September 5th~Temple Trouble

Ezekiel 44:1-46:24

We continued Ezekiel’s vision of a Temple (40-48), which might be the most difficult passage in the Old Testament to understand. The difficulty lies in deciding whether or not the elements of the vision are literal or figurative. Is the Temple a real place or is it just symbolic? We don’t know. The vision includes a vast amount of details to be figurative, in my opinion, but I could be wrong. Like I said, we don’t know.

Two other difficulties arise in the vision. First, the Temple is designed for the Jews to worship the Lord, to restore their festivals, offerings, and sacrifices. Where are the Gentiles in this vision? We are not told. However, what little information we have about the millennial kingdom seems to be focused on the restoration of Israel and not so much about the Church.

Second, and perhaps the most obvious question that surfaces here, why are there sacrifices and sin offerings? Didn’t Jesus finish this practice with His death on the cross? Wasn’t the veil that separated God and His people torn in half that day? Absolutely. So why the need for the Jews to continue this bloody ritual? We don’t know. Perhaps it is more commemorative and symbolic in nature, remembering what Christ, their Messiah, did to pay the penalty for their sin.

If we look carefully at the festivals that are celebrated in the vision, there is a notable absence of the Day of Atonement, that day when the sins of the people were forgiven because of the blood of the lamb. “Christ did not enter heaven to of- fer Himself again and again, like the High Priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world be- gan. But now, once for all time, He has ap- peared at the end of the age to remove sin by His own death as a sacrifice... Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people” (Hebrews 9:25-28).

Daily Reflection

While it is important for us to wrestle with Bible difficulties like this, at the end of the day, we must admit that we just do not know enough to determine for sure what is being described. Difficulties do not imply that God’s Word is deficient in some way; rather they are evidence that our human understanding is limited, and that is okay.

We do not need to know everything. We can trust God with the future and focus, instead, on what we do know, that God and His words are trustworthy and reliable, that Christ has redeemed us from our sin for all time, and that He will fulfill His promises to us.

One day, we will know all that He wants us to know; but, for now, we must trust that we know all that He intended for us to know at this point. It is enough to recognize what He’s done on our behalf, to restore us to Himself and free us from an eternity of bondage.

Visions and prophecies are full of mysteries. While they might be fun to ponder and speculate, we can never know with certainty their meaning or purposes. What we can know and understand is that God is sovereign, He has a plan, and we are a part of that plan. All we need to do is admit our near-sighted knowledge and trust Him. The future will take care of itself.

“Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5, 6).

BiAY.org | Day 248 — 117 Days to Go