June 1, Ezekiel 48
”The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time shall be, The Lord is There." - Ezekiel 48:35
A good communicator knows he has to get his audience’s attention before he can deliver the message. It would be hard to imagine a better trio of subjects to get the exiles' attention than a new, rebuilt Jerusalem, a glorious new temple and returning to their tribes' ancestral lands. Those subjects were on the minds and in the hearts of the Jews in Babylon, and would surelY generate interest and enthusiasm.
The last chapter of Ezekiel contains God's plans and promises to restore and rebuild a reunited Israel in the land of Canaan. Along with the previous chapters, these last words of Ezekiel showed the captives the blueprints for the new temple and city. God also gave them a verbal map of the tribal allotments where they would live when Cyrus freed them to go home.
I hope the final detail Ezekiel revealed would be the greatest motivation of all. He told them the name of the city would be “The Lord is There. It's true that the Lord is everywhere. He had shown Ezekiel and the captives in Babylon that his presence was there, too. But to be back in their land and live and worship in the presence of the God who delivered them from bondage should have been the greatest incentive to go home when the time came.
It's sad that only a small portion of the exiles in Babylon answered the call to return. Cyrus allowed anyone who wanted to go to do so, but many Jews elected to stay in Babylon. Those who did return were not consistently faithful to God. The temple that they did build was not the one envisioned here in Ezekiel, or even the one that Cyrus told them to go home and build. It was a smaller, less ornate building than Solomon's temple had been. The Israelites who did return missed out on some of the blessings God offered them by disobeying or partially obeying all God commanded them to do.
What child of God would want to be anywhere else except in the presence of the Father? If as Paul put it, “in him we live and move and have our being,” it makes no sense to want to get away from God's presence. David wanted to be in the presence of God, and also confessed that he could not escape or flee. Jonah tried to run away from the presence of the Lord, but learned the hard way that it was impossible.
Why would anyone want to get away from God? Maybe we’re like our most ancient ancestors Adam and Even who hid in the bushes when they had eaten the forbidden fruit. We're ashamed and afraid because we know we're guilty. Maybe we have misplaced the blame for our troubles and problems and blamed God, so we're aloof from and angry with him. Or (God forbid!), maybe we have become so used to the darkness and so hardened in disobedience that we no longer love the light or want to go to the light of God's presence.
God distributed the land to the twelve tribes by name. Although the tribes and nations had been divided, they would no longer be divided. When he assigned their tribes' names to the twelve gates of the city, it was another way of assuring them all that the divisions that had marred their history and caused civil war were past.
In a limited way, God kept some aspects of these promises when the exiles returned. But many of the details foreshadowed by these prophetic words were not fully realized until Jesus and his kingdom came. Then Jews from every tribe were welcomed into Messiah's kingdom, along with Gentiles who heard and believed the gospel. The church became the real temple of God in ways that no physical building could ever do. How could disciples all over the world possibly gather in one place? How could God live in a physical structure built by human hands? But when we see the New Testament temple composed of the living stones and the Lord indwelling his people, it's easier to see how these symbols pointed to a spiritual temple.
Let's be faithful to God, appreciate and appropriate all that we can of his rich provision for us in Christ. Let's love the church and be devoted to it. Let's trust and treasure the promise of the Lord's presence within us and among us as his temple today.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—June 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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