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September 9th
The bible reading today is in Ezekiel chapters 40,41. This final and great vision of the prophet is recorded in Chapters 40-48... to the end of this Old Testament scroll. It’s dated as the 25th year of the 70 years of Judah’s exile in Babylon. 14 years after the final assault on the city and Temple of Jerusalem.
This final vision/prophesy from God to Ezekiel took place at least 10 years after the preceding oracles. That must mean that God was using the prophet to preach old sermons (during that decade ) that still had application to the children who were growing to a maturity to understand God’s words and act upon them.
From the dating in the text, it seems possible that this vision was introduced to the congregation on the day of Passover. Whether they were actually observing the feast or not, the people would have at least been thinking about their deliverance from Egypt at the mighty hand of God. And that would have been of great encouragement to the Judeans, giving them a boost in faith that God would fulfill His purposes for their exile and complete His will for the nation of Israel in the messianic kingdom.
In our reading today Ezekiel makes his second visionary visit to Jerusalem. We read of his first in chapters 8-11. He saw the Temple profaned by God’s people and he saw the spiritual glory of God depart the Temple Mount.
At this visionary visit to Jerusalem, at the end of Ezekiel’s ministry, he saw the actual Temple, and the glory of God return to Mount Zion.
And Ezekiel said...“When God brought me there, behold, there was a “man” whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway.”
