“And he measured the length of the room, 20 cubits, and its breadth, 20 cubits, across the nave. And he said to me, ‘This is the Most Holy Place.'”
– Ezekiel 41:4
That’s capitalized there at the end of Ezekiel 41:4, Most Holy Place. It’s a reference to the place in the temple where the glory of God dwelled in a special, powerful, awesome way among his people.
We know the picture throughout the Old Testament, that only the high priest could go into the Most Holy Place at a certain time. He would go in with little bells around his legs, his feet, so that if those bells stopped moving, they would know he had been struck down in the presence of God. They had a rope that they could pull him out by his feet if that were to happen. The fear and awe and trembling and trepidation that marked the Most Holy Place in the temple.
To read this in the Old Testament and then to contemplate how Jesus died on a cross, and when He did, the curtain of the temple was torn in two and the way was made open for any one of us, no matter who we are, what we’ve done, that we can enter into the Most Holy Place. By the blood of Jesus, through faith in Jesus, His sacrifice for our sins, we’ve been welcomed into the Most Holy Place, and not just welcomed into. Keep going in the New Testament, the new covenant, this term of relationship with God, and the Bible teaches that our bodies are the what? The temple of the Holy Spirit that God comes to dwell in us.
God, help us to realize what a privilege this is right now to be with you. God, help us not to treat relationship with you, entering into prayer before you, as a casual thing. God, may fear and awe and trembling and trepidation mark our relationships with you. May we be in awe, even right now in a fresh way, that we have communion with you.
God, we deserve the opposite. We deserve to be cast away from your presence forever. And here we are enjoying you, praying to you, listening to your Word, and praying according to it. God, thank you. Thank you, Jesus, for making this possible, and then for coming to dwell in us, making our bodies a temple of your Holy Spirit.
God, help us to be holy then as you are holy. God, help us to hate sin. God, every thought we have today, every desire we have, every word we speak, everything we do, every decision we make, God help us to be holy as you are holy. God, help us to run from sin today and to live with fear and awe of your holiness.
Then, God, just like the nations used to come to the temple to behold your glory, help us to go to the nations to spread your glory right around us. God, help us to live today that people might see our lives, our good deeds, hear the gospel in our lips, and give glory to you in heaven. God, help us to take the gospel, the good news of your grace and your glory, to all the peoples of the world, to the Machhi of Pakistan, two and a half million of them, hardly any followers of Jesus.
It’s so hard, God. It’s hard to get to Pakistan. You know this. We pray for those who are serving in Pakistan. I think about brothers and sisters I know. God, bless them for the spread of the gospel and your glory to the Machhi people. God, raise up more people to go to Pakistan to share the gospel, to spread your glory to the Machhi people, that you might be exalted among them, that they might become temples of your Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus, that they might have access to the throne room that we have access to right now.
Oh, God, we are in awe when we read about the Most Holy Place and when we think about our lives today. Thank you for this privilege of prayer, for the awesome responsibility and privilege of your Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We pray that you’d help us to pray with awe and live with holiness and with zeal to spread your great glory among all the nations, starting right where we live today. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
