Unless The Lord

UNLESS THE LORD Ezekiel 43:1-9 August 23, 2020 My home is 34 years old. I have lived in it for 32 years. I love my house. But, I have a lot of maintenance issues. They never end. Our ground is mostly clay. So, in the Summer it bakes down and shrinks. In the Spring and Fall it swells and grows. Because the ground is constantly heaving up and down, I have never ending foundation issues. I have had the foundation professionally leveled twice, but my house has more moves than a hula dancer. There are cracks in my walls. I have one door that won't open. All the plumbing runs through the foundation, and I deal with recurring plumbing problems. I believe the original owners did much of the construction themselves. And, they were not qualified. Back then, the man who performed construction inspections for the city was also the chief of police, the dog catcher, the water meter reader, and the only road maintenance employee. Conrad was in way over his head. I think you could have built the house upside down and it still would have passed inspection. As long as you paid for a permit, everything was approved. Still, I love my home. There's nowhere else I want to live. But, I am so tired of repairing brokenness. So, when I'm reading through the Psalms, and I come across Psalm 127, I read "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted." And, I think, amen brother. If you want something done right you need to find the right professional. So, where can I get a house built by God? I want something that works. I want something that lasts. I want something that comes with a trustworthy warranty. I want to stop worrying about what will break next. And, actually, that's what Psalm 127 is about. Worrying. Why are you worrying? Why do you spend your life, and all your energy worrying? Is it because you try to do everything yourself? Is it because you cannot let go, and trust God? Is it because you don't really believe Jesus has your back? The question the Psalmist asks is - what are you worrying about, and what are you searching for? What are you missing? Because the answer is probably God. This longing you have, this need that can't be fulfilled, this sense that something is just not right but you're close to the answer, is about God. Five years ago we spent the Summer going through the book of Ecclesiastes. An entire book dedicated to answer the question - what am I searching for, what am I missing? Solomon tries everything. He tries sex, money, drugs, alcohol, fame, war - and nothing works. Nothing until he embraces God. God is the only one who can completely satisfy. Whatever is missing from your life, the answer is God. Because, unless the Lord builds your house, which is your life, your efforts are wasted. When will I get the perfect house I want? When I get to Heaven, and I get the house Jesus has built for me. Last week the Holy Spirit takes Ezekiel to Jerusalem, and he sees a new and perfect city - the New Jerusalem. We also call this Eden, and Heaven. Ezekiel sees the city where the saved go to spend eternity in the presence of God. He is not prophesying to the Babylonian exiles. He is prophesying to the Messianics. Both Jews and Gentiles who will place their faith in the new Shepherd, the Messiah. Ezekiel knows the only way to Heaven is if the Messiah takes you there. He is given an amazing glimpse of what will be, for those who have faith. Now, between chapter 39 last week, and chapter 43 today, we have skipped painstaking details of the measurements of the city. Ezekiel gives us more information than we would ever want about the dimensions of New Jerusalem. We know exactly how wide, tall, and long the city is. We know the exact dimensions of every room. We know exactly where everyone belongs in this new home. We know, down to the inch, how flawless Heaven will be. The whole point of four chapters of building description, is to let you and me know - Heaven is perfect. And, it's perfect, because man did not build it; God did.1 Anything man builds is flawed. But, if the Lord builds the house, it's perfect. At this point in his vision, Ezekiel sees something wonderful. He sees God's presence, his glory, return to Jerusalem. Back in chapters 10 and 11 Ezekiel saw God leave. He saw God's holy, intense brightness, rise up on his chariot/throne, and go away to the east. And, it was Ezekiel's job to give the bad news to the exiles. God has gone away. He is not going to save us. We are lost. Ezekiel exposed the people to the absolute blackness of hopelessness which accompanies a life without God. But, here in the city built by God, is the presence of God. God returns from the east, the same direction he left, to be with those who believe.2 God arrives with magnificence. Ezekiel describes the deafening roar of God's return. He likens it to a rush of water which cannot be equaled. Think of something like Niagara Falls. It's just water falling, but the sound is so loud you must shout at the top of your lungs to be heard. Ezekiel is almost overwhelmed at the sound of God. But, more than that, is the sight of God. Ezekiel never tries to anthropomorphize God. He doesn't describe God as an old man, in a white robe, with a long grey beard. Instead, Ezekiel always describes the glory of God.3 And, by glory, he means this incredible intense brightness. God's city is perfect because God is perfect. And, to Ezekiel, perfection is expressed as pure light. A light so intense it could incinerate you. Skeptics say the Jews stole Sun worship from the Egyptians. Moses's burning bush is a form of Sun worship. When Moses spends time with God and comes back sunburnt and glowing, it's just Sun worship. I find it interesting that, historically, the Egyptians didn't adopt Sun Worship until after the Exodus. Pharaoh Akhenaten, the son of the Exodus Pharaoh, takes the entire nation to Sun worship. I believe that was the Egyptian attempt to reconcile themselves with the glory of God. Ezekiel is also impressed with the size of God. In ancient near eastern cultures there was constant competition to show - my god is bigger than your god.4 Bigger is better. So, if my god is taller than your god, he is a better god. This picture is from the Temple at 'Ain Dara in Syria, just north of Israel. When they built the temple, they carved in the footprints of their god. If the footprints were to scale, their god would be 60 feet tall. That's a good-sized god. Ezekiel has just spent four chapters describing how perfect, and how massive is the New Jerusalem. This is a huge, huge city. And, God says to Ezekiel in verse 2, this city can't begin to contain me. In fact, this city is just barely big enough, for the bottoms of my feet.5 This city can't even hold my feet; just the soles. If bigger is better, the God of Israel is the biggest and the best. Which brings up the question, how big is your God? It doesn't matter how perfect God is, if he isn't big enough for your life. How broken and imperfect are you? Are you mostly perfect, like a brand-new home with just a few items on the punch list? Or, are you like my home - something different broken every day? And, if you are broken, is your God big enough to fix you? Can your God fix your loneliness? Can your God fix your fear of whatever is next? What about your bad health, or your marriage, or your addiction, or your lying? Maybe you have your act together now. But, you weren't always like this. Is your God big enough to repair all the damage you did when you were young and stupid? Ezekiel's God is so big, the biggest Heaven cannot contain him. My God, my Jesus, can fix anything. No matter what is going on with you, my Jesus can fix it. Because God is perfect, because God has designed and built this city, and because God lives in New Jerusalem - the city itself is perfect. And, there is nothing you or I can do to ruin the perfection. New Jerusalem cannot be defiled. That's really good news. Some worry about going home. Sin found its way into the Garden of Eden one time. Could it happen again?6 When we all go home; when we return to Eden, to Heaven, to New Jerusalem - is it possible to sin? What if I mess up? Can I get everyone kicked out of Heaven, just like Adam and Eve did? Ezekiel uses a new word to describe New Jerusalem, which has never before been applied to Eden or Heaven - miqdāš. It means sanctuary.7 A place of complete safety. A place where all threats and fears are banished. Sin comes from greed, anger, jealousy - a variety of life problems. Those problems are not allowed in the sanctuary. Whatever encourages you to sin has been taken away. Kind of like when a house is built wheelchair accessible. All the problems have been anticipated, and removed ahead of time. A good builder knows what can go wrong, and fixes it before something happens. In sanctuary, God has anticipated everything that causes us to fail, and he has already fixed it. You have no reason to be concerned. You will never build the perfect house. You will never live the perfect life. But, that's OK. Because our Heavenly Father is perfect. He is the perfect builder. And, the place he has prepared for us is perfect. So, let go of your fears. Let go of your worries. Stop trying to be enough. You're not enough. You never will be. But still, Jesus loves you with more love than you will ever understand. And, he hasn't returned yet, because he is making a place in Heaven for you and me. We are going to New Jerusalem. We are going to sanctuary. We are returning to Eden. We are Heaven bound. And, when we get there, you and I (and our home) will be perfect. Video Clip - Well Done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29hPMgKUyM 1 Brian Peterson, "Ezekiel's Rhetoric: Ancient Near Eastern Building Protocol and Shame and Honor as the Keys in Identifying the Builder of the Eschatological Temple," The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 56 no. 4 (2013), 707-731. 2 R. C. Sproul, general editor. New Geneva Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1319. 3 Pieter de Vries, "The Glory of YHWH in the Old Testament with Special Attention to the Book of Ezekiel," Tyndale Bulletin, 62 no. 1 (2011), 151-154. 4 NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 1403. 5 Gordon Matties, New Interpreter's Study Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 2003), 1220. 6 Raymond B. Dillard & Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 323. 7 James R. Davila, "The Macrocosmic Temple, Scriptural Exegesis, and the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice," Dead Sea Discoveries, 9 no. 1 (2002), 1-19. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2