DAY 33

BALANCE AND PURPOSE

Balance In & Purpose Of - Holiness

Exodus 29 & 30 and Matthew 21:23-46

Today Jesus returns to the Temple, and the Temple authorities are not happy. Yesterday he overturned tables disrupting their day and their worship. If you attend church think about what the parallel moment would look like in your House of Worship!

Why does He do it? I’ve written of this before, the answer is quite simply. They have perverted the purpose of the Temple and compromised on the vows they have made to the Most High God – serious stuff.

These two parables of Jesus are not shrouded, not hard to understand. Those who were sent to lead God’s people have perverted the call.

The Old Testament again reinforces this point of Temple and today especially the Priesthood as we read of the elaborate consecration ceremony.

I could certainly comment on the shortcomings of the priesthood in our own day; indeed my shortcomings with regards to holiness.

I feel compelled however to comment on having balance. We are immersed in the early stages of God re-revealing himself to a people. Think about it for a moment. The Israelites in Egypt did not really know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in an intimate way. We are reading the story of God re-introducing himself. His “otherness” and his “holiness” come through in these stories.

Yet I know that this can go awry for us. We can become like the Temple priests of Jesus day, feeling special, feeling better, or worse, exploiting our position. We can also feel apart, very far separated from God. We can feel there is this holy God somewhere and we are not good enough to be with him.

Which brings me to having balance when it comes to how we view God: think of the images we have in these few 33 days.

v  Almighty God of Creation, the Flood, and of the Exodus

v  Holy God of the Burning Bush and of the Mountain

v  God the Protector who cares for Hagar and who parts the Red Sea

v  Approachable God who comes to us as a baby

v  Compassionate God who heals the sick and eats with sinners

v  Patient God who waits

God is all this and more. I am sure you could make a list of your own. The challenge for us is to not see God in only one dimension. Maybe I am feeling that I am caught up in the “holiness” part of God with the readings of the last few days which is why I am writing these comments. God is holy and we are to be holy unto God, not for our glory though, but for his – it is serious stuff.

It is why Jesus is upset with the Temple authorities. Are those folks holy? Outwardly I doubt you would find a holier looking group. Yet inwardly they are not. In Exodus 27:43 God again tells us why all the fuss: There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be a sanctified for my glory.

Furthermore their behavior is not bringing people to God, it is not giving God glory. In verse 45 we read I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. In this period of Jesus God is not dwelling with his people. The elitism of the Temple is yielding quite the opposite. Amazingly the point of the Tent of Meeting and the Temple is God’s desire to dwell with us.

Dwelling with a holy God, a mighty God, a God who is at once just and merciful. How do we hold all these images in balance? How do we gain a perspective of what this God looks like? The answer is Jesus. As we have come to this point in Matthew he has not only been compassionate. He has been a Creator God; that is what the feeding of the 5,000 demonstrates. He has been a Mighty God; calming seas. He has demonstrated dominion over not just the physical realm, but the spiritual; even the demons obey. I could go on, but I imagine you are getting the point.

The purpose of trying to be holy (literally set apart for God) is so that we may dwell with Him and reveal His Glory. Ultimately it is Jesus who will make us holy, but we still have to be willing. What God is seeking in the Old Testament is the same that Jesus is seeking as He walks the Temple floors. May we be holy.