Ezekiel 43:1-5 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. 3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. 4 The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
Oh, how we long for the good old days of November 2019, when all was right in the world! Only some Asians in Asia wore face masks. Or medical personnel while performing their official duties.
But masks are the norm now for almost everyone. We are certainly feeling the uncomfortable sensation of breathing with greater difficulty. And conversations are so much more difficult, have you noticed that? No facial expressions to help with the interpretation of the words.
Ezekiel the prophet of the Old Testament was living in exile, a forced exile in a foreign country. Every aspect of his life had changed. Nothing was the same. And the LORD shows up and gives him visions of the immediate future and more visions of a distant future and they connect together.
You see the LORD has one message to tell to the world, the message of His care for His good creation, and of His plan to jointly rule this creation with creatures call Humans. But Humans have rebelled by choosing to define good and evil on their own terms. But this doesn’t stop the LORD from fulfilling His purposes.
So even though Humans have rebelled for generations, the LORD has brought judgment on them in order that the whole world would know that the LORD made things happen in the history of Israel and the surrounding nations. The LORD was the only big “G” God. All others were little “g” gods. Only the LORD could predict and then make happen.
The vision that Ezekiel sees is of the glory of the LORD returning to the Temple in Jerusalem. But why is that so strange? Well, earlier in Ezekiel, the LORD had given Ezekiel a vision of the glory of the LORD, pictured as creatures and wheels and faces and a throne flying away from Jerusalem through this same Eastern Gate. So now the same glory returns.
Now put yourself in the shoes of these Israelites in Exile. They have heard the stories of the LORD’s physical presence at the Temple in Jerusalem, the cloud and fire resting on the Holy of Holies. But that presence fled years ago. And in their lifetimes Jerusalem fell into the hands of their enemies, an unimaginably horrific event.
And their hopes faded and were extinguished. But now the LORD comes and reignites the flame of hope. It had always been there right in front of them. Repent, return, obey, and the LORD’s favor will return.
So the vision of the return of the LORD to His temple, a new temple, brings hope to them. Ezekiel has a message of hope about their return to the Land and the LORD’s blessing arriving and thriving there. The earlier message about the LORD’s presence departing is matched by the LORD’s presence returning.
These two messages place bookends on the book of Ezekiel. There is one message here in this book, just like there is one message contained in the whole of Scripture. This isn’t a random collection of Ezekiel’s visions. It is crafted to give us the message of hope in the midst of uncertainty.
And we need this message of hope today. The masks will someday be put in the trash. We will be able to eat in a restaurant, packed in like sardines, like the good old days. We will cough and sneeze without fear of someone pulling a gun on us.
There is hope!
The Arnold Journey 