Ezekiel 43: 1 – 27
The Glory Returns
“1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 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. 3 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. 4 The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. 7 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 idols of their kings at their high places. 8 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. 9 Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever. 10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 11 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. 12 "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. 13 "These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits, that cubit being a cubit [e] and a handbreadth: Its gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span [g] around the edge. And this is the height of the altar: 14 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. 15 The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth. 16 The altar hearth is square, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. 17 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." 18 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: 19 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. 20 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. 21 You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary. 22 "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. 23 When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. 24 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. 25 "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. 26 For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it. 27 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."
Having just completed his tour of the Millennium Temple Ezekiel once again has a vision of the Glory of God. The Lord’s prophet had seen the Spirit of the Lord leave His Temple in chapter 10, “18 Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. 19 And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.”
I had mentioned in my comments on chapter 10 that I saw a lot of things in this act by the Lord. I saw a reluctant broken hearted Loving Father. I viewed this movement by our Sovereign Lord as reluctance – He didn’t want to leave. He loves His people but they had rejected Him for worthless pagan idols and due to His Righteous Character, He had to leave. I believe that you can see my point of view by His next move highlighted in chapter 11, “22 So the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was high above them. 23 And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.”
He waited on the hill looking back at His earthly home waiting to see if anyone would call out and ask Him to remain. Then what has to be done was done as He left His land to the invasion of the Babylonian army.
“1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east” 2 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. 3 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. 4 The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east.
I know that this message brought good tidings to the exiles in Babylon. They had heard God’s word come to pass as to the Lord’s leaving His people and land. Now they have a hope and a vision of a good future. Their God Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High has returned.
Our Lord God Is so great in how He matches things. Our Lord Jesus ascended back to heaven on the same spot and will return on the same spot as the book of Acts chapter 1 teaches us, “9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
There are a few things that I want to point out in these few verses. For one thing notice the ‘Words’, which he spoke, “1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east” 2 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.” He came back the same way that He left – through the East gate. When He speaks – you take notice. Psalm 29 gives us more information regarding His Mighty voice, 1 Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 2 Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is over many waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars, yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes them also skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
Please notice also, the wonder of His Presence, as Ezekiel informs us – ‘and the land was radiant with his glory.’ The book of Colossians chapter 3 has this to say, “1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
We are instructed to think on these things. We need to get our minds off of this world that is perishing and get it on the One Who Is our Glory. He Is all in all. If we are heavenly minded then we could be earthly good.
Look at verse 3 again. When you see our Lord you do what? – ‘and I fell facedown.’ His Holiness compared to your sinfulness automatically helps you realize His Awesome Glory and that makes you cringe in fear and respect as Isaiah did in chapter 6, “1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: “ Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said: “ Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” You think of doing only one thing when you come into His presence and that is to worship Him.
5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
The Holy Spirit has been quite active in Ezekiel’s life. If you have been with us since chapter 1 you will be aware of the different occasions when the Holy Spirit got directly involved. We also have the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Look at what the apostle Paul said about this in his second letter to the Corinthians, “4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. 12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple.
Have you ever had a hard time trying to understand the Holy Trinity? One God comprised of three Holy Ones – The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost. Now thinking about Them is one thing, try experiencing all Three like Ezekiel. We just read where the Holy Spirit lifted him up and took him to the inner court. We have been reading that the man beside him was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and now we hear the Holy Father’s voice speaking to him from the Temple. Wow!
7 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 idols of their kings at their high places. 8 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.
I had mentioned that the book of Ezekiel had a hard time being included in the canon. One of the reasons was that the Ark of the Covenant was missing in the new Temple. So is the Golden Lamp stand missing. Now we can give reason for why this piece may be missing and that is due to the fact as we have read here how the Glory of God fills the Temple and therefore there is no need for other light. Our Lord Jesus Christ has said that He Is the Light of the World.
I would like to suggest that the Ark is in the Temple but it is not used for the same purposes. We read in the book of Exodus chapter 25 the information about the Ark of The Covenant, 10 “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. 13 And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. 15 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you. 17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. 20 And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. 22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.”
We look at the Ark as being one piece. However, it was two pieces. The lid was called the Mercy Seat and was given distinction over the box. In the book of Leviticus chapter 16 we see how this was used. The Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies and the High Priest could only go in this room one a year on the Day of Atonement. This is what he was to do, 11 “And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself. 12 Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. 13 And he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die. 14 He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.”
Now here is the interesting part. Why do you suppose the High Priest was to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times before the mercy seat? Well I will not keep you in suspense; I believe that the Ark is in the Sanctuary. It is now serving as our Lord Jesus’ throne. That is why the High Priest was to sprinkle some before the Mercy Seat or on the floor before the Ark of the Covenant. Our Lord Jesus’ Holy feet would be on the floor as verse 7 indicates, 7 He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet.”
9 Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever. 10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 11 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. 12 "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.
Our God Is Holy, Perfect, and Blameless. He Is Right in everything He does. He calls all the shots. There is no evil or sin in Him. He wants us to seek to be like Him as Leviticus chapter 19 teaches us, “1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
People are Holy when they are separate from sin. We need to understand this as a basic foundation of our Christian walk with Him. If we do not seek to do this then we will never mature spiritually in our earthly lives.
13 "These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits, that cubit being a cubit [e] and a handbreadth: Its gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span [g] around the edge. And this is the height of the altar: 14 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. 15 The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth. 16 The altar hearth is square, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. 17 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."
In chapter 40 the altar was mentioned however it was not measured. The height of the altar is almost 19 feet. The hearth itself is over 21 feet square. Steps previously were forbidden for an altar as recorded in Exodus chapter 20, “26 Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.’ As you can see it is necessary to have steps because of the large dimensions. Don’t forget that this altar will be serving the sacrifices of the entire population of the earth.
18 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: 19 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. 20 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. 21 You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary. 22 "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. 23 When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. 24 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. 25 "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. 26 For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it. 27 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."
The offering of animals in sacrifice has rubbed many people the wrong way. It does not matter what mankind thinks. What matters is what our Holy God wants. Our Lord however does not want us to be confused as to what He does, so the question remains – Why? In the Millennium there will be humans. They will still have sinful natures and commit sinful acts. Not all will be believers even though our Lord, Savior, and King will physically be here on earth. Look at this verse in chapter 14 of the book of Zechariah, “16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.”
People will be required to come to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices. As you can see from these verses, some will be obstinate to the Lord’s directions and refuse to come up. They will be dealt with as this final verse in the book of Revelation chapter 19 teaches us, “15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.’
