Ezekiel 43 - Returned

God has promised His glory will dwell with you forever!

alittleperspective.com

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... the LORD promised to cleanse His people, give them a new heart, and restore them for His name’s sake. Then Ezekiel saw that promise pictured in the valley of dry bones, as the Spirit brought Israel from death to life, reunited God’s scattered people, and prepared them for a renewed covenant under one Shepherd.

We catch up with Ezekiel as he's being shown a vision of a restored temple where the LORD would once again dwell with His people.

Ezekiel 43:1–12 (NASB95)

¹ Then he led me to the [temple's] gate, the gate facing toward the east;

² and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.

³ And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

⁴ And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east.

⁵ And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.

⁶ Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me.

⁷ He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die,

⁸ by setting their threshold by My threshold and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger.

⁹ “Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will dwell among them forever.

¹⁰ “As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the plan.

¹¹ “If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws. And write it in their sight, so that they may observe its whole design and all its statutes and do them.

¹² “This is the law of the house: its entire area on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 58

Q. How does the article concerning “life everlasting” comfort you?

A. Even as I already now

experience in my heart

the beginning of eternal joy,

so after this life I will have

perfect blessedness such as

no eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no human heart has ever imagined:

a blessedness in which to praise God eternally.

Summary

Earlier this week we read one of the Bible's most tragic accounts, in which God's glory departed from His temple in Jerusalem. But as the book of Ezekiel draws to a close, it does so on a note of hope, describing the new temple of the LORD. Over the course of nine chapters (40-48), Ezekiel is given a preview tour. The hand of the LORD came upon him and took him into the future. He describes this new temple, both its interior and exterior in great detail.

In today's passage, Ezekiel has been led to the gate facing toward the east. The east has always been an ominous direction in the Bible - Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden's eastern gate; Cain fled to the east after killing Abel; Jonah went out east of Nineveh to watch what he'd hoped would be God's wrath coming down upon it. It was this very same east gate that God's glory had departed from.

But now the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east! The return of the LORD's glory - and especially the direction it comes from - are so stunning that Ezekiel mentions it twice (v2 & 4).

And the LORD's return was a multimedia display - His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory. Maybe you've stood next to a rushing river and heard the sound of its power, or been in the presence of such bright sunshine you needed to cover your eyes. Imagine, then, what this glory will sound and look like!

The voice of the LORD called out to Ezekiel. In a sense, He says "Son of man, I'm home!" And best of all, the defilements, harlotry and abominations of God's people that had previously driven the LORD's glory away before, would never return, having been consumed in the LORD's anger. The LORD promises that, having returned, He will dwell among His people forever, and that not just a curtained off portion of the temple would be holy, but the mountain all around the temple shall be most holy.

  Dig Deeper  

So when was, or when will, Ezekiel's vision of the LORD's return be fulfilled? We know for sure when it wasn't! The temple would be rebuilt after Israel's exile (~516 BC), and would undergo a substantial renovation about before twenty years before Jesus was born. But in neither of those cases is it ever recorded that the LORD's glory filled the temple the way it did when Solomon dedicated the first temple. And we also know that the rebuilt temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

So that means we're still waiting. But the book of Revelation throws in a twist. As it describes the new heavens and earth, and specifically the New Jerusalem in chapter 21, John writes that he did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Iain Duguid explains how, then, it will be that Ezekiel's prophecy will be fulfilled:

John shows us Ezekiel’s vision refracted through the lens of fulfillment in Christ. The temple and city that were separated in Ezekiel to preserve the temple’s sanctity have now been reunited and merged in the New (and sanctified) Jerusalem, the heavenly bride of Christ. All those who were once far off from God through their sin now have open access to the throne of God’s holy presence in Christ, who has become our great High Priest.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose glory will dwell among us forever;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for Christ to return soon, that the temple of God will be fully restored when all is made new;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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