The
prophet, having given us a view of the mystical temple, the gospel-church,
as he received it from the Lord, that it might appear not to be erected in
vain, comes to describe, in this and the next chapter, the worship that
should be performed in it, but under the type of the Old-Testament services.
In this chapter we have, I. Possession taken of this temple, by the glory of
God filling it, ver. 1-6. II. A promise given of the continuance of God's
presence with his people upon condition of their return to, and continuance
in, the instituted way of worship, and their abandoning idols and idolatry,
ver. 7-12. III. A description of the altar of burnt-offerings, ver. 13-17.
IV. Directions given for the consecration of that altar, ver. 18-27. Ezekiel
seems here to stand between God and Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord
did when the sanctuary was first set up.
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1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, even
the gate that looketh toward the east: 2 And, behold, the glory
of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was
like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
3 And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even
according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the
visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I
fell upon my face. 4 And the glory of the LORD
came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward
the east. 5 So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the
inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD
filled the house. 6 And I heard him speaking unto me out
of the house; and the man stood by me.
After Ezekiel has patiently surveyed the temple of God, the greatest glory
of this earth, he is admitted to a higher form, and honoured with a sight of
the glories of the upper world; it is said to him, Come up hither. He
has seen the temple, and sees it to be very spacious and splendid; but, till
the glory of God comes into it, it is but like the dead bodies he had seen
in vision (ch. xxxvii.), that had no breath till the Spirit of
life entered into them. Here therefore he sees the house filled with God's
glory.
I. He has a vision of the glory of God (v. 2), the glory of
the God of Israel, that God who is in covenant with Israel, and whom
they serve and worship. The idols of the heathen have no glory but what they
owe to the goldsmith or the painter; but this is the glory of the God of
Israel. This glory came from the way of the east, and therefore he
was brought to the gate that leads towards the east, to expect the
appearance and approach of it. Christ's star was seen in the east,
and he is that other angel that ascends out of the east, Rev. vii. 2.
For he is the morning star, he is the sun of righteousness. Two things he
observed in this appearance of the glory of God:-- 1. The power of his word
which he heard: His voice was like a noise of many waters, which is
heard very far, and makes impressions; the noise of purling streams is
grateful, of a roaring sea dreadful, Rev. i. 15; xiv. 2. Christ's gospel, in
the glory of which he shines, was to be proclaimed aloud, the report of it
to be heard far; to some it is a savour of life, to others of death,
according as they are. 2. The brightness of his appearance which he saw: The
earth shone with his glory; for God is light, and none can bear the
lustre of his light, none has seen nor can see it. Note, That
glory of God which shines in the church shines on the world. When God
appeared for David the brightness that was before him dispersed the
clouds, Ps. xviii. 12. This appearance of the glory of God to Ezekiel he
observed to be the same with the vision he saw when he first received his
commission (ch. i. 4), according to that by the river Chebar (v.
3); because God is the same, he was pleased to manifest himself in the same
manner, for with him is no variableness. "It was the same"
(says he) "as that which I saw when I came to destroy the city,
that is, to foretel the city's destruction," which he did with such
authority and efficacy, and the event did so certainly answer the
prediction, that he might be said to destroy it. As a judge, in God's name,
he passed a sentence upon it, which was soon executed. God appeared in the
same manner when he sent him to speak words of terror and when he sent him
to speak words of comfort; for in both God is and will be glorified. He
kills and he makes alive; he wounds and he heals, Deut. xxxii.
39. To the same hand that destroyed we must look for deliverance. He has
smitten, and he will bind up. Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit--The
same hand inflicted the wound and healed it.
II. He has a vision of the entrance of this glory into the temple. When he
saw this glory he fell upon his face (v. 3), as not able
to bear the lustre of God's glory, or rather as one willing to give him the
glory of it by a humble and reverent adoration. But the Spirit took him
up (v. 5) when the glory of the Lord had come into the
house (v. 4), that he might see how the house was filled with it.
He saw how the glory of the Lord in this same appearance departed from the
temple, because it was profaned, to his great grief; now he shall see it
return to the temple to his great satisfaction. See ch. x. 18, 19; xi.
23. Note, Though God may forsake his people for a small moment, he will
return with everlasting loving-kindness. God's glory filled the house
as it had filled the tabernacle which Moses set up and the temple of
Solomon, Exod. xl. 34; 1 Kings viii. 10. Now we do not find that ever the
Shechinah did in that manner take possession of the second temple, and
therefore this was to have its accomplishment in that glory of the divine
grace which shines so brightly in the gospel church, and fills it. Here is
no mention of a cloud filling the house as formerly, for we now with open
face behold the glory of the Lord, in the face of Christ, and not as of
old through the cloud of types.
III. He receives instructions more immediately from the glory of the Lord,
as Moses did when God had taken possession of the tabernacle (Lev. i. 1): I
heard him speaking to me out of the house, v. 6. God's glory
shining in the church, we must thence expect to receive divine oracles. The
man stood by me; we could not bear to hear the voice of God any more
than to see the face of God if Jesus Christ did not stand by us as Mediator.
Or, if this was a created angel, it is observable that when God began to
speak to Ezekiel he stood by and gave way, having no more to say. Nay, he
stood by the prophet, as a learner with him; for to the principalities
and powers, to the angels themselves, who desire to look into
these things, is known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, Eph.
iii. 10. The man stood by him to conduct him thither where he might receive
further discoveries, ch. xliv. 1.
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7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place
of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in
the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the
house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by
their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high
places. 8 In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds,
and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even
defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed:
wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. 9 Now let them put
away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I
will dwell in the midst of them for ever. 10 Thou son of man,
shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their
iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. 11 And if they be
ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the
fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and
all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms
thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that
they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do
them. 12 This is the law of the house; Upon the top of
the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy.
Behold, this is the law of the house.
God does here, in effect, renew his covenant with his people Israel, upon
his retaking possession of the house, and Ezekiel negotiates the matter, as
Moses formerly. This would be of great use to the captives at their return
both for direction and encouragement; but it looks further, to those that
are blessed with the privileges of the gospel-temple, that they may
understand how they are before him on their good behaviour.
I. God, by the prophet, puts them in mind of their former provocations, for
which they had long lain under the tokens of his displeasure. This
conviction is spoken to them to make way for the comforts designed them.
Though God gives and upbraids not, it becomes us, when he forgives,
to upbraid ourselves with our unworthy conduct towards him. Let them now
remember therefore, 1. That they had formerly defiled God's holy name,
had profaned and abused all those sacred things by which he had made himself
known among them, v. 7. They and their kings had brought
contempt on the religion they professed, and their relation to God, by their
spiritual whoredom, their idolatry, and by worshipping images, which they
called their kings (for so Moloch signifies) or lords (for so Baal
signifies), but which were really the carcases of kings, not only
lifeless and useless, but loathsome and abominable as dead carcases, in
their high places, set up in honour of them. They had defiled God's name
by their abominations. And what were they? It was in setting their
threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, that is, adding
their own inventions to God's institutions, and urging all to a compliance
with them, as if they had been of equal authority and efficacy, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men (Isa. xxix. 13); or, rather,
setting up altars to their idols even in the courts of the temple, than
which a more impudent affront could not be put upon the divine Majesty. Thus
they set up a separation wall between him and them, which stopped the
current of his favours to them and spoiled the acceptableness of their
services to him. See what an indignity sinners do to God, setting up their
walls in opposition to his, and thrusting him out from what is his right;
and see what injury they do to themselves, for the nearer any come to God
with their sins the further they set him at a distance from them. Some give
this sense of it: Though their houses joined close to God's house, their
posts and thresholds to hi, so that they were in a manner his next
neighbours, there was but a wall between me and them (so it is in the
margin), so that it might have been expected they would acquaint themselves
with him and be in care to please him, yet they were not so much as
neighbourly. Note, It often proves too true, The nearer the church the
further from God. They were, by profession, in covenant with God, and
yet they had defiled the place of his throne and of the soles of
his feet, his temple, where he did both reside and reign. Jerusalem is
called the city of the great king (Ps. xlviii. 2) and his footstool,
Ps. xcix. 5; cxxxii. 7. Note, When God's ordinances are profaned his holy
name is polluted. 2. That for this God had had a controversy with them in
their late troubles. They could not condemn him, for he had but brought upon
them the desert of their sins: Wherefore I have consumed them in my
anger. Note, Those that pollute God's holy name fall under his just
displeasure.
II. He calls upon them to repent and reform, and, in order to that, to be
ashamed of their iniquities (v. 9): "Now let them put away
their whoredom; now that they have smarted so severely for it, and now
that God is returning in mercy to them and setting up his sanctuary again in
the midst of them, now let them cast away their idols and have no more to do
with them, that they may not again forfeit the privileges which they have
been taught to know the worth of by the want of them. Let them put away
their idols, those loathsome carcases of their kings, far from me,
from being a provocation to me." This was seasonable counsel now that
the prophet had the model or pattern of the temple to set before them; for,
1. If they see that pattern, they will surely be ashamed of their
sins (v. 10): when they see what mercy God has in store for them,
notwithstanding their utter unworthiness of it, they will be ashamed to
think of their disingenuous conduct towards him. Note, The goodness of God
to us should lead us to repentance, especially to a penitential shame. Let them
measure the pattern themselves, and see how much it exceeds the former
pattern, and guess by that what great things God has in store for them; and
surely it will put them out of countenance to think what the desert of their
sins was. And then, 2. If they be ashamed of their sins, they shall
surely see more of the pattern, v. 11. If they be ashamed of all
that they have done, upon a general view of the goodness of God, let
them have a more distinct particular account of the temple. Note, Those that
improve what they see and know of the goodness of God shall see and know
more of it. And then, and not till then, we are qualified for God's favours,
when we are truly humbled for our own follies. "Show them the form
of the house; let them see what a stately structure it will be; and
withal show them the ordinances and laws of it." Note, With the
foresights of our comforts it is fit that we should get the knowledge of our
duty; with the privileges of God's house we must acquaint ourselves with the
rules of it. Show them these ordinances, that they may keep them
and do them. Note, Therefore we are made to know our duty,
that we may do it, and be blessed in our deed.
III. He promises that they shall be such as they should be, and then he will
be to them such as they would have him to be, v. 7. 1. The house of Israel
shall no more defile my holy name. This is pure gospel. The precept of
the law says, You must not defile my name: the grace of the gospel says, You
shall not. Thus what is required in the covenant is promised in the
covenant, Jer. xxxii. 40. 2. Then I will dwell in the midst of them for
ever; and the same again v. 9. God secures to us his good-will be
confirming in us his good work. If we do not defile his name, we may be sure
that he will not depart from us.
IV. The general law of God's house is laid down (v. 12), That,
whereas formerly only the chancel, or sanctuary, was most holy, now
the whole mountain of the house shall be so; the whole limit
thereof, including all the courts and all the chambers, shall be as the
most holy place, signifying that in gospel-times, 1. The whole church shall
have the privilege of the holy of holies, that of a near access to
God. All believers have now, under the gospel, boldness to enter into the
holiest (Heb. x. 19), with this advantage, that whereas the high priest
entered in the virtue of the blood of bulls and goats, we enter in the
virtue of the blood of Jesus, and, wherever we are, we have through him access
to the Father. 2. The whole church shall be under a mighty obligation to
press towards the perfection of holiness, as he who has called us is
holy. All must now be most holy. Holiness becomes God's house for
ever, and in gospel-times more than ever. Behold this is the law of the
house; let none expect the protection of it that will not submit to this
law.
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13 And these are the measures of the
altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a hand breadth; even
the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border
thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this shall
be the higher place of the altar. 14 And from the bottom upon
the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits, and
the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser settle even to the greater
settle shall be four cubits, and the breadth one cubit.
15 So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall
be four horns. 16 And the altar shall be twelve cubits
long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof. 17 And
the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in
the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a
cubit; and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs
shall look toward the east. 18 And he said unto me, Son of man,
thus saith the Lord GOD;
These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make
it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.
19 And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of
Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD,
a young bullock for a sin offering. 20 And thou shalt take of
the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the
four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou
cleanse and purge it. 21 Thou shalt take the bullock also of the
sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house,
without the sanctuary. 22 And on the second day thou shalt offer
a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall
cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock.
23 When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a
young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without
blemish. 24 And thou shalt offer them before the LORD,
and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for
a burnt offering unto the LORD.
25 Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering:
they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock, without
blemish. 26 Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it;
and they shall consecrate themselves. 27 And when these days are
expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so
forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and
your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.
This relates to the altar in this mystical temple, and that is mystical too;
for Christ is our altar. The Jews, after their return out of captivity, had
an altar long before they had a temple, Ezra iii. 3. But this was an altar
in the temple. Now here we have,
I. The measures of the altar, v. 13. It was six yards square at the
top and seven yards square at the bottom; it was four yards and a half high;
it had a lower bench or shelf, here called a settle, a yard from the
ground, on which some of the priests stood to minister, and another two
yards above that, on which others of them stood, and these were each of them
half a yard broad, and had ledges on either side, that they might stand
firmly upon them. The sacrifices were killed at the table spoken of before, ch.
xl. 39. What was to be burnt on the altar was given up to those on the lower
bench, and handed by them to those on the higher, and they laid it on the
altar. Thus in the service of God we must be assistant to one another.
II. The ordinances of the altar. Directions are here given, 1. Concerning
the dedication of the altar at first. Seven days were to be spent in
the dedication of it, and every day sacrifices were to be offered upon it,
and particularly a goat for a sin-offering (v. 25), besides a
young bullock for a sin-offering on the first day (v. 19),
which teaches us in all our religious services to have an eye to Christ the
great sin-offering. Neither our persons nor our performances can be
acceptable to God unless sin be taken away, and that cannot be taken away
but by the blood of Christ, which both sanctifies the altar (for Christ
entered by his own blood, Heb. ix. 12) and the gift upon the altar. There
were also to be a bullock and a ram offered for a burnt-offering
(v. 24), which was intended purely for the glory of God, to teach us
to have an eye to that in all our services; we present ourselves as living
sacrifices, and our devotions as spiritual sacrifices, that we and they may
be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. The dedication of
the altar is here called the cleansing and purging of it, v.
20, 26. Christ, our altar, though he had no pollution to be cleansed from,
yet sanctified himself (John xvii. 19); and when we consecrate the altars of
our hearts to God, to have the fire of holy love always burning upon them,
we must see that they be purified and cleansed from the love of the world
and the lusts of the flesh. It is observable that there are several
differences between the rites of dedication here and those which were
appointed Exod. xxix., to intimate that the ceremonial institutions were
mutable things, and the changes in them were earnests of their period in
Christ. Only here, according to the general law, that all the sacrifices
must be seasoned with salt (Lev. ii. 13), particular orders are given (v.
24) that the priests shall cast salt upon the sacrifices. Grace is
the salt with which all our religious performances must be seasoned,
Col. iv. 6. An everlasting covenant is called a covenant of salt,
because it is incorruptible. The glory reserved for us is
incorruptible and undefiled; and the grace wrought in us is the
hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible. 2.
Concerning the constant use that should be made of it, when it was
dedicated: Henceforward the priests shall make their
burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon this altar (v. 27), for therefore
it was sanctified, that it might sanctify the gift that was
offered upon it. Observe further, (1.) Who were to serve at the altar: The priests
of the seed of Zadok, v. 19. That family was substituted in the
room of Abiathar by Solomon, and God confirms it. His name signifies righteous,
for they are the righteous seed that are priests to God, through Christ the
Lord our righteousness. (2.) How they should prepare for this service (v.
26): They shall consecrate themselves, shall fill their hand
with the offerings, in token of the giving up of themselves with their
offerings to God and to his service. Note, Before we minister to the Lord in
holy things we must consecrate ourselves by getting our hands and hearts
filled with those things. (3.) How they should speed in it (v. 27): I
will accept you. And if God now accept our works, if our services be
pleasing to him, it is enough, we need no more. Those that give themselves
to God shall be accepted of God, their persons first and then their
performances, through the Mediator.
