Oct 3rd

1 Kings 6     Ezekiel 36     Ephesians 3     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Architects, builders and interior designers may really enjoy 1 Kings 6. But many of us will struggle. There is so much detail and it is difficult to imagine what this building might look like. And how long a cubit is anyway (I make it 2 foot)? Why get so excited about a building project?

There would have been few big buildings in Israel and this one would impress from miles around with its grandeur. If the suspension bridge is the image to conjure up Bristol and the gerkin for London, Solomon’s temple was the image for Jerusalem. It spoke of God being permanently with His people – no more moving around in tents or setting up shrines on high places. The great promise to Abraham (‘I will be your God and you will be my people’) was being fulfilled. And God had a place in the heart of Israel. He is not distant, an absentee landlord, the watchmaker who wound up the clock and left it to run. God is in the heart of his people and they can come to a place to worship him in the nitty gritty of their daily lives. In the temple heaven and earth meet.

The temple did not last for ever. But it was replaced by something better. We do not have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to encounter God. We meet him in Jesus, the new Temple, in whom heaven and earth meet. In fact in yesterday’s reading (Eph 2:21) he said we were being made into a temple ourselves in which the Spirit would dwell. Which is why Paul can fall to his knees and pray with confidence as he does in Ephesians 3:14-21. And what a prayer he prays!

This would be a great prayer to work through yourself today. Who can you pray this for today?

(member of the congregation)