Beholding the Christ Child

Merry Christmas! I feel like I am one day late; however, December 26^th is traditionally celebrated as Boxing Day, when gifts would be given to the poor, and household servants would be sent home with Christmas boxes to share with their families. However, I read recently that Boxing Day should not be observed on a Sunday, so this year Boxing Day will actually be tomorrow. So perhaps I should wish you all a happy Saint Stephen’s Day today instead, which has a multitude of Christmas traditions associated with it, too.
 
In any case, we are not quite done with celebrating Christmas, as today we will consider what it means to behold the Christ child. This covers the smallest window in time of any of our topics in this “big picture” series. So far we have looked at God’s process of creation (in some ways ongoing even now), the fallenness of humankind, the stricken earth, the tragic flow of history, the repeated interventions of God, and the promise of a Savior-Redeemer. Each of these cover huge time spans, significant chunks of history. The gestation, birth, and infancy of Jesus on the other hand was a very specific event, limited to just 2 or 3 years. But as we have already said, it stands at the center of history, with everything before anticipating it and everything after impacted by it.

Beholding the Promise of a Savior-Redeemer

Welcome! Today we continue our series entitled Beholding: A Wide-Angle View of the True Story of God with the message “Beholding the Promise of a Savior-Redeemer.” The idea of “beholding,” as we have explained in this series, is to ponder, to reflect, to think about the implications of key aspects of the big picture of the message of the Bible.
 
In his recent message, Tim shared about the struggles he had with finding a way to give a wide-angle view of God’s interventions through history. I likewise have found it a struggle to put into words what I want to convey.
 
Let me start by talking about the Bible as a whole. As an unbeliever, I remember reading about someone saying that if God wanted people to believe in Him, then He should have made His presence far easier to discern. The person went on to say that if God were to write His name in the heavens, then he would believe. I remember myself agreeing with this argument, although I also remember being a little afraid of the idea that God might actually do that – I was a bit scared of becoming some kind of super-religious, extreme – I would have used the word “crazy” – person. I don’t think I came all the way to the realization that I actually didn’t want God to exist, but this was shortly before I put my trust in Christ, and I was definitely beginning to move in that direction. I did not make the connection that my wanting God to not exist would of course severely impair my ability to conduct an honest investigation and make an unbiased conclusion. Fortunately, God in His mercy moved me past this kind of thinking, past my own biases, and opened my eyes and heart to Him.

Beholding the Repeated Interventions of God

As many of you know, 10 days ago Lisa was in the ER with breathing difficulties and they did a chest CT that had previously been scheduled as an outpatient test to be done a few days later. She had a very scary allergic reaction to the contrast used in the CT. As her airway was closing off, I alerted a nurse who responded within seconds with two others plus the doctor. With quick intervention Lisa did keep breathing, but later commented on how the outcome could have been so much worse if she had been in the clinic for the test rather than the ER. We were praying throughout the experience but did not realize that this was how God would intervene, in possibly saving her life.
 
Today we will behold the repeated interventions of God. Some we can recognize in the immediate, micro level, like Lisa did in the ER. We can also stand in awe of God’s overall involvement in the entire sweep of history, assured that each individual story adds up to his story. What is God up to? How is he involved? What are his eternal purposes? One of the challenges of seeking a big picture view like this is that we realize very quickly that it is indeed very big. I feel like we are looking over a huge forest that stretches to the horizon in all directions. The risk is that we could walk down into it, examine a few trees, and come back out thinking that we have understood the essence of the whole. I would like somehow to describe the trees and the forest, conscious of how impossible this task actually is.

Beholding the Tragic Flow of History

Good morning!  We are continuing in our series “Beholding.”  When Carl opened the series, I was surprised to learn how many times the word “behold” appears in the King James Version of the bible.  (More than 1000!)  Often, God’s purpose for the word is to cause us to pay attention or “listen up.”

 
In this series, we want to stand back and behold the big picture.  In the case of today’s message, we will get a glimpse of the Bible narrative and even up to the present day beholding the tragic flow of history.
 
Our word history is derived from the Greek.  In Greek, the word is historia.  They dropped the “h” sound around the time of Christ.  Sometimes it is fascinating how close the words are even as they’ve been taken into other languages entirely.  That Greek word historia does not occur in the New Testament, but the word historeo does, one time.  It is the verb form, and in Galatians 1:18 when Paul describes going up to Jerusalem to see Peter.  It literally says Paul went to historeo Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.  Paul went to examine Peter face to face, to get to know him.  Historia or history is a written account of such inquiries or narratives.
 
The root word for historia is in the bible many times (over 600) and is in fact one of the secondary words in the New Testament that gets translated as “behold.”  Most of the time the meaning is directly translated as to see or to know which sort of takes us back to where I started.  Today we are going to behold or pay attention to the story of humanity, mostly at a micro or personal level, though we will touch on some macro nation-state-empire topics.
 
There will certainly be some feelings of déjà vu as we go along, I think.  Ecclesiastes kind of gives us the short version of this message.
 
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.  – Ecclesiastes 1:9 NLT
 
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV
 
Let’s pray and we will fly through the ages of mankind.

Beholding the Stricken Earth

Welcome! Today we continue our series entitled Beholding: A Wide-Angle View of the True Story of God with the message “Beholding the Stricken Earth.” The core idea of this series, of “beholding,” is to spend some time really thinking about connections and implications of what we read in the Bible. Last week, Brian had us reflect about the fall of man, the events involving Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and God, as described in Genesis 3. Both today and next week, we will be looking at the implications and consequences of the fall. Today we are focusing on the effects of the fall on our physical world, and next week we will look at the effects of the fall on the history of man right up to the present day.
 
As I mentioned at the beginning of the series, I am taking the Creation account in General as literal, especially when it comes to the nature of the fall of man. I am assuming that death entered the world with the fall but did not occur prior to that time. I realize that there are theologians and others who hold to a different view, who take Genesis more symbolically, and I certainly do not believe that a belief in the literal view of Genesis is necessary for salvation. What is necessary is that you believe that your sins have separated you from God, and that you have personally repented and placed your faith in Jesus Christ to save you. Such a person the Bible calls both “born again” and a “new creation,” and such a person will seek to continue to obey and honor God, although they will likely also have some measure of setbacks and failures when they take their eyes off of Christ. Such a person will normally grow in faith and obedience during their remaining days on earth, and then God will complete His transformation of them, making them suitable for the eternal life that is to come, a life that I believe the Bible shows has many things in common with the pre-fall world (although there are many differences as well).
 
Now, in preparation for beholding the stricken earth, I think a good place to begin is to remember God’s twin blessings on animals and on people in Genesis 1:
 
God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” – Genesis 1:22
 
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” – Genesis 1:28

Beholding Fallen Man

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” – Genesis 3:1–13
 
How would Adam and Eve know that they were in a fallen state?  You would think they would be able to see some clear differences.  They had been without sin in a place without the presence of sin.  Now, all-of-a-sudden, they’re forever different.  Each of us have been born into this fallen state.  We’ve kind-of got used to it.  Coming from NC State I had gotten used to a mediocre football team.  I didn’t realize what it was like to be in close proximity to a winner on a national scale.  You would have experienced clear symptoms of fallenness.  What were some of those symptoms?

Beholding the Creator

Welcome! Good morning! Behold, we are starting a new series! And the series is entitled, Beholding: A Wide-Angle View of the True Story of God. As the series title suggests, our purpose is indeed to stand back, so to speak, and take a look at the big picture of the story of God as found in the Bible, from Genesis 1 to the coming of Jesus. As we approach the Christmas season, I think this is a good time to do this series, perhaps especially given the events of the past two years.
 
Although most of us have come through the pandemic so far relatively unscathed, at least physically speaking, it is hard to overstate the degree that the past two years have changed the world, our country, our communities, our church, and even our personal lives. Although it is true that our daily lives are mostly back to “normal” apart from using masks in certain situations and testing requirements if you are associated with the university, I think we all sense that we are not the same, and indeed, nothing is the same as it was before all this started.
 
We have seen things, we have beheld things, that we previously could not have imagined. Probably all of us have a friend or a family member or a friend of a friend or a friend of a family member who has been impacted severely by the virus. But I feel that even these tragic situations do not get fully to the root of change. The world has been reminded of its mortality, yes, but perhaps even more significantly, the man-made systems and governments of the world have been exposed as having deep flaws and inadequacies. And I think most people have a sense that these problems may be fundamentally unfixable. Here I think the world is truly beholding the Biblical truth of the fact that man is indeed fallen.
 
And we have been reminded that the world itself is not safe. Dangers abound, such as this virus that jumped species to infect people. And regardless of the details of how it happened, of whether people or a lab was involved, it does not change the fact that we now know more deeply the truth that pandemics can happen purely naturally at any time. The world itself seems broken, and this speaks to the Biblical truth that God’s judgment on man at the fall did not only affect man; it affected the entire Earth.
 
And the past two years have highlighted how intractable our conflicts seem to be, between nations, between political parties, and even sometimes between friends or family members. Rather than the world coming together to work to defeat the virus, our world has been as turbulent and on the brink of war as ever. This reminds us of the long, sad story of sinful man through history, another major theme of the Bible. 
 
I could go on with more examples, but I think this serves to make the point that now is perhaps an exceedingly appropriate point in time to take the wide-angle view of God and His interactions with man. Not only because perhaps some of our idols have been exposed, especially our idols of science, of human “progress”, and of supposed innate human “goodness”, but because, after being shown the worthlessness of our idols, at least some people in the world realize that we have taken our eyes off of our Savior, we have put our hope in things apart from Him, and we have lost sight of who our Creator really is and what He has been doing. My hope and prayer for this series is that it would freshly ground us in these things and that we would then share these truths with those around us.

The Lord is There

Ezekiel 47:1 – 48:35
 

Today we conclude our study of the book of Ezekiel, with the final two chapters. Last Sunday John gave a topical review of what this book contains, but I thought of another way of reflecting on what we have considered over the past 7 months as we have made our way through the ups and downs of this book. Let’s try to get inside the head of Ezekiel. What was he thinking as he saw these visions and gave these prophecies over more than 20 years of his life?
 
His calling, when he was a thirty-year-old, came literally out of the blue, as he sat on the bank of the Kebar River in Babylon, where he had been living as an exile for 5 years. He had been uprooted from his career path as a priest in the temple in Jerusalem and faced with a disheartening sense of dislocation and uncertainty, living far from his home in a pagan land. What would happen to him and the other exiles, I’m sure he wondered. Had God abandoned them in his judgment of their sin as a nation?
 
Ezekiel’s first vision of God’s glory in the sky would have been awesome and terrifying, reassuring in one sense: that God still wanted to engage with him, but disconcerting in that the dazzling presence of God that he associated with the Holy of Holies was appearing to him in this foreign land. What was going on?

The Prince Among Them

Ezekiel 45:1-46:24
 

Good morning!  We are nearing the finish line on our Ezekiel series.  This message is the penultimate or next to last in the series.  We are in the “bonus round” of Ezekiel’s prophecies looking to the future beyond even our time.
 
In chapters 1-11, Ezekiel relayed the accusations against Israel for their terrible sins.  Sins so grievous that they pushed God to the point of no return where He allowed Jerusalem, the temple, and the nation of Judah to be destroyed.
 
In chapters 12-33, Ezekiel communicated the judgment on Israel, on its neighbors and on Jerusalem itself. But, God has not abandoned Israel, far from it.
 
In chapters 34 till the end of the book, Ezekiel shares hope, hope for Israel, hope for the nations, and hope for all creation.  Sometimes you may hear the word consolation of Israel, but this is not like a consolation prize you get when you lose.  This is the consolation of perfect comfort when God sets things right, where He takes away their heart of stone and gives His people a new heart and a new spirit, His Spirit, that moves His people to follow His decrees and carefully keep His laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
 
As you may remember God’s presence had departed from the temple of Ezekiel’s time all the way back in chapter 10 before it was destroyed in chapter 33.  Now, starting in chapter 40, we’ve seen a new temple inside and out.  God’s glory returned to this new temple in chapter 43.  Last week, Brian described the return of the priesthood and their work in this new temple in chapter 44.  Today, our focus will expand a bit more to include the immediate lands around the temple and the duties of its ruler, the prince, particularly in worship.
 
With that for an introduction, let’s pray and then examine Ezekiel 45 and 46 together.

The Only Inheritance

Ezekiel 44:1-31
 

Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. 2 The LORD said to me, “This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. 3 The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way.” – Ezekiel 44:1-3
 
In Ezekiel 44 God is continuing to give Ezekiel a vision.  In this vision a man is leading him around to see different things.  At this point, the man takes him to the sanctuary.  This is not the outer wall of Jerusalem.  It’s the East gate of the temple.  Who is the prince?  More than likely, he’s not the Messiah.  It’s someone else.  In Ezekiel 45:22, it says that the prince will offer a sacrifice for his sins.  Jesus never sinned.  In Ezekiel 46:16-18, it says that he has sons.  Jesus never had sons.  It’s not clear exactly who this person is.  We read that the prince is not allowed to go into the East gate because that entrance is only for the Lord.  But he can go into the entrance (the portico) of the East gate.  We know that this person has fellowship with the Lord.  It’s thought that he may be someone of political importance who is ruling underneath Jesus.  There will be a thousand years that Jesus will rule on the Earth.  This is known as the millennial reign.  Ezekiel 44 could be prophecy about events that unfold during that time.
 
If we back up to chapter 11, we see that God’s glory departed out of the temple through the eastern gate: “1 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the LORD that faces east...22 Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. 23 The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it.” (Ez. 11:1, 22-23)
 
Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling the temple of the LORD, and I fell facedown.
The LORD said to me, “Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and give attention to everything I tell you concerning all the regulations regarding the temple of the LORD. Give attention to the entrance of the temple and all the exits of the sanctuary. Say to the rebellious house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel! In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant. Instead of carrying out your duty in regard to my holy things, you put others in charge of my sanctuary. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites. – Ezekiel 44:4-9
 
I think the key in understanding why God is giving Ezekiel this vision in chapter 44 is found in Ezekiel 43:10 which says, "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.”  (Eze 43:10) Their sin had caused the departure of the glory of God.  In our days it would be equivalent to saying, “Their sin ruined their close relationship with God.”  God was showing them what it could be like if they repented and turned back to him.  They would have a restored relationship.  In Christ’s millennial reign, he would dwell with men.  Obviously, there would be no need for sacrifices anymore since, as it says in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit…”  But the Israelites, at the time that Ezekiel was prophesying, didn’t know who the Christ was.  Jesus hadn’t come to die on the cross yet.  So, God gave them a picture they would understand.  He showed them a temple, in which the glory of God had returned.  Whether there would be sacrifices or not in the millennial temple is not the main thing.  The main thing is that God would be present with them. 
 
At the time that Ezekiel was prophesying, the people of Israel were missing out.  They were missing out on the presence of God, missing out on the worship of God and missing out on community that was fulfilling God’s will.  God doesn’t want us to miss out.  His goal is not to make us obey a bunch of rules.  His goal is to bring us into a relationship with him.  If we’re going to have a fear of missing out, let it be a fear of missing out on what God wants us to experience.  In Genesis 15:1 “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your very great reward.”  God didn’t just want to reward Abram, he wanted to be his reward.  If Abram knew that God was going to provide something great, then he wouldn’t have fear.  The people of Israel had been filling their lives with obvious sins.  But they also were filling their lives with things that took place of God’s will.  I don’t know what your view of God is like.  He isn’t like us.  His motives are pure.  He’s a loving father.  Us fathers can get agitated because we give in to our weak flesh.  Don’t let someone who claims to be a Christian taint your view of God.  He’s not like us. 
 
“‘The Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray and who wandered from me after their idols must bear the consequences of their sin. They may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people and stand before the people and serve them. But because they served them in the presence of their idols and made the house of Israel fall into sin, therefore I have sworn with uplifted hand that they must bear the consequences of their sin, declares the Sovereign LORD. They are not to come near to serve me as priests or come near any of my holy things or my most holy offerings; they must bear the shame of their detestable practices. Yet I will put them in charge of the duties of the temple and all the work that is to be done in it.   
“‘But the priests, who are Levites and descendants of Zadok and who faithfully carried out the duties of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereign LORD. They alone are to enter my sanctuary; they alone are to come near my table to minister before me and perform my service. – Ezekiel 44:10-16
 
The Levites, who went astray, would face consequences for their actions.  God was not going to let them go free without discipline.  They were no longer allowed to make offerings or enter the Most Holy Place.  Only the descendants of Zadok were allowed to do these things.  The Levites who descended from those who were unfaithful could still serve but not in the same way they were allowed to before.  It’s an important lesson here.  We shouldn’t think that we deserve anything good from God or that he must treat us like everyone else.
 
“‘When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any woolen garment while ministering at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple. They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire. When they go out into the outer court where the people are, they are to take off the clothes they have been ministering in and are to leave them in the sacred rooms, and put on other clothes, so that they do not consecrate the people by means of their garments.
“‘They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but they are to keep the hair of their heads trimmed. No priest is to drink wine when he enters the inner court. They must not marry widows or divorced women; they may marry only virgins of Israelite descent or widows of priests. They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. – Ezekiel 44:17-23
 
When looking at rules like this that you find in the Old Testament it’s important to ask the question, “Were the descendants of Zadok given rules in order to be chosen or were they given rules because they were chosen?”  God chose the sons of Zadok to carry on the work of the temple.  Then he gave them the rules to operate by. 
 
For us in the New Testament times, entering the Most Holy Place is synonymous with salvation.  We can enter into God’s presence.  Are we able to enter in because of our adherence to certain rules?  No.  A way was provided for us to enter which was apart from any of our effort.   “19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus...22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” (Heb 10:19,22).
 
“‘In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it according to my ordinances. They are to keep my laws and my decrees for all my appointed feasts, and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.
“‘A priest must not defile himself by going near a dead person; however, if the dead person was his father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, then he may defile himself. After he is cleansed, he must wait seven days. On the day he goes into the inner court of the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer a sin offering for himself, declares the Sovereign LORD. – Ezekiel 44:24-27
 
Here the priests are given the responsibilities to be judges.  They’re also given some exceptions to the rules.
 
“‘I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession. They will eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings; and everything in Israel devoted to the LORD will belong to them. The best of all the firstfruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household. The priests must not eat anything, bird or animal, found dead or torn by wild animals. – Ezekiel 44:28-31
 
In these last verses God tells the priests that he wants to be their inheritance.  The priests were not to be given land.  If they had nolland then there would be only a little chance that they could provide for themselves.  God wanted to be their provision and their future provision.  When the people of Israel would sacrifice their offerings (grain, animals, etc.), this would become the food that the priests would eat.  God was providing what the priests needed to eat through the people of Israel.  Another thing that we can see in this passage is that a blessing would be given to the people of Israel when they gave the first part of the ground meal that was harvested for that year.
 
Of course, this would have taken an extra level of trust.  God said the same thing to Aaron, “Then the LORD said to Aaron, ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.’”  (Nu 18:20)
 
If I could simplify the applications of this story is to say the following, “We always want to be where God is, always turn away from anything keeping us from God, and always trust God with whatever he wants us to have.” 
 
Before the people of Israel got taken into captivity, they rejected God.  I think one of the underlying reasons they rejected God was because they felt like they were missing out on something.  Isn’t that similar to us?  If we move away from what God is offering us, many times it’s because we feel like we’re missing out.  If I get angry with my kids that is not something God desires for me.  He has something better.  Maybe I feel like I’m missing out on respect...as in my kids are not respecting me.  Why do we steal?  We think that we’ll miss out on having what we really, really want and we don’t trust God to provide what he wants us to have.  Adultery happens when a person feels like they’re missing out on having a better person in their life.  They’re not satisfied with the person God has given them.  Why do some people neglect meaningful, regular fellowship with the believers (other than just coming to a Sunday meeting)?  It might be because they’re afraid it’s a waste of time.  After all, the church can’t pay their bills, so they have to work all the time.  The church provide purpose in their life; therefore, they go looking for purpose in hobbies or success in their job. 
 
I share these things because I know what it's like to feel like I’m missing out.  I think that God has something far better for us than what we’ve been experiencing.  There will always be more chances to grow in our faith, always more chances to be increasingly devoted to God’s purposes and always more chances to trust God with our time if we give it to those in the body of Christ.  Those chances will never be lacking.  The good news is that God is patient with us.  He walks with us even though we’ve chosen something else besides him.  He has hope for us. 
 
As we take communion, I want to encourage us to do three things.  First, confess anything that’s come between you and God.  Second, I want us to be at peace that we’ll never measure up to a perfect standard.  We have to believe that Jesus did what was necessary to get us into the Most Holy Place.  That’s good news.  Three, if you have a promise from God in the scriptures that says anything about what God has promised to give you, then tell him that you trust him to do it.  If you don’t have a promise, then get one...or borrow one!

God's Glory Returns

Ezekiel 42:1-43:27
 

Ezekiel 40: 1– 42 take place fourteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel is taken on a tour by way of a vision of a new temple and the new area around it, just as he had been given a temple vision 20 years earlier (described in Ezekiel chapter 8). As on that occasion, a heavenly being leads him around the temple area. This time, however, the vision does not reveal the sin of Ezekiel’s people but the splendor of his God. The temple itself is a square structure, with the most sacred place being both the innermost and the uppermost. Ezekiel is led back to the outer court in chapter 42, where various chambers of the temple area are identified.
 
Now Carl took us through both chapters 40 and 41 of that vision/tour last week and I am going to walk through chapters 42 and 43 of that vision/tour this morning. It is interesting Carl and I did not discuss how he was going to present his material until just before the worship service last week but we both independently concluded that just reading measurements would not give you a clear picture of what the temple actually looked like. Even I with over forty years of looking at construction drawings and blueprints and wiring diagrams could not mentally comprehend these dimensions and design layout even after the second third and fourth reading. So had Carl not shown you those videos last week I was prepared to show you those dimensions using 3-D slides and YouTube videos.  
 
See slide of the size comparison of the 3 temples to a football field. So following Carl’s lead from last week, I am going to read today Ezekiel chapters 42 and 43 then play the video so that you can picture it in your mind.

A Greater Temple

Ezekiel 40:1-41:26

Welcome! Today we continue our series through the book of Ezekiel. I hope it has been as rewarding for you as it has been for me. The more I review the past chapters of the book, the more I believe the Lord shows me applications of these passages for today. I realize that Ezekiel is a difficult book to understand, full of many depressing passages, and seemingly repeating themes of judgment again and again with only minor variations, but I am reminded yet again of 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture means all scripture. Why do we discuss Scripture every Sunday morning? To equip all of us for every good work. As the passage says, Scripture teaches us, rebukes us, corrects us, and trains us. This week I was drawn back to the following passage from Ezekiel 11:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the people of Jerusalem have said of your fellow exiles and all the other Israelites, ‘They are far away from the Lord; this land was given to us as our possession.’ – Ezekiel 11:14-15

I have thought freshly about the historical context of this passage. While the people in Babylon were sad about their situation, wishing they could rejoin their people back in Jerusalem again, worshiping again at the Temple, where God had chosen to have a manifestation of His Spirit, His Glory reside, the people in Jerusalem were saying, in effect, that these guys being deported, sent away from Jerusalem, must have been the bad guys, the truly sinful ones. Otherwise, they would have been there with them, here in their land of God’s blessing. The assumption is “We are the people God truly loves; we are the good guys.” But look at how God corrects them:

“Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ – Ezekiel 11:16-17

That word, “sanctuary” is so powerful! In the Hebrew it is mikdash, the exact word used to describe the most holy place of the tabernacle and the most holy place of the Temple in Jerusalem. God tells them that He Himself, has been their most holy place. That is, you don’t need a Temple to have God’s presence among you. And furthermore, just because you do have a Temple, or a promised land, doesn’t mean that you have God among you.

As I thought about how encouraging this passage had to be for the exiles scattered throughout Babylon, my thoughts also turned to those believers scattered in countries where persecution is the most severe, countries like North Korea and, once again, Afghanistan. As I prayed, I prayed for them would be that they could in fact experience God as their sanctuary and that they could be encouraged by verses such as these. And then my prayers turned to our country, as I realized that there are some parallels between us and those Israelites that only pretended to worship God in their hearts. Going to church, whether online or in person, can be an act of profound devotional worship, or it can be done for reasons that really have nothing to do with God. I found myself praying that my faith, that our faith, would be more like that of the faith-filled persecuted exiles around the world. I prayed that we would indeed make God our sanctuary rather than our savings, our jobs, our possessions, our entertainment, or anything else that we might set up as a substitute for God. I encourage you to pray this same prayer, asking God to show you any idols you may worship and then forsaking them, turning only to God as our sanctuary. I encourage you to pray this not just once, but regularly, frequently.

Today’s passage is about a physical sanctuary that God shows Ezekiel in a vision. Apart from Revelation, I would say that this passage is one of the most challenging to understand prophetically, not just because it speaks of the future, but because it doesn’t provide context as to when in the sequence of future events it occurs, or even if it occurs literally at all.

John Taylor in a commentary lists four different interpretations of the events of the final chapters of Ezekiel. I think it is somewhat useful to discuss these briefly. My purpose in giving these interpretations is not to get you to choose one over another, but to just expose you to these possibilities. It is also very possible that the reality is that none of these interpretations is correct.  

The first interpretation is called literal prophetic. This interpretation is that the passage describes a temple that would be built by the returning exiles. Some commentators believe that Ezekiel’s vision was not meant to be taken exactly accurately, but that it did truly prophesy about the fact that the exiles would indeed return to Israel and rebuild the Temple, which did in fact happen with Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah. One argument for this interpretation is the fact that the preceding prophecies in Ezekiel 33-39 also seem to contain non-literal elements, such as the prophecy about dry bones being restored into living human beings, and if all of these prophecies were about the coming restoration of Israel, many other aspects of these prophecies would need to be taken somewhat non-literally. Yes, it is ironic that an interpretation with non-literal elements is called literal prophetic.

The second interpretation is called symbolic Christian. This view is that the passage describes the Christian church age. This view emphasizes that God was ultimately providing for His people a system related to, but different from, the system which they had experienced prior to the fall of Israel. This new system would include both Jews and Gentiles. Note that the fact that God has provided a new way, a new priesthood, a new worship system through Christ’s death and resurrection is certainly true. That is not in question. What is in question is whether the Ezekiel passage primarily describes this or whether it is primarily describing something else.

The third interpretation is called Dispensationalist. Now, there are many flavors of Dispensationalism, and so if you have particular feelings, positive or negative, about Dispensationalism, understand that this interpretation of the Ezekiel passage does not require that you accept all of a particular version of Dispensationalism. (And if you have absolutely no idea what Dispensationalism is, that’s perfectly fine!) This view is that the passage describes a Temple of a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus over this earth. There is a later eternal age, but this Temple does not refer to that time, but rather this earlier Revelation time. The idea is that during the millennial reign of Christ, this Temple will remind people, especially Jewish people, of God’s saving work in Christ, looking back on Christ’s sacrifice rather than forward as the Old Testament Temple and practices did.

The fourth interpretation is called Apocalyptic. This view is that the passage is not so much prophetic in nature, but rather symbolic. The idea is that this passage uses the symbolism of a new Temple to expand upon the prophecies of chapters 33-37.

Now there are a few useful things to know. First, the Temple and surrounding structures rebuilt in the days of Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah do not match the detailed description given in Ezekiel. Neither does it match the heavy modifications that Herod made to the Temple. And certainly, they do not match any descriptions in the book of Revelation. Second, as we shall see, the “feel” of the passage seems much more real than metaphorical. Admittedly, this is possibly the result of our modern biases, but it is natural for us to question why such an extremely lengthy and detailed description would be used simply for symbolic purposes.  Third, a potential issue of a working Temple (with sacrifices) in an age after Christ is that it at least seems to conflict with what Jesus Himself taught about how to remember Him through the bread and the cup. But those who hold to this view point out that certain things that were directly fulfilled by Christ do seem to be missing, implying that they are not a part of this new Temple system. Examples include the lack of mention of celebration of Pentecost, the lack of mention of the veil for the most holy place, the lack of mention of the ark of the covenant, and the lack of mention of a high priest. Critics would point out that this is an argument from silence, one of the weakest forms of argument.

I apologize if I have left you thoroughly confused. Rather than saying any more, let’s dive into the passage itself.

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on me and He took me there. In visions of God He took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.” – Ezekiel 40:1-4

We are now in the twenty-fith year of exile for Ezekiel. This is Ezekiel’s final prophecy in the book. It is the next-to-last based on the dates given; the brief prophecy in Ezek. 29:17-20 concerning Tyre (one of multiple prophecies about Tyre) occurs later. This one seems to be in chapter 29 so that it can be included with similar prophecies.

The date is possibly interesting. In the Bible there are two calendar systems given, one referred to as the civil calendar and the other as the religious calendar. If Ezekiel was using the religious calendar, his date of this prophecy was the 10^th of Nissan, the day when the Israelites were instructed to begin preparation for the Passover. We don’t know if the exiles celebrated Passover, not being in the vicinity of the Temple for the sacrifice of the lamb. They might have celebrated without the lamb, or they might have sacrificed an animal without the Temple (although I doubt this). But to me the significance of the Passover date is that this would be a painful day for the exiles. This prophecy then, about a restored Temple, would have greatly encouraged them on this difficult day.

It appears that Ezekiel is on a mountain from which he could see what might have been Jerusalem. We don’t know how visions work, whether the mountain was a real mountain or not. But it could have been real. It could have been Mount Moriah. Interestingly, the devil tempted Jesus also on a very high mountain. God did this for Ezekiel first. The devil often imitates the work of God. Note that John was also set on a high mountain to see the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven in Rev. 21.

Ezekiel is presented with a heavenly guide. We are not told anything about the identity of this guide. But the guide does speak to him, calling him Son of man much like God does. He is to pay detailed attention so that he can relay all the details after the vision is over.  The man has a solid rod and what appears to be rope or cloth tape. Both the rod and the rope are used to measure distances.

I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man’s hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit and a handbreadth. He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high. Then he went to the east gate. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep. Then he measured the portico of the gateway; it was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple. Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements. – Ezekiel 40:5-10

Note that the guide is the one who measures; Ezekiel simply watches and listens. Ezekiel gives us the dimensions of the measurements which used rods and “long cubits.” A rod was probably about 10-11 feet long, and a “long cubit” was one sixth of this, a little less than 2 feet. 

The east gate gave you a straight line path of entrance towards the Holy of holies, which was in the west end of the structure. But as we will see there was also a north gate and a south gate. A gateway is a substantial structure that allows you to enter an estate or other large area (even an entire city) that is otherwise normally blocked by walls or other structures, even hedges. An alcove is a recess, an open area, in the wall of a room. A portico is a structure consisting of a roof supported by evenly spaced columns. Porticos are often attached to buildings as what we might call porches, although they can be much larger than what we think of as porches.  Jambs are side-posts or linings of doorways or other apertures.

Now, I realize it is very difficult to visualize the descriptions of these chapters. I will play for you a video after going through this chapter and another video after the next chapter to help us visualize the layout.

Then he measured the width of the entrance of the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits. In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square. Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one. He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico facing the courtyard. The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits. The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees. – Ezekiel 40:11-16

A parapet is a low protective wall along the edge of a roof, bridge, or balcony.

The palm tree art is interesting to me. I am reminded of the following passage: After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. – Revelation 7:9

I am also reminded of the Hosannas shouted by the crowds to Christ and the palm branches waved as He entered Jerusalem.

Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement. It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement. Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north. – Ezekiel 40:17-19

Then he measured the length and width of the north gate, leading into the outer court. Its alcoves—three on each side—its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them. There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits. – Ezekiel 40:20-23

Then he led me to the south side and I saw the south gate. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side. The inner court also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits. – Ezekiel 40:24-27

Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others. Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. (The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.) Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it. – Ezekiel 40:28-31

Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others. Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it. – Ezekiel 40:32-34

Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others, as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it. – Ezekiel 40:35-37

A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed. In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered. By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance of the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices. And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings. – Ezekiel 40:38-43

And so here it becomes clear that a major purpose of this new Temple is again to sacrifice animals according to the regulations provided in the Law of Moses. This was apparently not a future temple in which no sacrifices would be made. This will be confirmed in later chapters discussed in future weeks.

Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south gate and facing north. He said to me, “The room facing south is for the priests who guard the temple, and the room facing north is for the priests who guard the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the Lord to minister before him.” – Ezekiel 40:44-46

Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple. He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were three cubits wide on either side. The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, and there were pillars on each side of the jambs. – Ezekiel 40:47-49

Note that in these descriptions, because the measurements are made by a being who apparently walks on the ground and does not fly, vertical measurements are lacking. This is interesting, because it implies that perhaps the description was never meant to be prescriptive, but only descriptive. That is, it was not intended that a future person use the descriptions to build a temple completely to these exact specifications. In contrast, Moses’ Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple both include height measurements. Ezra’s Temple is almost completely undescribed in the Bible, but it does mention a width and height measurement. Of course we know lots about the Temple from the ruins and from other sources.

As to Ezekiel’s temple, the description continues in Chapter 41, but at this point I want to show a video depicting what has been described. Note that the authors of this video have had to make decisions about certain things that are not absolutely clear from the passage, so you should not assume that the video is error-free; indeed, you should assume the opposite. Nevertheless, I do think seeing the Scripture visually is quite helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNmERZkT6JM

Then the man brought me to the main hall and measured the jambs; the width of the jambs was six cubits on each side. The entrance was ten cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were five cubits wide. He also measured the main hall; it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance; each was two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were seven cubits wide. And he measured the length of the inner sanctuary; it was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits across the end of the main hall. He said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.” – Ezekiel 41:1-4

It is interesting to me that the Most Holy Place is square. The Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle was a perfect cube. The same is true of the Most Holy Place in Solomon’s Temple. Although the Ezekiel passage does not talk about the height of the Most Holy Place, I would be surprised if it wasn’t to be a cube. What strikes me and encourages me about these dimensions is that the New Jerusalem is also a perfect cube. Perhaps one interpretation is that in the New Jerusalem, everywhere is a most holy place. This is significant because the Most Holy Place was where the Spirit of God resided. Only the high priest was permitted to go into the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. We know that when Christ died on the cross, the veil blocking off the Most Holy Place was torn from top to bottom, representing how, thanks to the cross, we now all have access to Christ.  And so maybe the perfect giant cube that is the New Jerusalem is a symbol of how, for eternity, all believers will have that amazing access to Jesus. Note that symbolism does not preclude a physical reality; that is, just because something is highly symbolic does not mean that it is not also physically real.

Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was six cubits thick, and each side room around the temple was four cubits wide. The side rooms were on three levels, one above another, thirty on each level. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports were not inserted into the wall of the temple. The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor. – Ezekiel 41:5-7

The many rooms are possibly sleeping places for the priests or possibly storage rooms. I am fascinated by the architectural details. The holiness of “God’s house”, the temple itself, is so extreme, so perfect, that you cannot even attach any other structure onto the temple walls. So the rooms are built around the temple coming right up to the walls but not attaching to them. A whole separate supporting structure is needed around the temple to support the rooms. I can imagine how a priest, at first, would be quite thrilled, even a little scared, to be in a room so close to God’s presence, with literally only a wall separating them. But I am getting ahead of myself, as, so far, we have not been told of any inhabitants, any priests, even whether God Himself is here. This will be discussed, but not today.

I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the length of the rod, six long cubits. The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open area between the side rooms of the temple and the priests’ rooms was twenty cubits wide all around the temple. There were entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one on the north and another on the south; and the base adjoining the open area was five cubits wide all around. The building facing the temple courtyard on the west side was seventy cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits. – Ezekiel 41:8-12

Then he measured the temple; it was a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits. Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. – Ezekiel 41:13-15

What was it like for Ezekiel’s contemporaries to hear or read this description of this new temple with its temple grounds? Utter astonishment. The previous temple was already astonishing. This temple was huge compared with the old temple; larger by a much greater degree than Solomon’s grand temple was compared with the Tabernacle. A visual side-by-side comparison shows how large this new temple really was. 

The main hall, the inner sanctuary and the portico facing the court, as well as the thresholds and the narrow windows and galleries around the three of them—everything beyond and including the threshold was covered with wood. The floor, the wall up to the windows, and the windows were covered. In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner and outer sanctuary were carved cherubim and palm trees. Palm trees alternated with cherubim. Each cherub had two faces: the face of a human being toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the other. They were carved all around the whole temple. From the floor to the area above the entrance, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the main hall. – Ezekiel 41:16-20

Why two faces, a human and a lion? Recall that in Ezekiel’s first vision, cherubim were present with four faces, that of a human (presumably in the front), lion (given as on the right), ox (given as on the left), and eagle (presumably on the back). Imagine standing in front of this creature at a 45 degree angle, between the face of the human and the lion. You would only see these two faces from this angle. (Of course, if you actually saw these awesome creatures, I doubt you would remain standing.)    

The main hall had a rectangular doorframe, and the one at the front of the Most Holy Place was similar. There was a wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits square; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.” Both the main hall and the Most Holy Place had double doors. Each door had two leaves—two hinged leaves for each door. And on the doors of the main hall were carved cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls, and there was a wooden overhang on the front of the portico. On the sidewalls of the portico were narrow windows with palm trees carved on each side. The side rooms of the temple also had overhangs. – Ezekiel 41:21-26

Again, I think it is helpful to visualize this with a video, imperfect though it may be. Let’s watch a visual depiction of this chapter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm38zgyoy-k

We are out of time, but I hope you have been encouraged by this first part of Ezekiel’s great vision. I am sorry that I cannot tell you much more about how to interpret these verses. I cannot tell you when, or even if, this temple will be built physically. But I can tell you that, physical or not, this grand temple speaks of a greater reality than has ever existed, not only with regards to the physical temple, but as we shall see, with regards to people who serve and love the Lord wholeheartedly there. And this future, whether it will literally occur or not, is but a foreshadowing of the true and even greater future reality, that described in Revelations and elsewhere, in which we will be with the Lord in incorruptible bodies, with minds and hearts that sin no longer, and with joy that we can not even begin to imagine. For us, as with the exiles, the Lord is our real mikdash, our true Temple. Buildings, even grand Temples, even thousand-miles-on-a-side cubes as described in Revelations, do not compare to the Lord Himself, and we will be with Him forever!