Before the Altar part 12

What a sacred place His place of worship is, from the very beginning of time! How sanctified those who were called to be His priests. (1 Chronicles 23:32) How specific the design of His building and the ceremony within it (Leviticus 14:13) is only indicative of how much He desires my obedience and our obedience to His word. When God says He wants the building made of cedar and olive tree and inlaid in gold and when He says He wants the lamb for the sacrifice slaughtered in a particular way and the blood applied to His altar in a particular way, they were to do it, or like Eli's sons were going to go up in smoke. (I Samuel 2:12ff) Truly that is the way He expects me to treat His worship, to do what He wants me to do. If I, if as His people we who worship Him, do as He says and follow His commands, He counts us as His. (2 Chronicles 35:5; Ezra 9:8) We will be like those numbered specially as His priests, of the house of Levi (2 Chronicles 29:5; 2 Chronicles 30:7; Leviticus 6:16; Leviticus 10:17) God's place is a holy place and when I and my brethren are in it we are to act as His and be holy for He is holy. (Psalms 44:4; Psalms 68:17) and God's place will never die, because He has chosen not just to build it physically in the church, but in each and everyone that believes in Him and calls Him Father. This is even true during the physical destruction of the earthly places of worshipping God or the physical destruction of my body by those who would take the right to worship God away from me. The altar, the church is more than a physical spot. (Matthew 24:15) That's why it was so important for the people to build such a temple, to go to such lengths as in Ezekiel 41:4 and Ezekiel 42:13, i.e. the specifications of the tabernacle, the doors to such, the floors where it was held, the house itself. The whole concept of the altar and church involve an attitude found in Isaiah 57:15, where there is an attitude of humility and contriteness, of having a heart to follow the One who rides with the twenty thousand angels in chariots as spoken of in Psalm 68:17. It involves so much more than setting apart a portionof the land to increase the size of the church. That is outside stuff. Jesus had plenty to say about a cup that was only clean from the outside and not the inside as well. (Matthew 23:25)