us and what it might have been had it not been destroyed, let us look to our Eternal Savior, Christ Jesus, and what He will provide in it's place.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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