The formality of worship seems strange to those not accustom to formal ways of worship. Ever go into a church with a kneel rail at the pew, or where altar boys light candles where in one’s own church this is not a normal thing, it seems odd and beautiful at the same time. It is nice to visit a church service different then one’s own because it helps understand the very nature that some customs are just different and symbolic for one reason or another. Some traditions self explanatory and others need more defining. The Jewish temple was no exception when it came to customs and traditions even down to sacrifice. Even down to the entry of the king/prince of the land. He was the only one allow to enter and go out the door he went in, but the rest of the people were not allowed to go out the same door they went in.

Symbolic in nature of not going out the door you go in meant that you went forth before God to the world as a testimony for God. One laid their sin at altar and went forth in humility and love to the world. If one turn around and went out the door he went in it symbolized he turned his back on God. I doubt this custom is still in practice in the Christian world but it is a saying in our world even today not to go out the same way you went in. Go in the back door and go in the front. Well in the temple one went in North gate or the south gate you exited the opposite.

An inheritance was given by a prince to his sons was his sons, and those given to a servant was like a loan till the time of jubilee. We are all God servants and though we go to be with God in heaven we will return to earth someday in the New Jerusalem to live. We strive to heaven only to return. At least in the New Jerusalem God and Christ rule and this imperfect world we live in no longer exist. Earth is as it was in heaven for the believer. In life we must go forward and yet we yet return to a place of sacrifice for sin. Yet for the believer Christ there is no more sacrifice for sin. Yet the act of repentance is repeat if nothing more but to get rid of sin and things we do in our human flesh that is not right with God and under God’s correction as believers. Yet when we rise from our knees in humility we must not turn back but go forward in faith and out not the door we came in for repentance.

Our faith must move ahead, but reality check of pearly gates for a time period is only the reminder of the continual stairway to heaven and earth that exist for the believer. Jacob went into the world of sin, to only return to a place of moving forward with God. It is almost as if he had to know what life was before he could continue with the God of His father Abraham. Jacob had wanted Esau birthright but he was not ready to wear the shoes of the birthright. Many of us want the heritance of God and yet not ready to journey to heaven, or forward in faith with God. Sometimes we want to go through other doors only to find those doors were shut and we just took a chainsaw and made our own door. The east gate was closed to those going through the temple. The prince was not allowed to go through any door he please to do so was in violation of tradition that meant something to the believer. The prince never going forward but backwards in faith. As a ruler he had to serve even the sinful man and often his own desires, never given thought to the holiness of faith he believed. Yet God still moved and worked in rulers lives and were even a friend of God. The customs of value, but only if you know what they mean and symbolize to the Jewish people and how it effects ones own faith in Christ despite the sacrificial law was no longer obeyed.

What if you sin and you turn away from sin is that good enough. That is all God requires today, but what about our own conscious. Let us look at Zacchaeus who returned what he stole to the people or David who wept in sack cloth and ask in his room only to rise and get dress and cease mourning after his punishment was executed. Something must be amend and other things can be and will be forgotten with no repayment of sin. Yet what might be your custom might not be another. Yet the custom of jail, legal law is custom not all except today as being right. The world has no sense of justice though it understands punishment. God’s people understand forgiveness, and yet often judge despite their own fallacies. A world of disarray of what is right and wrong because of freedom and free will of the human mind. God is great judge of the world and he knows the heart behind the sinner, and he knows if the punishment meets the crime and if forgiveness is all he offers for sin, then the hope of eternity with God is a reality and not a death sentence to hell for offense other then unbelief and abominations of adultery, idolatry and so forth. God does forgive unbelief upon salvation and idolatry and adultery with repentance, but not without. God can convict the heart but payment of sin must be given God’s way. The sacrificial laws teach God has a way of payment and forgiveness. Yet God’s salvation goes to his plan of salvation through his provision of the sacrifice for sin through his son Jesus. Our provision of sacrifice is only symbolic, for to bring the ram to the temple was provided by both the prince and the people. Some sacrifices for the nation and others for the individual. Christ paid the sin for the whole world for all that believe and receive. Yet as a believer in Christ we have a responsibility not to go out the door we came in, or the way we came in. To go into church with anger, or sin, it needs left at the altar.

Dear Heavenly Father move in our life, and change our hearts, so we do not go out the same door we came in. May your word be glorified. In Jesus precious name, Amen.