Ezekiel 43 explained: God's Presence Comes Back Home

The glory returns (vv. 1-5)

Ezekiel had earlier seen God's glory, his shining presence, leave the temple and go east before Jerusalem fell (chapters 10 and 11), and now he sees it come back from the east and fill the temple. It echoes the old accounts of God's presence filling Moses' worship tent and Solomon's temple, a sign that the time of abandonment is over.

A promise to stay (vv. 6-9)

Speaking from inside, God calls the temple his throne and says he destroyed Israel in anger for defiling it, but promises to live among them forever once they give up worshiping other gods, pictured as sexual unfaithfulness. The images of dead kings and of thresholds set beside his own are unclear: they may mean royal tombs and palaces built right against the temple, or idol altars set up in its courts and idols mockingly called "kings."

Show them the plan (vv. 10-12)

Ezekiel is to describe the temple so its perfection makes the people face their past, then write down its layout and rules so they can keep them. The label "most holy," once used only for the innermost room, now covers the whole hilltop.

The altar's design (vv. 13-17)

The altar for burnt offerings is a square, stepped tower that narrows as it rises, with a gutter at its base and a raised point, called a horn, at each corner. Its top hearth is twelve long cubits square, roughly six meters, and its stairs are on the east side, so whoever climbs them faces the temple.

Cleansing the altar (vv. 18-21)

Before use, the altar must be purified, starting with a young bull given to the priests from Zadok's family, the priestly line that served in Solomon's time. Its blood is smeared on the corners and edges to make the altar clean and fit for use, and the body is burned outside the holy area.

Seven days, then worship (vv. 22-27)

For seven days a goat, a bull and a ram are offered, with the priests sprinkling salt on them, echoing the seven-day dedication of the first altar in Moses' time; from the eighth day regular worship begins and God promises to accept the people. Christians, following the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, have read Jesus' death as the final sacrifice that rites like these pointed toward.

Key verse: Ezekiel 43:7

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this temple and its sacrifices describe a literal future building, an ideal plan for the Jews returning from exile, or a symbolic picture of God living with his people in the church or a renewed world.

Something to think about

What do you think it would take for a place or relationship that had been badly broken to feel trustworthy and lived-in again?