September 5 - Ezekiel 44:1-46:24

Good morning everyone, 

Today we begin with Ezekiel being brought to the outer gate of the sanctuary that was facing east, finding it shut. Scripture says that the Lord told him it was to remain shut because the Lord, God of Israel had entered through it. Now here is a little “fyi” for all you who, like me, love seeing prophecy fulfilled. In the year 1517 the Turks conquered Jerusalem under the leadership of Suleiman the Magnificent who then commanded that the Eastern gate be sealed up with stones to prevent the Messiah from ever entering through there again. As if that would stop Him, but nonetheless, it was sealed. Then, get this, centuries later, in 1967 during the Six Day War, it’s reported that a tank was pointed directly toward the eastern gate ready to blow it open, but the order to “fire” never came through and it remains sealed to this day. Curious? No, not curious., God fulfilling prophecy. Awesome!!

In 44:4 Ezekiel says, “I looked and saw the glory of the Lord filling the temple of the Lord, and I fell facedown.” Tripped? I think not, the man was not clumsy. Oh no! He was awestruck. Many times in Scripture we can read of someone falling facedown when coming into the presence of the Lord, Moses and Aaron, Abraham, Joshua all the disciples. In the Old Testament the most common word for glory is the Hebrew  word “kabod", meaning “heavy in weight.” When we glorify God, we recognize His importance, or the “weight,” of His uniqueness, His beauty, majesty, and splendor. Right? 

In the New Testament the the Greek word for glory is “doxazo”, and its most commonly means to convey a sense of brilliance, or radiance. God’s light is so powerful that it alone will light the new heaven and the new earth. Honestly, in my prayers and times of devotion there have been a moments when I would get a whiff of, an ever so slight whisper of God’s glory and literally feel how truly awesome God is. It is here and gone before I can grasp how unique and blessed a moment it was. And I will confess, I too have fallen down at the opulence of the moment, nearly breathless. I can only imagine how powerful it has got to be, to be in the presence of the full glory of God. I just don’t think it could get any better than that. Seriously. I do not think there is a word in the vocabularies of any language that could adequately describe how truly wonderful and marvelous our God is. He loves you and He love me so very much. You need to believe it,   and live like you believe it because when you do, He will do a mighty mighty work in you. I know!

Our God is so awesome. Psalm 68:35 says, “You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!” And all God’s people said …. Amen!

Have a good day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all.