Ezekiel 41:1-7: a reflection

1He brought me to the nave and measured the posts, six cubits wide on the one side and six cubits wide on the other side, which was the width of the tent. 2The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side. He measured its length, forty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits. 3Then he went inward and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the width of the entrance, seven cubits. 4He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, before the nave. He said to me, “This is the most holy place.” 5Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the width of every side room, four cubits, all around the house on every side. 6The side rooms were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in each story. They entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side rooms all around, that they might be supported and not penetrate the wall of the house. 7The side rooms were wider on the higher levels, because the walls were narrower at the higher levels. Therefore the width of the house increased upward; and so one went up from the lowest level to the highest through the middle level.

In Ezekiel's vision of the temple, the guide leads him inward, measuring as he goes, until they reach the inner room, and he says, This is the most holy place. The whole structure, with all its courts and chambers and side rooms, was built around this central space, the most holy place, where God's presence dwelt. Everything in the temple was oriented toward that center; the whole design pointed inward, to the place where God was.

Notice how the temple was ordered: around the most holy place at its center. The many rooms and courts were not an end in themselves; they surrounded and led toward the innermost place, God's dwelling. The center of the whole structure, the point around which everything else was arranged, was the presence of God. Take away that center, and the rest would have no meaning; it was the most holy place that gave the whole temple its purpose.

That is a picture of how a life is rightly ordered: with God at the center. Our lives, like the temple, have many rooms, work, relationships, interests, duties, pleasures; and the question is what they are arranged around, what is at the center. A life is rightly ordered when God is at its center, when everything else is arranged around his presence and oriented toward him. Ask what is at the center of your life, the thing everything else is arranged around. Let it be God, his presence at the heart, so that all the rooms of your life are oriented toward him. A life built around God at the center has its true purpose; make him the most holy place at the heart of yours.

Lord, in Ezekiel's vision, the whole temple was built around the most holy place at its center, where your presence dwelt; everything was oriented toward that center, and it gave the whole structure its purpose. Let my life be ordered like that, with you at the center. My life, like the temple, has many rooms, work, relationships, interests, duties, pleasures; and the question is what they are arranged around, what is at the center. Help me put you at the center, so that everything else is arranged around your presence and oriented toward you. Show me what is truly at the center of my life now, the thing everything else revolves around. If it is not you, reorder my life around your presence, so that all its rooms point toward you. A life built around you at the center has its true purpose; be the most holy place at the heart of mine.