More of Him, less of me

Ezekiel 47The River From the Temple 1 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits (1500 ft) and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand (1500 ft) and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand(1500 ft){6000ftbut now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?" Then he led me back to the bank of the river.

I promise this will be the last post on Ezekiel 47, at least for the forseeable future. What I want to look at in this, is the “distance thing” or the significance of the distance from the temple. I have been thinking about this for a good amount of time now. And I finnally had a realization about the passage. Its not about me or you in any way. Lets unpack the idea of “more of him” and what that means along with”less of me”1. This is going to seem a bit elementary what I am about to do, but that’s ok because the ramifacations are powerful. We have all heard the phrase “more of Him, less of me” haven’t we? It’s a funny phrase to just say, but it’s a loaded phrase. When you look at the word more what does that make you think? It makes you think that you have extra of something that you previousely didn’t have. I think that word is loaded with tons (and for lack of a better word) more in the context of the phrase. The word more can have diferent uses but for this I want to look at it as and adjective. As an adjective the word more means Greater in size, amount, extent, or degree. So it does not necessarily mean what we perceive when we here the word. Now let’s look at the word “of”. The word of establishes a relationship between an object and some other part of the sentence, often expressing a location in place or time. Now that is interesting to me “often expressing a location in place or time” but in the context of the phrase we are talking about God. God is timeless and he has existed by himself and as who he is for ever, we just recently came into being as his creation. So here we have a relationship being established, which we will come back to. Now let’s look at HIM. The word Him is an abbreviation for Her (or His) Imperial Majesty.2 So now we have a more appropriate phrase, Greater in size, amount, extent, or degree of His Imperial Majesty. That is a powerful statement in itself and we haven’t even got to the “less of me” part. I bet you didn’t think that when you stated reading this there was going to be an embedded English lesson huh?

Now let‘s look at the second part of the phrase “less of me”. The word less has a couple of different definitions, but the one I want to focus on is the definition Lower in importance. That’s a tough cookie for people including myself to swallow because we all want to be thought of as important. We want people to know our names and be thought of as the end all be all of coolness. Ya its there you don’t have to admit it to anyone because everybody has it, but here is a news flash “the story already has a star, and the star is not you or me”3. The star of this amazing story is HIM. Let that sink in for a second… go ahead it’s a painfully big pill to swallow.

Now let’s take a look at the word me, since we have covered of. Me is derived from the word I and an appropriate definition of I is The self; the ego. Did you catch that the ego; the self. There are 2 definitions for ego and they say it all 1.) An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit and 2.) an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others. So now we have a completed phrase “Greater in size, amount, extent, or degree of His Imperial Majesty. Lower in importance is my exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit. This is a huge statement that I will bet no one likes, but everyone knows is true. Now you may say “ok I get it but what in the world does this have to do with Ezekiel 47 and the “distance thing? Well I am so glad you ask.

The whole time I was reading Ezekiel one common theme aroze. The people of Isreal were profaining the name of God among the nations and God wasn’t to happy about this. God makes statements about the things that he is doing and going to do to restore His name and so that they will know he is God. The people had lifted themselves and other things up instead of God. The scripture says “he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me” the distance from the temple isn’t about the distance from God, instead its about the journey with God as he leads. If you notice the further the God leads Ezekiel the less Ezekiel you have and the more God you have. The people of Isreal were starting on a similar journey. The lives that they lead no longer had room for the Almighty, their priorites had become themselves and their lesser gods. The story they were meerly a part of, had become about “them” not “HIM”. The distance is important in the fact that, all of us start out as I described with regaurds to the word ME. As God leads us closer to him the distance turns ME into me. By the end of Ezekiels Journey with God He was no longer visible. God led him to a place were it was no longer about him. It was about “H I M”.

1 John 3:30 (New American Standard Bible)
30"He must increase, but I must decrease

2 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

3 Giglio, L. 2005 I am not but I know I AM, Multnomah, Sisters Or., pp.13