Year 2, Week 22, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 22, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 43-44.

Today’s reading continues the final major section of the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 33-48 can be divided into two segments: Ezekiel 33-39 is composed of prophecies about the judgment upon but also the future restoration of Judah, while Ezekiel 40-48 is composed of Ezekiel’s vision about the new temple and new land. Ezekiel 43 records the climax of the temple vision, as the glory of the LORD, which departed from the Jerusalem temple in Ezekiel 10-11, now returns to fill the Most Holy Place: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places” (Ezekiel 43:7). Having finished describing the architecture of the Temple area, Ezekiel 44 begins a unit that runs through chapter 46, in which the presence of the Temple was to reshape the way that the LORD’s people were to live: "And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary” (Ezekiel 44:6-8).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was how the realization of this future Temple that Ezekiel describes was intended to impact the way that God’s people are to live: “As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out” (Ezekiel 43:10-11). The magnitude of the envisioned Temple and its operations was to have an immediate impact of provoking shame for sin. Even the Levites were to be confronted and shamed in light of the future Temple: “Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their punishment. They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my holy things and the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed” (Ezekiel 44:12-13). The Levites, who were to guard the Temple, had failed to faithfully carry out their duties as a result of being caught up in idolatry: “Thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment” (Ezekiel 44:9-10). The aim of Ezekiel’s message was to convict his hearers of their own sins and bring them to repentance. In being ashamed of the past, they were not to get ready-even while still in exile to commit to pursuing a new and different future: "They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before the people, to minister to them…Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it” (Ezekiel 44:11,14).

Not only was the vision of the future Temple meant to provoke shame for their sin, it was also meant to show the provision to purify them from their sin, so that they could be useful in service to the LORD: “And when they have completed these days, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 43:27). After eight days of purifying the altar, sacrifices would again be offered to atone for sins. And not only would the Levites provide the sacrifices for purification of God’s people, they would also provide the instruction so that God’s people would know how to live: “They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. In a dispute, they shall act as judges, and they shall judge it according to my judgments. They shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts, and they shall keep my Sabbaths holy” (Ezekiel 44:23-24). Christ has decisively dealt with the shame and guilt of His people’s sins: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). But He not only removes His people’s condemnation, He also provides enablement for a new way of living: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3b-4).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe