I spent a week planning exactly how to ask Daddy for the $2.50 raise I wanted. My current allowance was $3.00, so I was asking for it to be nearly doubled. This was not an easy-ask: my father was thrify. But ask I did, and low and behold, he granted it. I was dumbfounded.

I had no idea at age 16 what I was headed for. I only thought I was squeezing every penny I could from him then. Little did I know the inheritance he’d planned for me.

I’m glad I didn’t. I learned to scrimp and save on that measly $5.50, which admittedly bought way more in 1974 than it does now. I also learned to go out and get a job.

When he died, the glory of what he left my siblings and I was overwhelming. It wasn’t so much the amount of money, as it was that he had made plans for so long for us to have it.

This astonishment over an inheritance planned well in advance, that’s more than we can imagine, is something of what today’s passages get at.

Ezekiel 40:38-chapter 42

Beginning with chapter 40, the rest of the book of Ezekiel is a mystery. Is the temple described in today’s passage, down to its 8.5 foot thick walls and it’s overall size of nearly three football fields, literal or metaphorical? If literal, when will it get here? How will it be built and funded?

And why? If God’s temple is now inside his people because of Jesus, what’s the need of this colossal temple? And why the altar and sacrifices that are mentioned in tomorrow’s reading? Hasn’t Jesus already done away with the need for animal sacrifices? That’s what Hebrews said, the New Testament book we just finished.

Commentators scratch their heads. All the ones I read have a different take on what this temple is and what it means. The chapters that come after the temple-talk are of other normal sounding things like land distribution and community building and farming, but like the temple’s size, they, too, include astonishing details.

What’s the deal?

I don’t know. My best guess is that the temple’s measurements aren’t literal. They’re given with meticulous measurements to communicate the incredible size of this place, a size that no building crew could manage, at least not in the exiles’ day. To hear of a place to worship this massive would’ve knocked their socks off. It’s knocking mine.

If the temple described is meant figuratively, maybe God is getting at the enormity of his future kingdom, one Jesus ushers in, not built with brick and mortar and stone but with faith and hope and love. It’s a spiritual temple that represents the spiritual kingdom God is building that encompasses the whole planet, a community of believers whose membership includes every tongue and tribe and nation, a community the Bible calls his church.

And God’s Spirit will inhabit it by inhabiting them, turning every heart into his temple-home, making worship available 24/7, anywhere and everywhere they are. All who want to will stream to him, experiencing God in a heaven-on-earth way through the prayer-and-praise-and-Bible-reading portal.

I’m not pretending to have the inside track on this passage. I’m only saying that what God is doing on earth in the hearts of people, turning beggars into beloved sons and daughters who worship, is bigger than could fit into a temple even the size of thirteen football fields, let alone three.

I’m guessing the exiles at this writing, enslaved and downhearted, felt thrilled to hear that one day, God’s people would need a place this size to worship him. Little did they know what all he had in mind, but we have a clue because we can see how the church has grown from a group of ragtag fishermen over 2000+ years. It’s amazing the perspective Jesus gives. I bet we’ll be just as astonished as the exiles when the magnitude of God’s plan is fully realized.

Just like a father’s plan for his kids, our Father’s plan for us is glorious. It includes giving us everything he has because of Jesus, Jn 17. “No eye has seen…no ear has heard…no human mind has conceived what God has stored up for those who love him,” 1 Co 2:9 NIV.

James 4

Quarrels and fights come from “deep inside [us],” where we want our own way and fight to get it, whether in relationships or material things.  Living this way insults God who’s “a jealous lover.”  What he gives us in himself is “far better than anything else you’ll find,” Js 4:1-6 MSG.  

So stop two-timing him. Get focused; be serious. Tell the enemy to back off—you’ve got the power. Come before God in earnest: weep and wail and hit rock bottom. That’s where you’ll find him waiting for you, Js 4:7-10.

James doesn’t pulls any punches. He puts the blame for not getting along on each of us. His advice: go low to rise up. Humility is the path to getting along and to God, Js 4:10.

Psalm 118

When you’re pressed to the wall, God saves. When you’re on your last leg, God rescues. When you’re on a cliff-edge, God grabs you and holds you tight, Ps 118:5-13 MSG.

Why?  Because his love never quits, Ps 118:1-4 MSG.  

The writer’s testimony rings, “God’s now at my side and I’m not afraid.” God is his refuge and champion, his strength and song and salvation.  God’s “hand” has made all the difference, Ps 118:6-14 MSG.   

And this testimony isn’t kept quiet. It’s heard “in the camp of the saved” where “the shouts and triumph songs” of celebration are, Ps 118:15 MSG.

Find your own “camp,” your own place to worship with other believers, and participate.

Proverbs 28:4-5

We’re free to choose how we handle God’s law. If we leave it, we support other lost causes. If we love it, we stand against them. Justice makes sense to those who seek God, but it’s nonsense to those who don’t.

Prayer

God, Thank you for giving us us your words that guide us, a rich inheritance when I stop and think about it. Much of it is beyond me to understand, but what makes sense is this: I need to get comfortable on my knees. I need to be involved with your people. These are the places of worship you give me. Keep me coming to you and seeking.

In Jesus name.

Bible passages in Ezekiel, James, Psalms, and Proverbs come from today’s selections in The One Year Bible.