Friday, May 16<\/b><\/p>\n
\nEzekiel 38: In the composition of the Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 38-39 are especially striking and, at first sight, incongruous. Nonetheless, they form an intentional link between the promises in Chapter 37 and the prophecies of God\u2019s final temple in Chapters 40-48.<\/p>\n
\nChapters 38-39 describe a terrible invasion from the north, led by a commander of an international army (verses 2-6,15), named Gog. This invasion is not imminent; it will come \u201cin the latter years\u201d (38:8), a reference to the indefinite future (indefinite because only God knows the future) that may be described as the \u201clast times.\u201d Gog represents the final great enemy of God\u2019s people, and his invasion will be the last great attack against God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n
\nThe name \u201cGog\u201d would have surprised none of Ezekiel\u2019s contemporaries, for it was the name of a person from the somewhat recent past and still well known in the sixth century before Christ. The Hebrew name Gog corresponds to the Assyrian Gugu and the Greek Gyges. He was a famous seventh century king of Lydia in Asia Minor, who had died in 648. Accounts of the original Gog are found in Assyrian annals and the History of Herodotus. (If Ezekiel were writing today, he might use, for the same purpose, \u201cBismarck\u201d or \u201cGaribaldi.\u201d) The name is not especially important for the identification of the invader; like all the other names in this chapter, it is symbolic of evil realities much larger and more menacing than their historical references.<\/p>\n
\nThus understood, Gog and his forces will reappear in Revelation 20. (\u201cMagog,\u201d by the way, appears to be an abbreviation of the Hebrew min-Gog, \u201cfrom Gog.\u201d In the Book of Revelation he is a derived ally of Gog.) The most important thing to know about Gog is that God\u2019s people do not need to fear him, for his doom has already been determined.<\/p>\n
\nSaturday, May 17<\/b><\/p>\n
\n1 Samuel 3: Samuel\u2019s lifetime–mostly the second half of the eleventh century before Christ–was an age of transitions, in two of which Samuel himself was directly involved. These were the destruction of the shrine at Shiloh in his youth, and Israel\u2019s establishment of the monarchy during his declining years. In both cases Samuel, the last of Israel\u2019s Judges, was obliged to be the bearer of bad news.<\/p>\n
\nHe was a mere boy when, shortly before 1050 BC, Samuel was taken to Shiloh, consecrated to God, and placed under the guidance of that shrine\u2019s last priest, Eli (1 Samuel 1:24\u201328; 2:11, 18\u201320). Shiloh had been a central shrine of Israel for about a century and a half, ever since Joshua fixed it as the meeting place of the twelve tribes (Joshua 18:1). It was from there that the tribal representatives went forth to survey the Promised Land, and back to Shiloh they returned to cast lots for the division of the land (18:8\u201310; 19:51).<\/p>\n
\nDuring the ensuing period of Israel\u2019s judges, 1200 to 1050, Shiloh remained a regular place of pilgrimage (Judges 21:19; 1 Samuel 1:3, 7). At some point during that period, the Ark of the Covenant, previously placed at Bethel (Judges 20:26\u201327), was moved to Shiloh. It was near the Ark, within the shrine, that the boy Samuel slept, at least sometimes (1 Samuel 3:3).<\/p>\n
\nOne such night, indeed, provided what is perhaps the best-known scene in Samuel\u2019s life. Three times the sleeping lad, hearing his name called out in the night, rose and went to learn what Eli wanted of him.<\/p>\n
\nEli, however, had not called him. Finally, this aged priest, suspecting the truth, instructed Samuel, should he hear his name invoked again, to answer, \u201cSpeak, Lord, for Your servant hears\u201d (3:3\u20139). Samuel, yet abiding near the Ark, did so, and the Lord did speak to him, giving the boy his first experience of prophecy. It concerned the coming destruction of Shiloh and the end of Eli\u2019s priesthood (3:11\u201314). Samuel was obliged to bear the bad news (3:17\u201318).<\/p>\n
\nSunday, May 18<\/b><\/p>\n
\n1 Samuel 4: Shiloh\u2019s destruction followed shortly after Samuel\u2019s prophecy, when the Ark of the Covenant, carried into battle against the Philistines, was captured by them, and Eli himself fell dead at the news (4:1\u201322). Thus, \u201call Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord\u201d (3:20). Although some prophets continued to dwell at Shiloh (cf. 1 Kings 14:2, 4), its priests settled at Nob (1 Samuel 14:3; 22:11). Samuel moved back to Ramah (7:17), his birthplace, and the Ark, though returned to Israel, was never again installed at Shiloh. The Lord had abandoned the site (Psalm 77[78]:60), making it a symbol of the fate awaiting any city that forsakes His covenant (Jeremiah 7:12, 14).<\/p>\n
\nIsrael\u2019s movement to monarchy occurred some thirty years later, around 1020, and here again Samuel served as the bearer of bad news. Though his own instincts opposed the idea of kingship, regarding it at first as a rebellion against God\u2019s covenant, it is possible that Samuel bore some of the blame for this development. His failure to discipline his sons, after all, was the immediate reason given for the need of a king (1 Samuel 8:1\u20135).<\/p>\n
\nThere is an irony here. Samuel himself had witnessed how Eli\u2019s failure to discipline his sons had earlier led to the destruction of Shiloh (1 Samuel 2:12\u201317, 22\u201325). It is no small paradox that Samuel, ever the visionary of the future, should be suddenly confronted with d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\nAs in that earlier case, however, Samuel prayed (8:6), and once again God spoke to him, instructing him to accede to the people\u2019s clamor for a king (8:7\u20138). Indeed, Samuel was the man God wanted to anoint that king (10:1). Nonetheless, as Israel\u2019s \u201cseer\u201d (9:9), he was also directed to foretell to the people the dire consequences of their choice. The sad list of evils that the seer predicted as attendant on the institution of kingship (8:11\u201318) was a prophecy amply fulfilled in the following centuries. It was truly bad news.<\/p>\n
\nEven though Samuel\u2019s hopes for the kingship had never been high, Israel\u2019s first king, Saul, was especially disappointing. Samuel endured him for twenty years. In the Lord\u2019s final word to His prophet, near the end of the century, He commanded Samuel to stop moping about the problem and to anoint David as the new king (16:1). He obediently did so (16:2\u201313), though he died before David could assume the throne (25:1). In Holy Scripture Samuel thus appears as the prophetic link joining Israel\u2019s kings to its earlier history.<\/p>\n
\nMonday, May 19<\/b><\/p>\n
\nEzekiel 41: Everything in the temple expresses the principles of mathematics. In the Bible (as in Pythagoras and Plato), numbers are sacred; they are spiritual emanations of God\u2019s creative act, giving form, structure, and significance to the universe. Numbers are the basis of \u201cform,\u201d that internal principle of proportion that causes things to be what they are. And because the knowledge of anything consists in the comprehension of its form, all knowledge involves a mathematical perception, a \u201cmeasure,\u201d the perception of \u201climits,\u201d which \u201cdefine\u201d things.<\/p>\n
\nEven this future temple–a reflection of the heavenly sanctuary seen by Moses on Mount Sinai–now being \u201cvisited\u201d in prophetic vision by Ezekiel, is shaped (that is, receives its form) by the principles of measurement. Because the house of God is a house of order, not chaos, it is a house structured according to the eternal principles of proportion.<\/p>\n
\nStep by step, and in reverent silence, the angelic tour guide patiently lays his royal cubit stick to determine the proportions of the sacred space. The unit of measure that he employs is the royal cubit, which in modern measurement is 52.5 centimeters or 20.6692 inches.<\/p>\n
\nWhen the heavenly minister enters the Holy of Holies to take its measure in verses 3-4, Ezekiel reverently remains outside; when that inner sanctuary has been measured, the angel gives the prophet a brief explanation.<\/p>\n
\nEzekiel also receives an explanation of the altar in verse 22. The elaborate carvings described in verses 19-26 are early proof that the Jews of that period (and for centuries to come, well into the Christian era), did not interpret the Decalogue as prohibiting works of representative art in places of worship.<\/p>\n
\nTuesday, May 20<\/b><\/p>\n
\nEzekiel 42: This chapter of Ezekiel elaborately describes the temple area enclosed by a wall that made \u201ca separation between the holy and the common\u201d (42:20). In Holy Scripture there is a strong sense of sacred space, a consecrated area devoted solely to sacred worship. Indeed, the Greek verb meaning to \u201cdivide\u201d (temno<\/i>) provides the root of our word \u201ctemple,\u201d designating a special space set apart or \u201cdivided\u201d for sacred worship. (The same verbal root gives us such English words as \u201ctime\u201d and \u201ctemporal.\u201d Just as space is \u201cdivided,\u201d so is time.)<\/p>\n
\nThe original type of such space was the area adjacent to the Burning Bush, which Moses could not enter without removing his shoes. (Observe that in Ezekiel 42:14, the priests were required to change their clothing when they entered or left the temple. Secular clothing was inappropriate within the sacred space, and liturgical clothing was inappropriate outside of it.)<\/p>\n
\nWhen Moses later received the Law, all of Mount Sinai became sacred space, off-limits except to those designated to approach the Divine Presence. In varying gradations, all the space of the temple was consecrated and, therefore, off-limits except to those designated for entrance. Most sacred of all was the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest could enter, nor could even he enter it except on the holiest day of the year (the divided and thereby consecrated \u201ctime\u201d), which was the Day of the Atonement.<\/p>\n
\nHere on earth, all consecrations of space are reflections of heaven itself, that tabernacle not made with hands, where our own Forerunner and High Priest has entered once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption for us.<\/p>\n
\nWednesday, May 21<\/b><\/p>\n
\nEzekiel 43: God\u2019s glory, which Ezekiel had seen depart eastward from the temple in 11:23, now returns from the same direction. This glory of God, witness by the prophet, was revealed in a great luminosity, in reference to which we are surely correct in thinking of the bright cloud of fire that led Israel through the Red Sea and the Sinai desert. This same divine luminosity adorned the face of Christ our Lord at His Transfiguration and is an image of divine revelation itself (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6).<\/p>\n
\nWhen the divine glory returns to the temple, it is accompanied, Ezekiel tells us, by all the mystic images that he originally saw at the time of his calling, at the beginning of this book. In verse 10 he is commissioned to write a description of all that he sees, and there immediately follows an account of the altar (verses 13-17) and its construction and consecration (verses 18-27).<\/p>\n
\nOne is particularly struck by the detail that this new altar must be ascended by stairs, a feature expressly prohibited in Exodus 20:25-26.<\/p>\n
\nThursday, May 22<\/b><\/p>\n
\nEzekiel 44: The first three verses of this chapter testify to the special holiness of the temple\u2019s east gate, consecrated by the entrance of God\u2019s glory through it. This gate must remain sealed forever. Because God Himself has used this gate, the prophet is told, no one else may do so. Even the prince, who may approach the gate from the vestibule to the west of it, may not pass through the gate itself, though he is permitted to eat certain consecrated foods while within the gateway.<\/p>\n
\nThis account of the consecration of the temple\u2019s eastern gate, by reason of God\u2019s having entered it, is read at Vespers on most feast days of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Eastern Orthodox Church, which interprets the text as an image prophetic of Mary\u2019s perpetual virginity. According to this interpretation, her very body, because God\u2019s Word used it as His entrance into this world by means of the Incarnation, was consecrated in an exclusive way; if this was the case with respect to the divine cloud of God\u2019s glory in the Old Testament, how much more with respect to God\u2019s definitive entry into human life by Incarnation. After His passage through it, the door of His entrance, because it was definitively consecrated, must remain forever shut.<\/p>\n
\nThe rest of this chapter deals with the consecration of the priests and Levites. Himself a member of the priestly family, Ezekiel habitually shows special concern for the distinction between holy and profane, as we see here in verses 17-27.<\/p>\n
\nFriday, May 23<\/b><\/p>\n
\nMatthew 21:1-11: The enthusiasm shown at our Lord\u2019s entry into Jerusalem is partly to be explained, as a matter of history, as the people\u2019s response to the raising of Lazarus, an event not recorded in the Synoptic Gospels.<\/p>\n
\nComparing the three Synoptics, we observe that Matthew explicitly interprets the Lord\u2019s entrance into Jerusalem through the eyes of the prophet Zechariah, whom he quotes in verse 5: “Tell the daughter of Zion, \u2018Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly and seated on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey\u2019” (Zechariah 9:9).<\/p>\n
\nThis recourse to prophecy, which must have been obvious to others besides Matthew, guarantees that the event is not regarded as an isolated occurrence, because vision of prophecy places it into a larger, more panoramic historical perspective. Prophecy permits the event to be regarded as manifesting God\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n
\nProphecy reveals at once two things about what happened on the first Palm Sunday: first, the inner meaning of the event as God sees it, and second, the connection of the event with earlier biblical history.<\/p>\n
\nThe second of these points requires further elaboration. In the mind of Matthew, the biblical background or foreshadowing of this event was the story in 2 Samuel 15\u201417, where King David is portrayed fleeing from the rebellion of Absalom. Crossing the Kidron valley eastwards and ascending the Mount of Olives, David is the king rejected of his people, while a usurper is in full revolt. The King leaves the city in disgrace, riding on a donkey, the poor animal of the humble peasant. David is the very image of meekness in the face of defeat. In his heart is no bitterness; he bears all with patience and plans no revenge.<\/p>\n
\nAs he goes, David suffers further humiliation and deception from those who take advantage of his plight. One of his most trusted counselors, Ahitophel, betrays him to his enemies; another citizen curses and scorns him in his flight.<\/p>\n
\nMoreover, in the description of David fleeing from Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, there is a striking contrast with the victorious Absalom, the usurper, who is driving “a chariot and horses with fifty men to run before him” (2 Samuel 15:1). Absalom represents worldly power and worldly wisdom, contrasted with the humility and meekness of the King.<\/p>\n
\nIncorporating this image of David as a mystic prefiguration of the Messiah yet to come, the post-exilic prophet Zechariah foretold the triumphal entry of the Messiah into Zion, the story narrated by the Evangelists. The Savior arrives in Jerusalem by the very path that David used to flee from the Holy City. Riding the donkey, our Lord comes down westward from the Mount of Olives, crosses the Kidron Valley, and finally enters Jerusalem. He thus begins the week of His meekly borne sufferings, including betrayal by a friend and rejection by His people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, May 16 Ezekiel 38: In the composition of the Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 38-39 are especially striking and, at first sight, incongruous. Nonetheless, they form an intentional link between the promises in Chapter 37 and the prophecies of God\u2019s final temple in Chapters 40-48. Chapters 38-39 describe a terrible invasion from the north, led … Continue reading May 16 – May 23<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}