A Return to the Familiar
After Ezekiel gets a tour of the temple, he is taken out to
receive yet another vision. This vision
brings us completely and totally full circle in the story of Ezekiel. Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord
coming. Ezekiel remembers the first
vision that he had by the Chebar canal. {See Ezekiel 1}
The Lord comes in an identical fashion. It has been several years – two decades, to
be fair – since that first vision. Yet
Ezekiel remembers it like it was yesterday.
Encounters with God are not easily forgotten, that’s for sure.
However, there is something very interesting in the way that
Ezekiel phrases the coming of the Lord.
He says that the coming of the Lord this time is “just like when He came
to destroy the city.” Here’s the weird
truth about God. God is so holy and so
righteous that His coming in celebratory glory and His coming for absolute
destruction look the same.
Some people may argue that Ezekiel isn’t talking about the actual
appearance of the Lord. Rather, some
people may think that Ezekiel is talking about the manner in which the Lord
comes. Personally, I think Ezekiel is
talking about everything. When the Lord
comes, He comes in the same manner and looks the same.
Now, you might be thinking that this is pretty weird. Why would the coming of the Lord in glory and
the coming of the Lord in destruction look the same? After all, when we come into a space to
celebrate we look different than when we come into a place with the intent of making
heads roll. I think the answer is found
in a phrase that I have spoken about elsewhere in this blog. We often hear the phrase “the fear of the
Lord.” We understand this word fear to
mean more than a phobia-type fear, although that is certainly part of it. The fear of the Lord does have an aspect of
terror to it. Yet, the fear of the Lord
also has a dimension of awe in it as well.
When the Lord comes, it is terrifying. When the Lord comes, it is
awe-inspiring. Whether the Lord comes to
do a blessing or to lay out judgment, the Lord will inspire fear within
us. I believe this is why Ezekiel tells
us that when the Lord comes to fill His temple in this chapter it looks the
same as when the Lord came to lay judgment against the Hebrew people.
Dwelling in the Presence of God
As we move forward in this chapter, we hear the Lord tell Ezekiel
something about what it means to dwell with God. First, there is a call to put aside our
idolatry. Again, note that the Lord uses
a sexual word – whoring – to describe this sin.
To God, our lust after other gods is spiritual adultery. When we dwell with God, we need to put aside
our patterns of looking for other gods and things to follow that are not God’s
ways.
Second, notice that the Lord tells Ezekiel to put away their
bodies of their dead kings. Yes, this is
absolutely a reference to the fact that it was largely through the kings that
the people were led astray. So God is
telling Ezekiel that it is time to put aside the ways of the world. But I think there is more to it than
this. The dead kings would represent a
time of looking backwards into a past.
The dead kings would speak to a feeling of nostalgia about a “better
day.” God is telling Ezekiel that the
past does not contain a “better day.”
The future contains our time with God.
There is where we will find a “better day.” We should be looking to the future with God
rather than looking back on our life or our genealogy with nostalgia.
Third, notice that there is a promise contained within the words
of the Lord. God tells Ezekiel that He
will dwell in the midst of His people forever.
This is another reason to look to the future rather than be nostalgic
about the past. When we submit to God
and enter into His presence it never has to end.
The Sins of the People
As we move to the end of the chapter, we here Ezekiel’s guide tell
Ezekiel to tell the people about this temple.
The goal of sharing this temple is to cause the people to see their sin
and change. The telling of this temple
will help solidify the repentance process within the Hebrew people.
This naturally leads us into the talk about the altar. Of course, hopefully you noticed the talk
about the sacrifices being offered up for sin.
Once more we see that this vision does not presume Christ. This vision presumes a time when people will
still need to do sacrifices in order to find atonement for their sins.
That being said, there is a message in here. Just because the Hebrew people “do their time”
in captivity doesn’t mean that they are accepted back by God. The people will still have to demonstrate
obedience. They will still have to make
sacrifices and abide by God’s direction.
I love this passage for that very truth. We all know that just because a person goes
to jail doesn’t make them reform. Just
because you send your child to their room doesn’t mean they learned their
lesson and it really doesn’t mean that they won’t do it again. Putting in one’s time does not equate to
repentance and reform. In order to truly
believe a person or a group of people have reformed there must be evidence. In the New Testament we call that fruit. In order for the people to truly be
acceptable to God they must bear fruit.
The must demonstrate their willingness to be obedient to His words.
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