Good Morning “Clean Hands and Pure Hearts.” Today we are in 2 Chronicles 4.
Today we read about the construction of some of the elements / furniture to be used within the Temple. This chapter briefly describes the altar of burnt offerings, the altar of incense, the bronze sea, the washing basins, the golden lampstands, and other furniture Solomon’s craftsmen fashioned for the magnificent temple in Jerusalem.
As I read, I’m struck by all of the wash basins for properly cleaning and preparing the sacrifices, especially the Sea which the Priests used for washing before entering The Temple. This thing was HUGE. The measurements given, equate to about 8ft in height and 16ft wide. It would have held about 12,000 gallons of water. The water likely flowed down out of it into a lower rim where they gathered to wash.
Talk about a statement piece! But what’s the statement? Consider this; The Priests were required to cleanse themselves both physically and spiritually from sin and impurity before entering The Temple in Worship. Now we know that no Priest was ever free from sin, for only Jesus was sinless. (Romans 3:23, Hebrews 4:15). Furthermore, we know you can scrub and scrub but you’re never going to get ALL of the germs off of your hands - even with anti-bacterial soap (no mention of that). All this imagery is directly applicable to us as the “Royal Priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
So what is the point? Maybe it’s just that. There is NOTHING we can do to truly purify ourselves. Even the greatest, most ornate wash basin (Sea) will not accomplish it! The bulls that supported it and sacrifices made after were not enough. The expectation was that they were intentional to do all they could do, to be “pure”, before entering His presence. We too are called to be Holy just as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16) but that is ONLY accomplished through Jesus.
After listing a whole host of sins Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 6:11 “…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
We may be intentional about the way we live our lives. We may purpose, as the Levitical Priests did, to present ourselves to Him “as living sacrifices Holy, Pure, and Pleasing”… (Romans 12:1); but recognize, THAT purification is only accomplished by His finished work on The Cross (Titus 3:5). Everything else falls short.
Love you all! Dig in!
Today we read about the construction of some of the elements / furniture to be used within the Temple. This chapter briefly describes the altar of burnt offerings, the altar of incense, the bronze sea, the washing basins, the golden lampstands, and other furniture Solomon’s craftsmen fashioned for the magnificent temple in Jerusalem.
As I read, I’m struck by all of the wash basins for properly cleaning and preparing the sacrifices, especially the Sea which the Priests used for washing before entering The Temple. This thing was HUGE. The measurements given, equate to about 8ft in height and 16ft wide. It would have held about 12,000 gallons of water. The water likely flowed down out of it into a lower rim where they gathered to wash.
Talk about a statement piece! But what’s the statement? Consider this; The Priests were required to cleanse themselves both physically and spiritually from sin and impurity before entering The Temple in Worship. Now we know that no Priest was ever free from sin, for only Jesus was sinless. (Romans 3:23, Hebrews 4:15). Furthermore, we know you can scrub and scrub but you’re never going to get ALL of the germs off of your hands - even with anti-bacterial soap (no mention of that). All this imagery is directly applicable to us as the “Royal Priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
So what is the point? Maybe it’s just that. There is NOTHING we can do to truly purify ourselves. Even the greatest, most ornate wash basin (Sea) will not accomplish it! The bulls that supported it and sacrifices made after were not enough. The expectation was that they were intentional to do all they could do, to be “pure”, before entering His presence. We too are called to be Holy just as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16) but that is ONLY accomplished through Jesus.
After listing a whole host of sins Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 6:11 “…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
We may be intentional about the way we live our lives. We may purpose, as the Levitical Priests did, to present ourselves to Him “as living sacrifices Holy, Pure, and Pleasing”… (Romans 12:1); but recognize, THAT purification is only accomplished by His finished work on The Cross (Titus 3:5). Everything else falls short.
Love you all! Dig in!
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