The glory of God returns
43
📚Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east, 2 📚and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the direction of the east; and his voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. 3 📚And it was like the appearance of the vision which I had seen before, like the vision that I saw when I came for the destruction of the city; and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the Kebar River; and I went down on my face. 4 📚And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by the gate facing toward the east. 5 📚Then the Spirit lifted me up, and took me into the inner court, and I saw the glory of the LORD fill the temple.43:1-5 This remarkable passage reveals the return of the glory which departed earlier. See Ezek 11:22-23. Because of the sin of His people God left His temple and His land. Here He is seen returning. Observe that the coming of this glory in the vision is after the people are in the land, after the temple is built.⚜
6 📚And I heard him 📖 speaking to me from the temple; and the man stood beside me. 7 📚And he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne 📖, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell 📖 among the children of Israel 📖 forever 📖. The house of Israel will no longer defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution 📖 or by the corpses of their kings on their high places. 8 📚When they placed their threshold by my threshold, and their post by my post, with a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their abominations 📖 which they committed. Therefore I consumed them in mine anger. 9 📚Now let them put away their prostitution, and the corpses of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell among them forever.
10 📚“Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their evil deeds; and let them take the measurements of the pattern. 11 📚And if 📖 they are ashamed of all that they have done, reveal to them the design of the temple, and its arrangement, and its exits, and its entrances, and its complete design, and all its ordinances, and all its forms and all its laws. And write it down in their sight, so that they may keep 📖 its whole design, and all of its ordinances, and do them.
43:11 This is one main purpose of this revelation – indeed of all revelation from God. God means for it to promote repentance and obedience.⚜
12 📚“This is the law of the temple: All its surrounding area on the top of the mountain will be most holy. See, this is the law of the temple.
43:12 A special area distinguished from other areas was to be most holy.⚜
Altar of burnt offering
13 📚“And these are the measurements of the altar in cubits (this cubit is to be a cubit and a handbreadth): the base shall be a cubit, and the width a cubit, and its rim all around the edge shall be a span. And this shall be the height of the altar: 14 From the base on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits, and the width one cubit. 15 📚So the altar shall be four cubits. And from the altar rising upward shall be four horns. 16 📚And the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long, twelve wide, square at its four corners. 17 📚And the ledge shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen wide at its four corners; and the rim around it shall be half a cubit, and its base shall be a cubit all around. And its steps shall face east”.
43:13-17 Ezek 40:47 – the altar of burnt offerings. See Ex 27:1-8. “A handbreadth” (v 13) here means about 22 centimeters.⚜
18 📚And he said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are to be the ordinances of the altar at the time they make it, to offer burnt offerings on it, and to sprinkle blood on it. 19 📚And you shall give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, the Levites, who are the descendants of Zadok 📖, who approach me to minister to me, says the Lord God. 20 📚And you shall take some of its blood, and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the ledge, and all around on the rim. Thus you shall cleanse and make atonement for it. 21 📚Also you shall take the bull of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the temple, outside the sanctuary.
22 📚“And on the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish as a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. 23 📚When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram without blemish from the flock. 24 📚And you shall offer them before the LORD, and the priests will throw salt on them, and offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.
25 📚“Each day for seven days you shall prepare a goat as a sin offering. They shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram from the flock, without blemish. 26 📚Seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves. 27 📚And when these days have expired, on the eighth day and onward, it shall be that the priests will make your burnt offerings and your peace offerings 📖 on the altar, and I will accept you 📖, says the Lord God”.
43:18-27 Note at 40:38-43. Observe how specific and detailed these instructions are. And they were meant to be followed (v 11). These verses speak of the sprinkling of blood and atonement being made for the altar (see Ex 29:16, 37). So the fulfillment of these chapters looks forward to a time when men can defile the altar by their touch – a time, that is, when the people of God would still be in the flesh and have a sinful nature. It cannot, therefore, be speaking of spiritual worship in the ages of eternity.⚜