Morning by Morning: The Unceasing Rhythm of Grace Text: Ezekiel 46:13-15
Introduction: The Liturgy of Reality
We live in an age that despises repetition. Our culture is addicted to novelty, to the next new thing, the latest update, the fresh experience. And this addiction has thoroughly infected the modern church. We want our worship to be spontaneous, our spiritual lives to be a series of exciting breakthroughs, and our relationship with God to be free of anything that smacks of routine or, heaven forbid, liturgy. We want the fireworks of Pentecost without the daily grind of Leviticus.
But the Bible presents us with a radically different picture. The life of faith is not a series of disconnected spiritual highs; it is a rhythm. It is a liturgy. It is a structured, disciplined, and constant walk with God. The universe itself runs on repetition: sunrise, sunset, season after season. God is a God of order, and He has built that order into the fabric of our redemption. When we come to a passage like this, tucked away in the final vision of Ezekiel's temple, our modern sensibilities are tempted to skim past it. Daily offerings, grain measurements, perpetual statutes. It seems archaic, irrelevant, and frankly, a bit tedious. But if we have eyes to see, what we find here is not tedious legalism, but the very pulse of the Christian life.
Ezekiel's vision is not a blueprint for a third stone temple in Jerusalem. That is a profound misreading of the prophet. The New Testament is clear: the Temple Ezekiel saw is the Christian Church, the bride of Christ (Rev. 21:2, 9-11). The river of life that flows from this temple is the Holy Spirit, gushing out from the people of God to heal the nations (Ezek. 47:1-12). Therefore, the worship prescribed for this temple is not a return to animal sacrifice; it is a symbolic, typological representation of the true and better worship of the New Covenant. This passage describes the unceasing, daily reality of what it means to be the people of God. It is the liturgy of our lives, morning by morning.
This is not about earning God's favor through rote performance. This is about the shape of a life that has been completely captured by grace. It is about the daily, constant, perpetual need to be consecrated to God through the one perfect sacrifice, and to offer our lives back to Him in grateful response. This is the rhythm of reality for those who are in Christ.
The Text
"And you shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to Yahweh daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah as well as a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour, a grain offering to Yahweh continually by a perpetual statute. Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering."
(Ezekiel 46:13-15 LSB)
The Daily Lamb (v. 13)
The foundation of this rhythm is laid down in the first verse of our text.
"And you shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to Yahweh daily; morning by morning you shall provide it." (Ezekiel 46:13)
Every single detail here is dripping with gospel truth. First, consider the sacrifice itself: "a lamb a year old without blemish." The New Testament writers grab this imagery with both hands. Peter tells us we were redeemed not with perishable things like silver or gold, "but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:19). John the Baptist points to Jesus and declares, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). This is not just any lamb; this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in His perfection and sinless humanity.
Second, notice the type of offering. This is a "burnt offering," or as the Hebrew can be rendered, an "ascension offering." In this sacrifice, the entire animal was consumed on the altar, ascending to God in smoke. It was not primarily about forgiveness of a particular sin, but about total consecration and dedication. It symbolized the worshiper's complete surrender to God. This is what Christ did for us. He offered Himself wholly to the Father on our behalf. And this is what we are called to do in response: to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship (Rom. 12:1).
But the most striking part is the timing: "daily; morning by morning." This is not a weekly event. It is not an annual festival. It is the first order of business, every single day. The Christian life does not run on the fumes of last Sunday's sermon. It requires a daily, conscious, deliberate application of the work of Christ. Every morning, as the sun rises, we are reminded that we have no standing before God on our own merits. We need a lamb. We need a substitute. Our access to God, our consecration for the day's work, our very identity as worshipers, is grounded in the finished work of the Lamb "without blemish." This is not a re-sacrificing of Christ, as in the blasphemy of the Mass. This is a daily remembering, a daily appropriation, a daily reliance on the one, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice made once for all. Morning by morning, new mercies I see; morning by morning, I see my need for the Lamb.
The Daily Bread (v. 14)
Paired with the burnt offering is another essential element, the grain offering.
"Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah as well as a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour, a grain offering to Yahweh continually by a perpetual statute." (Ezekiel 46:14 LSB)
If the burnt offering represents our complete consecration to God through Christ, the grain offering represents the dedication of our substance and our labor to God. This was an offering of fine flour, the stuff of daily bread, mixed with oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit's blessing and presence. This was not a sacrifice for sin. It was an act of tribute, an acknowledgment that everything we have and everything we produce comes from the hand of a gracious God. It is the worshipful recognition that God is our provider.
The worshiper was, in essence, taking the fruit of his labor, his daily bread, and giving the first portion back to God. He was saying, "This all belongs to you. My strength to work, the seed that grows, the rain that falls, it is all from you. And so I offer the work of my hands back to you." This sanctifies the rest. When the firstfruits are holy, the lump is also holy.
And again, notice the rhythm. "Morning by morning." This is paired with the lamb. As we begin our day acknowledging our utter dependence on the substitutionary death of Christ, we are also to acknowledge our utter dependence on the providential care of God. We dedicate our work for the coming day to Him. We are not our own; our time is not our own; our labor is not our own. We are bought with a price. Therefore, whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). This offering is the liturgical expression of that command. Before the emails are answered, before the tools are picked up, before the day's tasks begin, the work itself is consecrated to God. This is a "perpetual statute," an enduring principle for the people of God in every age.
The Continual Provision (v. 15)
The final verse summarizes and reinforces the central point of this divine liturgy.
"Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering." (Ezekiel 46:15 LSB)
The emphasis falls on that word "continual." The life of worship in God's new temple, the Church, is not sporadic. It is not occasional. It is continual. It is a constant state of being. The burnt offering is not a one-off event, but a perpetual reality that defines our existence before a holy God.
But notice the subtle shift in the language. In verse 13, it says "you shall provide" the lamb. But here in verse 15, it says "they shall provide." Who are "they"? In the context of Ezekiel's vision, this refers to the prince and the priests, those tasked with leading the worship. But in the New Covenant, who is our prince and high priest? It is Jesus Christ Himself. Ultimately, we do not provide the lamb. God provides the lamb. Abraham learned this on Mount Moriah: "God will provide for Himself the lamb" (Gen. 22:8). And He did, in the person of His Son.
This is the engine of our daily worship. We can bring our daily consecration (the burnt offering) and our daily work (the grain offering) only because God Himself has first provided the means. Grace always precedes our response. He provides the lamb. He provides the grain. He provides the oil of the Spirit. Our daily worship, our "morning by morning" routine, is not a desperate attempt to get something from God. It is a grateful response to the continual provision He has already made for us in Christ. Our offering is simply our "Amen" to His.
The Gospel Morning by Morning
So what does this mean for us, here and now? It means that the Christian life is a daily, structured, and constant reality. It is not a feeling; it is a fact, grounded in the provision of God.
Every morning, you wake up in need of a lamb. Your own righteousness from yesterday is as filthy rags. Your past victories do not grant you a special pass for today. You need the perfect, unblemished righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to you afresh. This is why we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. We begin the day, not with a list of our duties, but with a declaration of our dependence on Him. This is our daily burnt offering.
And every morning, you must consecrate your daily bread, your work, your efforts, your relationships, to God. You offer it all up to Him as an act of worship, trusting that the oil of His Spirit will bless it and use it for His purposes. You are acknowledging that you are a steward, not an owner. This is your daily grain offering.
This is the rhythm of sanctification. It is not glamorous. It is not flashy. It is the simple, profound, and powerful liturgy of a life lived in response to the gospel. It is getting up, morning by morning, and recognizing that you belong to God because He has provided the Lamb. It is a continual offering, a perpetual statute, an unceasing rhythm of grace. Let us not, therefore, seek the fleeting high of novel experiences, but rather embrace the deep and abiding joy of this daily walk. Let us embrace the liturgy of reality, morning by morning, until that final morning when we see the Lamb face to face, and our daily offerings give way to an eternal song of praise.