Ez. 42:5, Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space away from them than from the lower and middle ones in the building.
Today of course is Ash Wednesday which is the first day of the season of Lent, and Lent is probably my favorite season in the Christian year. Lent is all about extravagance; extravagant seeking, extravagant repentance, extravagant mercy, and extravagant breakthrough as you end up at the foot of the Cross, and the open tomb, rejoicing in the new creation. The upper chambers referred to in that Ezekiel passage were the chambers where the temple treasures were kept, and as Ezekiel says, they were smaller than the other chambers. There were three levels of chambers on the north and south side of the temple. They are simply referred to as the lower, middle, and upper chambers. Lent is the season of treasure-seeking. The hunger in the believer to experience and manifest the “more,” is a wonderful thing, because only the hungry are satisfied. Of course, because of the finished work of the Cross, we all stand in the “all” of Christ, but every one of us should be hungry to experience and manifest more of the all. That is what the season of Lent is all about, and this season of seeking and surrendering is a longing to dwell in the upper chambers where all the treasures of Christ can be discovered and experienced. There is one glorious catch though, and that is the upper chambers were smaller, and if you want to go higher in the things of Jesus, then you got to get smaller. Some things are just going to have to go if you’re going to pass into the upper chambers. There are attitudes and actions that the Holy Spirit will expose that have to go in humility and forget to pass through into the higher places. Isaiah 38:14 says, “Like a lion, so He breaks all my bones; From Day until Night You do make an end of me. Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; my eyes looked wistfully to the heights.” During this season of lent we wistfully long for the heights of Christ, and in the process, we ask the Holy Spirit to make an end of us so that we can enter into the upper chamber and celebrate fully all the treasures that are ours in Christ. Any one of the chambers was wonderful, but I do not want to settle for the lower or the middle ones. If we’re going to go higher then we’ve got to get smaller.