But I said: I have been banished from Your sight, yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.
Jonah 2:4 (HCSB)
Faithful believer, take up the resolve of Jonah to look once more toward God’s holy temple. God cannot stand the sight of sin, this is true. He cannot permit sin into His holy presence. The constant emphasis on cleanliness and ritual purity in the Old Testament—especially around the temple and the worship of God—is designed to teach this truth.
When we sin, we leave the presence of God like the prodigal son and head off into the pig sty and the hunger of the way of wickedness. But God is loving and merciful, kind and forgiving, if we but look once more towards our true home, our heavenly Father, and come to Him. If we only come before Him and say “I am not worthy of being your son, but have me as one of your slaves,” He shall surround us in a hug so quickly and deeply that we will not even be able to finish our sentence. The angels of heaven will rejoice and feast and we will be made whiter than snow before our tears touch the ground.
To look upon Jesus Christ—the true Temple of God made without human hands—is the greatest of blessings and the fullest of joys. Let us ever gaze upon His beauty.
I have asked one thing from the Lord;
Psalm 27:4
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking Him in His temple.
