Last week, in The Heavenly Temple, Part 2, we learned the importance of getting into God’s Word so that our heart-windows will let Jesus’ light shine through to a lost a hurting world. Today, we look at the next symbol brought to us in the book of Revelation, the Sea of Glass: “Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal…” (Rev. 4:5).
In the construction of Solomon’s temple, we see that the washbasin is often called “the sea”: “He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.” (2 Chr 4:2, NIV2). We also know that this “sea,” was used for washing: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing…Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it…'” (Ex 30:17,18)
Thus, the “sea” in the temple represented a washing. Before the priests in the Old Testament could commune with God, they needed to wash their hands and feet before entering in to the presence of God.
Why?
Because God is holy and clean, and we are called to be the same: “And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.” (Lev 20:26, NKJV).
In the Heavenly temple, we see that there are those standing on the sea of glass: “And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.” (Rev 15:2, NKJV). The sea of glass in the Heavenly temple, then, is for the saints, those who have already been washed by the blood of the lamb!
Why would they need cleansing if they were already clean?
Remember that the priests were already forgiven by their sacrifices, yet they also needed a secondary cleansing because they were continually dirtying their hands and feet. In the same way, even though we have been washed by the blood of the lamb and our sin is as far from us as the east is from the west (See Ps. 103:12), we continue to wade through life, falling into traps of the enemy, sinning again and again. Thus it is important that we continually wash our hands and feet. The fact that Revelation tells us the saints stood on the sea, would suggest that they were continually walking in that cleansing.
What does this mean for our heart temples?
Simply this: There is a need for us to be holy before a holy and perfect God. We are washed in the blood of the lamb, and our sins are as far from us as the East is from the West (See Ps. 103:12), but God calls us to continually walk in cleansing, to continually walk in holiness. Should we keep on willfully sinning then?
“Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:1-4, NKJV)!
Remember, friends, when we are baptized into Christ Jesus, we are baptized into His death, and just as Christ was raised from the dead, we must also walk in the newness of life! And this is the important lesson that the “sea of glass” in the Heavenly temple has to teach for our heart temples today.
Please join us next week for The Heavenly Temple, Part 4 to learn what lessons the altars in the heavenly temple have to teach us for our heart-temples today.
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.
(To access the entire “The Heavenly Temple” mini-series, please click here.)