Thursday, May 7, 2009

Ezekiel 40

Ezekiel is swept away into another vision, where he is taken to Israel to see the temple. But this isn’t Solomon’s temple, because the angel of the Lord who shows him around, also measures everything as they go. This would imply that it is a new temple, one in the future. My Bible Commentator says it probably refers to the millennium temple (ie. a temple they will build in the future). At first instance I see only one problem with this, and that is, that the temple in the vision has sacrifice tables for burnt offering, sin offering and the trespass offering. Well, sure there will be sin in the millennium, but I would have thought that Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice would cover the millennium as well?

On the other hand, it doesn’t seem like the passage could be taken ‘spiritually’, that is, it doesn’t seem to represent some spiritual truth that God is getting across to Ezekiel (at least not only that). It is very, very precise (so much so that the whole 49 verse chapter is one measurement after the other), which needn’t be the case if it is merely figurative. Imagine God giving all the dimensions and instructions of the ark to Noah who then turns around and takes them all figuratively or morally!

In any case, it is a confusing chapter. So what can we glean from it? Well we can certainly conclude that God is meticulous. He has the exact dimensions of a future temple already laid out before Him – not just the general design. In our own lives, this means that He hasn’t left anything out. Sometimes we can feel like we’re just drifting, and that any plan is so general that it almost doesn’t constitute a plan at all. We feel vague and dilute. But God always has an exact plan. He knows what you will do tomorrow, the next day, the next day, and (if you live that long) eighty years from now. Exactly. He has an absolutely meticulous plan for your life; in that you can trust. Is that comforting?

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