*Scripture: Ezekiel 40:1-4; 43:1-12 (NKJV)* 40:1 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was captured, on the very same day the hand of the LORD was upon me; and He took me there. 2 In the visions of God He took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the south was something like the structure of a city. 3 He took me there, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze. He had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the gateway. 4 And the man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house of Israel everything you see."
43:1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. 3 It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw—like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. 5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 6 Then I heard Him speaking to me from the temple, while a man stood beside me. 7 And He said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places. 8 When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger. 9 Now let them put their harlotry and the carcasses of their kings far away from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever. 10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. 11 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, its entire design and all its ordinances, all its forms and all its laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its whole design and all its ordinances, and perform them. 12 This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple." *Devotion* Again we see the Lord declare to Ezekiel what the New Testament Israel is to be. The carcasses of the kings of old are to be abandoned along with the harlotry of Old Israel—that is, of the physical nation that was supposed to be the Church, but that only had the Church hidden within it. The true Israel of the New Testament is without harlotry—without its members being wholly given over to the worship of false gods. While it is true that even Christians do not always fully keep the First Commandment (which is broken in the breaking of any other Commandment), the New Testament Israel is only those who trust in Christ for salvation. When the "line of flax and measuring rod" are used to measure the Temple, it is this that is measured: whether there is faith in Christ. As St. Paul writes to the Galatians (6:16), those who know that the measure of the Church is the new creation in Christ—understanding that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails them any better standing before God—and are the Israel of God, upon whose peace and mercy ever dwells. Thus, God's holy nation is to follow the pattern of this Temple. It is to continue in this understanding of what true holiness is and is not. And it is to see the observances of the Church for what they are to be: opportunities to hear and learn the Word of God and to receive His grace and forgiveness through the Sacraments, not devices by which to try to placate His wrath, as the blood and righteousness of Christ already avail for us to that end.
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