by Eric Holter on January 5, 2007
“For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy.”
Exodus 29:37
“For we are the temple of the living God…”
2 Corinthians 6:16
Such incredible care was taken in the preparation, ordination and consecration of Aaron, his sons, and the altar for their use in the sacrificial ministry. These processes included washing procedures, proper clothes, the acceptable characteristics of the animals used, and how each of the animal’s inner parts were to be offered. These procedures and processes had to be followed perfectly when ministering in the tent of meeting. Once consecrated, the altar was most holy. Anything used in connection with the altar, whatever touched the altar, was holy and consecrated for use only on the altar. Consecrated holy things must not be used in common ways. They must be handled with reverence and care. The knife used to cut apart the ram must not be used to prepare a meal. The knife of the altar may only be used at the altar. Treating holy things as common or despising the procedures given for the altar were met with swift judgment without mercy–as Aaron’s sons discovered.
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by Eric Holter on August 5, 2006
“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!”
Galatians 2:17
Paul confronted Peter in Antioch for standing aloof from the Gentiles when his fellow Jews arrived from Jerusalem. Paul recalls this story in his letter to the Galatians as a means of defending the gospel. The issues at hand were not small but the truth of the gospel was at stake—and not just the facts of the gospel, but how the gospel is lived out.
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by Eric Holter on January 10, 2005
“For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Mark 14:21
I may not justify unholy means because they bring about what I might consider to be God’s ultimate ends. Even when God’s ordained ends are accomplished, it may be through, and by the hands of wicked men (Acts 2:23). Judas fulfilled God’s end for the Son of Man and it would have been better for him had he never been born.
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by Eric Holter on May 5, 2004
“I called out of my distress to the LORD,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
For You had cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current engulfed me.
All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your Holy Temple.’ “
Jonah 2:2-4
Listen carefully my soul. What do you say when God, in his inscrutable ways, casts you into the deep? What happens in your heart when you feel expelled from the Lord’s presence? Whether you are engulfed as the result of your own sin, fleeing from the Lord like Jonah, or whether your trial is for no apparent cause, such as Joseph’s experience in prison, listen carefully to what your heart says in that day. O that you would say “Nevertheless I will look again toward thy Holy Temple!” Trials, whether self-inflicted from sinning, or purely from your heavenly Father’s perfect design for your holiness and purity, will come. Such times of affliction are appointed to you. What will you say when you are in such distress? Will you look toward the one who afflicts you, the one who casts you into the deep, and cry out to Him for help? Will you set your face steadfast toward His Holy Temple? Will you remember the Lord and look to Him to bring you up from the depths?
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