Friday, August 9, 2024

Ezekiel 43: vision of the new temple (to be built) filled with the glory of the Lord

Ezekiel is in Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed, but Ezekiel has a vision of the new temple. Here, the glory of the Lord fills this new temple.

1-3 The man brought me to the east gate. Oh! The bright Glory of the God of Israel rivered out of the east sounding like the roar of floodwaters, and the earth itself glowed with the bright Glory. It looked just like what I had seen when he came to destroy the city, exactly like what I had seen earlier at the Kebar River. And again I fell, face to the ground.
4-5 The bright Glory of God poured into the Temple through the east gate. The Spirit put me on my feet and led me to the inside courtyard and—oh! the bright Glory of God filled the Temple!

The temple is in fact destroyed, but the Lord persists on creating a place where He lives with the Israelites.


6-9 I heard someone speaking to me from inside the Temple while the man stood beside me. He said, “Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I’ll plant my feet. This is the place where I’ll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines. When they set up their worship shrines right alongside mine with only a thin wall between them, they dragged my holy name through the mud with their obscene and vile worship. Is it any wonder that I destroyed them in anger? So let them get rid of their whoring ways and the stinking no-god idols introduced by their kings and I’ll move in and live with them forever.

The Lord is Holy. He doesn't share His glory with no-god idols, that is why the first temple was destroyed. We could think that this text refers to the second temple, but here we read: "This is the place where I’ll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines.". Was it fulfilled in the second temple, given that it was destroyed? I suppose that it was very shocking for the leaders of Israel to listen Jesus prophesying about the destruction of the second temple.

25-26 “‘For seven days, prepare a goat for a sin offering daily, and also a bull and a ram from the flock, animals without blemish. For seven days the priests are to get the altar ready for its work, purifying it. This is how you dedicate it.
27 “‘After these seven days of dedication, from the eighth day on, the priests will present your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. And I’ll accept you with pleasure, with delight! Decree of God, the Master.’”

The new temple (now only in a vision) should be consecrated to the Lord through sin offerings in order to be purified, to become holy.  
Can I become holy? Only through the sacrifice of Jesus.

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