20230123

the one given up

Ezekiel 43:13-17 (JDV)

Ezekiel 43:13 “These are the measurements of the altar in units of length (each unit being a cubit and a hand-breadth): The gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of nine inches around its edge. This is the base of the altar.
Ezekiel 43:14 The distance from the gutter on the ground to the lower ledge is two cubits, and the width of the ledge is a cubit. There are four cubits from the small ledge to the large ledge, whose width is also a cubit.
Ezekiel 43:15 The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth.
Ezekiel 43:16 The hearth is square, twelve cubits long by twelve cubits wide.
Ezekiel 43:17 The ledge is fourteen cubits long by fourteen cubits wide, with four equal sides. The rim all around it is half a cubit, and its gutter is a cubit all around it. The altar’s steps face east.”

This is the altar of burnt offerings, not that of incense. In the new temple, it must be present, because it symbolized access to God. But unlike the altar of incense, this is not access through prayer. This is access through sacrifice.

Something valuable to the worshipers had to be given up or else even our prayers would be ineffective. What could be more valuable to us than the one of us who needed no sacrifice?

LORD, thank you for the one who was given up for our sins.