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Family, welcome to day 237. I'm excited to dive into Ezekiel chapters 40 to 44 today. I really enjoy this section of the book of Ezekiel. This is probably the hardest section of Ezekiel to read, but for whatever reason, I don't know, it being the difficult part of Ezekiel makes it the most interesting to me. So we're gonna dive in. If you've done the reading, you're probably a little confused. You're kind of like, what is going on? Feels like I'm reading Leviticus all over again. And low key you are. Hopefully I can help bring some clarity. If you haven't done the reading today, I'm gonna encourage you. Stop this video. Stop the audio. Go do the reading. Okay. Ezekiel, chapters 40, 41, 42, 43, 44. Little more reading than normal today on the Bible reading plan, but I think that the reading will add a lot of value and hopefully I can give you some context clues, some nerdy nuggets, and a timeless truth that will kind of help it all make sense. All right, context. I'm going to give you literary context and then historical context for today. So two layers of context. Then we'll dive into our nerdy nuggets for the day. Literary context. Okay. If you've been reading the book of Ezekiel straight through at this point, you kind of feel like, wait a second. There was action. You know, this is interesting. There was narrative, there was prophecy, there were oracles, there was prediction, There's Ezekiel's fascinating life. And then there were these visions, like even when they were confusing that there were visions, and now we're just kind of walking through a temple. What. What's going on? Like, the pace has slowed down. They're just talking about priests and their garments and which Levites can serve where in the renewal or the restoration of another temple. What's happening? Well, I'd ask you this question. What other book of the Bible can you think of that was nonstop action? Plagues, Moses as a baby, avoiding death, a burning bush, the death of the firstborn, Just action, action, action, action, action. The glory of God on Mount Sinai, the giving of the ten Commandments, Like, I mean, non stop action. Then and all of a sudden all the action halted. That we came to a screeching halt. And we just had instructions for tabernacle for a long time. Just blue cords and you. Yellow cords and red cords and yarn and instructions. Can you remember a book where that happened? Yes. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Exodus. Exodus is the book that Ezekiel is modeled after. So Ezekiel is going to have nonstop action. Go, go, go. Visions, oracles against the nations. Ezekiel can't cry even when his wife dies. We got prophecies against Jerusalem. Valley of dry bones. Yeah, like, this stuff's great. New heart, new spirit. And all of a sudden, an angel came to me and showed me this temple and had a measuring line, and we just started measuring stuff. And we got cubits, and we got a whole lot of here we go. Like, I mean, verse 2 of chapter 40 in Visions of God, he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain on thus, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. And he took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze. He was sitting in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. The man said to me, son of man, look carefully and listen closely. Pay attention to everything I'm about to show you. And there is a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits. The last time I was thinking about cubits was just a long time ago. And guess what? After God has restored, has given a vision of restoration, after there's an army. And now after he's defeated the enemies and all the awesome, you know, prophetic, Prophetic words of restoration that Yahweh has spoken through Ezekiel all through this second half of the book. Now we get to the restoration of the temple, and the pace is no longer action, action, action. It's actually a little boring, boring, boring. So my job is to kind of help with that. Okay. Cause it's not boring. It's actually quite incredible. So the echo between Ezekiel and Exodus is deliberate. Just as in Exodus, okay, Ezekiel is preparing the people of Israel to enter the land. Okay, okay. So the same way that Moses preparing the people to enter the land, Ezekiel's preparing the people to enter back into the land. And this is what's interesting. But not just yet. Another 35 years or so will pass before the possibility of a return. Another echo of Exodus, because when Moses starts preparing the people to enter the land, they're not going to actually enter the land until another 39 years. So. So these exiles here in Babylon have about 35 years before they are gonna re. Enter the land, but Ezekiel's preparing them for it. And the people of Israel who are in the book of Exodus have about 39 years before they're gonna enter the land, which wasn't God's plan, by the way. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because of their own sin and rebellion and hard heartedness and idolatry. But let's not digress. That is the literary context of this entire last portion of the book, this entire last segment or movement of the book. We are gonna get instructions for Levites, we're gonna get instructions for the priesthood in general. We're gonna get instructions for the temple. We're gonna get instructions for all kinds of stuff that's temple related. Okay. Because we've got a literary structure that's very similar to the book of Exodus. All right, I hope that's helpful. Next we got historical context. We're given one date at the beginning of this vast vision. Okay, the 10th day of the first month of the 25th year of the exile. Okay, 25th years, 25 years that people have been living in Babylon. It's been 14 years since Jerusalem has fallen, and it's been 25 years since this group got shipped off to Babylon. This places this later vision in the middle of the exile. Jerusalem is long gone. Any hope of return is fading as the years go by. The exiles are actually doing the exact thing that Jeremiah had told them to do. Remember, Jeremiah said, build homes, plant gardens. Like, marry off your sons and daughters. Like, you're going to be in Babylon for a while. If you seek the prosperity of the city, you'll prosper as well. They've actually put that into practice. They are settling down and making lives for themselves in Babylon. It is into this context, this time period, that Ezekiel starts to speak again. His silence is broken. He starts to speak again to show them that they will go home, that Israel will be restored, that God will bring renewal. All right, so that's context. I know I gave you a lot of context today, literary context, historical context. But both are really, really important to appreciate the beauty of, of these chapters, because it can be a little hard to appreciate the beauty of these chapters because there's just a lot of detail. All right, let me give you some nerdy nuggets. First. Nerdy nugget. We get an angel measuring a bunch of things and showing Ezekiel the temple. Okay? The overall pattern of this vision is that of an angel guiding Ezekiel through what he has seen, measuring out the temple and describing it and its workings to Ezekiel. This is very different from all of the earlier visions when it was left to Ezekiel himself to try to describe the amazing things he was seeing. This is also the beginning of a new kind of prophetic vision. We see in Ezekiel another of the seeds of what would become apocalyptic literature. Isaiah had given us the poetic extreme metaphor that would become the symbolic, over the top language of the literature of apocalyptic literature. Okay, so Isaiah is contributing one aspect of what's going to become apocalyptic literature. And now Ezekiel is giving us the visions that would be a large part of apocalyptic writings. Okay, so we can begin to see in the writings of Isaiah and Ezekiel the foundation or, or the seeds that will become apocalyptic literature. In particular, the idea of a vision guide is very, very, very specific to apocalyptic literature. That one aspect, a vision guide, an angel that guides the prophet or writer through a vision, pointing out particular parts and giving descriptions and commentaries on it. We will see this style full blown in the book of Revelation as John is often guided through his visions by angels. Right. So again, Ezekiel and Isaiah are both laying a foundation for what will become apocalyptic literature. And if you don't understand apocalyptic literature, it's really like very difficult to understand the book of Revelation. All right, next nerdy nugget is based on Ezekiel chapter 43. Okay, Ezekiel, chapter 43. Hey, are you looking for a really cool gift or just solid tools to support your faith and daily Life? Check out Mr. Pen. They've got no bleed Bible pens and highlighters that actually work on thin Bible pages. Journaling Bibles, Bible tabs and faith based journals. Even school supplies for parents, teachers and students. Mr. Penn was started by Christian teachers in Louisiana on a mission to serve the schools in their local community. And now They've got over 100,000 five star reviews on Amazon. I'm a huge fan of their Bible highlighters and pension. Super smooth and gentle enough to write notes in the margin of your Bible. Whether you're digging into scripture or stocking up for back to school. Mr. Penn has you covered. Shop the best Bible journaling supplies on the market and fantastic gifts for the ladies in your life@mrpenn.com that's mrpen.com and guess what? Our audience here at the Bible department gets a special discount. Use code DEPARTMENT10 at checkout to get 10% off your entire order. 3. Ezekiel, Chapter 43 is all about the glory of Yahweh entering the temple. Now remember at the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, in our first movement through the book of Ezekiel is Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord leave the temple. So this is a full circle moment. Okay, have you been like just walking through the narrative plot of the book of Ezekiel? We saw the glory of the Lord just rise up and leave the temple and now the glory of the Lord is going to enter into the temple. This is chapter 43. This is the most significant part of the vision of a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem is that Yahweh enters it. Okay. When Yahweh left the temple, he made the city vulnerable to attack without his presence to protect it. In this vision of a new temple, the glory is seen to return to the temple and the city. The message is clear. Yahweh will be with them, to protect them and to save them, to be their king and their God. Just like Ezekiel had seen that Yahweh went into exile with his people and did not abandon them, so now he sees him return to the temple, showing that he is still with them. Now, this vision is actually quite fascinating because Ezekiel is going to see the glory of the Lord return to the temple, but the glory of God doesn't actually return to the new built temple. So when we get to the Book of example, Ezra and Nehemiah, right? Nehemiah is rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Ezra's rebuilding the temple. We don't have that scene that we had with the first tabernacle in the first Temple where the fire of God comes down and the glory of God comes down and enters. We actually don't have that again until Acts chapter two. Because what God is communicating in Acts chapter two is that my glory is not gonna return until I establish my church. Okay, so the glory of Yahweh entering the holy of Holies is something that is actually missing, but we've got it here in Ezekiel as a prophecy, as a prediction, which means that Ezekiel's probably predicting or prophesying something that's not just gonna be fulfilled in the rebuilding of the actual temple, but that is gonna find his fulfillment in the true Messiah in the person of Jesus. Yahweh did not enter the rebuilt temple in the way he did with Solomon's Temple. There's actually real, just hardcore evidence of this. A couple centuries later, when the Roman general Pompey entered the holy of Holies and came out again completely unharmed, it became really obvious. Got it. The glory of God must not live in the holy of Holies, because had that happened during Moses time, he would have died. During David's time, you touched the Ark of the Covenant, you fall flat on your face and you die. Okay, so the fact that a Roman general can just walk to the holy of Holies and nothing can happen means that the glory of Yahweh did not return to the temple or to the holy of Holies in the same way. This and other elements of the vision have led to questions that about what this vision is actually portraying. All right, Also in chapter 43, we're gonna get sacrifices of atonement. We're gonna get a restored priesthood. The rest of chapter 43 describes the priest's offering sacrifice of atonement to cleanse the new temple in order that Yahweh would remain there. And it can function as a sanctuary, a place where Yahweh and his people can meet together. This is another message of hope. The priesthood will be restored to. The sacrifices of Yahweh will be restored. The relationship to Yahweh that they represent will be restored. Remember, this message is being given at the heart of the exile. When such a thing would seem a world away. This would be absolutely. This would seem and feel absolutely, totally impossible. Just remember, time, like, so much time has gone by. The people have been in exile now for 25 years. I. I wonder if you can just, like, think about 25 years. For some people, that's half their life. That's. That's a third of someone's life. That. That's. That it's just a significant portion of life. And so Ezekiel's prophesying, no, God's going to restore all things. He's going to restore the priesthood, he's going to restore the sacrifices, he's going to restore the temple, which really means he's going to restore our relationship with him. God is gonna bring the restoration of all things, even though we've lost hope, even though we've lost faith, God is gonna bring the restoration of all things. All right, let's dive into our timeless truth for the day. And that is that God never leaves us, never forsakes us, never abandons us, that we actually have the manifest presence of God in the worst situations of life. Now, what Ezekiel sees at the beginning of the book is that the glory of God leaves the temple because of sin and because of debauchery and because of wickedness, but then goes out into exile to be with his people because he doesn't want to be far away from his people. God always finds a way to somehow function in relationship with us, even in the middle of our sin. He doesn't compromise because he can't. Okay? He just cannot. He can't be surrounded by wickedness because he's holy. And so he leaves. But he doesn't leave to just go off in outer space. Didn't leave to stay in heaven. No. He leaves to be with his exiled people in Babylon, like, in the middle of discomfort and suffering, he's with them, and then what do we have? The people are going to get restored back to the land. Who's going back to the land? Yahweh's going back to the land. Someone asked me recently, like, you know, there's a lot of suffering in life. Like, what makes you believe in God? Even though there's just, like, a lot of suffering? And I said, oh, because God doesn't shield himself from that suffering. That's why. Think about it, like, if God had never, like, incarnated into the person of Jesus and Jesus had not suffered, then, yeah, suffering would be a great reason to. For me to leave the faith. But we don't have a God who watches us wallow in suffering. No, he's present with us. Not only is he present with us, he actually incarnates in the person of Jesus and enters into the reality of our suffering. I always say it like this, right? Like, there's two types of leaders. There's a kind of leader that wants you to pay a ultimate price of sacrifice, but they don't want to pay that price. And then there's the kind of leader that leads by example that says, yeah, I'll be the first to sacrifice. I'll be the first to sow. I'll be the first to give of. Of myself and my gifts and my talents. I'll be the first to do it. And you don't want to know when you got a leader who's incarnational, who enters into the middle of whatever the suffering is, then it builds morale for the whole team. And we have a leader. We have a God who goes, yep, nope, I'm gonna be with my people. I'm gonna be with my people even though they're in the middle of suffering. I'm gonna be with my people, and ultimately, I'm gonna send my son, and I am going to enter into the human experience. I'm gonna enter into this suffering. I'm gonna enter into this pain. I'm gonna enter into all of the discomfort of the human experience. Because I'm not a leader who wants other people to pay a price that I'm not willing to pay. I'm willing to pay the ultimate price for this thing that I believe in. And, man, we got enough leaders in our society who want other people to pay the price for the dreams and the goals and the aspirations of the organization, but they don't want to pay the price themselves. And we just serve a God who says, nope, I'll pay the ultimate price. I know life is hard. I know there's cancer. I know there's miscarriages. I know. I know that there's pain. I know that there's betrayal. I know that there's death and sickness and poverty, and I know that there's racism. And I know. I know. I know that the life that y' all live down there is difficult and hard. But instead of just looking at your suffering and empathizing, I'm present with you in suffering. And that presentness or that presence really culminates in the incarnation of his son, Jesus, who then takes on flesh and blood and relegates himself to a life of disappointment and hardship and all kinds of suffering. And, you know, when I look at the person of Jesus, I can say, you know what? I can be a good soldier and I can thug this out. I can suffer. Why? Because there's one who's with me. And he's not just with me in some spooky goosebumps, spiritual way. He's with me. He knows what it's like to live the human experience. He knows exactly what it is like to experience loss, pain, disappointment, gossip, insecurity, all of it. He's human. And a big chunk of today's reading was all about the priests and the priesthood. Well, the Bible tells us that we have a great high priest that knows how to sympathize with all of our weaknesses. And that man, that's the beauty of being a priest, is that you're one with the people. So the priesthood gets restored for the people of God in the Book of Ezekiel, in our reading for the day. And I wanna take this moment to highlight the real priest, the ultimate priest, whose name is Jesus, who took on flesh and blood, entered into the suffering and the drama of our story, and became one of us. And he doesn't save us from afar, but he actually comes near, takes on skin and bone, and actually saves us as one of us. And that, that's a timeless truth. The presence of God, it's a game changer. Tomorrow we got day 238. It's our final day in the Book of Ezekiel. So if you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you're not on a streak, get your life together, please. The Bible's good for you. It'll change your life, I promise. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we close out the Book of Ezekiel. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace.