SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/7/2015 9:24 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to Ezekiel 40-48
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: None for
Today
We are going to begin to go over the four different views
of what we will find in chapters 40-48 of the book of Ezekiel as there are
differences of opinions in what the building of the temple means along with the
animal sacrifices that will take place in that temple during the time it will
be used, and that is a part of the problem we will look at. I mentioned that I will give you the scenario
that I believe will happen whenever we get to it.
The first interpretation given is entitled “Ezekiel
described ‘ideal worship for God’s people.’”
Now I can tell you right off that when I look at this view
I do not accept it at all for in this view things are spiritualized and not
literal in meaning stating that there is no temple at all and things are, as I
said spiritualized. This view also tries
to apply what is found here to the church today. Now let me make one thing clear and that is
that the church did not begin until the second chapter of the book of Acts and
although we who are a part of the church age can learn many things from the Old
Testament of which Ezekiel is a part of as far as I am concerned God dealt with
Israel in the Old Testament beginning with Genesis chapter twelve when He
called Abram to be the father of the children of Israel. Abram had Isaac and Isaac had Jacob and Esau
and Esau was not chosen by God but Jacob was whom God later named Israel. He had twelve sons who eventually became the
twelve tribes of Israel. Because Israel
failed to do the things that God wanted them to do He took them out of their
land for seventy years and then brought some of them back from captivity where
the Promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ was born and later on He was
rejected by the children of Israel and so He suffered and died at the hands of
the Jewish nation. Jesus Christ then
began the Church age by having Peter preach on the Day of Pentecost some 40
days after He died on Passover. Because
the Jews rejected Jesus the church age began and is still whom the Lord is
dealing with at this time. Now when the
Rapture of the church happens in the future the Lord will go back to dealing
with the nation of Israel for the remaining seven years of the 490 years that
are found in the 9th chapter of Daniel. This period is called the Tribulation period
and it will begin when the “Antichrist” signs a peace treaty with the nation of
Israel and will end at the second coming of Jesus Christ to planet earth seven
years later. After that the Lord will
stop the war, put Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet into the lake of
fire, separate the sheep from the goats and begin the Millennial Kingdom. Now as far as I am what I believe the things
that are found in Ezekiel 40-48 will happen during the Millennial Kingdom
headed up by Jesus Christ as He reigns from Jerusalem.
Now as I begin to read about this first scenario I became
upset that people could believe that these things found in these chapters are
spiritualized and apply to the church so I decided to just give my opinion of
what I have learned from an earlier study on the book of Ezekiel. I ended the last Spiritual Diary by stating
that “when the plain sense of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense”, and
as far as I am concerned what I wrote above makes sense to me. Dr. Wiersbe ends his commentary on these four
views by stating “As we study these difficult chapters, we will discover other
reasons why the literal interpretation of this vision yields the best
understanding and application of the Word that God gave Ezekiel.” I totally agree with what he has written
here.
We will begin our study of Ezekiel chapter 40 in our next
SD.
5/7/2015 9:45 PM
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