SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2015
10:41 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Ezekiel’s vision Begins
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
40:1-4
Message of the
verses: “1 In the twenty-fifth year
of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the
fourteenth year after the city was taken, on that same day the hand of the LORD
was upon me and He brought me there. 2 In the visions of God He brought me into
the land of Israel and set
me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure
like a city. 3 So
He brought me there; and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze,
with a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand; and he was standing in the
gateway. 4 The man said to me, "Son
of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and give attention to all that I am going to show you;
for you have been brought
here in order to show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you
see."”
Dr. Wiersbe says that the day that Ezekiel got this
vision was April 28, 573 BC—the first day of Passover. The vision goes from chapters 40-48 and
Ezekiel is told to look and to hear what was going to go on in this vision and
then to tell the people of Israel who at that time were back in Babylon what he
saw and heard. Perhaps the people of
Israel would be thinking about the first Passover that happened in Egypt when
the Lord was about to bring them out of Egypt, but this vision that Ezekiel
sees is a bit different than what happened in Egypt those many years
before. The vision that Ezekiel sees is
of what the city and the temple would look like during the Millennial Kingdom
when the Lord Jesus Christ would rule from the place that Ezekiel is not seeing
in this vision so this should have given the children of Israel who were in
Babylon great hope.
Now in verse two we see that this vision took place on a “high
mountain.” Those who think that this
vision is only spiritual jump on these words and say that Jerusalem is not on a
high mountain, but Dr. Wiersbe has some things to say about this in his
commentary, things that those who believe this is only spiritual do not
understand nor care to look at. Before
we look at that statement we need to remember the other time that Ezekiel was
in a vision in Jerusalem and when there that time the scene was much different
than it is in this vision as he mostly saw on sinful people, but not they are
all gone. Now back to the statement from
Dr. Wiersbe: “It’s unlikely that the new
temple would be on any other site than Mount Zion, but critics of the literal
interpretation of this vision point out that Zion is not really a ‘very high
mountain.’ However, they may be
overlooking the geographical changes that will occur in the land of Israel when
the Lord returns to deliver His people and establish His kingdom (Zech. 14:4,
10). God promised that the Jews would
worship and serve Him on a high mountain (Ezek. 20:40) and that Messiah would
rule from a high mountain (17:22-23), and He will keep that promise. Both Isaiah and Micah speak of the high
mountain (Isa. 2:1-2; Micah 4:1). Zion
will not only be elevated physically, but it will become the center of the
worship of the Lord for the whole earth.”
I have briefly mentioned that when we continue to look at this vision we
know that the earth will be changed when the Lord returns for what we will see
in this vision would not fit on the place in Israel that is there now as it is
not big enough.
Now as we continue on in this vision we see that Ezekiel
sees an angelic visitor whom he says was “there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze.” We can surely believe that this man was an
angel that God sent there to appear in Ezekiel’s vision. The man or angel had something to measure
with. When we get to the eleventh
chapter of Revelation in our study of that book we will see that measurement in
the Scriptures means ownership. Let’s
take a peek at some verses in Revelation chapter 11. “ 1 Then
there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of
God and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 “Leave out the court which is
outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations;
and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.” In Ezekiel’s vision we will see that it all
belongs to the Lord and even in John’s vision it belonged to the Lord, but the
Jews would not have control of all of the temple at that time.
Ezekiel would get a guided tour of the temple area beginning
at the eastern gate and returning to the same gate. As stated Ezekiel would receive some solemn
counsel from this angel on what he was suppose to do with the information that
he would be seeing, and he was reminded to look and listen very carefully. I for one am glad that he did listen and look
carefully otherwise we would not have the information in these last nine
chapters.
I want you to know that we will be taking some pretty
large portions of Scriptures as we go through these last nine chapters of
Ezekiel.
5/8/2015 11:18 PM
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