[269 words]
What spells security for you? A substantial bank account? Good insurance? Tenure? An alarm system? A strong military? Reliable leadership? A storm shelter?
Obviously the idea of security has many applications in a variety of circumstances. Have you ever associated security with a peg? Probably not. But that is precisely what Ezra does.
God’s people had fallen into sin and Ezra offered a prayer of penitence in which he praised God for “a brief moment of grace” and having provided a “peg in His holy place” (Ezra 9:8; NASB).
This peg is “a nail or peg stuck into the wall, to hang any kind of domestic utensils upon” (Keil & Delitzsch, 119). Of all the features and furnishings of God’s temple, a peg had to be among the most insignificant. And that is precisely the point. Security is found with God, in His holy place, and even the very least place there is more secure than any human source of stability.
Now here’s the exciting part; I can be more than a peg—much more!
Paul says, “But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).
So it’s not just a peg, it’s being a part of the very structure that is God’s holy place—His church! That is our security!
David Deffenbaugh
Center Hill church of Christ
Paragould, AR