epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Ezekiel 43

In the 37th chapter of Ezekiel we have recorded a famous resurrection vision. The prophet is taken to a valley of dry bones and questioned about whether these old dry bones can live. The answer is modeled before his eyes as he is told to prophesy to the bones. The bones are brought together, and eventually clothed with muscle and skin. Still there was something missing. The bones were not alive as they needed to be. Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the spirit/breath in order to bring the spirit back into the body so that the resurrection picture would be complete.

As wonderful as the glory temple tour has been thus far, there should be a question ringing in our ears because of Ezekiel 37. “Son of Man, can this building live?” The model of a new temple is wonderful. We have enjoyed the order and beauty of it, but we are less impressed with it all if it is not leading to a building that is alive with the glory of God. Now after several chapters of temple details we are relieved to see that this temple will indeed live. The same glory chariot that we remember from the earliest vision in Ezekiel is here again now. As the glory left the old temple before its destruction by the Babylonians earlier in this book, the glory now comes into this new temple, and the vision of God for His people seems complete.

The glory of God comes from the east and with the sound of rushing waters. As life-changing as the day of Pentecost and as remarkable as the river that will flow out from this temple and cleanse the world, in just a moment everything is new and alive. The Spirit of the Lord fills the temple. In Acts 2, the disciples were given new life, new boldness, and new purpose as God moves His church out from the upper room. In the gentile Pentecost of Acts 10, the assembly of the friends and family of Cornelius are also filled with the Holy Spirit in an undeniable display of divine power. The message is clear to Peter and springs up into Acts 15 at the Council of Jerusalem. God dwells even in the hearts of gentiles. The Lord has a purpose for his church that transcends the boundaries of Old Covenant life. The temple is alive and is on the move. We should be amazed and glorify God who is able to fill us with His presence. That was Ezekiel’s reaction. He fell on His face before the Lord. He was lifted up by the Spirit, brought into the inner court, and He saw the longing of every redeemed heart as the glory of God filled the temple.

Somehow more than the building is apparently changed through this great happening. The Lord speaks through His angel about the change that must take place in the people of God. We hear of a new life of holiness that has always been beyond the grasp of the covenant people of the Lord. God will put away their sin, and God will dwell in their midst forever.

This message of the temple was not to be kept secret. Ezekiel was to broadcast it among the Israelites in exile. They were to consider it. They were to measure the plan as the angel had measured the spaces in the vision. The purpose of all of this was that Israel might be ashamed of her sin. There is something for us all to consider here. Let us survey the Christ who is ours and the inheritance that He brings to us now and in the age to come. Let us consider it all very carefully, and let us be ashamed of our sins and repent before the God who has so much grace for His people. Then may we do what He calls us to do in the preaching of the gospel, not just in places of convenience, but from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, even to the ends of the earth, so that the great temple of God will be finally and fully built. The end has not yet come. We must preach the gospel to all nations and endure through every tribulation, for this great salvation of God is surely coming, and we do not want to be ashamed on the day of the Lord’s appearing.

When we think of what God has in store for His sanctified people, we should carefully consider the altar of the temple. The greatness of this vision and the far-greater reality that it signifies has come at the cost of the Son of God, who was slain as our Atoning Sacrifice. The steps of the altar face east, the same direction from which the glory of the Lord has come to inhabit the temple. The blood of the sacrifice is sent forth to the Lord as a testimony of the faithfulness of His Son. The heavenly sanctuary is purified with the blood of this spotless Lamb, and the answer from heaven that returns to His people is the provision of God’s Spirit now filling the people of God, proceeding from the Father and the Son.

The full atonement has been made. Now the priests of the Lord are acceptable in the presence of God because of the blood of our Redeemer, the Messiah. Let us seek the fullness of what the Lord has purchased for us. Let us be satisfied with nothing less than the provision of God’s Spirit filling His glory temple. We will not return to Old Testament patterns, as amazing and wonderful as the story is that they tell. We now have the reality of what they pointed to, and we are pressing forward toward the fullness of the eternal plan of grace established by God since before the foundation of the world.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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