In yesterday’s reading there was mention of the holiness of the millennial temple. There in the millennial temple, the house of Israel will never again defile His holy name. In today’s reading there is a contrast between the way the people were defiling the temple then and what the millennial temple will be.
Ezekiel
43:7-9
He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for
the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever.
The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name-- neither
they nor their kings-- by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their
kings at their high places. When they placed their threshold next to my
threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me
and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I
destroyed them in my anger. Now let them put away from me their prostitution
and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
How
have we as Believers in Jesus defiled His holy name by placing our threshold
(our limits) next to His? Our doorposts (our laws) beside His? Have we defiled His
holy name by joining secularism with God’s ordained holy festivals?
(Christmas???) Have we sacrificed His commands on the altars of paganism?
In
Ezekiel 44:15-16 the priests who are descendants of the faithful priest Zadok
are especially honored. They alone (of all the Levites) can enter the
sanctuary, come near the table, and minister before the Lord performing His
service.
Concerning
the priests, Ezekiel has these instructions.
Ezekiel
44:23-24
They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the
common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the
clean. "'In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it
according to my ordinances. They are to keep my laws and my decrees for all
my appointed feasts, and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.
The priests then and the spiritual leaders today are to teach the people
the difference between the holy and the common and between the clean and the
unclean. Spiritual leaders are charged with the responsibility of telling
people what sin is. They are also charged with keeping the laws and
decrees for God's appointed feasts and Sabbaths. The Sabbath day is not
just the regular weekly Sabbath. The holy days (feasts and festivals) are also
Sabbaths.
Ezekiel 47 mentions the Millennial Temple's river and also fruit trees.
These trees are for food and their leaves for healing. These trees
will be used to maintain a state of health for Believers who enter into the
millennial kingdom. John has a similar view of the eternal temple in the
heavenly kingdom. (Revelation 22:1-5)
The city gates are to be named for the 12 ancestral tribes of Israel.
Again in the eternal temple in the heavenly kingdom, the gates will be
named for the 12 tribes.
Ezekiel 48:35b
"And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS
THERE."
This verse does not just mean that this is the name of the city. It means
that the presence of the glory of God will again dwell in the temple.
Indeed, THE LORD IS THERE."
There
are commands for the millennial kingdom concerning the observance of God’s holy
festivals, specifically Passover and the Feast (Feast of Tabernacles). If these
are observances that God has ordained for Believers in the millennium,
shouldn’t we as Believers in Jesus be remembering them now?
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