The Sacred Fabric of Holy Things (Ez. 44)

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I realize that I am getting older by the nanosecond, but I am rapidly losing more and more things all the time, including things I used to know. In a way, it makes rediscovering things already stored away a present of sorts, like finding the Christmas present meant for two years ago hidden so well I forgot where I put them. They’re still there, buried beneath the piles of life in a deep, dark recess somewhere, but they just need some help being located. 

My summer discipleship group will begin meeting in about a month, and I sent the girls a reminder to go ahead and review the verses we’ve memorized the previous two summers because we will be reciting the cumulative verses at some point during the study while learning twelve new ones. It made me realize that I, too, get to do the same, so I immediately started trying to recall the eighteen verses we’ve already memorized along with their scripture references. While the verses come to mind more readily than the references that go along with them, it is still not complete. There is also a scripture “tag” of sorts that goes along with them to help pull them back out for use and application at an appropriate time. I realized (once again) how much one can lose in a year’s time without the daily or even weekly review. It is a mental exercise. It is discipline. It is much needed. It is a treasuring of specific bits and pieces of the word that I want to cling to all the time, not just when I am sitting in front of my Bible reading and studying. In this study I will be learning “new” verses as well, as I’ve not had the chance to work through this course previously as I did with the other two. Adding twelve new verses will be difficult for this old girl, so I’ve decided to take my own advice and start now in reviewing and relearning the previous verses. (The young chicklets make it look easy.)


It was my reading in Ezekiel 44 and the related commentary by Matthew Henry that brought me to these thoughts today. In the prophetical vision, Ezekiel is brought back to the eastern gate to see once again the place he had been shown before, to hear the Lord’s instruction, to give attention to all that He would show him (Ez. 40:4;44:1). This time, the gate was shut (rather like the doors of Noah’s ark) and was not to be opened again because the glory of the LORD God of Israel had entered it (44:1). When Ezekiel was brought around to the front of the “house” to see the glory of the LORD filling it, he fell on his face in worship and was told once again to “mark well,” to see with his eyes, hear with his ears everything he would say concerning the statutes of the house of the LORD and everything pertaining to its laws (v. 4-5). 


Matthew Henry remarks rightly that it bears well for us to look at what we already know, at the lessons we’ve previously learned because “every time we review the sacred fabric of holy things, which we have in the scriptures, we shall still find something new which we did not before take notice of.” 


God is holy. I need constant reminding that I am to be in awe of Him, reminding that I am to fall on my face before Him, not because I don’t know He is holy but because I get easily distracted from His holiness by the world around me. This is why It is so important to bury the word of God in my heart. Time spent in the scripture grounds me, keeps me revolving around Him, helps me focus, teaches me to pray, gives me strength to face my battles and resist my temptations. Time spent planting the word in my heart means that I can pull it back out easily when it is most needed. 


But I forget. Like the children of Israel forgot. 


And I wander. Like the children of Israel wandered. 


There is nothing new under the sun (Ecc. 1:9). Men, in their fallen state, resist God, but praise be to Him that Jesus offers redemption (Is. 53:6; Rom. 5:18-21). Men, through Christ, in their redeemed state, still live encased in the flesh, surrounded by sin that so easily besets him, but the circumcision of the Spirit inside convicts and nudges back to truth when disciplined. The planting of the scriptures within makes the work of the Spirit working within me more easily recognizable. The constant revisiting of the “sacred fabric of holy things” makes the discipline when it comes (and it does . . . ) more recognizable. The constant reading and meditating of the scriptures of God make me want the things of God more than I want the things of this world. It keeps me hungry for Him and reminds me this world is not my home, as Peter reminds me in 1 Peter 2:11: “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”


Because of these things, I will continue to plant the word in my heart, stretching the fabric of my mind with his holiness. I may have to revisit the scriptures again and again to keep them in the forefront of my mind, but they are worth it, and I will.

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