So, this might take some effort, but imagine you’re back in 2010, standing in Indianapolis, on the football field with the Indianapolis Colts, in a game, and you’re a wide receiver, lined up with the quarterback (Peyton Manning, at that time) on your left and another receiver on your right. This is often how dreams start, isn’t it? Anyway, suddenly, the receiver on your right turns to you and says, “Hey, I couldn’t hear what we’re running. Can you tell me what Peyton called out in the huddle, word for word?”
If that happened, then you might need to answer that receiver, saying, “Well, he said, ‘Trips right, 255, x-blocks slant, h-disco . . .’” And if you stopped there, the receiver would probably answer, “Okay, I got that, but there must be something else he said,” to which you would need to add, “Yes, he also said, and I quote, ‘Alert 12 trap, no, no, no, alert 14 belly’” (which was an actual play call that NFL films caught when they had a microphone on Peyton Manning one time).
And if you did say that, then the receiver would probably say, “Okay, great,” while you’d be thinking, “What in the world did Peyton call, and what in the world did I just say to that receiver?” So, here’s the question: Why would the same message that would provide one person (the receiver on your right) comfort and insight as to what they needed to do make another person (you) confused and wanting to close your ears to what only sounds like gibberish?
The answer, of course, is because all those words, numbers, and symbols represented something to those players who played for the Indianapolis Colts with Peyton Manning. The reason Manning could get in the huddle and call out what sounds like gibberish to us is because he knew who he was talking to, what they understood, and what they’d be listening for from him. They were listening for him to say something like “alert 14 belly,” knew exactly what he meant when he said it, and would have thought he left out something important if he didn’t say it. But, to us, who aren’t familiar, it just sounds like meaningless terms that makes us want to tune out.
And that may have been how you felt reading Ezekiel 40-48, if you were able to read it this week. Ezekiel is given a vision in these chapters that is to be a message for the house of Israel. In fact, the man in the vision makes sure Ezekiel understands he is to communicate these details to the people of Israel, saying in 40:4, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.” But it might feel like a bunch of boring and meaningless details to us, right? After all, in the vision, the man shows Ezekiel this really massive temple and then measures about everything in sight, in terms of cubits or reeds (which may mean nothing to us), in such detail that makes you want to start skimming quickly. In fact, if in your Bible reading, you’re probably tempted to say in light of texts like this, “Surely the Lord doesn’t mind me skimming or skipping these chapters altogether.” I mean, just listen to Ezekiel 40:12-16 – “There was a barrier before the side rooms, one cubit on either side. And the side rooms were six cubits on either side. Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other. He measured also the vestibule, twenty cubits. And around the vestibule of the gateway was the court. From the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate was fifty cubits. And the gateway had windows all around, narrowing inwards toward the side rooms and toward their jambs, and likewise the vestibule had windows all around inside, and on the jambs were palm trees.” That’s not the stuff of devotional books, is it?
And it’s not just that there are so many specific measurements, is it? I mean, the whole scene is strange to us. Just listen to the details of these chapters. In chapter 40 the Lord gives Ezekiel a vision where he is set down “on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city” (40:2), and a man takes him around and shows him this structure like a city, which is a temple. And this tour continues, as the man takes a measuring rod to measure this temple, until it reaches a climax in chapter 43 where the glory of the Lord fills the temple through the east gate. Then, in chapters 44-46, Ezekiel is given instructions for the priests, sees the altar where they will offer sacrifices, and is told htat this will be a holy place where nothing unholy shall enter its walls. Then, finally, in chapters 47-48, Ezekiel sees a river, flowing from the temple, and everywhere this river goes, it’s purifying the land, ridding it of any cursed elements. Even the sea is turned into fresh water because of this river, fish multiply, and trees are made to bear fruit and leaf out year round. And all of this is glorious because the twelve tribes of Israel are given an inheritance in this land. That’s what happens in Ezekiel 40-48.
So, we might think, “Great, but what does this mean?” And that’s a good question. Some have suggested that Ezekiel is seeing a vision of a temple that was going to be rebuilt when the exiles were able to return to the land. And sure enough, a few of the exiles did return to the land in 539 BC, and they even rebuilt the temple. But that temple was nothing like this, they didn’t even use Ezekiel 40-48 as a blueprint, and the glory of the Lord never filled that temple. So, I don’t think that’s what Ezekiel is seeing.
Others have suggested that Ezekiel is seeing a temple that national Israel will one day rebuild that will house the Lord’s glory. But I don’t think that’s a good suggestion either because with the coming of Christ and the pouring out of the Spirit, there is simply no need for a temple. Moreover, the book of Hebrews says that to turn to making offerings to the Lord as atonement is to turn away from trusting in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ and will lead to destruction. So, again, I don’t think this is a good solution for understanding what Ezekiel is seeing in chapters 40-48.
Here’s what I think is going on in these chapters. The Lord is speaking a particular message, in a particular setting, to a particular group of people in terms they would understand. The message has to do with the glorious future God is promising his children, and it has three parts: 1) God is going to dwell in the midst of his people forever, 2) God is going to do everything necessary to enable his people to dwell with him, and 3) God is going to give his people a glorious inheritance. But this message is given to them in a vision in terms that they will understand.
In fact, I think Ezekiel 40-48 is the same message and the same vision that we see in Revelation 21:1-22:5. Now, we may be more familiar with Revelation 21:1-22:5. This is a vision of the coming new creation. This is our ultimate hope, isn’t it? It’s a day when there will be no more sin, death, or sorrow. Everything will be perfect. We’ll be with our God forever. But notice the similarities in the vision John has in Revelation 21:1-22:5 and that of Ezekiel 40-48. Like Ezekiel, John is carried away to a high mountain, and sees a great city (21:10), God’s presence and glory is dwelling in the city forever (21:3, 11), there’s a guide for John who has a measuring road and measures the city (21:15-17), there’s a river flowing through the city that gives life everywhere it goes (22:1-2), and nothing accursed is in this city (21:27; 22:3). It sounds exactly like the vision of Ezekiel 40-48, doesn’t it?
But there are two differences that are significant. For one, John specifically mentions that there is no temple in this city. He writes in 21:22, “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” And because there is no temple in the city, there is no mention of sacrifices.
So, if it seems like the same vision, why these differences? Here’s the answer, I think. It’s because this message of God’s presence, enabling his people to be present with them, and giving them a glorious inheritance is provided to the people in terms they can understand. And if you’re going to tell people that God is going to return to be in their midst forever, what does that look like in 573 BC? It looks like a glorious temple with God’s glory filling the Most Holy Place. If you’re going to tell them that he’s going to enable them, despite their sin, to be in his presence, what does that look like? It looks like the restoration the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system.
The very elements that seems confusing to us in Ezekiel 40-48 are confusing because we live on this side of the coming, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. Just as we don’t understand the temple and the sacrifices in this vision because we know what Christ has done, if the Lord had given them the vision of Revelation 21:1-22:5, you know what they would have asked? Where is the temple and what about sacrifices? Without each of these, they can’t hear God telling them that he is going to be in their midst and enable them to be with him. Inheritance of a glorious land to them looks like the allotment of land to each of the twelve tribes. But on this side of the resurrection of Christ, we see people from every nation streaming into this city in Revelation 21:24.
Therefore, if Ezekiel 40-48 is giving the same message to God’s people then that Revelation 21:1-22:5 is giving to us now, then what is that message? I’ve mentioned it, but there are three parts to the promise of God that he wants his people to know. First,
This is the message God is giving to his people in these chapters. When he shows them to temple, gloriously rebuilt, they would have thought of the temple as God’s very dwelling place. This is why every detail of its structure is thrilling. I mean, imagine I were about to describe to you eternity, in all its glory. Do you think if I started going into detail that about five minutes in, you’d say, “Alright, enough with the details?” Of course not. I’m describing paradise. I’d be describing the setting where we’re going to be dwelling with our King Jesus Christ. Well, that’s why the details are delightful to them as well.
But they don’t just have to assume God will be present with his people again because the temple is rebuilt. Ezekiel actually sees God’s glory enter the temple. Remember in chapters 11-12, when Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord depart from the temple? Well, now he sees it return. We read in 43:1-5, “Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”
And not only does God’s glory enter the temple, but he enters the temple, never to leave again. We see this in 44:1-2, “Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut.” It can remain shut because God isn’t leaving his people again. He will forever dwell with them.
Again, this is the same promise of Revelation 21:1-22:5. We read in Revelation 21:3-4, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And again, the reason God doesn’t speak of a temple in this vision is because the Temple was just a shadow that Jesus showed us was fulfilled in himself. This is why Jesus said in John 2:19-20 that he was the temple, and it is why in Revelation 21:22 there is no need for the temple because the Lamb is present. But again, this truth – though said differently – is communicated in Ezekiel 40-48 and in Revelation 21:1-22:5.
What this means is this: God wants his people to know his heart to be with them. Remember in Ezekiel 40:4, the man told Ezekiel to pay attention because the Lord wanted Israel to hear about this. And the first message is that God is going to be with his people again, forever.
This means that if we have a conception of God in which we want to be with him more than he wants to be with us, then we’re holding a conception of God that is unbiblical. I mean, aren’t we tempted to think that way. Sometimes we feel as if God is far from us, and we begin to think that he is resistant to be with us.
Have you ever seen a dog that is pretty docile by nature, but he doesn’t want to get in his caged dog house? Instead of going in, he’ll just lie down by the door, short of entering. But if you pull on him, push him, and verbally order him enough, you can get him to enter the house slowly and reluctantly. Some of us think that’s how we’re interacting with God. If we can finally work hard enough, he’ll reward us with his presence, but even then, we better watch out because he finds much greater delight in distancing himself from us. But again, that is unbiblical.
God’s heart has always been to let his people know of his delight in being with them. Not only does God promise it here in Ezekiel 40-48, but God the Son took on flesh in order to dwell in our midst. Then, when he ascended to the Father’s right hand, he didn’t do so without also sending his Spirit to dwell within us. And the climax of the Scripture is found in that declaration, “Behold the dwelling of God is with man.” This is his desire.
So, don’t give in to the lie today that God delights in being far from you. Sure, there are times we feel distant. There are times we feel a bit dry. But even those times, I think, God allows so that we will turn to him, cry out to him, and know his presence. We know experience and yet long for the day when we will dwell with our God, and his promise is that he will dwell with his people forever.
The second promise is that,
Again, in chapters 44-46, the Lord is telling them where they’ll celebrate the feasts and offer sacrifices. He provides the priests in 44:15, declaring, “The Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord God.”
You see, the priests represented the people before God. So, by making allowance for the ministry of the priests, God was showing Ezekiel that he was providing what was necessary for the people to dwell in his midst. Then, in chapters 45-46, there are instructions for the offerings. Perhaps this is most clearly seen in 46:19-20, “Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. And he said to me, ‘This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people.’” God is doing everything necessary to enable an unholy people to dwell with him in his presence.
Of course in Revelation 21:1-22:5, there is no mention of sacrifices. How can there be on this side of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ? But there is a reminder of sacrifices because John mentions in Revelation 21:22 that the reason there is no temple is because the Lamb is there. And you can’t speak of the Son as the Lamb without remembering that he was the sacrificial Lamb, sacrificed so that our sins might be forgiven, removed, and atoned for.
The message of Ezekiel 44-46 is a promise that we need to be reminded of again and again. Because like our unbiblical thoughts that tell us that God delights in being distant from, so we can believe that he is unwilling to remove those things which form a barrier between us dwelling with him.
Don’t we sometimes sit, overwhelmed by our sin, and think that declaring that God forgives and declares righteous those who trust in his crucified and risen Son sounds just a little too good to be true? Don’t we sometimes think that he’s saying, “I’m willing to provide most of what it takes to enable you to be in my presence,” but you still got a good bit you need to be doing? That’s why we’re so prone to think the Lord wants nothing to do with us unless we can really point to all our righteous living.
But the problem with that is fourfold: 1) to think that our righteous living is sufficient ignores God’s demand for perfect holiness, 2) to think that way says that Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is not sufficient but needs what we can add to it, 3) it completely obscures the richness of God’s grace toward us, and 4) it doesn’t lead to holy living. The thought that if we heap condemnation on ourselves and then try to live holy lives that it will lead to sustained holiness is simply wrong. The gospel is the power for holy living. Faith in the finished work of Christ is the fuel for holy living. So, let us delight in the promise that God has worked in Christ and will manifest on the last day, namely, that he has done everything to allow a sinful people like us to dwell with him, in his presence.
Finally, we see that:
Starting in the middle of Ezekiel 47 and running through the end of the book, we read about the Lord dividing the land between the tribes as their inheritance. We read in 47:13-14, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘This is the boundary by which you shall divide the land for inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. And you shall divide equally what I swore to give to your fathers. This land shall fall to you as your inheritance.’” And, sure enough, he goes on to divide the text evenly. It even sounds as if he’s just drawing perfect lines all the way across the land, giving one stripe to one tribe, then going down, making another perfectly horizontal line, and giving that stripe to another tribe. For example, in 48:1b-2, we read, “Extending from the east side to the west, Dan, on portion. Adjoining the territory of Dan, from the east side to the west, Asher, on portion,” and so on.
This is the inheritance. But it’s not just the inheritance of Israel. It’s the inheritance of a land of paradise because if you look back at 47:1-12, you find that a river has made this place glorious. Ezekiel is shown a river that starts out as a trickle from the temple. Then going a thousand cubits, the water was ankle-deep. Going another thousand cubits, it was knee-deep. Going another thousand cubits, it was waist deep. And going another thousand cubits, it was so deep that no man could pass it. And everywhere it went, it brought healing and life. The fish multiplied, the trees on its banks were made to be alive and bear fruit in every season, and even the salt water it flowed into would become fresh water.
This is a vision must like what we see in Eden, as a river flows through the garden into the rest of the world and gives life. It’s also what we see in Revelation 22 where the same thing happens.
So, what God is showing his people is that he’s going to give them an inheritance that is nothing less than paradise. It is a glorious inheritance of a redeemed world, where nothing of the curse remains. This is what Isaac Watts was writing about in the song Joy to the World, when he wrote, “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.” This is what awaits us as our inheritance, a redeemed creation, where we can dwell with our God forever.
What then should we do in light of these promises? Let’s at least do two things. One, let’s meditate on and thank God for his kindness and love to us. All of these promises are to a people that have rebelled against him. Consider these promises and recognize his great love for us that we don’t deserve, and let it move you to love him more. And, two, let us spend our life in sacrificial obedience to God, knowing that whatever comes our way, he will be with us, made able to be with him, and in a promised land of paradise as the inheritance for all those whose faith is in the crucified and risen Lord. Let us give him thanks now as we come to the table. Amen.