The Glory of the Lord returns.
Chapter 43
Here we go, folks. The moment we've all been literally hoping and praying for in the future and Ezekiel has already seen it. The glory of the Lord returns to Temple for the first time since Ezekiel described it leaving 2500 years ago (Ezekiel 10:19).
Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east; 2 and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. Ezekiel 43:1–2
The light and sound must be overwhelming. I can only imagine Ezekiel's body must have been like an orchestra of sensory and spiritual stimulation.
In verse 3 Ezekiel confirms that this appearance in the vision matches the same being from the visin where the city was destroyed and from that first visions by the Chebar. And as you would expect, Ezekiel fell on his face.
And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. 5 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. Ezekiel 43:4
It's official. The Glory of the Lord is back in His Temple. This time He seems that there is no Solomon, but the Lord Himself to dedicate it. He returned through the east gate, which is where Ezekiel saw Him depart.
Take a look at what happened next for humble Ezekiel:
And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. Ezekiel 43:5
I can't even imagine.
Sometimes there are chapters where my paraphrase is completely inept at capturing the scene. This is one of those chapter. Prepare for a lot of quotes.
Verse 6 is really interesting. What conclusions could be drawn from this:
Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me. Ezekiel 43:6
Maybe I am reading too much into this, but to me, there is a partial case for the Old Testament Trinity here. Yes, He is God, so he can project sound from one place and glory from another. But Ezekiel went out of his way to include this. He didn't say that he only heard one speaking from the Glory, but also a man was beside him. Why? Why have a man just standing there while the Glory of the Lord is speaking. To me, it's paving the way for future generations to understand that God will take the shape of a man, but the voice will still be God.
The message is interesting. In the past, it was all about judgement and some hope. This is more practical, immediate guidance:
He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die, 8 by setting their threshold by My threshold and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger. 9 Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will dwell among them forever. Ezekiel 43: 7–9
Here's how I read this:
- This is His throne. (notice, not an altar or just a single Holy of Holies, but a crown to rule from)
- He is going to be dwelling in this space forever. He mentions this is the space for the soles of His feet. That makes me think He plans on having a corporeal presence here. It might be metaphorical, but it seems like He would choose His heart or some core of His being. The soles of His feet seems more literal. The portion of the foot that touches the ground. I think this Temple is that of Jesus in the Millennial kingdom, in which case, He is a physical King as well as divine.
- This time, no one is going to defile His Temple, which also protects His name and reputation.
- This Throne is permanent.
- No more harlotry. No sacrifices to idols. While it's a sexual term, and much of the harlotry in the past was sexual, I'm sure this mean no idols of any source—drugs, alcohol, self, food, gambling, and anything else that was placed between us and Him.
- And, interesting, no more palaces or the dead bodies of kings. Kings, including David and Solomon, built their palaces of the same hill as the Temple. This tendency to place themselves close to the Temple has two negative implications. First, it implies that they are closer to God than everyone else. They "deserve" to be honored in the same neighborhood as God. Which is very close to what other cultures did, regarding their dead kings as gods. Second, it's unbiblical. When God described the requirements of the kings, He was very clear that they were to remain brothers to their countrymen. They were supposed to be side-by-side by the people. Not to mention Jesus' common stories about the first being last and vice versa. Taking the premium real estate next to the Temple violates the idea that we are all equally distant by sin and close by redemption.
- This is sinful enough to do while you are alive. But to place your dead and rotting corpse next to the Temple confirms that you don't understand who He is and who you are.
- So He consumed them in His anger.
- This will not occur going forward and He will dwell there forever.
- Also note that there is no veil. Ne need for a veil. No Ark. The Ark is Alive. His glory is now for all to see.
In verse 9 Ezekiel is commanded to describe the Temple, which will bring them shame. And then he is commanded to share the measurements of the plan. I'm not totally clear why the vision would make them feel shame; or why that is in the same sentence as sharing the measurements. I assume they would reflect on what they did to get the last Temple destroyed and feel shame; and see the gigantic measurements of the next Temple and feel hope—but that's a big guess. He does expand on this in verse 11, that they should be showing remorse in the past and keep the measurements and commands for the future. This time, the whole top of the mountain should be holy. No idols. No dead bodies.
Just as a reminder, the ground or land is something of its own being. Throughout the Bible, from the time it cried out with the blood of Abel, it has shown personification. And in the end, it will be redeemed along with man. So it makes sense that God is emphasizing what should be done and not done with the ground, or land, around the new Temple.
Right now, if I understand history correctly, that land is being defiled by the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim abomination. It will be interesting to see how the lord clears out that defilement.
Starting in verse 13, Ezekiel receives the measurements for the altar of burnt offerings. This is very curious to see as a Christian, but that probably means the Temple is built by Jews that still don't recognize the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus yet. It states that the steps should face the east.
Starting in verse 18, God provides instructions how to consecrate it on its first day. This is to be led by the Levitical priests from a specific tribe, the offspring of Zadok. It makes me so happy every time I read that there is still a Levitical tribe being sustained out there, and even from one specific family line. That means God is performing millions of daily miracles to protect those who will fulfill His will one day. Supernatural miracles all around and we cannot see them until we get to the other side. I love it. How many things in my life has he done or blocked so that I can serve Him in His will! Amen!
They continue the consecration offerings for seven days and then the altar will be purified. On the eighth day and onwards the priests will be able to bring peace offerings and the Lord will accept them. It is interesting that only peace offerings are mentioned and not the many other types in Leviticus.
Amazing. He is past, present, and future. Ezekiel was brought into that world of time travel so that we can better understand our own past, present, and future. And at the center of all of it, we should be looking for the Glory of the Lord. He is the Center of the universe. If you miss that, you'll miss it all.
Mind/Body Dualism
Okay, that's it for the reading. Now I am going down a little rabbit trail to see what I can find.
At work, I am designing some lessons around the topic of human dignity. How a person answers the question, What is a person?, dictates how they treat other people. Since secularism has permeated Western thinking, we've lost an understanding of people as body and soul. If only material things matter, than only the body matters. That means the only morality is what we all agree on, or what the majority or the strongest agree on, also know as mob rule.
So, as a Gen X Christian, who was unchurched as a child, I have been raised solidly in a secular world. This has led to syncretism. This is an unholy amalgamation, or blending, of contradictory beliefs into a new, unified system. I've spent most of my Christian life trying to spot and weed out these beliefs from other worldviews and philosophies. However, since we don't know what we don't know, I keep finding pockets of bad philosophy in my life.
This mind/body dualism is a case in point. I believe, and Jesus taught, that I have a heart, soul, and mind. He adds "strength" in Luke, which implies a body to me (Matthew 22:37 and Luke 10:27). I think most people acknowledge there is something there besides just the material, so many have had to supplement the secular view with loopholes, such as "the brain is just a random firing of electricity, not a soul". This soothes their cognitive dissonance but is pretty unsatisfying when we face grief or other discomforts that indicate something more real than random brain impulses.
So, even though I have had different theories about the distinction between mind and heart and soul and spirit, I have never for a second considered that we were just matter.
But I didn't have the specific theology and philosophy to speak to other worldviews articulately. Abortion is evil and horrific. Medically-assisted suicide and euthanasia are a deep stain on out society. I knew those truths, but didn't have the language to say why, beyond worldly logic. This also led to waffling on issues that I perceived to be more in the grey area, such as IVF and surrogacy.
Now that I'm in my deep dive, reading Body and Soul by Moreland Rae as well as Love thy Body by Nancy Pearcey and videos by Megan Almon and Scott Klusendorf, I am gaining the words to say what my spirit has always felt. Beyond human logic, which is important, there is the underlying foundation that is at the heart of the defense of human dignity.
We are made in His image. He breathes His Spirit into us. We are a body and we are a soul.
CS Lewis says that we are not bodies with a soul, but we are souls that have a body. Embodied souls.
That distinction is important. Our core self is in our soul. How do we know? One big way is the resurrection. Over and over the Bible refers to the soul going somewhere after death; with the hope of being resurrected into a different physical body (for believers). Jesus is our prime example, but also those raised from the dead by prophets, apostles, and the nation of Israel with its valley of dead and dried bones. We are our souls. Not a collection of brain waves or chemical-based emotions, although those are a big part of the body.
But we have to be careful not to error in the other direction. We were given a body. And we were clearly instructed that it not our own:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19
That body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. It's not up to us how it should be maintained.
This is the actual moral objection to abortion, euthanasia, MAiD (Don't get me started), and surrogacy. We are a soul with a leased body, made in the image of God. We don't have the standing to take another life or our own—even if we have good reasons or think a particular body is an inconvenience to a person or a society. Life comes from God and only God should take it. I do think we artificially keep people (and animals) alive longer because of technology; and we can even make life if God allows through IVF; so there may come a time when no longer add technology to keep someone alive; but we never withhold food or drink or air or basic medical care and we never inflict death for our own benefits. The two exceptions that are biblical are war and the death penalty. These exceptions will take me further off course, but for now, I'll just add that these are directly biblical—the others would require significant gymnastics to find in the Word.
That (finally) brings us back to Ezekiel 43.
We are made in His image. Most likely, that means are souls are made in the image of His Spirit; but He took the form of a man multiple time in the Old Testament and was a Man in the New Testament. I previously attributed that to Him taking on our form for our benefit alone; but as I think about it, He uses human body parts ascribed to Himself through both testaments. And here, in Ezekiel 43 He does it again.
He established a physical place, not just the Temple but also the Throne. He mentions the sole of His feet, which i comment on above. Scholars describe Jesus reigning for 1000 years on Earth. A physical King. More than that of course. A physical, holy, divine King—but physical nonetheless. During this time, regular humans will dwell, not resurrected saints, but the people who will be born and die in that era. We know because of God's prohibition of placing future corpses there. there will be no death in eternity.
It's a great passage and God's timing that I would find it as I am wrestling with this theology.