Day 62 - Ezekiel 36:1 - 47:12

In today’s section, we read about:

God’s promise to restore Israel
The vision of the valley of dry bones which come back to life
The reunion of Judah and Israel foretold
Prophecies about the armies of God
A vision of a new temple area, with detailed measurements
God’s glory returns
Arrangements for the Prince, Levites and Priests, division of land
The river flowing out from the Temple

Some thoughts that occurred to me:

Again, we have the phrase, “[they/you] will know that I am the Lord” (36:11,23,38; 37:6,13,14,28; 38:16,23; 39:6,7,22,28). The purpose of EVERYTHING is that people know that the Lord is the Sovereign God, and worship Him – exile, punishment, judgment, final cataclysm.

36:22 (and v32) is very sobering – “am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations.” And yet, the people still benefit from what God has is store, even thought they are unworthy. And what blessings – they will be gathered back to the land God has given them, cleansed, and then “will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”

There is such authority in 36:36 – “For I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I say.”

Again in 37:12-14, there is such a wonderful promise, after the humiliation and despair of exile – “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”

I like the way God is going to reunite the divided kingdom after the exile, and the amazing promises that will accompany it – “I will gather them together” (37:21), “bring them home” (v21), “unify them into one nation” (v22), “one king will rule them” (v22), “I will save them from their sinful backsliding” (v23), “I will cleanse them” (v23) and “then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God” (v23). It continues, “my servant David will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd. They will obey my regulations and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after generation. And my servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give them their land and increase their numbers, and I will put my Temple among them forever. I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And when my Temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I am the Lord, who makes Israel holy.”

Gog and Magog also appear in Rev 20:8, in the passage detailing the final defeat of Satan.

39:28-29 – “Then my people will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away to exile and brought them home again. I will leave none of my people behind. And I will never again turn my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the people of Israel. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

I have to confess I am very confused about the detailed description of the Temple, because I think I am correct in thinking this temple was never built. It doesn’t seem to me to be the New Jerusalem promised in Revelation – Rev 21:22 says there is no temple there, here in Ezekiel, there are still animal sacrifices, and the figure of the Prince is not clear to me. In Hebrews, Jesus is both the king (ruler/prince) and high priest rolled into one, but here they are separate. I read an interesting article here, but I still am not clear on this. There is much the same – 44:28 “The priests will not have any property or possession of land, for I alone am their special possession”, reference to the Year of Jubilee, special rules for the priests etc – but there are differences, eg no lamp stand, no ark of the covenant etc.

God remembers and rewards (and punishes) according to the people’s actions – compare the descendants of Zadok (40:46,44:15-31) and the other Levites (44:10-14).

The image of God’s glory returning to the Temple (43:1-12) is wonderful, and the fact that the eastern gateway is shut forever, because God has come in that way, is beautiful.

Whatever this arrangement actually signifies, the characteristics of its provisions are familiar enough, “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land. Stop expelling them from their homes, says the Sovereign Lord. Use only honest weights and scales and honest measures, both dry and liquid” (45:9-10).

The river flowing out of the temple is intriguing and sounds wonderful – 47:8-10 “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. 9 There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows. Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea. All the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim, the shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean.” It then goes on to talk about trees in ways that recall Rev 22:2 – Eze 47:12 “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.”