Walking in Solomon's Colonnade

Today's weather in Wisconsin can remind you of our lesson from John 10:22-42. A cool late December day in Jerusalem was about the temperature we can expect today (40s and 50s) with a chance of rain.

The pictures above are from a free app called "Immersive Herod's Temple." You can walk through the temple, see Solomon's Colonnade or Solomon's Porch... you can even go into the Most Holy Place. I encourage you to watch a 20 minute narrated introduction to the temple using this app.  Then download the app and tour the temple for yourself. 

It was winter.

Jesus is walking in the temple courts in Solomon's Colonnade. It was during the Feast of Dedication, what we call Hanukkah today. This feast came from the time between the Old and New Testaments when the temple was rededicated after being recaptured by the Maccabees. (Learn more here). 

Our lesson occurs about 4 months before Jesus' crucifixion. John's gospel has been tracking the increased tension between Jesus and the Pharisees in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not a safe place for Jesus.

The Safe Place 

In the face of this hostility, Jesus offers us the one safe place. Safe in his hand. Safe in the Father's hand. 

The Pharisees understood that Jesus was saying he was God. They refused to believe it, even though they saw so many miraculous signs. 

Dear brothers and sisters, John's gospel is written so that we see the signs (the miracles) too, and that by seeing them we believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This God who walked in the cool of the Jerusalem December knows you personally. He walked away from the danger that December only to return in the spring. He walked into the sentence of death that we deserved so that we might be safe. 

The Savior God came into this world to pick us out of the dust of death and despair and place us safely in his hand. He will never let us go.  How can we know... because "The Scriptures cannot be broken" (John 10:35). 

The Safe Place Spurned - Ezekiel 17-18

In Ezekiel 17, the prophet pictures the events leading up the destruction of Jerusalem. 

Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon is the one eagle. He took King Jehoiachin into exile in 597 BC and installed King Zedekiah in his place. Zedekiah swore to be a loyal vassal or servant to Babylon. 

But rather than trust that the LORD had given him this safe place, Zedekiah sought safety in an alliance with Egypt - the other eagle in the parable. But Egypt was not the safe place. Nebuchadnezzar would come in 586 BC, destroy Jerusalem and take Zedekiah back to Babylon to die. 

Notice the Good Friday reference at the end of Ezekiel 17: I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. 

As Jesus was carrying the cross, the women mourned, and Jesus asked a question: If people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? (Luke 23:31). 

Now is the day of the green tree. Now, before the judgment comes... Now is the day to find the safe place of God's grace.

The Safe Place - Daily Repentance

In Ezekiel 18, the prophet deals with a complaint... that the Israelites were suffering in Ezekiel's day because of the bad things their ancestors had done. The prophet makes clear that the LORD holds each of us accountable for our sins. "The one who sins is the one who will die."

But what a comfort to see that if we repent... if we turn from our sins... "None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them."

The LORD had warned in Exodus 20 that he will punish the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. If we continue in the sins of our ancestors, we will suffer the punishment. For example, violent fathers often have violent sons.

But this chapter reminds us that this chain can be broken. 

Our sins of the past do not define us. 

The sins of our ancestors do not define us.

We have this wonderful promise that the One Person whose opinion really matters will not remember our sins!

Listen to this wonderful invitation:

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Have I stepped out of "the safe place"? Where have I trusted in my own abilities or a security of my own making? Where have I been like that vine in Ezekiel 17 seeking a safe place other than in the LORD. 

As the coolness of this fall day strikes your face, may it be a reminder of what the LORD God said for you that cool December day in Jerusalem. 

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

I am in His hand. I am in the safe place. Amen.