AMONG US FOREVER
Opening Prayer
I praise You, God, for the future that is mine through Christ, the Lamb who is the King.
Read Ezekiel 43:1–12
God’s Glory Returns to the Temple
43 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[a] 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.
6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. 7 He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The people of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and the funeral offerings[b] for their kings at their death.[c] 8 When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. 9 Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will live among them forever.
10 “Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider its perfection, 11 and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations[d] and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
12 “This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.
Footnotes:
a Ezekiel 43:3 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Vulgate; most Hebrew manuscripts I
b Ezekiel 43:7 Or the memorial monuments; also in verse 9
c Ezekiel 43:7 Or their high places
d Ezekiel 43:11 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts regulations and its whole design
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
As you approach God today, imagine what it will be like to be with him forever.God cannot dwell alongside sin, and he will never give his glory to another. So he had departed from the Temple and the city. But now he has created all the conditions for his return.
Whatever historical “partial fulfillments” might have happened, this vision points to an even more glorious “full fulfillment”—the day that John saw in his vision in Revelation 21 and 22. All of sin and its impact will have finally gone. All God’s beautifully righteous people will become (not be in—read Revelation 21:2 carefully) the New Jerusalem. God will say, “Now the dwelling of God will be with people.” The gulf between holy heaven and sinful earth will be abolished. Jerusalem’s Temple, ground-zero for God’s terrifying holiness, in the end will not be a building but God among his people. The garden decorations in Ezekiel’s vision of the temple (41:15–26) will be the reality of a new Eden, the new-created place for an international new people to be with God.
It’s a breathtaking moment in Ezekiel when God’s glory returns. For the people there and then it pictured forgiveness, restored fellowship with God, new hope. In God’s grand scheme these blessings become eternal.
Apply
1 Corinthians 6:19 says that we are the temple of God’s Holy Spirit. If God dwells in you, how should your life reflect that? What might need to change?
Closing prayer
My God, I delight in the amazing wonder of Your vast plan. May I focus my heart on Your eternity.
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