The Door-Step Evangel

Strangers Fullfilling our Worship
Dr. Ronald L. Tottingham

"In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves." Ezekiel 44:7-8

We are told in these two verses that the time came that Israel had a better idea and began hiring people to come in and do the menial duties of keeping the sanctuary of the Lord. They hired strangers - uncircumcised is unsaved (non-Christians, apply to today's application) to do the menial duties. We are told that this polluted God's house and broke the covenant between God and His people because God's people did not themselves personally "keep the charge of God's holy things." God never intended unsaved people to supply service to His sanctuary and its duties or ministration.

Could this be applied to us in today's 21st Century in that we've hired, often lost people to provide the musical backgrounds to "worship" music specials we use in our churches (the sanctuary)? Could the same be applied to study guides, youth programs, Bible publishing, etc., etc.? Could it be that we've hired out things we see as menial (unsacred) and thus have brought into God's sanctuary strangers of the uncircumcised of heart and flesh to pollute it? Could it be that the covenant once had has been broken because of the abominations of our not keeping our own charges - using our own inhouse people? By training the saints within our own church and using them to fulfill the charge of our sanctuary? Just couldn't keep from asking.

Verses 9-11 clearly shows us God's will in such matters as it applies in each of our churches. "Thus saith the Lord God; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them."