Introduction to Ezekiel 40-48 PT-1

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2015 10:16 PM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction to Ezekiel 40-48

            We are back from our vacation and I am primed and ready to begin the last section of the book of Ezekiel which covers the last nine chapters of the book.  What we have been looking at recently as we studied the book of Ezekiel is that Ezekiel has described the return of the Jews to their land, and also the cleansing of the nation, and also the restoration of the land to productivity and also security.  With all of this reported by Ezekiel there is one more thing that needs to be said by him and that is that Israel will eventually get to rebuild their temple.  Now we know that Israel did go back into the land and rebuilt their temple and then Herod added to it which was the temple that Christ went into while He was on earth.  We also believe that Israel will have a “Tribulation Temple” which will exist during the seven year Tribulation Period, the one where the Antichrist will defile.  The temple that Ezekiel in these chapters along with other things will be what is called the “Millennial Temple.”

            Dr. Wiersbe give us a glimpse of some of the things we will be going over as we conclude our study of Ezekiel when he writes “In the last nine chapters of his book, Ezekiel will describe in detail the new temple and its ministry, the new boundaries of the tribes in the land, and the return of the glory of God to Israel.”

            Now what we will be looking at as we begin our study of these last nine chapters is “The interpretation of the new temple” and then we will begin to look at the last nine chapters that Ezekiel wrote.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes the following:  For centuries, devout and scholarly Bible students, both Jewish and Christians, have struggled to interpret the vision described in these chapters, but they have by no means reached a satisfactory agreement.  At least four views have emerged from these studies, and all of them have their strengths and weaknesses.”  I can remember the first time that I read through the Bible and got to these last nine chapters and they were very confusing to me, so I guess that I was not alone in my confusion. 

            We will discuss these four different views in our next few SD’s and comment on them as to what will be the best view, remembering this statement “When the plain sense of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense.”

5/6/2015 10:33 PM