Well, two people are coming. Will you please turn to the book of the prophet Ezekiel? Ezekiel, Chapter 1, from Verse 1.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month,
as I was among the captives by the river Chebar,
that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi,
in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar;
and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.And I looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north,
a great cloud, with a fire infolding itself,
and a brightness round about it,
and out of the midst thereof as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire.
Verse 26:
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne,
as the appearance of a sapphire stone;
and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.And I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it round about,
from the appearance of His loins and upward;
and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire,
and there was brightness round about Him.As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain,
so was the appearance of the brightness round about.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
And when I saw it, I fell upon my face,
and I heard a voice of One that spake.
Then turn to the last chapter, Chapter 48—the last verse, the last sentence, Verse 35:
And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that we can be in Thy presence. We look up to Thee, and we desire to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We do commit this time into Thy hands and ask Thee that, by Thy Holy Spirit, Thou wilt reveal Thyself to us, to the praise of Thy glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Ezekiel means “God strengthens,” or “the strength of God.”
Now, if the thirtieth year in the first verse refers to his age—and most likely it does—then Ezekiel must have been born in the days of King Josiah, when there was a great reformation going on. During the reign of Josiah, Ezekiel must have been an infant in the arms of his mother.
His father’s name was Buzi. We do not know much about him. The only thing we know is that Ezekiel came from a priestly family. The Bible calls him Ezekiel the priest.
Now, we do not know which course in the priestly service he belonged to. But by reading the book of Ezekiel, we find that there seems to have been great respect given to him by the elders of the Jews in exile. You remember, they sat before him.
And also, we remember in 2 Kings 24, when Nebuchadnezzar took King Jehoiachin into captivity, he brought with him the king’s mother, the chamberlains, and the mighty of the land. So, most likely, Ezekiel belonged to a priestly family that was rather important and prominent among the priests.
When he was taken into captivity, he was twenty-five years of age. We have no record in the Scripture as to when the priest would begin to serve in the temple. The only hint we have is from Numbers 4, where we find that the Levites began to serve at the age of thirty.
And by the age of twenty-five, they would enter into the temple to serve as apprentices. Now, if this applies also to the priesthood, then, most likely, coming from a priestly family, a priest would be trained from his childhood. You remember, when the priests or Levites were numbered, they were numbered from one month old and upward.
So, in other words, because of their service, they must be trained very early in their years. And when they reached the age of twenty-five, they probably entered into the temple to serve as assistants, to learn how to serve.
So when Ezekiel was taken into captivity, he was twenty-five years of age. He was just at the time of entering into the temple to serve in a practical way as an apprentice. That must have been something that he had looked forward to all his days, being trained from his childhood.
But, unfortunately, he was not allowed to serve in the temple in Jerusalem. Instead, he was taken captive into Babylon. It must have been a great disappointment to him.
Now, just think: if you are trained for certain work for a long period, and the time comes when you are to begin to serve, and that opportunity is snatched from you, it must be a great disappointment. To Ezekiel, it must have been a great disappointment. He was taken into Babylon.
When the exiles were in Babylon during the first few years, they were still hoping that perhaps, in a very short while, they would be allowed to go back to Jerusalem. Because of such false hope among them, there were false prophets, not only in Jerusalem but also in exile, prophesying that within two years they would be able to go back to Jerusalem.
That gave Ezekiel some hope that he might still be able to go back and serve in the temple. But in the fourth year of his captivity, if you read Jeremiah 29, you will find that the prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles in Babylon, telling them that the captivity would be long.
God wanted them to build their houses, plant their gardens, and get married, because they would be there for seventy years before God would restore them and return them to Jerusalem.
At the same time, you remember the false prophets in exile, Ahab and Zedekiah. They were prophesying that there would be an early return, and the result was that they were killed by Nebuchadnezzar. So all this dashed the hope of this young man ever serving in the temple in Jerusalem.
When he reached the age of thirty, that was the time for him to become a full-fledged priest, serving in the temple in Jerusalem. What a glory that would have been! But it was impossible. And in the depths of his despair, the glory of the Lord appeared to him and called him to be a prophet.
You know, it is said that Jeremiah is a prophet who happened to be a priest, but Ezekiel is a priest who happened to be a prophet. And there is much truth in it.
Now, before we go into the book of Ezekiel, probably it would be good for us to know something about the prophets. As is commonly known, there are four major prophets and twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament.
Now, by “minor” and “major,” actually, it depends upon the length of the books. It does not mean that the major prophets are greater prophets or that the minor prophets are lesser prophets. They are judged by the length of their writings.
But anyway, for convenience’ sake, we find that there are four major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. They are considered major prophets.
Isaiah is a great poet. Jeremiah is a great preacher. Ezekiel is a great artist. And Daniel, of course, is a great statesman.
Two of them came from priestly families: Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Two of them came from nobility: Isaiah and Daniel.
Now, Ezekiel does not have that sustained flight of Isaiah. Neither does he have that tenderness of Jeremiah, nor does he have the horizon of Daniel. But we find that his characteristic is directness. There is a directness in his writings.
Isaiah was born about one hundred years before Jeremiah, and Jeremiah was about twenty years older than Ezekiel. Daniel probably was around the same age as Ezekiel.
Of the four major prophets, we know that three prophets are connected with the exiles. Jeremiah stayed with the poor of the Jewish people after the captivity, and then later he went with them down to Egypt. He was a prophet among them.
Ezekiel was a prophet among the exiles in Babylon. And, of course, Daniel was also a prophet in the Babylonian captivity.
But when you look, you will find that Ezekiel and Daniel were both in Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah was not in Babylon; he was in Egypt.
Daniel probably was taken into captivity eight years ahead of Ezekiel, because he was taken into captivity in the third year of King Jehoiakim. That was eight years before Jehoiachin was taken into captivity.
But in a sense, Ezekiel was considered the only man raised by God to be a prophet among the exiles in Babylon. Why? Because even though Daniel was there, and he was also given the gift of prophecy, in a very strict sense he was not called into the prophetic office.
He did not serve in the office of a prophet. Instead, we find that he lived in the palace, and his prophecies were concerned with the outward relation of God’s kingdom to the kingdoms of this world. He was there as a testimony to the sovereignty of God, as a standard of righteousness, and as counsel to kings and princes.
That is the reason why the Jewish people do not classify the book of Daniel among the prophetic writings. Instead, they put it among the writings called the sacred writings, or Hagiographa, because, strictly speaking, he did not perform the prophetic office. He was more like a seer than a prophet.
But Ezekiel is different, because he functioned as a prophet among the exiles in Babylon, and he spoke to the conscience of the people. His prophecy is related to the inward concerns of the divine kingdom. That is the difference.
When Ezekiel was thirty years of age, without any hope of ever returning to Jerusalem to serve in the temple as a priest, the Scripture says that the glory of God appeared to him by the river Chebar.
Now, Chebar is commonly known as Chaboras. It is a river in upper Mesopotamia that flows into the Euphrates River. It is about two hundred miles above Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar took these Jewish captives out of Judah and put them in a place by the river Chebar, in Tel-abib, about two hundred miles above Babylon. Yet it was considered Babylon because it was under Babylonian rule.
There, the glory of the Lord appeared to him.
This book of Ezekiel is, in a sense, the most difficult book to understand. The reason is that Ezekiel is an artist. He is a man full of action, full of energy, and his individuality is so marked. He is a very peculiar person.
You also find that his priestly feeling is very deep, and he likes to use symbolism. Throughout the book, you find visions, signs, allegories, parables, similitudes, proverbs, and prophecies. It is just full of these things.
Oftentimes you find his symbolic actions there. He acted things out, and he even goes into great detail. He is trying to paint pictures, and he wants to make impressions.
I believe that if you read the book of Ezekiel, you cannot help being impressed by the pictures he presents to us. They are so inspiring, so mysterious, so charming, and yet so terrifying.
But through these symbolic actions and symbols, he tried to show us an inward reality.
Now, what I am trying to do is give you an impression of the book, and I want you to go to the book yourself. Do not substitute what you hear this morning for your own reading of Ezekiel.
When you read the book of Ezekiel and his prophecies, you find that, timewise, they are divided into three periods:
The first group of prophecies concerns the destruction, or denunciation, of Judah and Jerusalem. The second group concerns the visitation of the nations. The third group concerns the recovery of the nation of Israel.
Now, if you want to look at it from the contents of the book, then probably the book can be divided into two parts:
Very simple.
I would like to concentrate on two points in this book of Ezekiel: one is his call, and the other is the glory.
When he was thirty years old, as a captive by the river Chebar, the glory of the Lord appeared to him, and he was called to be a prophet. He was not able to actively serve as a priest, which was what he had been trained for. But God called him into another office: to be a prophet, a spokesman of God.
There are a few things we notice in his call.
Number one, you find that the heavens were opened to him. Now, that is very important in being called. Anyone who is called to be a prophet must have an open heaven.
A prophet is a person who represents the full mind of God at a time when that mind has been lost. Let me repeat: a prophet is a person who represents the full mind of God when that mind has been lost. That is the reason why a prophet is God’s spokesman.
To be called to be a prophet, the first important thing is that he must have an open heaven, because he is a messenger of heaven. He is to bring heaven’s message to the people.
When God’s people forsake God, heaven is closed to them. There is no revelation, there is no vision, and there is no word of God. Heaven is like brass, shut up. There is no connection and no communication from above.
When heaven is opened to a certain person, communication is there and the message comes. So, to be a prophet, he must have an open heaven.
In the Scripture, you find that this is very important. You remember our Lord Jesus. When He was baptized, He came up out of the water, and heaven was opened. There was a voice, and the Spirit descended upon Him as a dove and abode upon Him.
Our Lord Jesus was called to be a prophet. He was to fulfill His function as a prophet during His three and a half years on earth. Heaven was opened to Him. So whoever is called to be a prophet needs an open heaven.
Brothers and sisters, thank God, there is no reason why heaven should not be open to you today. When our Lord Jesus was crucified, the veil was rent. In other words, through the finished work of our Lord Jesus, the heaven that was closed to mankind is now opened to us.
We may live under an open heaven. We may have uninterrupted communion with God. We may have fellowship with heaven. We may receive messages from heaven. This is now our portion, our inheritance.
So, brothers and sisters, remember that today an open heaven is our inheritance. There is no reason why there should be no communication between heaven and us.
But, of course, even though we have an open heaven as our inheritance, whether we can possess our possession is another thing. To enjoy an open heaven, even though it is our privilege, we need to turn our hearts to heaven to have that communication.
You remember in 2 Corinthians that when your heart is turned to the Lord, the veil is taken away. You may have a veil upon your heart, and that veil needs to be taken off when you turn your heart to the Lord. As soon as you turn your heart to the Lord, brothers and sisters, you have an open heaven.
That is very, very basic and very important. Every believer needs to live daily under an open heaven, because we are heavenly people, and we are supposed to receive heavenly messages from the Lord.
But, of course, that alone does not make a person a prophet, because every believer should live under an open heaven. So you find a second thing: heaven was opened to him, and he said, “I saw visions of God.”
Not only did he live under an open heaven, but he saw what was in heaven. He had visions of God. In the case of Ezekiel, you find that the visions of God basically consisted of the appearance of the glory of the Lord. He saw the Lord.
We need to have vision. By vision, I mean that we need to see God. We need to see His Person, His purpose, His plan, and His glory.
The apostle Paul testified, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” In other words, Paul had a vision. It is called a heavenly vision. He saw that vision on the road to Damascus.
He saw a huge Man, a universal Man who fills the universe. The Head is in heaven—Christ. The Body is the church all over the earth. He saw that vision, and that vision governed his whole life and ministry.
We need that kind of vision. Paul mentioned not only the heavenly vision; in 2 Corinthians 12, he spoke concerning the visions and revelations that he received. In other words, there were many revelations and many visions.
That heavenly vision continued in his life. On the road to Damascus, he saw the frame of that vision, and all along his life, as he communed with the Lord, that vision was being filled in and fulfilled.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find Ezekiel speaking about visions of God. To be a prophet of God, you need visions of God. You need to see God. You need to understand Him, to know His Person, His character, His mind, His thoughts, His heart, His purpose, His will, His counsel, His plan, and His working. This is important in being a spokesman of God.
Thirdly, you find that not only did he see visions of God, but God spoke to him expressly. In other words, he heard the voice of God in an express way—that is, in a personal, special, experiential, direct, revelational way.
We have the Word of God in our hand. We study the Word of God. We may analyze it, and we may be able to understand, if not all, at least part of it. But that kind of knowledge, important as it is, does not constitute a prophet.
It may enable you to be a teacher, but not a prophet. To be a prophet, you need the Word of God to come directly, personally, and expressly to you.
Now, of course, today it is not like the old days. In the old days, the Word of God had not been completed. The faith once delivered to the saints has now been completed. That is the reason why the Word of God came directly to these prophets—something that He had never spoken before: new revelations.
But today, brothers and sisters, the revelations of God have been completed. The faith has once been delivered to the saints, and we have it all in this Book. Therefore, we cannot have new revelation that is completely new, extra, or different from what has been revealed in this Book. It is impossible today. If anyone claims to have it, he is a false prophet.
But still, to be a prophet, you need not only to understand what is written there; you need the Spirit of God to speak once again, afresh—perhaps the same word, but in a living, personal, express way to you. Only that kind of speaking makes a prophet.
In other words, a prophet has to have revelations—not in the sense of extra-scriptural revelation, but in the sense of the Spirit of God speaking again to your spirit, so that there is a burden created in your heart. Now, that makes a person a prophet.
Fourthly, we find that not only did the Word of God come expressly to him—he was even asked to eat a scroll, that is, the Word of God had to come into him, be assimilated by him, and become part of him—but you also find that the hand of the Lord was upon him.
Brothers and sisters, to be a prophet, you need not only the Word of the Lord coming expressly to you, but you must experience the hand of the Lord upon you.
Now, that is difficult. We want the Word of God to come to us, but we do not want to have His hand upon us. In other words, His hand has to be upon us to transform us into the word that He has spoken to us. The message has to become the man. The Word has to become flesh and blood.
There must be dealings and discipline in order to have that kind of transformation. Then you find the empowering of God with you when you deliver His message.
So you find Ezekiel, a priest trained to be a priest, never expected to be a prophet. A priest is not trained to speak; a priest is trained to serve with his hands. But God called him to be a prophet.
It is interesting to find that in the book of Ezekiel, he is the only one who is called by God “son of man” eighty-five times. In the book of Ezekiel, God calls him “son of man.”
Why? Immediately you remember there is Another who is called the Son of Man. When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He loved to call Himself the Son of Man.
Now, what is the meaning of “son of man”? Son of man in the Scripture means a man according to God’s original thought and pattern.
Of course, our Lord Jesus is the Son of Man. He is the Man who is the original pattern of man. He is the Man whom God had in His mind when He created man. He is the Man that God wants. He is the Son of Man.
Ezekiel is called “son of man” without the article. Ezekiel and our Lord Jesus, as persons, are so different. As a person, Ezekiel, even though he is called son of man, is not the Son of Man. He is not a perfect man, that ideal Man, that Man who has God’s perfect heart. No. Only our Lord Jesus is the Son of Man. He is a Man of God’s original pattern. He is the pattern.
But Ezekiel is called son of man, not in person, but in function. He functions as a son of man. When man failed, when the chosen people of God failed, God called Ezekiel to be a representative man, to be a standard, to show His chosen people what God’s man ought to be.
So you find that Ezekiel is more than a prophet. He is a sign. God raised him up as a sign. His person, every action of his, represents what God desires of His people.
Another thing you find when God called him: God appointed him to be a watchman. He is a watchman.
Now, what is a watchman? Today we do not understand watchmen. But in the old days, people did not have watches or clocks. In the night, you had watchmen. The watchman was not just there watching the door. Every hour, or perhaps every three hours, he would go around the place and announce the time.
He is one who knows the time and tells the time. That is a watchman.
God appointed Ezekiel to be a watchman, to be one who knew the time in which they were living. Brothers and sisters, oftentimes we do not know what time we are living in. Because we do not know what time we are living in, we are not watchful.
We are sleeping. We are deceived because we do not know the time. It is very important, brothers and sisters, to know the time. A prophet is a watchman because he is given the knowledge of the time in which we are living.
Not only does he know the time, but he also declares it and makes it known to the people. He discerns the time, and he tells what is coming, to warn people and remind people, so that people may be watchful, alert, and prepared. Do you think we need watchmen today?
Ezekiel was called to be a prophet, a son of man, a sign, and a watchman. What a responsibility he had!
God sent him to the people in exile, and God said, “This is a rebellious people. Whether they hear or forbear, speak. Let them know that there is a prophet among them.” But this was a stiff-necked people.
The work of Ezekiel was a very, very difficult work. He was sent by God to a people in captivity, and yet their hearts were still hardened. So far as the people were concerned, there was no hope.
But thank God, God knew that even among that group of people, there were still some who would hear, who would repent, who would submit themselves under the mighty hand of God. Eventually, they would be the people brought back into Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
Brothers and sisters, outwardly Ezekiel’s mission seemed to be a failure from the very beginning. God told him that it was an impossible task: “They will not listen to you.” Yet, in another sense, his mission was successful, because through his faithful prophesying to the people, some people heard.
Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Ezra, and these people eventually returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and reestablish the testimony of God. That is the reason why we say that Ezekiel is considered the prophet of hope.
Another thing I would like to draw your attention to is the word glory. You know, brothers and sisters, glory is the one word that characterizes the whole book. The glory of the Lord is the theme of this book.
The glory of the Lord governs all things.
In the vision that he saw, he saw the cloud coming from the north, with brightness within as fire burning. He saw the four cherubim. These cherubim served as the chariot upon which the throne of God was borne.
Over the expanse, he saw a throne, and there he saw the appearance of a man above, sitting on the throne. He could not see Him clearly, but he saw the fire, the brightness, the glory there. He saw the bow: the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
Ezekiel must have been very familiar with this scene. Why? You remember, in the temple in Jerusalem, in the holiest of all, there was the ark. Above the ark were two cherubim as the arms of the mercy seat.
When Solomon built the temple, he built two giant cherubim, and the length of their wings covered the length of the holiest of all. So, in the holiest of all in the temple in Jerusalem, there were four cherubim with the mercy seat there.
You remember that even before that, when Moses built the tabernacle, after they put the ark into the holiest of all and every piece of furniture in place, the glory of the Lord filled that tabernacle. In other words, the glory of the Lord sat upon the mercy seat in the holiest of all, but the glory filled the whole tabernacle. That was the scene.
The children of Israel entered into the promised land, and the tabernacle was first set in Shiloh. But the children of Israel rebelled against God. They sinned against God.
You remember in 1 Samuel, there was fighting between the Israelites and the Philistines, and the Israelites were defeated. In their superstitious minds, they thought, “Well, the ark fought for us before, and we were victorious. Let us bring the ark to the battlefield, and God will fight for us.”
They did not know that God had already left them. So they brought out the ark to the battlefield, and the ark was captured by the Philistines.
When the news came back to Shiloh, Eli heard the news. He fell backward and died. And the word was Ichabod: the glory had departed.
The ark represented the presence of God, and now the ark was captured. So it was Ichabod: the glory had departed. Since it departed from Shiloh, even though the ark came back on its own, it never returned to Shiloh.
The ark was later brought by David to his tent on Mount Zion. When Solomon built the temple, they took the ark and put it in the holiest of all. What happened? The glory of the Lord filled that temple. Even the priests had to retreat because the glory was so great. Thank God for that.
But unfortunately, the children of Israel again rebelled against God. They committed abominations.
We do not know when the glory of the Lord left the temple in Jerusalem. We do not know. When Isaiah went to the temple, the glory was still there. In Isaiah 6, he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, His train filling the temple, and the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy.”
But not long after that, we do not know when, the glory left. It was an empty temple that the Babylonians destroyed. The children of Israel still worshipped in the temple, but it was vain worship because God was not there.
But there you find Ezekiel, a captive by the river Chebar, hopeless and in despair. Suddenly, the glory of the Lord came to him—the same glory, the same vision, as you find in the temple in Jerusalem. God was there, revealing Himself to Ezekiel.
What is glory? Glory is the presence of God. Glory is the approval of God. Glory is the satisfaction of God. Glory is the fullness of God.
Where God is present, there is glory. When God is satisfied, there is glory. When the fullness of God is revealed, there is glory.
The glory of God departed from Jerusalem, from the temple, and yet the glory of God appeared to a captive by the river Chebar.
What a privilege! To a person who was devastated and in despair, but whose heart was for the Lord, the glory of the Lord appeared to him. God was present with him. God approved of him. God was satisfied with him.
And God called him to be a prophet.
In Ezekiel 8 through 12, you find that when Ezekiel was sitting there in Tel-abib by the river Chebar, again the glory of the Lord appeared to him. In a vision, He took him by a lock of his hair and carried him back to Jerusalem.
Here you find the glory of the Lord visiting Jerusalem, revisiting the temple.
We say that the glory of the Lord governs everything. The government of God is according to His glory. The glory of the Lord governs the universe. The glory of the Lord governs all the kingdoms of the earth. The glory of the Lord governs His own people.
Every dealing, everything, is related to God’s glory.
Here you find the glory of the Lord appearing again in Jerusalem, in the temple. What did the glory of God do there? The glory of the Lord judged His people.
You know, glory judges, because glory is light, and light exposes the real thing. You find that even though the children of Israel were still in Jerusalem, the temple was still there, and they were still worshipping, as it were, in the temple, everything seemed to be going well.
But God’s glory revealed the reality of their condition. It showed the prophet Ezekiel that in the temple in Jerusalem, it was just idol worship. From the gate to the altar, it was full of abominations. The people were in the temple, but they were worshipping their idols.
No wonder, for His glorious sake, God had to destroy that temple and punish His own people, to vindicate His own glory.
Brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord is the one thing that governs everything. It governs your life, it governs my life, it governs the life of the church, and it governs the life of this world.
This is the standard by which God will measure everything. He will measure you and me by His glory. His glory will judge us. His glory will discipline us. But thank God, His glory will redeem us. His glory will restore us.
Glory is the one thing that stands out in the book of Ezekiel.
The judgment was severe. Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was destroyed. The people were scattered and taken into captivity. And God’s glory was vindicated.
But that was not the end. In His mercy, because we find there is a bow around the throne, in judgment there is mercy.
After the captivity, in the last part of the book of Ezekiel, from Chapters 33 through 48, you find that the glory of the Lord returns. The glory of the Lord returns not because of the people, but because of God’s own name.
Not because the people had changed, but because God, for His own name’s sake, changed the people so that His glory might reappear among them.
So, brothers and sisters, when you read the last few chapters, you find that from Ezekiel 33 onward, Chapters 33 through 39 speak of the recovery of the people. God recovered them in His mercy, washed away their sins with water, and gave them a new spirit.
He put His Spirit in them that they might obey Him, that they might be His people and He might be their God. God restored them as His people.
From Chapters 40 through 43, you find that the temple was restored in its fullness. In Chapter 44, you find that the priesthood was restored. In Chapters 45 and 46, you find that the kingship was restored: the Prince, the Messiah, came.
In Chapter 47, you find that the land was restored. In Chapter 48, you find that the city was restored, and the city is called, “The Lord is there.” In Chapter 43, you find that the glory of the Lord returned to the new temple.
Now, brothers and sisters, all these are visions—symbolic. Some people think that in the millennium a literal physical temple will be built according to what Ezekiel said. It may be so; I do not know. But personally, I do not think so.
God already has a living temple. What is the use of a temple made of stones? It is symbolic. What is the use of sacrificing again, because Christ has been sacrificed once for all? It is done.
Physically, it is impossible if you read all these descriptions. In other words, you find that one day—and thank God, the day is coming—through His own working, according to His own glory, He is going to restore all things to His original purpose.
People will be restored. A living temple will be restored to its fullness. A priesthood will be restored to glory. The King will come. There will be princes ruling with Him. There will be a city called the city of God, and the Lord is there.
Read Ezekiel 40 through 48, and read Revelation 21 and 22. You will see the similarities there.
The picture is that one day the glory of the Lord will fill the universe. Glory.
So, brothers and sisters, we stand before the glory of the Lord. Let that glory examine us.
As Paul says, “Do all things to the glory of God.” Anything that does not answer to the glory of God is not of God and has to be judged. It cannot be carried into eternity.
But that which is of glory is of Christ, and that will be carried into eternity, to the glory of God.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, as Moses prayed that he might see Thy glory, he could only see Thy back and not Thy face. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that we can see the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ.
Lord, may our constant cry be, “Let me see Thy glory.” Let Thy glory govern our life, both individually and together. Lord, take away everything that is not of glory, everything of shame, that when we shall see Thy face, we will not be ashamed.
Oh, our cry is: let glory rule over the earth as waters fill the sea. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.