Purified

The Temple of the Lord spent decades if not centuries tainted by objects of worship to other gods. For most of their time under a king, Judah’s worship of God was tainted by worship of other gods. When things seemed to have hit rock bottom, Ahaz had defiled the temple and Israel was exiled. Finally Hezekiah started to set things right.

Maybe Israel’s exile served as a wake-up call, but Hezekiah sets everything right. He removes every trace of everything wrong, evil and broken in the Temple and replaces it with everything good, holy and sacred.

What a beautiful image of the saving work of God in our own hearts. Sometimes it takes us hitting rock bottom, having looked in all the wrong places to find our meaning and purpose, and then through some wake-up call God brings us back to himself. The incredible thing is that we are not the ones who purify our hearts but God’s Spirit at work within us.

Jesus did the work to make us clean on the cross, so the Holy Spirit doesn’t have to wait for us to be made clean, instead, as He cleans us, as He fills us, and we become his holy temple.

Thought Point

Read 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, how does it feel to be God’s temple?

Prayer Point

Ask God to fill you with his cleansing presence.