Ezekiel.1-48 Summary

T H E N E W T E M P L E C O N C L U S I O N

As we know, Ezekiel was a Priest who had been living in Jerusalem during the First Babylonian Attack on the city. Nebuchadnezzar spared the city but took a first and then later a second wave of Israelite prisoners and dragged them off into exile. And Ezekiel was among the 2nd deportation. So the book of Ezekiel begins five years after all that. Ezekiel was sitting on the bank of an irrigation canal near his Israelite refugee camp and he’s 30 years old, the year that he would have been installed as a Priest in Jerusalem.

And then all of a sudden Ezekiel has this vision. He sees a storm-cloud approaching. And then inside the cloud are four strange creatures that have wings outstretched and touching each other. And these creatures each had each four faces. And then he saw four whirling wheels— (galgal) one by each creature. And then he saw that the wings of the creatures were supporting this dazzling platform like sapphire crystal. And on that platform is a Throne. And then sitting on that Throne is this human-like creature glowing and shrouded in fire and lightning. And then all of a sudden Ezekiel realises what he's seeing.

Ezekiel calls it "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahuah."

Basically it's Alahim riding His Royal Throne-Chariot. Now the common word used is "glory”, but in In Hebrew it's "kabod,” which means "heavy" or "significant" or “esteem” and Scripture uses this word to describe the physical appearance and manifestation of Alahim's significance when He shows up in person. IE YAHUSHA!

Now these images in the vision, they're very similar to what happened when Alahim appeared on Mount Sinai on the book of Exodus. And also very similar to the images of Yahuah’s presence over the Ark of the Covenant. And that's actually the most shocking thing about Ezekiel's vision, "What is Yahuah’s glory-esteem doing in Babylon?" It's supposed to be above the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple in Jerusalem (which it still is at this point). Ezekiel accuses and warns Israel of destruction. And so the first section of the book opens to explore that question as Ezekiel begins to accuse Israel of rebellion.

So Yahuah first speaks to Ezekiel from the Throne-Chariot and He commissions him as a prophet. Ezekiel is to accuse Israel of breaking their covenant agreement  with Alahim in many ways. Israel has given their allegiance to other gods and goddesses

and has been worshipping idols and this has all led to rampant social injustice and violence. And so as a result, Yahuah appoints Ezekiel to warn the people.

The first two Babylonian attacks that took Ezekiel into exile are going to be matched by another. And Jerusalem, its Temple, and people all face imminent destruction. So Ezekiel uses words and bizarre behaviour to get his message across.

He also performs many of Yahuah’s warnings in what could only be described as street theatre. Ezekiel would go out on public and start behaving in these really bizarre ways that were like parables of his prophetic message. So he was supposed to build a tiny model of Jerusalem and then staged an attack of it. Or he was to shave off all of his hair and then chop it up with a sword. Or the most extreme was when he was to play the role of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. And he would lay on his side for over a year eating food cooked over dung as a sign of the nasty food that people would have to eat during the siege of Jerusalem.

And perhaps the most disheartening thing of all is the bad news Alahim gave Ezekiel-- that no one was going to listen to him !!! Yes! Israel would reject him because of their rebellious and hard heart. And this recalls to us Moses' description of the people after the  wilderness rebellion when he predicted that exile would one day happen. And Ezekiel had the unfortunate privilege of seeing it all happen.

And so a disheartened Ezekiel begins to perform his task. And after about a year he has another vision. This one is about the Temple. He goes on this virtual tour of the Temple and he sees what's happening there in his absence. And it is not good. In the outer courtyard, in front of the Temple, he sees this large idol statue. And then he sees the elders of Israel worshiping other deities, all carved around the inside walls of the Temple. And then he sees the women of Israel, they're worshiping a Babylonian god named Tammuz. And the vision ends with Yahuah’s glorious Throne-Chariot moving up and away from the Temple. It's leaving, going east, headed towards Babylon.

And so then we come to see why and how Yahuah’s glory appeared to Ezekiel there in Babylon: Israel's whorish idolatry and their covenant violations! He’s divorced her and exiled her from His promises. It's become so blatant and offensive that Alahim has left His Temple. They've driven Him away and He consigns it to destruction. And even though they are divorced, Yahuah promises  that He will raise up a New Covenant with a small remnant and transform all the promises to them by removing their heart of stone and giving them a new soft heart of flesh, and a new spirit within them so that they can love and truly follow Him. But in order to do this He will leave His Throne and come to earth as a man to fulfil all the laws, covenants and messianic prophesies and transition all the Covenant Hebrew promises of the flesh into spiritual blessings of His Eternal Kingdom.  So there’s a small glimmer of hope here which is quickly submerged under the reality of the imminent destruction.

But chapter 11 is a key vision, for it helps us understand how the rest of the book has been designed. So the next three sections are all announcements of Yahuah’s judgment. First, on Israel, then, on the nations around Israel. And then on Jerusalem itself. But then after that, the hopeful conclusion of chapter 11 gets developed in the final 3 sections of the book. First, hope for Israel. Then for the nations. And then for all creation. Ezekiel depicts Israel's rebellion and idolatry Chapters 12-24 focus on Alahim's judgment coming to Israel And this is a diverse collection of poems and visions. And here Ezekiel shows his fondness for abstract parables. So he depicts Israel as a burnt useless stick, or as a rebellious wife, or as a dangerous raging lion that gets captured, or as two promiscuous sisters. These are all depictions of Israel's senseless rebellion and idolatry that results in their ruin.

In this section, Ezekiel also acts like a lawyer, and begins arguing the case: That first of all, Jerusalem's destruction is truly deserved after centuries of covenant violation and abominable behaviour. And that even if the most righteous people in the world

like Noah, or Daniel, or Job were alive and praying for Yahuah to spare Israel, Yahuah would not accept their prayers - for it's far too late. And so Alahim's goodness actually demands that He bring justice on this generation of Israel. The exile has become inevitable. They've reached the point of no return.

Following this, Ezekiel focuses first on the nations immediately around Israel. And then on the two most powerful states in the region: Egypt and then Tyre. Israel has allied with these nations and adopted their gods and goddesses and their idols. And so Yahuah accuses the kings of Tyre and Egypt for arrogantly viewing themselves as gods who get to define right and wrong on their own terms. And Yahuah holds these kings accountable for their pride and he announces that He will use Babylon to bring them down too. They will face Yahuah's justice along with everybody else.

Following these really intense sections is a short story in chapter 33. Ezekiel's met by a refugee who's just arrived from Jerusalem and he gives him the report that Babylon has attacked the city of Jerusalem and that the city has fallen and the Temple is completely destroyed. Ezekiel's grim warnings have become a reality.

The exile was the most horrendous catastrophe that ever happened to Israel. Proving that Yahuah was done with Israel for good. But remember at the end of chapter 11, Yahuah promised that there was still a future promise beyond Israel’s divorce. And so the rest of the book is designed to explore Ezekiel's vision of hope. First for Israel, then for the nations. And then for all of creation. The hope for Israel’s promises begins with Yahuah promising to raise up a new David -- a future Messianic King Who's going to be the kind of leader that Israel needed but never got. And this new kingdom of people who are going to come under the Messianic King's rule is going to be a spiritually transformed people. Alahim's going to deal with the corrupt heart of their problem of rebellion by giving them new hearts and an incorruptible seed. It's just like Moses promised at the end of the book of Deuteronomy. Alahim says He's going to remove their hard hearts and send His Spirit into His people, baptising them in spirit In order to give them new soft hearts

that can love and obey their Alahim.

And this idea gets developed in the next strange vision. Ezekiel sees a huge valley filled up with dry human bones and skeletons. And Yahuah tells him that it's an image, a metaphor for Israel's spiritual state and their rebellion against Yahuah that resulted in exile and the literal death of many people. But it was also an abstract image of the death and divorce of their covenant relationship. And Alahim tells Ezekiel that His Spirit is coming to bring His people back to life. And so this wind comes and it causes all of the bones to stand up and it fills them with breath and life. And then skin grows over the bones. And then all of a sudden Ezekiel sees all of these new humans standing in front of him.

Now this vision, it's recalling the story about the creation of humans in Genesis where Alahim made humans out of dirt and divine breath. And now Israel and all humanity have rebelled against Yahuah, resulting in death. And so the only hope is that Alahim would perform a new order of creation and remake humans in such a way that they can live in a relationship of love with their Alahim and each other.

But after Alahim deals with the evil that's in the hearts of His own people, some questions still remain unresolved for Ezekiel. Like what about the evil that is still rampant out there among the nations? And what about the future of Yahuah dwelling in literal a Temple? That's what the final two sections are about.

So first come chapters 38 and 39. And they promised Alahim's final defeat of evil among the nations which gets personified by a ruler who's named GOG from the land of Magog. Now this name is derived from a genealogy of ancient kingdoms and lands from Genesis chapter 10. And it referred to powerful nations from the distant past. And so Ezekiel picks up this ancient Scriptural name as an IMAGE of any and all violent kingdoms. And so we find that Gog gets allied with seven nations that come from all four directions of the compass. It's clearly an image that represents all of the nations. This also helps us understand why Ezekiel describes Gog with images that he used earlier in the book to describe the king of Tyre and the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh.

You see for Ezekiel, Gog is an combination of all of the worst most violent people in the Scripture. Gog is the image of human rebellion against Alahim. The basic story in these chapters is that Gog resists Alahim's plan to restore His people. And so just like Pharaoh in the Exodus story, Gog comes to destroy the people. But Alahim unleashes His justice on Gog. And it's in a flurry of scenes that don't actually make much sense if you read them in literal sequence. Because first Gog and his armies are consumed by an earthquake. But then they're consumed by fire, two different times. And then after that Alahim comes and strikes Gog and his army down in the fields where they lay unburied for months. It's clear that these scenes are full of abstract imagery. Ezekiel has pulled out his entire poetic "tool set" here to describe how Alahim is determined to finally defeat human evil that has ruined His world. And this is so that He can pave the way for a New Creation.

And so once evil is finally dealt with among the nations, the last section of the book describes how Alahim's presence is going to one day return to His people and His Temple to bring complete restoration. So Ezekiel first gets this long elaborate vision of a New Temple and a New City. He's given this heavenly tour guide who shows them around the new Temple complex and it's much larger and more majestic than even Solomon's Temple. There's a New Altar, New Priests, a whole New System of Worship. And then after this elaborate tour, Alahim's glorious Throne-Chariot that he saw back in his first vision comes back and it enters the new Temple-Order.

Now the meaning of these Temple visions has been a source of debate for a long, long time, as many religious readers believe that this vision will be fulfilled literally one day, and that these chapters offer the actual blueprints for the new Temple that will be built literally during a millennial reign after Yahusha returns. But the truth is that this vision, like all of Ezekiel's other visions, is full of abstract symbolism. They depict the reality of Yahusha’s presence returning to His people firstly in new living temples that house His presence - not in the form of an actual building. And just like the temple of old, an individual must be prepared through Yahusha’s spirit and fire cleansing in order to be clean vessels for His service and manifestation. 

You’ll also notice that Ezekiel never calls the new city, "Jerusalem." And chapters 47 and 48 show why. Ezekiel sees this tiny stream pouring out of the Temple threshold and steps. And then it quickly becomes this raging river. And then it flows out of the Temple and the city into the desert into one of the most desolate places on planet earth, the Dead Sea valley. And then that river it leaves behind a trail of trees and life. And then the Dead Sea gets transformed into a living sea that's teeming with plants and animals. And all of this imagery comes from the Garden of Eden in Genesis, and we see just how cosmic Ezekiel's vision really is. Yahusha’s plan has always been to transform a remnant of humanity and His creation back into His life-giving presence. And so the book ends with the name of this garden city -- "Yahuah is there." (Yahuah Shammah) … IT'S OBVIOUSLY YAHUSHA ALAHIM !!

We know that 500 years after Yahuah divorced Israel He left His Throne,  Became a man and delivered His people, those who would follow Him, A New Bride made up of both Jew and Gentile, to receive all the Old Covenant promises and blessings given to the patriarchs. Yahusha introduced His followers to His New Covenant Order  and Two Royal Laws of Love, proving to them that He is infact Alahim. And so Ezekiel's visions of doom and gloom, comes to a close full of hope for a new future, and today His visions for a New Temple and New Spiritual Reign are being completely fulfilled through a transformative vein, (A narrow gate of deliverance) whereby Yahusha prepares and allows us to know Who He really is as our pure, perfect and divinely powerful, majestic Alahim, seated on the Throne of Heaven in all esteem and glory.

To be clear - we can only know Yahusha after we have gone through His process of Spirit Baptism and Fire Baptism. Only then are we the New living Temples that Ezekiel saw and spoke of.  Far greater and more previous than any other blueprint or man-made structure.

DO YOU KNOW YAHUSHA ALAHIM YET ?

HAVE YOU EVEN HEARD OF THE VEIN ?

TIME IS SO VERY SHORT - THE CLOCK IS ABOUT TO STRIKE MIDNIGHT ON THIS LAST SIXTH DAY OF PREPARATION - SO WE MUST GET THRU THE SPIRIT AND FIRE QUICK-SMART IN ORDER TO BE WISE AND FAITHFUL SERVANTS FULL OF THE OIL OF HIS SPIRITUAL PRESENCE BY BEHAVING HIS TWO ROYAL LAWS OF ETERNAL LOVE AND THE NINE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.