Clean From The Inside Out

This morning, when I was trying to catch up on the Daily Audio Bible Podcast, 2nd Chronicles chapter 29 told the story of King Hezekiah's restoration of the Temple of the Lord. It had been previously desecrated and was dirty and in desperate need of renovation.

Now, this was the restoration of an physical building, but I felt the Lord tell me that just like the literal restoration of the temple, our bodies are the temple of the Living God and we too are restored from the inside out. It's not some eureka! moment, but I thought it was a nice parallel to ponder.

2 Chronicles 29:15-19 (English Standard Version)

15They gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD. 16The priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook Kidron. 17They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the LORD. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the LORD, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. 18Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, "We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. 19All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the LORD."

Matthew 23:25-26 (English Standard Version)

25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

2 Corinthians 6:16 (New International Version)

16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Re-read these scriptures if you need to. Remember that we are all works in progress and that we're being cleansed from the inside out every day.

Good Night