Glory Returns
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It was back on the 12 November when we began our journey through Ezekiel as a church.
And I began by telling you why I thought it was going to be good for us...
as a church,
for us as a church,
as individuals,
whether we believe in God or not,
here in WP.
And this is what I said:
We live in a secular culture that denies the existence,
or denies the truth about
the one true God.
We live in country where many ‘so called churches’ dilute the truth,
or deny the truth of God.
We live in a time when even ‘so called evangelical churches’
have exchanged the truth of the bible
with a message from personal experience and personal revelations,
often for personal gain.
We live in a time where we are keen to sing ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ songs
but not to fall face down before the creator of the universe.
Where obedience to Jesus is an option
not a requirement for Jesus Followers,
Where our service to God is all too often
placed a close second to
family life,
career
or comfort.
Where it is easy to ask God for things
but hard to ask God what he wants from us.
What we need then,
is to be reminded who God truly is.
What is he like?
What does he expect from us?
What should we expect from Him?
And I said that Ezekiel is the book for us. because
70 times in this book, God will declare
‘By my actions you will know that I am God!’
Ezekiel the man,
is
the most
‘God-centred’ prophet of all prophets.
--
and gets worse and worse for God’s people,
until they are metaphorically speaking,
dry bones in the dessert.
But it is when they, and I pray we,
reach that point,
that we can then see the true grace of the Lord God almighty.
It is then,
that we will truly appreciate all he has done for us in Jesus.
It is then
that we will know how we should live,
sing and pray before him.
It is then that those who continue to deny God,
will see the horror of their ways.
It is then,
that we are left with nothing of any significance in this world, accept, our Lord God,
we are left at His mercy.
And as we will find,
that is the only place we will find any hope,
but a glorious hope it is.
So, If you haven’t been moved and challenged by this great book, then you need to go back and read it again, listen to the sermons again. Study and pray about it again.
Because, otherwise you are at risk of being like the people of Ezekiel’s time who did not listen!
But if you have been moved and challenged by this book, then I hope you have heard how glorious God is.
The book of Ezekiel
then I think I would say that it
in the most simplistic theme I can, then I think I would say that it gives us a vision of the Glory of the Lord, so that all nations will know that the Lord is God.
gives us a vision of the Glory of the Lord,
so that all nations, all people, you and I, will know that the Lord is God.
Shown us the great evileil that exists in the hearts of humanity
Ezekiel himself has repeatedly been shown that the vision in a very literal way,
he saw right back in chapter 1,
that great heavenly chariot of cherubim,
flashing across the sky on Spirit led wheels,
the vision culminating with the throne carried high above. eze1v26-28
Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
eze 1 26-
God has spoken extensively, revealling his Glory in this book.
And these last 10 chapters , for the final time reveal to us the glory of God.
And glorious he is!
Then
There are 2 major sections to these chapters and together they carry a wonderful promise for God’s people.
Firstly in chapter 38 and 39 we’ll consider what’s going on in the prophesies against Gog. (G O G)
And then we’ll consider the promises of a restored temple for God,
a restored land,
and the return of God’s Glory to dwell among his people!
Firstly then:
1 - God has Won
1 - God has Won
These chapters are a layering of prophesy against Gog of the land of Magog.
Unlike the other prophesies against foreign nations in Ezekiel,
this one if quite different,
let me give you 3 examples of how:
1 - Gog is not an existing foreign threat to Israel unlike the other enemies mentioned in this book.
In fact, it seems that there was a previous great enemy of Israel called Gog - long since gone.
So this prophesy is alreaady more one of principle rather than specific fact.
It would be like saying today, there will be a ‘new Hitler’ on the move.
the second reason this prophesy is different
2 - The language and accusations against Gog are also much more
Gog is not an existing foreign threat to Israel
pictorial and or thematic
than the accusations against the other foreign nations
mentioned earlier in the book.
Culminating For example: 39v19-20
At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.
These are images of judgment, not specifics of battles and defeat.
3 - The place this prophesy has in the big picture of Ezekiel is unusual.
It is not positioned with the other prophesies
against the evil surrounding nations of Israel.
It is placed in the middle of the passages of salvation.
The passages of Jesus being promised as a great shepherd of His people.
Passages of new life for a rebellious ‘dry bones’ people.
and the last chapters that we will look at shortly about God’s new temple and dwelling place among his people forever.
T
So what is going on here?
Well, thankfully we can do what we should always do with the bible
when we’re unsure what is going on,
we look to see if the Bible itself
makes sense of a confusing passage - somewhere else.
So the only other time Gog and Mogog pop up together is in Revelation
- during that great vision of the end-times given John.
rev 20v7-8
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
rev 20
You see in revelation they are used to symbolise ‘all nations’
across the globe who are ‘under the deception of Satan’,
Now, Understanding Revelation is a whole new ball game -
but don’t fear -
we’ll be exploring our way through Revelation starting in October this year!
But for now, we know enough to help us in Ezekiel.
Knowing that in some way Gog and Mogog represent those under the deception of Satan,
at the grace and mercy of a loving and great shepherd of the people. chapters 34-37
it ironically fits that this prophesy is one of wonderful reassurance to the people of God.
And knowing that in some way Gog and Mogog represent those under the deception of Satan, it fits that this prohesy is one of wonderful reassurance to the people of God.
Evil will not ultimately win.
All nations, leaders, individuals who stand against God Almighty and or his people
(in other words, (those being deceived by Satan))
will not prevail against the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of his sheep in the end.
Judgement will come, an eternal destruction awaits the enemies of God.
They will be like food served up to those who humble themselves before the Lord.
(Like eating mighty men and war horses as we read)
For Christians, in this great section of salvation in Ezekiel,
we are not to dispaire at those who stand against us as God’s people.
“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now bring Jacob back from captivity and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed towards me when they lived in safety in their land with no-one to make them afraid. When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
If you stand against the Lord who is God - you have lost!
In Jesus this promise has been fulfilled.
rom 8
His Spirit has been pour out.
Nothing can separate us from the Love of God.
ISIS may appear to be tearing apart the Christians in Syria -
but ironically they have already lost the battle when Christ rose from the dead.
And one day Christ will return to put an end to the pain that the devil inflicts currently.
But the victory is already won.
God has won
God has wom in your work place,
won in your families,
won in your street - Won, won, won!
So, non-Christians - who continually hear but ignore this message,
You need to be afraid,
you need to hear that God will bring about the judgment you are asking for by ignoring Him.
You are under the deception of Satan.
And Satan has already lost.
But God loves you, enough to take that judgement on himself, in the person of Jesus.
He wants to be your shepherd, your king, your lord.
All you need to do is humbly turn to him!
eve 33 11
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’
You can be a Christian - a follower of Jesus.
So Christian -
do not be afraid to stand up from him,
to live for him,
to sacrifice for him,
to die for Him
- for you already have victory in him!
God has won!
We can be passionate and courageous - for no enemy of God will ever prevail
- it was promised ahead of Christ in the OT - fulfilled in christ in NT
- and will be realised eternally when Christ returns!
Paul the apostle puts it simply like this...
rom 8 31
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
This is the promise made in
If God is for us, who is against us!
So, the battle is won - we can have confidecene in God through Christ the great Shepherd.
It is offered as an assurance to counteract the trauma of exile, with the pastoral message that “if God is for us, who is against us?” and “in all these (sufferings) we are more than conquerors” (Rom 8:31, 37).
But we have already alluded to the fact that
for a while it is not fully realised.
We need to be patient awaiting something even better that following the shepherd in this life.
It is correspondingly reflected in Rev 20:7–10 as an event after the millenium and before the Last Judgment. In that event “Gog and Magog,” the labels of “the nations at the four quarters of the earth,” feature as dupes of Satan. The linking with Satan, who “must be loosed for a little while” but then is overthrown and suffers “for ever and ever” (Rev 20:3, 10), is significant: it reveals a comparable Christian pastoral emphasis that evil is destined to fail and so God’s people are on the winning side.
And that is what the last 8 chapters of Ezekiel promise us - something better!
2 - The City of God!
2 - The City of God!
For a people who have been exiled and their temple
(which represented the presence of their God amoung them) destroyed -
chapters 40 to 48 are tremendously encouraging.
Page after page Ezekiel describes a magnificent new temple that will be,
as we learnt last week in Eze 37v27
My dwelling-place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
A man in the vision guides Ezekiel around - demonstrating the geometric perfection of the temple.
Perfect squares and half-square,
mighty gates that represent status, and strength, and security.
Rooms for worship,
rooms for sacrifices to be made,
walkways and walls,
palm trees decorating the walls.
This is Grand Designs on a Grande scale!
God’s people will have a a place of safety,
a place that honours their honourable God above all things.
If God is appearing to him in Babylon, and now the temple of Jeruslam has been destroyed, what is God going to do about
But, what does this mean for us?
Again, like the prophesy against Gog,
it’s hard to know what to do with this vision of Ezekiels.
THIS temple he sees is NEVERbuilt - when the temple is rebuilt it is much smaller.
So is this temple going to be built at the end of time.
Should we still be waiting to see it built?
But that also doesn’t seem to sit quite right
- for preistly ceremonial instructions and sacrifices are detailed out in these chapters.
But We wont need sacrificies and priestly laws to be obeyed in the same way,
becasue Christ has fulfilled all those things in himself.
But I think, right there in that statement
is a solution to our problem of interpreting these passages.
This vision is supposed to give us hope in Jesus!
Hope that God will return to his people in all his glory.
eze 43 1-
Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell face down. The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites for ever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places. When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them for ever.
Using the imagery of the temple,
that would excite any faithful Israelite of the time,
God promises them restoration.
Promises a temple that will last forever.
A temple that will cause them to put away all their detestable practices.
A temple that will contain the full glory of God.
What a vision that is!
Perhaps the Israelites of the time would find it hard to see all this fulfilled in a man,
but surely this promise makes exciting sense to us,
to see it fulfilled in christ Jesus.
The book of Hebrews picks up this idea: heb 1v3
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
God’s Glory dwells in christ. heb 8v1-2
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
Christ is the High preist - but also the sacrifice for sins! heb 13v20
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
Do you see - all the promises of restoration,
of life eternal,
of relationship with God,
or eternally dwelling with the God of the Universe
are all fulfilled in Christ!
The Great Shepherd as promised in Chapter 34 is Jesus.
The One King forever as promised in Chapter 37 is Jesus.
The resurrection of the dead is fulfilled in Jesus
The new temple in which God will dwell with his people forever is Fulfilled in Jesus!
This is one massive, life changing, eternal truth,
that you and every human on earth needs to hear,
and it is the message of Ezekile, the message of the whole bible!
You either Ignore God at your eternal peril!
For if God is for us, then who is against us - enemies of God, believers in the deceit of Satan - you will fail.
But,
If you want to have life, life eternal,
then you need to bow at the feet of our friend and saviour Jesus.
The one King,
The one Victor
The one Sheherd of His people
The one temple containing the full glory of God.
The one resurrection
The one place we can dwell forever.
The one God,
The only one who makes sense of this life
The only one who is worth giving up everything for
The only one who loves you enough to die for you, and give you life.
He is the one, through whom, all nations “will know that the Lord is God.”
No more
How do we live in this secularised, God denying society!
Knowing that Jesus has already WON
And knowing that Jesus gives us life eternal with the Lord who is God!
Time is precious and short - spend it on Jesus!
And live with your eyes fixed on the city in which we will one day dwell,
Jesus one and only way, you can be an eternal resident of the city that promises life after death
A city with a name you and I should remember,
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 29: Ezekiel 20–48 The Sanctuary as Focus of the New Age (40:1–48:35)
Land and temple become symbols of solid hope for the renewal of social identity, for full fellowship with God and for “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Heb 12:22–24). The concern with correction of pre-exilic abuses becomes God’s call for the translation of theology into the stuff of worship and of daily life, so that, “as he who calls you is holy,” you may “yourselves be holy in all your conduct” (1 Pet 1:15; cf. Ezek 43:10–11).
WHo is the man in bronze in 38?
WHo is the man in bronze in 38?
WHo is the prince in 44v3, 46v2,
WHo is the prince in 44v3, 46v2,
a city that Ezekiel wants us to remember,
becasue it’s the very last 4 words of his book.
44v9
A city that if made possible through Jesus alone,
43v7 dwelling
A city called:
eze 48v35
Are the laws in 44 NEW? (eg 17-19)
“ ‘I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession. They will eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings; and everything in Israel devoted to the Lord will belong to them. The best of all the firstfruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household. The priests must not eat anything, bird or animal, found dead or torn by wild animals.
eze 44 28-
“The Lord is There!”
chap 47 1-12 about environment care?
The LORD is THERE!
Good SUMMARY
PRAY 1
The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit Introduction
The final, climactic, section of the book of Ezekiel (chs. 38–48), takes up these two concerns in reverse order. In chapters 38–39 God deals with those who remain implacable enemies of God and his people. The end result of the massive conflict is clear and inevitable: ‘I will display my glory among the nations’ (39:21). In chapters 40–48 Ezekiel portrays the future of God’s people with all the rhetorical power of his priestly worldview, sketching the contours of a restored temple, land and people. Again, the key moment in the whole portayal is the return of the glory of Yahweh for permanent residence among his people (43:1–7).
The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit Introduction
So, although it is tempting to isolate chapters 40–48 and to look for an interpretation of them according to some eschatological scheme, and to do the same independently for the mysterious Gog of Magog prophecy in chapters 38–39, it is actually quite important to hold them together as negative and positive sides of the same great affirmation. On the one hand, the enemies of God will never finally triumph and will be unable to prevent or disturb the ultimate purpose of God. And on the other hand, the people of God will ultimately enjoy the perfection of their relationship with him and with each other in total and eternal security.