Ezekiel 44
COMMENTARY:
: 5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof, and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary. (3820 “mark well” [leb] means inner man, mind, the heart, disposition, determination, the locus of a person’s thoughts, volition, emotions, knowledge of right and wrong, inclination, or resolution.)
DEVOTION: The LORD is giving special instructions to Ezekiel regarding the activities of the priests who were to be the LORD’S servants in the Temple. HE wanted him to listen very close to what HE was saying.
HE wanted him to listen with his eyes and his ears. How can you listen with your eyes? If our eyes are wandering around while we are in church we don’t hear what is being taught very well because we are distracted.
The LORD wants us to concentrate on what is being taught through the LORD’S servant, the pastor. If he is not instructing properly then he has to answer to the LORD. If we are not listening properly we will not learn and we have to answer to the LORD.
Instruction is very important if we are to grow in the LORD. We can never stop learning how to live the Christian life. At each age there are new instructions. As children we receive instruction from our parents. As we grow older we receive instructions from our teachers. As we grow older we receive instructions from our employer. We have to compare these instructions with the Word of God.
The teachings of our lifetime should be those that help us to mature in our faith and affect our disposition. Our decisions should be based on the Word of God as we have learned it from good Biblical instructors.
We need to realize that the Holy Spirit is the one who helps us discern what good instructions are and what is not. HE will help us as we yield to HIM. HIS instructions are more important than all the other instructors in our life. HE is the final judge. Take careful notice!!!
CHALLENGE: Our inner man needs to listen to the Word of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and good Biblical teachers.
: 8 And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.” (NKJV)
DEVOTION: One of the problems we face in our world is the world entering into the church. The LORD states that we are tempted in three areas in our life: the world, the flesh and the devil. We have to understand that these temptations are real. They influence us for evil.
The world wants to have us use their methods to cause the church to grow. Too often pastors are more concerned with numerical growth rather than Spiritual growth. That happens because our world judges success in numbers. Whether is it sales or money in the bank or other things.
God judges success by whether we are faithful to HIS Word. Our first concern when we think about what God wants us to do is that we should pray about it. Prayer is a way we are guided to keep God’s priorities in front of us.
There is a difference between holy things and unholy things. The church should always discern whether they are using worldly methods or Biblical methods in all their activities.
Growth is important but not the most important. Faithfulness is the most important and with faithfulness there will be proper growth. The LORD wants the church to reach their world for the LORD. Each neighbor to the church should be reached in a Biblical manner to understand the gift the LORD has given us through Jesus Christ.
Once the world’s method take charge the Bible is put on the shelf. Business methods take control.
CHALLENGE: There should always be more Bible and less world in the church in our attitude and actions.
: 23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. (3045 “discern” [yada] means know, knowledge, understand, discriminate, declare, to turn the mind to something, to cause someone to know something, inform, or teach.)
DEVOTION: Throughout the ages those who are followers of God need to know what the proper way to worship the LORD was.
With teachers that taught correctly the people of God would worship and act according to the way the LORD wanted them too. However, throughout the history of Israel and sad to say the church there have been many false teachers giving instruction.
The children of Israel had priests that helped them worship idols instead of condemning the worship of idols. Some of the priests even didn’t offer the sacrifices correctly when they went before the LORD. They would keep more of the sacrifices for themselves than they were supposed to according to the instructions of the LORD.
The LORD blamed them for leading HIS people astray. They allowed uncircumcised heathens to enter the Temple area that was reserved for true followers of the LORD.
Now the LORD was only going to allow faithful priests serve HIM. They were to instruct the people, so that, they could understand the difference between things that were done in the right manner and things that were done in the wrong manner.
God wanted them to understand what HE considered clean and unclean in their daily life. The church is supposed to help people understand the same things. There are many activities and habits that are unclean in God’s sight but many pastors will not instruct properly. They will answer for leading those in their church astray.
CHALLENGE: Understand the difference between Biblical beliefs and those that are not Biblical. This happens as we listen to the Holy Spirit as we read the Word of God.
: 30 And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest’s: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. (6182 “dough” [airycah] means meal, coarse meal, kneading trough or flour.)
DEVOTION: With all the instructions the LORD gives to Ezekiel, we have what is going to be done regarding the priests. The Levites had been unfaithful to the LORD before the captivity. They had led the people astray. They had encouraged them to worship idols. They hired foreigners to work in the Temple that were not dedicated to the LORD. They were uncircumcised.
The only family that was faithful was the sons of Zadok. They were the ones who were going to serve the LORD in the Temple.
This chapter deals with all aspects of the lives of the priests. How long their hair was supposed to be. What they were to wear while serving in the Temple. What they were to drink. HE gave them instruction on who they were to marry.
The LORD wanted to establish a difference between those who were holy and those who were not. These priests were to be the judges of the people. They were not to come close to any dead body except close relatives. Finally, HE gave instructions regarding their possessions and income.
The main stay of an Israelite family was bread. The grain to make the bread was one of the things the people were to bring to the priest so that he would have plenty to eat.
The children of Israel were to bring the first fruits of all their trees and gardens and herd to the priest. The priest was a special individual in the service of the LORD. If the people wanted the blessing of the LORD, it came through their treatment of faithful priests.
However, in this chapter we find that there were good priests and bad priests. The bad priests were leading the people away from the LORD and HIS commands. The good priests were faithful to the LORD.
The people who were faithful to the good priests and brought their first fruits to the priest were going to receive a blessing on their houses.
Are we bringing our first fruits to the house of the LORD? Do we write a check for the LORD’S work first each time we are paid? Are we expecting a blessing from the LORD without giving HIM what HE requires of us?
If we want the blessings of the LORD, we need to take care of HIS special servants who are faithful to HIM and HIS word. We are the ones the LORD uses to feed HIS servants.
CHALLENGE: Trust in the LORD usually starts with our checkbook. If we can’t trust HIM with our money then it seems that we don’t trust HIM in other areas of our life.
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