Defiling the Sanctuary

 A sanctuary is a "holy place" used for worship. It is usually a room that is set aside for having worship services. When we come into a sanctuary to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, we should make sure that our heart is set on nothing else but Him. Jesus is the Lord of all, and we should never let anything compete with Him alone to be Lord of our life.

The people of God in Ezekiel's time had committed all kinds of abominations against Him. They even brought idols and abominations into the sanctuary of the Temple. (Ezekiel 5:11) So God had to tell them that because they had defiled the sanctuary with all of their idols and with all of their abominations, He would withdraw from them, and His eye would not pity them. He would not spare any of them. This is why we must never defile the sanctuary today.

God deserves all of our praise and worship. Jesus died and arose for our sins out of His great love for us. When we go to our place of worship, we must be sure that we go with a clean heart. We must confess our sins and go into His presence totally clean. Then, we can draw near to God, and He will reveal Himself to us.

If we defile the sanctuary by coming into His presence while allowing other things to take our attention from Him and by thinking of sinful things, God will not allow us into His presence. In fact, He will withdraw from us. His eye will not have pity on us, and He will punish us, not sparing us from the pain we deserve because of our lack of respect for Him. Let's make sure we never defile the sanctuary, but we always worship Jesus alone in Spirit and in truth.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 6-8.