Visions of Grandeur - Ezekiel 43:13-21

Visions of Grandeur

Ezekiel 43:13-21

Lesson Setting

Both a prophet and priest, Ezekiel functions more directly in the second component of his ministerial calling by Almighty God.  Receiving a direct vision from the Lord relating to restoration of the temple, Ezekiel details the design of the Altar and interior of the Sanctuary.  In this revelation, the prophet challenges his listeners and readers understand sacred spaces and the gift of communing with God as a retreat from life’s busyness and challenges.

Lesson Outline

I.                 Ezekiel 43:13-17 – A Meticulous Altar Design

II.            Ezekiel 43:18-21 – An Acceptable Sacrifice

III.        Ezekiel 43:22-24 – Additional Regulations for Sacrificing

IV.         Ezekiel 43:25-27 – Receiving the Lord’s Acceptance

Unifying Principle

Sometimes people seek space in which they can find direction for making the most of life.  Where can such space be found?  The Israelites could hope for release from their iniquities by making sin sacrifices in the sacred space of the altar that stood before the temple.

Introduction

Our weekly Morning Worship Service culminates in an “Altar Call” following the sermon and invitation to discipleship.  I invite attendees to the Altar to commune with Almighty God.  I encourage them to lift their most pressing prayer concern to our Heavenly Father in the sanctity, solemnity and silence of this sacred space.  Arguably, the “Altar Call” is the most significant aspect of our worship as it is the component whereby congregants directly converse with God.  Standing in His presence, they have assurance of His unfailing love and enduring faithfulness.  There, they feel His unconditional love, provision and protection.  The myriad challenges and unexpected changes of daily living recede to the background of their minds and hearts.  The Altar is a place where they find rejuvenation, courage and strength to return to their homes and jobs and live purposefully.

In this week’s lesson, we further explore Ezekiel’s instructions relating to the altar of the temple.  It will be a sacred place of hope and renewal for the people.  He hopes his description will enable Israel to appreciate the sacredness of the altar where they will worship God.  Hopefully, in time, worshipers cultivate the practice of dedicating a special space in their daily living to experience God’s love and forgiveness.  Further, Ezekiel wants Israel to consider the importance of the altar and its dimensions to the Israelites.  This understanding of God’s details concerning the altar leads to further personal reflection on the value of holy spaces for atonement and renewal.  This space begins a process of repentance and revival as practical and pragmatic milestones in a progressive and vibrant relationship with Almighty God.  Additionally, Ezekiel’s plans for constructing a new altar and making offerings symbolize the importance worshiping God with integrity and faithfulness.  The prophet details about building the altar with such specificity relay the importance of approaching God with reverence and humility.

Any recent local newscast reflects the incredible stress adults face in meeting their daily obligations and commitments.  Though contemporary Americans are probably the most prosperous and privileged persons to have ever lived, they are among the most stressed people in the world.  Increases in deaths relating from obesity, suicide, hypertension and other sources of stress demonstrates the limits of science and technology in resolving this societal ills.  Rising indebtedness is one of the major causes of divorce among born again, evangelical Christians.  Anxieties stemming from terrorism, possibilities of contracting cancer and other serious diseases without adequate healthcare and inability to provide and protect one’s family from the shifting financial chaos of the global economy result in the need for rest, relaxation and renewal.  Recreational escapes from reality such as watching collegiate and professional athletic contests and other television programs are temporary.  Seeking resolutions to their problems and lasting peace; adults search for places of yield restoration, new directions, wellness and wholeness.  At these special places, adults believe they will find fresh perspectives and rejuvenation.  Such quiet places of prayer and meditation, where they can also practice other beneficial spiritual disciplines, affords adults opportunity to contemplate how they live as they make necessary changes.  These places and periods of personal reflection yield a greater sense of well-being as adults eliminate harmful ways of living. 

Ezekiel offers the altar in the temple as one of the central sacred places to accomplish the foregoing intrapersonal goals.  Sacred space was essential in the life of Israel and Judah; there, the people made sacrifices for their sins and found favor with God hoping their repentance made them acceptable in the eyes of God.  Ezekiel states the special restrictions for building sacred spaces and reservations for certain components.  These codes were necessary to observe God’s holy character.  At the altar and other sacred spaces, the Israelites sought pardon from their sin and rebellion through offering acceptable sacrifices.  These architectural and construction details hint toward faithfulness, diligence and sincerity that each worshiper had to exert in a progressively vibrant relationship with God.  Just as architects and builders must be careful to follow the plans of specification and utilize the best materials, Israelites seeking a better relationship with God had to apply themselves with requisite discipline.

Exposition

Point I – Ezekiel 43:13-17 – A Meticulous Altar Design

It is very easy for cotemporary disciples to gloss over passages such as this meticulous description of the altar in the temple.  We no longer utilize the means and standards of measurements that Ezekiel uses.  Most people could not tell you what a cubit is and how Ezekiel and his contemporaries utilized it to construct buildings and conduct commerce.  This Ancient Near East measuring standard was the length of the elbow to the top of the middle finger.  It allowed carpenters, masons, builders and others to measure without the need of some foreign object.  Because of the different sizes in people, there was some variance but amongst the groups of biblical tribes and nations, a standard emerged.  The short Hebrew cubit was seventeen and a half inches and the long one was twenty and a half inches.  The Babylonians cubit was nearly twenty inches. The Egyptian cubit nearly equated with the Hebrew one.  Nevertheless, the question remains as to the necessity of this exacting detail   about the altar in the temple.  As each word of the Bible is a part of the inerrant Word of God and nothing in the holy scriptures is meaningless, what is the message for disciples as they read Ezekiel’s architectural rendering of the altar? 

As a priest in addition to being a prophet, Ezekiel understandably would have an affection of the temple, its design, functions, liturgies and significance in the spiritual life of the nation.  As a tour guide of the temple, he explains and expounds upon significant details in the plans of specification of the temple that an ordinary person overlooks.  The altar is built in an exact space with a definitive purpose beneath which lies an even greater divine intention to facilitate relationship and reconciliation between Almighty God and anyone who worships there.  Beyond requiring care in construction and increase in expense, these physical details concerning the altar symbolize the humility, gratitude and reverence with which worshipers must approach it as the altar represents the very presence of Almighty God Himself.

Worship decorum in many churches throughout the country continually declines as many persons attending services have little if any regard for sanctity, silence, solemnity, and sacredness as they participate in worship.  People bring food and beverages in the sanctuary.  Children run amok in the pulpit and altar area as if they are playgrounds.  Cell phone ring tones and other electronic devices constantly interrupt prayers, baptisms, weddings and funerals.  As worship services begin and end, many congregants avail themselves of the most recent gossip by talking incessantly with people adjacent to them in the pews rather than utilize these sacred moments for prayer and meditation.  Liturgies and litanies have been discarded and replaced by spiritual entertainment and dramatic presentations.  Parenthetically, I hasten to add, whereas I am a traditionalist in many ways having been reared in a staunch African Methodist Episcopal local church with a definite order of service, I do not dismiss summarily the emerging contemporary forms of worship.  I simply wonder whether they commit the philosophical fallacy of proverbially “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”  Ignorance of the Church’s traditions which securely held the gospel is not acceptable even if it satisfies the musical and emotional preferences of seekers.  Nevertheless, whether traditional, blended or contemporary, worship must always respect God’s holy character.

Ezekiel’s description of the altar admonishes Israel to approach the altar with due appreciation of its sacredness.  God designs it with such exquisite and magnificent details to offer His people an equally marvelous spiritual experience when they approach Him.  The altar is a place where they can retreat from commonplace trials and tribulations and receive divine encouragement and empowerment.  There. They could commune with the Lord of the Universe who willingly and bountifully shares His limitless grace and unfailing love.  Thus, Ezekiel’s seemingly boring details hint to a powerful spiritual relationship at the altar where worshipers find hope and renewal in the midst of life’s chaos.

Point II – Ezekiel 43:18-21 – An Acceptable Sacrifice

Ezekiel proceeds to describe to regulations regarding the proper ways to offer burnt offerings and blood sacrifices.  Strict rules determine the acceptability of sacrifices.  It was improper to splatter blood recklessly around the altar.  Equally, were worshipers and priests not careful, a fire could erupt and burn the altar.  Just as they were explicit requirements for constructing the altar, there are equal directives about the methods and means of offering sacrifices.  This latter set of rules accomplished the same spiritual objectives as the previous one.  Worshipers could not be casual and indifferent to the type and quality of sacrifice they offer.  After all, they are making the sacrifices to please Almighty God with the genuine and humble hope of repentance and renewal.  A substandard sacrifice offered unceremoniously and defiantly hardly would achieve their personal and spiritual objective.

God deserves our best.  He commands the first fruits as the tithe.  God does not want garage sale items for sacrifices in His house.  Accordingly, Ezekiel instructs Israel to offer a young bull that is in his prime as it relates to virility, breeding potential and commodification.  They were not to offer an aged bull that neared death.  A sacrifice costs even when it hurts.  Rather than keeping the young bull for breeding and profit inclusive of expansion of a family’s herd, they gave the bull to Lord as an offering for remission of their sins. 

This protocol for sacrifices hints toward the humility and honesty with which worshipers are to make sacrifices.  Faithfulness and genuineness are cardinal requirements for progressing in a vibrant relationship with Almighty God.  Sacrifices are not made as ritualistic practices to further personal righteousness and institutional religion.  They are means of grace as worshipers approach the altar with a sincere heart and the full assurance of faith.  They endeavor to strengthen their relationship with God.

Ezekiel’s instruction’s about sacrifices help contemporary disciples as they partake of The Lord’s Supper mostly on the first Sunday of each month.  Easily, congregants complain about how this ritual extends the length of morning worship.  Why does it take so long?  Can we not find a way to streamline this obligatory addition to service?  Is it not outmoded in the twenty-first century?  Those disciples who belong a “higher liturgical” tradition complain about sloppy liturgy and mispronounced words.  These complaints signify the traditional approach to Holy Communion of may contemporary disciples who mistakenly relegate this sacred time at the altar and its possibilities for restoration and renewal as being just another item on the program.  Holy Communion is true to its name, a mystical opportunity for life’s weary, despondent and hopeless travelers to pause and allow God Almighty to refuel them.  At the altar and in consumption of the elements, disciples receive divine guidance to resolve their challenges, encouragement to eradicate their fears and power to steadfastly face any adversities or misfortune that befalls them.

Point III – Ezekiel 43:22-24 – Additional Regulations on Sacrificing

The imagery of these few verses offers comfort and inspiration to contemporary disciples as they supplied ritualistic directives to Ezekiel’s listeners and readers.  The requirement that the bulls, goats and rams be “without blemish or defect” indicates the level of honesty with which worshipers are to approach the altar as a petitioner for God’s grace and mercy.  Offering a defective animal does not equate with a sacrifice; as it costs.  Chances are these worshipers were prepared to discard or kill defective animals that held no worth for breeding or food.  God does not want anything we deem to be worthless.  Hence, our praise and worship of God cannot be defective with hidden sin in our minds and strife in our hearts.  We lift up clean hands with which to clap and sing aloud out of pure hearts.  This imagery speaks of the moral and ethical behavior that must accompany our sacrifices as well as worship. 

Purification follows sacrificial offerings as we commune with God at the altar with the hope of achieving transformation in thinking and acting in order to cease sinful and rebellious behavior.  In addition to being a lengthy and perhaps lifetime process deriving from a progressive relationship with God, purification is an internal resolve to offer your whole self to God for His exclusive service.  Practically speaking, purification means the elimination of character defects, shortcomings or any patterns of behavior that undermine your divine destiny and right as a child of God.

Then, the priest sprinkles salt on the purified offerings.  Seasoning this meat had very practical implications for the priesthood as portions of these offerings were their means of feeding their families.  Salt, a preservative, kept the meat in order for priestly families to live over time.  Spiritually, the Word of God serves as a preservative to enable disciples to maintain their purified and sanctified lives.

Point IV – Ezekiel 43:25-27 – Receiving the Lord’s Acceptance

Ezekiel concludes these instructions with specific timeframes which indicate the necessary length of the process to attain cleansing, transformation and renewal.  Seven is the biblical number for completion, fulfillment and wholeness.  The seven days of sacrifice refer to the requisite investment of time to achieve the spiritual and personal results a worshiper deeply desires.  For seven days, male goats, young bulls or rams without blemish or defect were to be taken from the flock and brought to the altar as sin offerings.  Consider the expense of time, treasure and temperament in completing these seven sin offerings.  In spiritual terms, contemporary disciples return to the altar as many times as necessary to acquire healing and wholeness.  These instructions encourage us to invest whatever time and expenses are necessary to obtain renewal and restoration just as they did for Ezekiel’s audience. 

On the eighth day, the number of new beginnings, priests present the burnt and fellowship offerings on the altar.  There, Almighty God receives these petitions and gifts.  Moreover, He receives and renews the givers as they more rightly relate themselves to Him through their obedience, fidelity and trust in Him.  At the altar, they through the infinite graciousness of Almighty God receive more than they deserve.  The Lord’s acceptance is more than stamping approval upon an individual request.  Instead, it is an invitation to friendship.  Hence, Ezekiel’s intention in recording this chapter of possibly arcane and archaic architectural instructions of buildings in the Ancient Near East is demonstrating the greater significance of sacred spaces.  Beyond their physical existence and purpose, sacred spaces afford worshipers the grace and blessing of strengthening and deepening their relationship with God.

The Lesson Applied

Let’s Talk About It

1.     What is an ideal setting for prayer, meditation and worship?

2.   Do you have a favorite childhood place to which you retreat in difficult times?  Do you worship there?  Is it a sacred space?

3.   What are some of the most significant items for worship in your church?  Does your church keep them in a reserved space?

4.   Explore Ezekiel’s detailed plans for the altar.  What relevance do these plans have for contemporary Christians?

5.    How do you prepare to enter into worship with thanksgiving and the Lord’s courts with praise?  Is there a ritual?  What is an acceptable offering of praise and worship?