Ezekiel - Lesson 45

Lesson 45 Yahweh's Return to His Temple Ezekiel 43 1 to 9 In contrast to the three chapters of text that were the subject of the previous lesson, this time our text is manageably short, a mere nine verses. Nor does our passage consist of three chapters of statistical data. Hearing chapters 40 to 42 in the previous session may have felt like having devotions in Fodor's Israel or a description of some specific tourist site.In this lesson we are back to action, and what glorious action this is. In this chapter we have arrived at the climax of the whole book of Ezekiel. Yahweh is back.Yahweh has returned to his people. Although Ezekiel did not witness the final eschatological event, he was able to preview it and has left a report for us to meditate on and to celebrate. The survey of the outside dimensions of the temple complex in 42 15 to 20 had concluded the description of sacred space.But this did not mean the story was over for the prophet or for us. Ezekiel's heavenly guide brought him back to the eastern gate to observe an event. This was all preparation for what was about to happen, the significance of which we cannot overestimate.Verses 1 to 9 of chapter 43. Before we comment on the text itself in detail, we need to consider the context in which we find this narrative. While embedded in a larger account, 40 verse 1 to 43 12, that Ezekiel 43 1 to 9 is a semi-independent unit, has long been recognized.By placing this text at the very end of this long section and before the formulaic conclusion, verses 10 to 12, the prophet wanted hearers to interpret this as the climax of the opening phase of the vision. Everything else was preliminary and preamble, setting the stage for the return of Yahweh to his residence on the high mountain. And the guy measuring everything was thereby declaring, everything is ready, it's perfect.Indeed, the present pattern of beginning with a detailed description of the sanctuary followed by the entrance of the divine kavod, the glory, into the building follows the same pattern as the accounts of the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus 25 to 40, and David's temple constructed by Solomon in 1 Kings 6 to 8. In both those instances, the arrival of the glory had served as a visible seal of Yahweh's approval on the construction project and the people's status as his own covenant people. That's especially important. The divine residence had taken up residence in his palace in the midst of the people.The original covenant formula actually consisted of three parts. I will be your God, you will be my people, and I will dwell in your midst. That's what's happened.But we observe similar patterns in extra-biblical parallels. The return of Yahweh here compares with Marduk's taking up residence in the Akitu temple, the climactic moment in the annual New Year's festival in Babylon. But the Neo-Assyrian kings who preceded the Babylonians as the superpower in the region, they also tended to take great pains not only to rebuild ruined temples for the gods, but also to record those particular achievements.In these accounts, the climax of the reconstruction projects occurred when the king would bring the restored images of deities home and install them in their residences, the holy of holies of their temples. Among the best-known accounts is the following report by an Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, after he had completed the rebuilding of Isaggalah, the temple of Mark. He's an Assyrian, but he rebuilds the temple of Marduk in Babylon.He was the divine patron of Babylon, and he wanted the patron of Babylon to be happy and bless him, so this is what he did. His predecessor Sennacherib had plundered and destroyed Babylon in 689 BC and had dragged the statue of Marduk out of the city as a gesture of his supremacy. But Esarhaddon, 681 to 669 BC, he was determined to curry the favor of the divine patron of Babylon.As for me, Esarhaddon is writing, or his scribe is inscribing, As for me, Esarhaddon, the servant who reveres his great divinity, it occurred to me and my heart prompted me to rebuild Esagil and Babylon, to renovate its gods and goddesses, complete its shrines, and reconfirm its satuku offerings. I was encouraged and ordered the rebuilding. I gathered the peoples of the lands conquered by me and had them take up hoe and basket.I mixed the mud for the revetment and with fine oil, honey, ghee, kurunu wine, mutini wine, and pure mountain beer. In order to show the people his, that is Marduk's great divinity, and to inspire awe in his lordship, I raised a basket onto my head and carried it myself. That should impress the god.I had its bricks made for the whole year in brick molds of ivory, ebony, boxwood, and musukhanu wood. I built anew and completed Esagil, the palace of the gods, together with its shrines, from its foundation to its battlements. I made it greater than before, raised it up, glorified it, and made it glisten like the stars of the firmament.I filled it with splendor, making it an object of wonder for all the people. I refurbished the gods and the goddesses who lived in it and had them dwell in their diocese as an eternal dwelling. I reconfirmed their interrupted satuku offerings.I had whatever furnishings were needed for Esagil and its shrines made from gold and silver and bronze, and I placed them in their midst." Well, in this context, we could also cite the Neo-Babylonian Nabonidus report of having rebuilt the sanctuary of Sin, S-I-N, nothing to do with our English word sin, Sin, the moon god in Haran in northwestern Mesopotamia. I built Ihulchul. That's the name of the temple.The temple of the god Sin anew and completed its construction. I took the deities Sin, Ningal, Nusku, and Satharnuna by hand, leading them out of Suwanna, Babylon, the city of my royal majesty, and I had them enter and reside on their eternal diocese during joyous celebrations. I offered sumptuous offerings before them and presented them with my gifts.I filled Ihulchul, the temple, with joy and made the hearts of his people rejoice. Well, these accounts viewed the return of the deity as the necessary and climactic events of temple-building projects and cause for great celebration. Although our text does not portray anyone building Yahweh's temple on this high mountain, Ezekiel's description of the return of the Lord's glorious presence, the glory kavod, provides a natural conclusion to the temple tour.But as we were reading those other descriptions, you will notice that the gods were dead and dependent entirely upon their kings for a to live and for their own images to be taken care of and to dress them and to feed them and all the rest. What a pathetic picture. Here we have the image of the glory of the Lord coming in all by itself.It needs no king to protect it or to direct it or to carry it or lead it by the hand so it does not go astray. As we will see in the next session, that the description of the altar should follow immediately after Yahweh's arrival also fits ancient patterns of celebrating the arrival of the statue of the God in a temple with lavish offerings of all sorts. However, in keeping with biblical and other ancient patterns, Ezekiel observed the return of the presence at the end of the temple tour when the man with the luster of copper had confirmed for the prophet and his exilic audience that the whole place was ready for the grand entrance of the divine resident who would come in in all his glory.But this episode was also part of the prophet's tour. Ezekiel opened with, then the man whose form had the luster of copper led me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. After this introduction, Ezekiel's prophetic experience divides into two parts.There's a report of what the prophet witnessed with his eyes, verses 2 to 5, and a citation of the interpretation of the event in 6 to 9. So what did he see? The prophet's visual experience, verses 1 to 5. Then he led me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. I noticed the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east. The noise it made sounded like the rumble of mighty waves, and the landscape lit up with his glory.The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like the vision which I saw by the river Kibar, and I fell on my face. The glory of Yahweh entered the temple by way of the gate facing the east. Then the Spirit picked me up and brought me into the inner court, and there I saw the glory of Yahweh fill the temple.Well, having been led back to the east gate by the tour guide, verse 1, a remarkable sight arrested Ezekiel's attention, the return of the glory. His eyes followed the movement of the divine presence as it appeared in the east, made its way into the temple complex through the eastern outer gate, and finally entered the house Habayeth itself. Meanwhile, the whole earth seemed to light up with the emanating radiance of the divine majesty.The optical spectacle was accompanied by an acoustic sensation, the sound of a mighty rumbling like the sound of ocean waves. God had stepped down onto this sacred space. Ezekiel identified the object that he saw as the presence, we should really say glorious presence, of the God of Israel, Kavod Elohe Yisrael.Whereas in verses 4 and 5 and elsewhere in the book, he had usually referred to this Shekinah glory simply as the glory of Yahweh, as in the first temple vision, 8, 4, 9, 3, 10, 19, 11, 22, this longer form, the glory of the God of Israel, this longer form reflected the significance of the moment. The divine patron of the nation was back. He's not talking about, he's not focusing on Yahweh as the creator of the cosmos.For him, the relevance is for his people. Yahweh is back. But what did this glory actually signify? In lay circles, people often talk about the Shekinah glory.This word doesn't appear in the Bible. Nowhere did you have the word Shekinah glory. But it was used by ancient rabbis.Since it comes from the root shakan, from which we get mishkan, dwelling place, tabernacle, the rabbis interpreted the glory as an incarnation of Yahweh's presence, not in physical fleshly, let alone human form, that dies and that we observe in the pre-resurrected Jesus Christ in John 1, 14 and Philippians 2. Stephen Cook compares this incarnation to the imperishable body in 1 Corinthians 15, 40 to 42. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.For a star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable, ESV.See also Romans 6, 9. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. In the case of Ezekiel's vision, the arrival of the presence represented the fulfillment of one of the central themes of the salvation oracles of 34 to 37, and the completion of the covenant and formula, I will be your God, you will be my people, and I will dwell, shakkan, in your midst, 43, 7 and 9. Although Yahweh could obviously have entered the temple area through the northern or southern gate, in fact he could have dropped right down inside the walls.There was no roof here like our sports domes have roofs. He could have just dropped right in. But the choice of the east gate is deliberate, leading in a straight line along the central spine of concentrated sacrality to the holy of holies.Furthermore, the present course signified a reversal of the tragedy described in chapters 10 and 11. The last time the prophet had encountered the divine presence, glorious presence, he had seen it hovering over the east gate and then disappearing over the mountain east of the city, the Mount of Olives, 11, 19, and 23. We know that this had symbolized Yahweh's abandonment of his people.Just as they had cynically declared in a self-fulfilling prophecy in 8, 10, and 9, 12, Yahweh doesn't see us. Yahweh has abandoned the land. This phase of Ezekiel's present vision announced that the divorce between Yahweh and his people was over.Yahweh had taken up residence in his temple in their midst, and he invited them into his house. This fact is celebrated by the last words of the book. Yahweh is there.He's not gone. He's back, 48, 35. In this vision, Yahweh, the God of heaven, anchored his presence firmly and permanently, l'olam, on earth.As Stephen Cook declares, the vision of a permanent, secured presence of God's glory represents a new development within the Hebrew scriptures and within Ezekiel. Permanent. No wonder his coming was accompanied by noise.Seven or eight hundred years earlier, Yahweh's arrival on Mount Sinai had been accompanied by thunder and lightning and fire and smoke and the quaking of the ground as his feet had touched down on Mount Sinai for a temporary appointment with his people. However, in this case, the sound had reminded this landlubber prophet of the sound of roaring waves. We heard the expression Ezekiel used here, like the sound of many waters, earlier in his report of his inaugural theophany in 124.Although in this case, he did not link it with the tumult of an army camp as he had earlier, the sound also alluded to the triumphant procession of a conqueror returning from war. We also saw the light and fire motifs in the opening vision, 1-4 and 1-13. But here, the radiance of the divine presence seemed even more intense, lighting up the earth and announcing to all the arrival of Yahweh for his people, among his people, let the world know that I am Yahweh.This reminds me of Isaiah's interpretation of what he saw inside the temple in Isaiah 6-4, the entire earth is the fullness of his glory. Ezekiel's account of the progress of the divine procession continues in verse 4. Yahweh had only one goal in mind, entering through the eastern gate. He was coming to reestablish his residence in the temple.However, in verse 3, the account interrupts Ezekiel's objective report of what he was observing with a report of his response. First, this theophany reminded him of the vision of Yahweh's departure from his temple in chapters 9-11. However, in an ironical twist, the prophet now interpreted the earlier vision not in terms of divine abandonment, but of his arrival to destroy Jerusalem.The word that he uses for destroy, shachet, links this statement with his appalled response in 9-8. Ah, Lord Yahweh, are you destroying my sheikh, the entire remnant of Israel, by pouring out your fury on the entire remnant on Jerusalem? Second, the appearance of the present sent Ezekiel's mind back even farther to his first encounter with Yahweh, 1-4-28. On the banks of the River Canal, the Kibar Canal, while the heavenly chariot and its cherubimic attendants had dominated the earlier account, here the focus was entirely on the glorious presence itself.The prophet's physical response, falling down on his face, indicated that neither the years of reflection nor decades of divine service had dulled his sense of awe, and should we say even terror, at the sight of the glory of God. Compare Moses' experience in Exodus 34, 8-9. The parallels with Ezekiel's inaugural experience continue in verse 5. As the Spirit of Yahweh picked him up and set him on his feet, compare that with 2-2.But this time, rather than rejuvenating him to hear divine speech, the Spirit conveyed him into the inner court. Good thing he's ordained. He's getting very, very close to the ultimate and sacredness.From this vantage, he expressed surprise. Hinei! Behold! Look! At the sight of the building filling with the divine presence. However, all this was preparatory to a speech the prophet was about to hear from Yahweh himself.God was enthroned in his temple, and he was about to address his prophet. And this leads to the prophet's aural, a-u-r-e-l, experience. The first was an eye experience.This is about the ears. Verse 6. I heard someone speaking to me from the temple, even as the man was standing next to me, that bronze character. He said to me, human, as for the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I shall dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel forever, never again shall they defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings with their harlotry and funerary offerings of their kings at their deaths.Whenever they place their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts next to my doorposts, with only a wall between them, they would defile my holy name with the abominable practices they committed. Therefore, I consumed them in my fury. Now let them remove their harlotry and the funerary offerings of their kings far from me, and I will dwell among them forever.The opening line of this new paragraph reads, And I heard one speaking to me from the house. This reminds us again of the first time Ezekiel had heard God's voice in 2.2. And I heard one speaking to me. Same expression.But before quoting the speech, the author inserted a curious reference to a man who was standing beside Ezekiel. Who was he? How did he get there? What was his function? Well, some have suggested the man was Yahweh. I think he was probably the guide who had been dutifully measuring and orienting the prophet to the temple area.But apparently, in this case, the Spirit brought Ezekiel up first without that person, and then that person shows up. Having been arrested suddenly by the Spirit and wafted into the temple court, Ezekiel will have found that person's presence reassuring. It's okay.And with his heavenly escort, he apparently had free access to this sacred space even after the glory had arrived, and did not actually need to depend on the Spirit now to transport him around. Strangely, nothing more is said of this man here. He disappeared mysteriously from view, leaving the prophet to concentrate on the message he was about to receive from the newly arrived divine King, who now began to speak.As we have come to expect, that whenever Yahweh spoke to Ezekiel directly, he addressed his prophet familiarly as Ben Adam, son of man. But this time the speech was not cast as an oracle for him to declare to the people, but as an interpretation of the significance of what had just transpired, as an explanation why Yahweh's return had been cast in this stunning form. The address proper began with a formal announcement.This is the place of my throne, the place for the soles of my feet. The language is obviously royal. Yahweh hereby announced not only the significance of the space that Ezekiel had been touring, but especially the significance of the sight he had just witnessed.This was the moment of Yahweh's re-enthronement as King over Israel. In earlier narratives, the tabernacle was designed as his portable palace, with the Holy of Holies serving as the divine throne room, which was separated from the great hall by the veil, Exodus 26, 31 to 34. In that context, the Ark of the Covenant and its special cover, Kippureth, functioned as Yahweh's throne.As the representative of the people, Moses would meet with Yahweh before the Ark, Exodus 25, 22 and 36, Leviticus 16, 2. The function of the Ark is reflected in Yahweh's title yoshev hakeruvim, the one who sits upon the cherubim, 1 Samuel 4.4, 2 Samuel 6.2 and other places. In the past, the Ark had provided a visual answer to the question, how can Yahweh, who is enthroned in the heavens, exercise his kingship on earth? Solomon had dealt with this issue in considerable detail in his prayer at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, 1 Kings 8. In verse 7 here, Yahweh announced cryptically, As for the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I shall dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel, he will finish that sentence later. But it's remarkable that in chapters 40 to 48, Ezekiel never mentioned the Ark of the Covenant, or the tablets of the Decalogue as the icon of the covenant stored inside it, or the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement.In the prophet's inaugural vision, cherubs were carrying the throne of God, but the present speech is silent about the role of the Ark or the cherubs, suggesting perhaps the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prediction in 3.16 to 17, Jeremiah 3.16 to 17. In those days, they will no longer say, The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh. It will not even come to mind, nor will they mention it, or miss it, or make a replacement for it.At that time, they will call Jerusalem the throne of Yahweh, and all the nations will gather there in the name of Yahweh at Jerusalem. That's Jeremiah. However, the fact that Ezekiel never actually identified this place as Jerusalem or Zion, or referred in this long section to a Davidic king, raises the question about that link.The supervisor of whatever transpired in this temple complex will be introduced later as a prince, actually using the word Nasi, which earlier narratives in Leviticus and Numbers had used to refer to tribal chieftains. Apparently, Yahweh saw no need for such symbols of the divine rule. The existence of the city itself would be evidence enough of Yahweh's eternal presence.Indeed, as I mentioned in our previous lesson, this building had neither ark nor high priesthood, nor a veil or doors to separate the holy of holies from the great hall. No doors here. There are openings, but not doors.This openness contrasted sharply with the six elaborate gateways that doubly guarded the courts of this temple complex. While the eastern gate would close once Yahweh had entered, the northern and southern entryways to the temple compound appeared to be perpetually open, people coming in from the north, making their way and performing their rituals and celebrating the presence of God, and then exiting through the south gate. Yahweh concretized the image of his kingship with a description of the house itself as both my throne, kis-i, and the place for the soles of my feet.This latter expression functions as a variation of my footstool, chadom raglai, which identified literally the object on which significant persons rested their feet, and by extension, functioned as an expression of dominion. Ezekiel's conjunction of Yahweh's throne and his footstool in the temple reminds us of 1 Chronicles 28.2, where David explicitly associated the chadom, the footstool, with the ark of the covenant, and several additional texts identifying Zion, the temple, as Yahweh's footstool, Psalm 99.5, 132.7. On this note, see especially Isaiah 60.13, the glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, the pine, to beautify the place of your sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. Here we see the prophet pairing the place of my sanctuary, mekom mektashi, with the place of my feet, mekom raglai.However, Yahweh deliberately tempered the austerity of his assertion of divine kingship with a twofold reference to his eternal residence in the midst of the descendants of Israel, verse 7 and 9. As I noted earlier, the verb shakan, mishkan, alluded to the tabernacle, temple, as the dwelling place of Yahweh. Meanwhile, the locative modifier, in the midst of the descendants of Israel, offered hope to those who had experienced the catastrophic effects of his departure, as portrayed in chapters 8 to 11. With this declaration, Yahweh intended to answer the people's bewilderment over their future, particularly their question regarding their relationship with Yahweh.The vision of the return of the glorious presence offered optical reinforcement of the verbal pronouncements in earlier salvation oracles, chapters 34 to 37, that Yahweh would come back. Yahweh would establish his residence among them, never again to leave. Ezekiel's temple represented a symbol of his recommitment, which Yahweh would never retract.Unlike a Babylonian account of the return of Marduk to his shrine, Yahweh's reappearance in the temple did not express sentimentality or mere homesick for his city. There's one text like that about Babylon whose image was taken off into exile, and then you have Marduk, it's a literary text, giving an autobiography. He says, I was gone for so long, I missed my place, and Marduk returned.There's none of that homesickness or sentimentality here, nor a softening of the ethical and spiritual demands upon his people. On the contrary, in verses 7b to 9, this speech takes a surprising turn, emphasizing that while with God nothing had changed, Israel may not and could not carry on as she had prior to his departure in 586. In the first instance, Yahweh stood by his previous assertions of concern for the sanctity of his name.The expression, to defile my holy name, appears twice in verses 7 and 8. That's what they had been doing. But the one who now resided in his holy temple on this holy mountain demanded a holy reputation, no more defiling the name. He would not tolerate an unholy people misrepresenting him before the nations.Yahweh concentrated his general demand for the cessation of name-defiling behavior by referring to four horrific offenses that had provoked the furious outpouring of wrath in an earlier era. There's the spiritual harlotry of the nation, there is the kings venerating the dead, their threshold butting up to my threshold, and their doorposts butting up to my doorposts. And then he concludes with abhorrent practices, behaviors in general.He summed up his first charge, Yahweh did, with a single word, zanutham, their harlotry, which occurs twice in verses 7b to 9. According to Numbers 14.33, this word may denote spiritual infidelity in general, but we have encountered it earlier in Ezekiel. He used it of illicit affairs with other gods and political powers, 23-27, their harlotries. Ezekiel had addressed these evils with shocking metaphors as he reconstructed Israel's horrifically treacherous past in both chapters 16 and 23.However, Yahweh's reference to funerary offerings of their kings at their deaths as the second name-defiling offense catches us by surprise. What are these? However, Yahweh's reference to funerary offerings of the kings at their deaths as the second name-defiling offense catches us by surprise. We know from Ezekiel 8 and the report of Manasseh's misdeeds in 2 Kings 21.4 that that king had built altars for all the hosts of heaven in both courts of the temple, and we may reasonably suppose that he also constructed chapels to house the pagan images in this area.But the reference to funerary rituals of kings at their deaths suggests a different issue. For many interpreters, including me, this phrase is a riddle, because the meaning of every one of the three words is unclear. In 6.5, the first word, pgarim, had denoted the corpses of idolaters strewn about their idols, piles of manure, a sense familiar from other occurrences in the first testament, and corresponding to the common meaning of the Akkadian word pgarum.Assuming consistency of usage, many interpreters, most recently Jacob Milgram, suggest this refers to royal pleasure gardens like the Garden of Uzzah, 2 Kings 21.18 and 26, that were converted into royal cemeteries. By locating them next to the temple on Mount Zion, the kings had declared their eternal bond with Yahweh. They put their cemeteries right next to the temple.However, archaeologists have discovered no such tombs near enough to Solomon's temple grounds to be considered defiling to the temple. Most of the kings were buried in the city of David, some distance removed from the temple itself. Two exceptions were the apostate kings Manasseh, 2 Kings 21.18 and 2 Chronicles 33.20, and Ammon, 2 Kings 21.26. They were interred in the Garden of Uzzah, which appears to have been on the grounds of the palace.Well, in light of recent research, pgarum should not be interpreted as corpses themselves, but some aspect of a cult of the dead. The present usage relates to the pagan practices cited in Leviticus 26.30, where pigre gilulim refers to the dead, the corpses, carcasses of idols. Dumbbell, it's easy.Yahweh had used that word already in Leviticus, as per the usual understanding. But this is some element of the cult of the dead. Whether this involved memorial stelae to the gods erected in honor of kings or offerings to the spirits of the deceased, I think it's actually the latter, having read some recent texts on this from this part of the world.The issue is some sort of ancestor cult. But one's understanding of pgarim is affected by the attached to the following word, melechim, kings. The exceptional use of melech instead of nasi here may be due to the long-standing nature of the problem.Not only the last reigning monarchs, but even earlier kings who may have deserved the title melech, king, failed to respect the sanctity. Most commentators treat the expression according to its common usage, king, that is, the past kings of Israel who had failed to separate the temple physically from the palace and had also set up memorial stelae for themselves. But there may be more.Some see here an alternative designation for refaim. Refaim. We find this in the Bible often, a term used by Canaanites to refer to deceased kings who were divinized.After they died, they were treated as kings. If this is correct, then Yahweh had in mind the veneration of the deified spirits of Israel's royal ancestors. Such cults were common.They assumed that the dead continued to have power over the living, and that proper attention to them by feeding them and caring for them and offering them incense would ensure their continued positive influence. I think that's probably what's going on here. The last of these three expressions, funerary rituals, in their deaths, bamotham, reinforces the notion that these offenses involved postmortem rituals, funeral events, through which the members of the royal househead worshiped their ancestors.Based on comparative evidence, these rituals probably involved both offerings to the dead, funeral pillars to memorialize the deceased, and in so doing, they would keep them happy in Sheol. And if your ancestors are happy in Sheol, you will be well, okay, here on earth until you get there. From our earlier discussions, we know that theological orthodoxy absolutely forbade communication with the dead, but here it was the kings who were doing this.The third name-defiling activity, you have their harlotries, the king's cult of the dead, but the third activity is also obscure. The reference to their threshold butting up to my threshold and their doorposts butting up to my doorposts with only a wall separating the structures, this looks like an infringement on and a compromise of the sacred space. Texts like 2 Kings 11 suggest that royal palaces and temples of the gods were often located close to each other, which is probably not so surprising since kings were the patrons of the national or city official worship, as opposed to personal and family rituals involving ancestor worship.Whether sacred space was actually compromised, or if the pagan rituals taking place so close by, immediately outside the walls, were contaminating the legitimate rituals inside the temple courtyards, it's not clear. If you were presenting incense to your images, right outside the wall, the smoke, the incense could waft over onto sacred space and defile it, but this is not so clear either. Toward the end of the 6th century, the prophet Haggai would emphasize that while holiness is never contagious, you don't become holy by living next to somebody who's holy.Defilement is always contagious. It could be that the sounds and smells of the rituals transpiring in the two areas were blending together, thus contaminating legitimate worship inside the temple. Even when they were doing that right, it was defiled by what they were doing wrong outside.This seems to have been the effect of the royal ancestor cult practices right next door, practiced by royal patrons of legitimate worship. This makes me wonder if this was what Yahweh had in mind in chapter 8, when he spoke of the people sticking a twig up Yahweh's nose. It's alien incense entering, which burns.The fourth charge is general, accusing the Israelites of abominable, abhorrent practices. As in 3631, where the term also appears in a context concerned with the sanctity of the divine name, toevah, abominable, abomination, serves as a catch-all for all Israel's past disgusting and scandalous pagan activities that had unleashed the outpouring of Yahweh's fury in the waning centuries of Israel's and Judah's respective histories. Once the good king Josiah was gone, it was totally unleashed.Yahweh concluded his speech with an exhortation and a promise, verse 9. First, he challenged the Israelites to remove their spiritual harlotry and their pagan funerary practices in a context concerned with the sanctity of sacred space. The word, let them be put far away, distance. That's well chosen.Whereas the priests were authorized to come near Karev to Yahweh, 4046, 4213, and offerings were to be brought near Hickory to him, 4324. The evils listed here were to be banished. Push them out.Send them away. He issued the charge not only to guard the sanctity of the people, but especially the temple and the reputation of the divine resident. The divine approval will be expressed by Yahweh returning and establishing his permanent residence within the midst of the people.Well, what relevance does a text like this have for us? Or to reframe the question, in what way is Ezekiel 43, 1 to 9, my scripture, our scripture? What instruction does it offer Christians today regarding God, his people, and the world? Well, first, and probably most obviously, this text declares the ineffable holiness of God. He is absolutely holy, and he alone establishes the boundaries of holiness. But he does so not only to maintain the sanctity of his name egotistically, but also to protect us.When the Israelites had gathered at Sinai after they had left Egypt seven or eight centuries earlier, Yahweh had stepped down on the mountain and charged Moses to have the Israelites in advance build a fence around it for their own protection. Given the sanctity of the place touched by God's feet, without the appropriate divine invitation and their own ritual sanctification, illicit human contact with holiness is lethal. It's deadly.The definition of the gradations of spheres of increasing sanctity within the design of the compound served both functions. Second, while the maintenance of appropriate barriers between holiness is everybody's business, the leaders of God's people are especially charged with instructing them in the boundaries of holiness and modeling respect for those boundaries themselves. In a rare statement addressed to Ezekiel's own class of spiritual leaders earlier, the prophet had declared, Her priests have done violence to my Torah instruction.They have desecrated what is sacred to me. They've failed to distinguish between the holy and the profane, to teach the difference between clean and unclean. They've closed their eyes to my Sabbath.As a result, I am profaned in their midst. But this text doesn't mention priests. That will come later.Rather, it exposes the evil of the political leaders. To be sure, in Israel, kings were patrons of the national religion. It was up to them to see to it that the national religion was practiced, which was why David and Solomon led in the construction project of the temple, and why David could organize the temple music.But this did not give them license either to pervert the rituals practiced in the temple or to change the theology underlying that worship. Nor did it authorize them to violate the boundaries between the land of the living and the land of the living dead in Sheol by worshiping their ancestors, as if they continued to have influence over them. In 2 Corinthians 6, 14 to 18, Paul reminded us that the maintenance of boundaries between that which is holy and that which is profane and that which is utterly and irredeemably abominable remains an enduring principle of Christian conduct.2 Corinthians 6, 14. Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can the believer be a partner with unbeliever? And what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.As God said, I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among the unbelievers and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. I hear echoes of Ezekiel 43 here. Third, this vision proclaims the glorious presence of God.He is indeed enthroned above the heavens, removed from all gods, but remarkably and ironically, his glory, which like holiness is a supremely transcendent quality, is demonstrated in merciful and gracious imminence. He's here. That is, his presence among his people.Moses knew something about this, seeming never to have had enough of Yahweh's glory. Despite having communed with Yahweh at the top of Mount Sinai, in Exodus 33, 18, Moses pleaded, I pray, show me your glory, kavod, same word. How did God respond? He said, I will have all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, Yahweh, which signifies I will be gracious, hanan, to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, Exodus 3, 19.Really? He asked for a vision of the transcendent glory. And what does God say? His glory is defined by grace. And when God actually passed by, here's how he introduced himself, by name and interpretation of that name, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, literally with a long nose, he's not short-fused, abounding in unfaithful love, chesed, and faithfulness, emeth, who keeps unfailing love, chesed for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, but who will not clear the guilty, who visits the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.And of course, we see the same facts about God demonstrated in the incarnation. The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we observed what? The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Amazingly, this is the God who invites sinners into relationship with himself and provides the means whereby that relationship can be expressed, though without contaminating his own holiness, nor endangering the life of his devotees.Because he longs for fellowship with humans, he comes to dwell among them, though without sacrificing any of his glory. While Ezekiel and his audience were privileged to learn this lesson through visionary revelation, Christians recognize the ultimate expression of divine desire in Jesus, who is not only the restored temple, John 2, 19-22, but the physical manifestation of divine glory in the temple, full of grace and truth. Fourth, the vision exposes the sinfulness of human beings, even those who pride themselves in being the people of God and being leaders of the people of God.Against the backdrop of divine holiness, penitent sinners rightly feel shame because of their rebellious ways. The glorious news of the gospel is not that we are worthy of access to him, but that he receives us in spite of our sin. However, the fact that God invites us as we are does not mean that he accepts our condition as satisfactory.He calls upon his people to put away their idolatrous ways and to sanctify his name through righteous living. And those who claim to belong to him but do not demonstrate it in holy and righteous living, he cuts off, lets them dry, and then throws them into the fire, John 15, 1-11. What a vision this is of the glory of the eternally glorious God.