A Living Temple

A Lenten series on Mountaintop Moments
– King Solomon on Mount Moriah
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
2 Chronicles 5:2-6:11 

[In this Lenten series, we will be looking at Mountaintop Moments. These mountains are more than just geographical features. They symbolize divine encounters and moments of revelation, faith and transformation. In other words, meeting God on the mountain top.]

 

The Lord promised Abraham that he would have as many descendants as there were stars in the sky. And yet, after waiting twenty-five years for Sara to have a child, the Lord told him, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and sacrifice him”.

 

Early the next morning, Abraham started his three-day journey to take Isaac to the mountain that the Lord would show him. Once there, he built an altar and bound Isaac. But when he raised his knife, the Lord provided a ram as a substitutionary sacrifice. The name of the mountain was Moriah.

 

Over 1000 years later, Solomon, the king of Israel, had a temple built for the Lord on Mount Moriah. He used the finest materials – cedar, gold, silver, bronze and precious stones. It was constructed by the most skilled craftsmen. The ornamentation was intricate. Gold overlay was everywhere. It was magnificent!

 

Once completed, Solomon planned a dedication that would be rivaled by none. He waited eleven months for just the right time - the Festival of Tabernacles. Then he summoned “the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of Israelite families”.

 

The Levites, who were musicians, played cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. All the people joined in singing and praising the Lord, “He is good! His faithful love endures forever!” To honor the Lord, so many sheep and cattle were sacrificed that they couldn’t keep count.

 

Finally, the priests took the Ark of the Covenant into the Most Holy Place. Then as they withdrew from there, the room filled with smoke. So much so that they couldn’t continue their service.

 

¹ Then Solomon prayed, “O Lord, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness. ² Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever!”        NLT

 

However, the story of Mount Moriah is much more than a substitutionary ram saving the life of Isaac. Or Solomon’s magnificent temple built for the God of Israel to reside forever. It’s the story of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who changed everything.

 

Almost 1000 years after Solomon built his temple, Jesus taught and healed in Herod’s temple… also built on Mount Moriah. 

But his sacrifice will save not just one but all who have faith and follow him. And his home doesn’t depend on a physical building because now he lives in our hearts, a living temple. Paul put it like this.

 

^16b For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:

“I will live in them
    and walk among them.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.     NLT   2 Corinthians 6

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Christmas Karaoke

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Moses: Part II
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Exodus 12:1-30 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

Twenty years ago, after our Christmas Eve service, we decided to drive around and look at the Christmas lights. Afterwards, we were hungry, but because it was Christmas Eve the only restaurants that were open were Chinese.

 

We finally found a place called Lee Garden. It was a family style restaurant nestled in a small strip mall on a side street. The food was good and reasonably priced. Plus, they played Christmas karaoke music!

 

Ever since then, when we’re home for Christmas Eve, we’ve eaten at a Chinese restaurant. It’s become a Christmas family tradition, minus the karaoke music.

 

Israel has a tradition that was started when Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt. It also included a meal. Truthfully though, it has a much deeper meaning than a spur of the moment family tradition.

 

Following his call at the burning bush, Moses returned to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go into the wilderness to worship the Lord. Of course, Pharaoh said no. In fact, despite devastating plagues that the Lord sent on Egypt, he said no ten times. Finally, he relinquished when the plague was for every first-born son to die.

 

Except the Israelites were saved from this heart-breaking loss when the Lord gave them instructions for the first Passover. They were to smear the blood of a goat or lamb on the top and sides of the doorpost of their house.

 

^{12 "}On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! ¹³ But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt."      NLT

 

The Lord instructed Moses to have Israel continue the Passover permanently, making it a tradition. The Passover is how Israel remembers the Lord delivering them out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

           

Traditions can be born out of many circumstances. For us, our Christmas Eve tradition was the result of being hungry. For the Israelites, it was the fulfillment of a generational covenant.

 

Now… fast forward to the first century when Jesus returned to Jerusalem for Passover. Like the blood of a lamb smeared over the doorpost during the first Passover, the blood of the Lamb of God was shed to save us from death. Not the death of a plague, but the death that results from our own sinful nature.

 

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!          NIV   John 1

 

God’s plan of redemption continues today.

 

^{13b "}When I see the blood, I will pass over you."     NLT

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

“Gentlemen, This is a Football.”

Luke 22:14-20

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2022%3A14-20&version=NIV;NLT

 

In 1960, the Green Bay Packers had a devastating loss in the NFL finals. The following year, Vince Lombardi started his pre-season training camp with the basics. “Gentlemen, this is a football.” This is what coaches, teachers and employers do; they start with the fundamentals of the job that is in front of you.

 

Understanding the Bible is the same way. You start with the basics; the fundamentals. One of the Biblical basics is understanding the difference between the Old Covenant, found in the Old Testament, and the New Covenant, found in the New Testament.

 

One is about the Law; the other grace. One is about rituals; the other relationship. For some, the two shall never meet. In reality though, they are both a part of the same story. Together, they tell the history of God’s plan of redemption. They tell the story of God’s covenant with Israel, and with all those who believe and have faith.

 

The Old Covenant was confirmed in Exodus 24 with many animal sacrifices being

made.

 

⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar… ⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”                       NIV

 

The New Covenant was confirmed during the Passover Feast with Jesus and his disciples in the Upper Room.

 

²⁰ After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.                      NLT   

 

Like the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant, Jesus shed his blood to establish the New Covenant so that we might be forgiven. The difference being that Jesus is the pure Lamb of God sacrificed once for all so that no other sacrifices are necessary.

 

In order to be the best football players and team that they could be, Vince Lombardi

instructed his team in the basics. As followers of Christ, should we do any different?

 

 

 

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A Safe Place

Luke 22:14-20

 

¹¹ “Eat it with your shoes on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. And you must eat it in a hurry. It is the time the Lord will pass over. ¹² For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night. And I will kill all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ But the blood will mark for you the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. And no trouble will come upon you to destroy you when I punish the land of Egypt.                     Ex 12:11-13 NLV

 

Can you imagine what that first Passover must have felt like? The Israelites were eating quickly as they listened to the wailing of their neighbors. Their emotions must have been all over the place; from fear to guilt to relief and back to fear again. The lamb’s blood on their doorpost is all that separated them from life and freedom, and the painful loss of their first born. The blood made their home a “safe place”.

 

¹⁵ He said to them, “I have wanted very much to eat this special supper with you

to remember how the Jews left Egypt. I have wanted to eat this with you before I suffer.             Lk 22:15 NLV

 

As Jesus served his disciples the Passover meal, he knew what was going to happen to him that night; He knew that all hell was about to break loose. But for his followers - his life blood, his body would provide the same protection that the Israelites experienced in Egypt. He was the sacrificial Passover lamb. This was indeed a safe place.

 

Of course, the body and blood of Jesus provided much more than a safe place. He changed things forever. With his death, and ultimately his resurrection, he made it possible for all our sins to be forgiven; he made it possible for us to know God personally; he made it possible for us to go to the ultimate safe place of Heaven.

 

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I would come downstairs on a cold winter morning and crawl behind the couch and lay there for several minutes. I was snuggled between the couch and the heat vents in the wall. It felt very secure. It was a safe place for me to start my day.

 

Each one of us needs to find, or create our own safe place. A safe place where we can be refreshed; where we can draw strength to “fight the good fight”; where we can “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles; where we can begin to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith”; where we can “approach the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”.

 

Nobody said it any better than David.

 

God is our safe place and our strength. He is always our help when we are in trouble. ² So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and the mountains fall into the center of the sea, ³ and even if its waters go wild with storm and the mountains shake with its action.            Psalm 46:1-3 NLV

 

 

Like the little boy hiding behind the couch, getting ready for the day;

let us create our own safe place with the LORD throughout our day.

 

 

 

 

 

(If God has spoken to you, or touched your heart through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)