Who May Ascend the Hill of the Lord? (Part 2)
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Introduction
Introduction
is about who has access to God and what kind of access they have.
In we saw the glory of God fill the temple.
It has filled Solomon’s temple once, but God left that temple after God’s people filled it with idolatry.
However, after the promise of the New Covenant, Ezekiel received a vision of a New Temple.
The details of the New Temple were laid about before Ezekiel in his vision, and Ezekiel watched as the glory of God came to fill this New Temple by way of the east gate.
At the beginning of , however, we are told that the east has been permanently shut.
This seems ominous but is actually cause for rejoicing because it shows us that God’s presence will never against depart from among his people. As God says in , “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 people of Israel forever.”
The New Covenant in Christ’s blood means that God will now never leave us nor forsake us for his Spirit dwells within us. The east gate is shut.
But now in we see that, although God is with his people, all do not have the same access to God. Some are close to God than others. Why is that?
The answer is faithfulness.
The more faithful to God we are, the nearer to God we’ll be.
As says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
[TS] This is what we began to see many weeks ago now as we first though about the prince mentioned at the beginning of .
[TS] This is what we began to see many weeks ago now as we first though about the prince mentioned at the beginning of .
The prince or the king of God’s people may east his sacrificial meals in one of the rooms of the east gate, but he is not allowed to come any closer to God.
The kings had treated Solomon’s temple like their own house and so had defiled it with a great many sins. Because of their unfaithfulness, they are only allowed to dwell on the edge of God’s presence.
Nevertheless, to dwell on the edge of God’s presence is great grace when the one dwelling there actually deserves to be in hell.
We may not be as close to God as we like, but we are as close as we are because of his grace. And we can draw closer to him by walking more faithfully with his Son.
And we can draw closer to him by walking more faithfully with his Son.
The prince is discussed in vv. 1-3, but tonight we want to look at the Levites who are discussed in vv. 4-14...
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
The Levites (vv. 4-14).
The Levites (vv. 4-14).
Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. And I fell on my face. And the Lord said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning all the statutes of the temple of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well the entrance to the temple and all the exits from the sanctuary. And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary. “Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment. They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before the people, to minister to them. Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord God, and they shall bear their punishment. They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my holy things and the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed. Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it.
Ezekiel 44
[Illus]
Cheryl was making
[Exp] What do you do with a job you don’t want to do? What do you do with a job that your too good to do? If you were a Levite with a job in Solomon’s temple before it was destroyed by the Babylonians, you delegated or outsourced it to a foreigners— those who were uncircumcised in heart and mind.
[Exp] If you were a Levite with a job in Solomon’s temple before it was destroyed, you delegated or outsourced it to a foreigners, those who were uncircumcised in heart and mind.
T
This was the sin of the Levites before God’s people was exiled to Babylon. As God says to the whole house of Israel regarding the Levites in ...
And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary.
These foreigners had been given many tasks by the Levites.
They served as janitors (i.e., “sanitation technicians” as we heard this morning); they served as doormen, cleaners, assistants in various sacrificial activities, etc.
Because task such as these were in large measure inglorious, the Levites were surely glad to have foreigners willing to do their work for them so they could attend to more important things— things more in keeping with their exalted status as Levites.
The problem, however, was that these foreigners were “uncircumcised in heart and flesh” ().
We need to be sure to notice that God doesn’t have a problem with foreigners, but he does have a problem with uncircumcised foreigners.
The issue isn’t their ethnicity or nationality but their spirituality.
These uncircumcised foreigners were outside the covenant community of God’s people, and yet the Levites had given them the duty of handling the things most precious to the covenant community.
hese uncircumcised foreigners were outside the covenant community of God’s people, and yet the Levites had given them the duty of handling the things most precious to the covenant community.
It’s no wonder that these foreigners didn’t treat the temple and everything within it with reverence. They didn’t know God, so of course they didn’t treated those things with reverence!
Because the Levites had put the foreigners in charge, the Levites would bear the sins of the foreigners ().
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
They will keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it ().
They would oversee the gates of the temple ().
They would slaughter and cook sacrifices (b).
They would stand ready to assist the people in their worship ().
These are tasks that the Levites would have considered beneath them back in Solomon’s temple.
They were forbidden from serving as priests who come near to God or near his holy or most holy things in order to serve him ().
They will be able to come closer than the prince, who would be restricted to a room within the closed eastern gate, but not so close as the Zadokites who will shall come near to God to minister to him in the inner court ().
These Levites will remain in outer court.
They will keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it ().
[Illus]
[App] There are several points of application that we need to see here:
One, as I eluded to earlier, the problem with the foreigners wasn’t that they were foreigners but that they were uncircumcised in heart and flesh ().
To be circumcised in the flesh was to bear the mark of God’s covenant community, but this outward circumcision was meant to reflect a circumcision of the heart.
In response to his grace, God told his people in to “circumcise… the foreskin of (their hearts), and be no longer stubborn.”
The Apostle Paul picks up on this in when he writes, “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart...”
Now, the Levites were given responsibilities in the temple that they should’ve have outsourced to anyone, but if the foreigners that they used had come to know the Lord from the heart, they would have been welcomed into the community of God’s people. They would no longer have been foreigners to God or his people!
[Illus] This is illustrated for us in at the institution of the Passover. It says there...
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
So, we see that a foreigner would be permitted to partake of the Passover if he was willing to undergo circumcision of his flesh, which would have been an indication that his heart had been circumcised before the Lord. (Most men would not be willing to undergo physical circumcision unless they had truly experienced a spiritual circumcision by the Lord!)
These uncircumcised foreigners whom the Levites used to do their duties should never have been used in that way, but they could’ve been welcomed as a part of God’s people if they would’ve been willing to bow their hearts to the one true God.
It’s seems to be that perhaps by using these people the Levites missed an opportunity to welcome these people into the family of God.
Two, God’s people should have demanded holiness from the Levites back in Solomon’s temple.
You’ll notice in that, although God’s word of rebuke is about the Levites, it’s a word of rebuke to the rebellious house of Israel.
The Levites may have given away their God-given responsibilities to uncircumcised foreigners, but the people of God should’ve demanded that they repent.
In the same way, church members today should not sit idly by and watch their ministers give away Christian responsibilities to non-Christians.
[Illus] Now, you may think, “Well, that doesn’t happen today.” Does it not?
I know of a church that hires non-Christian musicians and singers to lead them in worship.
I know of churches who have Jewish rabbis come in to teach them about the Old Testament. These are not Messianic Jewish rabbis who believe Jesus is the Messiah, but Jewish rabbis who reject Jesus as the Christ.
In churches were things like that are happening, it is the responsibility of every church member to demand repentance.
Three, the Levites should have understood that no job in the temple of God was menial.
The Levites thought watching the gates and cleaning up and helping people prepare their offerings were jobs too insignificant for them.
Some of them would rather (and some of them did, cf. ) go serve in more exalted positions in the temples of false gods than serve as a Levite in the temple of the one true God.
One commentator had this to say about these Levites; I thought it was very poignant...
“It may be that few people like to wield a broom or function as doormen, yet they were honest and worthy tasks, a vital part of the functioning of the temple as a whole. And, whether in ancient Israel or the modern Church, the privilege of divine service is misunderstood if the “dirty” jobs are delegated without thought and the “honourable” ones retained. Every role in the service of the sanctuary is important, that of the cleaner no less than that of the priest...”
[Illus] In the late 1800s, a large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts.
Following the European custom of the time, the pastors set their shoes in the hall of their dormitory so they would be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But this was American, and there were no hall servants.
Walking the dormitory halls that night, D. L. Moody saw the shoes and realized what these European brothers were thinking. He didn’t want to embarrass these brothers nor disappoint them, so he mentioned the shoes to some of his ministerial students, but they responded with silence.
Moody then return to the dormitory, gathered up all the shoes, and cleaned and polished every pair himself. The next morning the European pastors found their shoes shined as expected, and no one would have known that it was, at the time, the world’s most famous evangelist who had done it, except that one of his friends dropped by and caught Moody in the act.
I’m sure that after a night of cleaning shoes, Moody announced that the shoe cleaning service would be suspended for the remainder of the conference!
But the point is that D. L. Moody didn’t see shoe cleaning as a job too lowly for him even though he was world famous.
He understood that just like preaching, shoe cleaning could be done for the glory of God.
The Levites shouldn’t have seen their duties as menial, but understood that everything they were called to do was for the glory of God.
We should understand that in the church as well.
Four, God’s discipline of the Levites is mixed with grace.
The prince may look at the outer court where the Levites serve and say, “If only I had been more faithful, I could get that close to God.”
The Levites may look at the inner court where the Zadokite priests serve and say, “If only I had been more faithful, I could get that close to God.”
But God’s discipline had set them where they were, and they were not allowed to come closer.
This may seem like harsh discipline, but its actually great grace.
You see, the eastern gate is a lot close to God than hell is.
The same is true of the outer court.
The sins of the kings of Israel and the sins of Levites could’ve meant an eternity in hell for both groups.
Instead, God graciously disciplines them and welcomes them.
In the same way, we can always look and say, “If only I had been more faithful, I would be that close to God,” but if God has graciously disciplined and welcomed us, let us rejoice that we are not in hell, which is what we deserve!
We may not be as close to God as we want to be, but at least we are not eternally separated from him!
And we can always strive for greater closeness to God, not by giving up our God-given responsibilities, but by walking with Jesus in those God-given responsibilities with ever increasing faithfulness!
[TS] {see below}
To be circumcised in the flesh was to bear the mark of God’s covenant community, but this outward circumcision was meant to reflect a circumcision of the heart.
In response to his grace, God told his people in to “circumcise… the foreskin of (their hearts), and be no longer stubborn.”
The Apostle Paul picks up on this in when he writes, “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart...”
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Now, the Levites were given responsibilities in the temple that they should’ve have outsourced to anyone, but if the foreigners that they used had come to know the Lord from the heart, they would have been welcomed into the community of God’s people. They would no longer have been foreigners to God or his people!
[Illus] This is illustrated for us in at the institution of the Passover. It says there...
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
So, we see that a foreigner would be permitted to partake of the Passover if he was willing to undergo circumcision of his flesh, which would have been an indication that his heart had been circumcised before the Lord. (Most men would not be willing to undergo physical circumcision unless they had truly experienced a spiritual circumcision by the Lord!)
These uncircumcised foreigners whom the Levites used to do their duties should never have been used in that way, but they could’ve been welcomed as a part of God’s people if they would’ve been willing to bow their hearts to the one true God.
[TS]
“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord God. They shall enter my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge. When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments. They shall have nothing of wool on them, while they minister at the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments around their waists. They shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat. And when they go out into the outer court to the people, they shall put off the garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers. And they shall put on other garments, lest they transmit holiness to the people with their garments. They shall not shave their heads or let their locks grow long; they shall surely trim the hair of their heads. No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court. They shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. In a dispute, they shall act as judges, and they shall judge it according to my judgments. They shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts, and they shall keep my Sabbaths holy. They shall not defile themselves by going near to a dead person. However, for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister they may defile themselves. After he has become clean, they shall count seven days for him. And on the day that he goes into the Holy Place, into the inner court, to minister in the Holy Place, he shall offer his sin offering, declares the Lord God. “This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. And the first of all the firstfruits of all kinds, and every offering of all kinds from all your offerings, shall belong to the priests. You shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, that a blessing may rest on your house. The priests shall not eat of anything, whether bird or beast, that has died of itself or is torn by wild animals.
[Exp]
[Illus]
[App]
[TS]
Conclusion
Conclusion
{prayer}