Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. 3 And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. 4 As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, 5 the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, 7 and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, 8 by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger. 9 Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.
10 “As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. 11 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. 12 This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.
What are the rules and regulations of the temple? Why can't Ezekiel just describe the building? Is there something more to these statutes than the stones of the Temple? There are many buildings which have rules and regulations, but they are usually posted in some corner. The design of the temple and its arrangement seems to have a law written into it.
I wonder if Ezekiel ever actually drew a picture like the Lutheran Study Bible does of this perfect Temple. But even if he did, I bet that there was not special Hebrew characters which popped out at him. God reveals to Ezekiel a perfect temple. He describes a temple in which God will dwell with all his glory. He even says that no one can defile this Holy place. "Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever." God is going to establish this Temple eternally.
This is the holy place. The place is perfectly holy. It can not be defiled by sinners. It can not be defiled by you or me, but this is where God will dwell eternally. The Law is simple, nothing defiled or imperfect or impure can come into this territory. This is not a complicated Law. It is very simple, you can not dwell with God because of your sins.
God therefore makes his perfect temple in flesh. He makes his word to dwell in flesh. He sends that fleshy word to a cross to die for the forgiveness of sins. He pays the price for your imperfections. Christ dies for you. He dies to make you holy. He lives and has been raised from the dead as the perfect temple. He dwells in this temple forever, and welcomes sinners to be cleansed from their sins and washed in his blood.
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