For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20.

“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:4-5 NKJV.

I loved this today from Hearing God by Dallas Willard: “People sometimes dismiss the importance of hearing God by saying that if you just do everything God commanded, you are doing God’s will. But you could do all that God explicitly commands and still not be the person God would have you be. An obsession merely with doing all God commands may be the very thing that rules out being the kind of person that He calls you to be. The watchword of the worthy servant is not mere obedience but love, from which appropriate obedience naturally flows. There is some good in the attitude of doing what we are told to do by God, which amounts to the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. But this severely limits spiritual growth. A life of free-hearted collaboration with Jesus and His friends in the kingdom of God surpasses that righteousness. Reflect: In what situations would it be easy to do everything right and yet still miss out on loving people? What goes on in the mind of a person who is trying to do everything right? What goes on in the mind of a person who is seeking to love?”

Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, knows the changes needed for our good in Him. And in our chapter, Ezekiel 10, God is implementing the change needed in Jerusalem and the temple because without Him we are blind to what is true. All of our lives from childhood on are formed by our experiences. We are molded and shaped and seldom question if there is more. And God brings change. I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim. The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in. v. 1-2. The chapter goes on to again describe the cherubim and the places the glory of the Lord went in the temple…Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks…Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. v. 3-5, 15-19.

Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus, the Son, to live among us and to give us teaching of God’s kingdom and yet be met with resistance because they could not understand something so foreign? His teachings, His healings were nothing like anything their life experiences had prepared them for. He brought change so profound, they killed Him for it. What about us today? Do we believe what Jesus actually said? He brought changes then and they were just as needed as the change made by Creator God when He destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in Ezekiel’s time. What changes are needed today? Will we trust Almighty, Sovereign Creator God and look to Him? Or will we continue in the way of this life with all of its familiar brokenness and believe that this is the only reality that is? In His perfect timing, Creator God makes all things new and it begins in hearts that are willing to be healed by Him. That kind of intimate, personal healing takes time and God’s wisdom and love to bring about fully. Do we trust Him for the changes needed in all of us? He knows the way.