#DailyDevotion You Are Holy To The Lord
Easter Week 3 Thursday
Read Ex 38:21—39:8, 22–23, 27–31
Exo 39:30 They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, “Holy to the LORD.”
The tabernacle, the altar and the high priestly garments all summed up in this verse “Holy to the Lord.” To be holy is to be separate. It is to used for the Lord’s purposes and only for the Lord’s purposes. It belongs peculiarly to the Lord. Now all these things including the high priest are a symbol or a shadow, a model of what the Lord showed Moses on the mountain of the temple of God in heaven.
The high priest being a forshadowing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our high priest at the right hand of God. He first bore a crown of thorns and through his suffering and death he took for himself a crown of gold. Instead of the blood of bulls and lambs, he offered himself upon the altar of the cross and poured his blood on the throne of God’s mercy that our trespasses and iniquities would not remembered anymore. At the right hand of God our high priest intercedes for us, that we would persevere in the faith and receive for ourselves a crown of glory, a crown of life, a crown of righteousness.
Now the Lord has made and is still making for himself a temple not made with hands. That temple is you. As Peter reminds us we are all living stones in the temple of our God. We are called to be pillars in this temple, unshakable, immovable. Already, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and God’s name is written upon us and he is renewing us from the inside out, its final restoration at the resurrection to eternal life.
Upon us too are the words, “Holy to the Lord.” St. Paul reminds us, Rom 11:16 “If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.” Christ is the firstfruits and the root. We are the lump and branches. Remember, 1Co 3:17 “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” And 1Co 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, (20) for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” We are holy and are called to be holy. Rom 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” And Peter tells us 1Pe 1:15-16 “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, (16) since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
Heavenly Father, you have made Jesus our high priest and made our bodies your temple. You have called us holy, made us holy and call to us be holy in all we say in do. Continually give us your Holy Spirit that our heart, mind, soul and spirit may be thoroughly dedicated to you and grant us such faith and grace that we do it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.