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.

Then the man led me northward into the outer court and brought me to the rooms opposite the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall on the north side. The building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide. Both in the section twenty cubits from the inner court and in the section opposite the pavement of the outer court, gallery faced gallery at the three levels. In front of the rooms was an inner passageway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long. Their doors were on the north.
Now the upper rooms were narrower, for the galleries took more space from them than from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building. The rooms on the third floor had no pillars, as the courts had; so they were smaller in floor space than those on the lower and middle floors. There was an outer wall parallel to the rooms and the outer court; it extended in front of the rooms for fifty cubits.
While the row of rooms on the side next to the outer court was fifty cubits long, the row on the side nearest the sanctuary was a hundred cubits long. The lower rooms had an entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.
On the south side along the length of the wall of the outer court, adjoining the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall, were rooms with a passageway in front of them. These were like the rooms on the north; they had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. Similar to the doorways on the north were the doorways of the rooms on the south. There was a doorway at the beginning of the passageway that was parallel to the corresponding wall extending eastward, by which one enters the rooms.
Then he said to me, “The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy. Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people.”
When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate and measured the area all around: He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits. He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common. – Ezekiel 42:1-20
 
Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.
The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and the lifeless idol of their kings at their high places. When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
“Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
“This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.
“These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits, that cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth: Its gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span around the edge. And this is the height of the altar: From the gutter on the ground up to the lower ledge it is two cubits high and a cubit wide, and from the smaller ledge up to the larger ledge it is four cubits high and a cubit wide. The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth. The altar hearth is square, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. The upper ledge also is square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around. The steps of the altar face east.”
Then he said to me, “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: These will be the regulations for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood upon the altar when it is built: You are to give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, who are Levites, of the family of Zadok, who come near to minister before me, declares the Sovereign LORD.
You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the upper ledge and all around the rim, and so purify the altar and make atonement for it. You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.
“On the second day you are to offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering, and the altar is to be purified as it was purified with the bull. When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.
“For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it. At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Sovereign LORD.” – Ezekiel 43:1-27
 
Now we will watch a YouTube video of the rest of the measurements and the YouTube producer’s creation of what the return of the Glory of God to the temple mount may have look like.
 
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjRk--7_cLzAhUcRzABHQimCwwQuAJ6BAgDEAk&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DoQRegCrJHzk&usg=AOvVaw1HYrSUhKSUV-v4FtAsOzQq
 
The video depicts the new temple and the return of the glory of God described in Ezekiel 43: 1– 5. The producer of this YouTube video took cinematic liberty in depicting the entry of the glory of the God over and through the East gate.  No one could accurately depict the Glory of God but Moses actually asked God to show him His glory in Exodus 33:18.
 
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And guess what God said?
And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” – Exodus 33:18-23
 
After the glory of the Lord returned to the temple in the vision the voice of the Lord instructed Ezekiel in the regulations for Israel’s renewed worship life including animal sacrifices. This is the most confusing since Jesus’ death and resurrection eliminated the need for animal sacrifice for all time. So what was the purpose of this vision and all the detailed dimensions given?
 
There are a number of possible reason/explanations/interpretations for Ezekiel Chapters 40-48:
 
The four interpretations that Carl gave last week from John Taylor’s commentary were as follows:
 
The first interpretation is called literal prophetic but not literally taken to be accurate when it came to the length width depth and height dimension details. 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.  I believe the probability of this interpretation being correct is low.
 
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. I believe the probability of this interpretation being correct is very low.
 
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. .  I believe the probability of this interpretation being correct is very low.
 
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.  I believe the probability of this interpretation being correct is very low.
 
Now a fifth possible interpretation not mentioned last week is that this vision was conditional and the condition never occurred. This view is that the temple in Ezekiel’s vision never got built because the If in the If-then conditional requirement of shame and repentance never occurred. That is the Exiles were never ashamed of their sins that led to the destruction of Solomon’s temple.
 
In the fifth “might have been" interpretation”. The larger temple might have been built and the Glory of the Lord might have returned to the temple mount, had the Jewish exiles in Babylon exhibited a more thorough repentance than they did. The Lord actually tells Ezekiel that the new temple for the house of Israel was contingent on the people being sufficiently ashamed/ repentant, of their past sins.
 
Ezekiel 43:10 and 11 reads
 
Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple – Ezekiel 43:10-11
 
The response of the Jews to their opportunity to return and to build this new temple may have been lukewarm. The fact that the temple they ended up building was smaller than evens Solomon’s temple and Solomon’s temple as Carl showed you last week was drastically smaller than the one that Ezekiel described in chapters 40-43 gives weight to this interpretation.
 
Though the Jews did not meet the conditions to have such a temple as Ezekiel’s vision, the pattern that Ezekiel preserved in these chapters stands as a description of an intended order, which, had it materialized, would have testified, as the tabernacle once did, as a type and shadow of “heavenly things” that Paul described in Hebrews 8:5.  
 
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. – Hebrew 8:5
 
This shadow of heavenly things, we may assume, was the intended long-term purpose served by the vision that Ezekiel was given in chapters 40 through 48 until the actual heavenly things came to the earth.
 
Revelation 21 tells of these heavenly things concerning the Holy City the New Jerusalem:
 
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. – Revelation 21:1-14
 
Noteworthy is the fact that the names of twelve tribes (three on each side) will also be on gates of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven with the additional names of the 12 apostles on the foundations of the wall of the city. This seems to indicate that the construction of this heavenly city of the New Jerusalem was not complete until after Christ chose the 12 apostles.  
 
Now Jesus did tell His disciples in John 14:1-2
 
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. – John 14:1-2
 
Therefore, based on the type and shadow of Heavenly things explained in Hebrews 8, Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for His disciples in John 14 and the description of His Father’s house and the new Jerusalem city coming down out of Heaven in Revelations 21, I believe the probability of this fifth interpretation being correct is high. That is, I think it is highly probable that the temple was intended to be built as a shadow of heavenly things to point to Christ but God conditioned its construction and His return on the repentance of the Exiles. That repentance described in Ezekiel 43:10 and 11 apparently never occurred and thus the larger temple never got built as a shadow of heavenly things and His Glory never returned to the planned temple and thus His Glory never filled it.
 
The fact that God had detailed plans that never happened because His people did not repent also gives rise to the possibility that God had detailed plans for Adam and Eve that “might have been” if they would have not disobeyed.
 
That also begs the question for me and you “Did God have detailed plans for me, and you that did not happen because we didn’t do something that He commanded us to do”? If that is the case, is it too late to obey Him now so that His detailed plans can be accomplished in and through us? I would suggest to you that it is not too late to obey him. I am reminded of the Poem titled “His Plan for Me” by Martha Snell Nicholson that was written before I was born.
His Plan for me
 

When I stand at the judgement seat of Christ

And he shows me his plan for me

The plan of my life as it might have been

Had he had his way, and I see

How I blocked him here, and I checked him there,

And I would not yield my will- …

Will there be grief in my Saviors eyes,

Grief, though he loves me still?

He would have me rich, and I stand there poor,

Stripped of all but his grace,...

While my memory runs like a hunted thing

Down the paths I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well - nigh break

with the tears that I cannot shed;

I shall cover my face with my empty hands,

I shall bow my uncrowned head...

Lord, of the years that are left to me,

I give them to Thy hand;

Take me and break me, mold me to

The pattern thou hast planned!

The pattern thou hast planned!

 
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tested and tried me,
though they had seen what I did. – Psalm 95:6-9
 
As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. – 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
 
Let’s pray.