May 25, Ezekiel 41
Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; and the yard and the building with its walls, a hundred cubits long; also the breadth of the east front of the temple and the yard, a hundred cubits. - Ezekiel 41:13-14
In Ezekiel 8, I mentioned how video images sent through the internet or bounced off satellites can show us events that are taking place on the other side of the world. Ezekiel's visions in Babylon were sort of like that, except God needed no tech devices to transport Ezekiel back to Jerusalem in a vision.
Chapter 41 (as well as the one before it and the others that follow) remind me of more ways that Ezekiel's experiences are somewhat simulated by today's technology. Once again in a vision state, Ezekiel saw things that didn't really exist outside the vision. The temple Ezekiel saw was never actually built, but Ezekiel "saw" it in a vision from God. Today, it is commonplace for locations and objects in pictures or movies to be computer-generated images. Today, virtual reality technology can immerse us in surroundings that look and sound and perhaps even feel real, but really don't exist. Artificial intelligence can render pictures of non-existent objects, or put us in photographs of places we've never been, doing things we've never done. Ezekiel's vision of the temple was sort of like that.
As Ezekiel shared what he saw on his vision tour of the temple, he gave the measurements of each part of each area, down to the thicknesses of the walls of the different buildings and rooms. He described its wooden interior walls, their ornate decorations on the walls. This temple was big, symmetrical, orderly and beautiful. But it was no more a real temple in a physical location than what a teenager sees using his virtual reality goggles.
We might expect God's designs to exhibit all these features of order and beauty. The Spirit of God moved across the face of the formless void in the beginning and brought an ordered, beautiful creation out of it. The handiwork of God is all around us in our world, and we can see its beauty. From tiny microscopic creatures to distant galaxies, all Creation bear witness to the existence and power of God. As the writer of Hebrews put it, "For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God."
That order and beauty is also visible in God's design for the church. Through Jesus Christ, God made a way to justify and forgive sinners through Jesus' sacrifice for us. His design and plan for the church is perfect, working in every culture around the world and every century through the ages. Do not judge the perfection of God's design by the imperfection of the human members of the church. All who claim to be Christians do not live their lives surrendered to Christ, and the selfishness and sin in us all mar the image of the church. But the design is
perfect.
We could say the same thing about God's design and plan for our lives. His commandments are for our good. They make us the best we can be when we respect our Creator and strive to become more like him and do more of his will for us. We're not perfect, but we are changed by genuine conversion to Christ. We are in process, becoming, growing into a likeness that will only be realized completely when Jesus comes again and we see him and he makes us like him.
Your life and mine, through God's recreating and enabling grace, can be a testimony to the goodness and power and wisdom of God. Just as Ezekiel saw this magnificent structure that glorified God, we can live our lives in a way that God gets glory from those who see what he is doing in and through us. But it is no trick of technology. These changed lives and the perfected church are very real and intentional results of God's plan and work. He invites us to become, and gives us the ability to become what he wants us to be. Are we willing to own him as Lord, and let him bring the order and beauty of his finished work into our own lives?
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—May 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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