A CTUACIONES AUTONÓMICAS SUSCEPTIBLES DE SER CONCERTADAS Y COFINANCIADAS CON LA AGE EN RESERVA

1 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. 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 house of Israel will never again defile my holy name — neither they nor their kings — by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places.

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 lifeless idols of 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 the plan,

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 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.

As we saw the glory of the Lord depart from the temple in earlier chapters,1 leaving the buildings and empty hull, a dead body, so here the glory re-enters. The first thought that comes to mind is what happened to the body of Christ. In His argument with the Jewish leaders, Jesus had said: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” We read: “The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.”2 The ultimate fulfillment of this vision is in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is obvious that the temple Ezekiel saw being measured does not correspond to the one built by Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity, nor to any other of the temples built or reconstructed afterwards. Not only have those structures not survived, but we read nowhere that God’s glory came to fill them like Ezekiel describes here. God’s statement: “This is where I will live among the Israelites forever” cannot be applied to any situation or any place on earth, except to the resurrection body of Jesus. We can form an impression of what is meant when we look at the picture John draws for us in Revelation, where he sees “the Son of Man,” “dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest” and “His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”3

This vision also explains the purpose of the blueprint shown to Ezekiel. God tells Ezekiel what to do with his vision. We read: “Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, 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 and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.”

Zechariah predicted what Israel’s reaction would when they recognized that it was their Messiah they had rejected. We read: “They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with

1. See Ezek. 9-11.

2.

their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.”1 The Apostle John puts this in a universal context, saying: “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.”2

The Matthew Henry’s Commentary probably gives the most meaningful comment on these verses. We read:

“After Ezekiel has patiently surveyed the temple of God, the greatest glory of this earth, he is admitted to a higher form, and honored with a sight of the glories of the upper world; it is said to him, Come up hither. He has seen the temple, and sees it to be very spacious and splendid; but, till the glory of God comes into it, it is but like the dead bodies he had seen in vision (ch. xxxvii.), that had no breath till the Spirit of life entered into them. Here therefore he sees the house filled with God’s glory. He has a vision of the glory of God (v. 2), the glory of the God of Israel, that God who is in covenant with Israel, and whom they serve and worship. The idols of the heathen have no glory but what they owe to the goldsmith or the painter; but this is the glory of the God of Israel. This glory came from the way of the east, and therefore he was brought to the gate that leads towards the east, to expect the appearance and approach of it. Christ’s star was seen in the east, and he is that other angel that ascends out of the east, Rev 7:2. For he is the morning star, he is the sun of righteousness. Two things he observed in this appearance of the glory of God:— 1. The power of his word which he heard: His voice was like a noise of many waters, which is heard very far, and makes impressions; the noise of purling streams is grateful, of a roaring sea dreadful, Rev 1:15; 14:2. Christ’s gospel, in the glory of which he shines, was to be proclaimed aloud, the report of it to be heard far; to some it is a savor of life, to others of death, according as they are. 2. The brightness of his appearance which he saw: The earth shone with his glory; for God is light, and none can bear the luster of his light, none has seen nor can see it. Note, That glory of God which shines in the church shines on the world. When God appeared for David the brightness that was before him dispersed the clouds, Ps 18:12. This appearance of the glory of God to Ezekiel he observed to be the same with the vision he saw when he first received his commission (ch. 1:4), according to that by the river Chebar (v. 3); because God is the same, he was pleased to manifest himself in the same manner, for with him is no variableness. ‘It was the same’ (says he) ‘as that which I saw when I came to destroy the city, that is, to foretell the city’s destruction,’ which he did with such authority and efficacy, and the event did so certainly answer the prediction, that he might be said to destroy it. As a judge, in God’s name, he passed a sentence upon it, which was soon executed. God appeared in the same manner when he sent him to speak words of terror and when he sent him to speak words of comfort; for in both God is and will be glorified. He kills and he makes alive; he wounds and he heals, Deut 32:39. To the same hand that destroyed we must look for deliverance. He has smitten, and he will bind up …The same hand inflicted the wound and healed it.”

The fact that Ezekiel is told to describe to the people suggests that this is not a blueprint for a future physical construction, but a spiritual one. Jesus confirmed this in His conversation with the Samaritan woman, when He said: “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”3