SUMMARY: In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS TO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifi ce shall come and take them, and cook in them: and in that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
—ZECHARIAH 14:20-21
WE are quite used to being referred to as instruments to be used by the Lord, but I wonder how often we ask ourselves, what kind of instruments?
This passage speaks of pots being for holiness to the Lord. I think we can legitimately spiritualise this passage.
We are all part of God’s Temple as Peter the apostle explains:
You also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifi ces, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).
I fi nd this an intriguing and exciting prospect.
We are living stones being made into a spiritual temple and each of us has a part to play.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul makes use of a slightly different analogy when he speaks of us as part of a body. Let us consider these familiar verses:
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not an eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the sense of smell?
But now God has set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now are they many members, yet one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our unseemly parts have more abundant seemliness (1 Corinthians 12: 14-23).
We recall from this passage that we are all part of one body just as the pots in the temple were all part of the same temple. Just as each pot had a different use in the temple so each part of the body fulfi ls a different function. Each is as valuable as the other. However what Paul is not talking about here is relative degrees of holiness. He is speaking to the different gifts that the Holy Spirit has given within the church. Paul lists these gifts in verse 28 as: First apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. So here we have the New Testament pots! Some big and some small! Let me pause here for a moment and enquire: which gift do you have? We are earnestly to seek the greater gifts (c/f 1 Cor. 12:31)! In my experience there has been a dearth of the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit within our churches today. It makes me wonder whether this is because the pots that are housing the gifts are not very clean. Each pot is to be “holiness to the Lord”. I fear that so much of the 21st century has entered our pots that we are sometimes indistinguishable from the world. We are to be sanctified for the Master’s use. Paul uses this expression when, in writing to Timothy he refers to the vessels for honour and dishonour:
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earthenware; and some to honour, and some for dishonour. If a man cleanses himself from these, he shall be a vessel for honour, sancti- fi ed, and useful to the master, and prepared for every good work. Flee youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, love and peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (
2 Timothy 2:20-22).
Let us not make the mistake of thinking that we can get away with being a vessel of dishonour. Dishonourable vessels tend to be those vessels that are fi lled with the refuse of a house whereas honourable vessels are for noble purposes. Paul exhorts us to be vessels to honour, sanctifi ed and fi t for the master’s use: so that we may be prepared and used for every good work.
It is every Christian’s privilege to be prepared for good works as Paul mentions: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
In Christ Jesus we are created for “good works” that have already been prepared for us. There are good works, waiting for each one of us to do. Have you found them: can you say I am walking in those works that God has prepared for me to walk in? The more I go on in the Christian life the more wonderfully supernatural I fi nd my life to be. I remember on one occasion returning to my offi ce with a Christian book under my arm when I passed a young man I had met previously in court. I happened to say hello and was introduced to his friend who later, on the strength of that meeting and seeing the Christian book, contacted me and arranged to meet.
I had the wonderful joy of seeing him brought through to salvation: all from a chance meeting. But of course it wasn’t chance!
Brothers and sisters we need to be separated from the world so that we can be set apart for God. You know a pot is either dirty or clean. How many of us, in the morning, go into the kitchen and dig out of the sink a coffee cup we used the night before and re-use it without washing it? Our cups are decidedly dirty before we come to the Lord as the Lord Jesus so perceptively stated:For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride and foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defi le the man (Mark 7:21-23).
The old nature makes for very dirty cups and unfortunately the pharisees were condemned for not dealing with the heart of the issue, which was not having clean pots and pans and clean hands but clean hearts. It is the same today, brothers and sisters: we can have all the right shibboleths: we can go to the right churches, use the right language, agree on the right doctrines but that is only the outside of the bowl! What is the inside like? In fi nishing let us return to Peter’s fi rst letter where he says:
As obedient children, not conforming yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct; Because it is written, Be holy; for I am holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). We are not to behave according to our old nature. As Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 5:17 we are a new creation: “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”. Isn’t it wonderful! We therefore do not need to behave as we did before because we have a new nature. When that old nature seeks to rear its head then we are to reckon it dead (Rom 6:11) because it is dead! I fi nd praying in tongues in times of temptation to be very helpful as well as cutting off the source of the temptation!
There is a very simple reason for being holy. We are to be holy because He is holy! And there is another reason (if another is needed): without holiness no one shall see the Lord (Heb 12:14). If we want to see the Lord then we have no choice other than to be holy. If we want to walk in the works that He has prepared for us then we must be instruments worthy of the Father’s use.
Whatever size our pot is, it will only be full of the Holy Spirit when it is “holiness to the Lord”.
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Appeared in Issue 21.1 CETF NR 35 April 2006
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-Last revised-
Monday, October 09, 2006
