“No wonder”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday. May 27, 2023
Ezekiel 43:1-12 (Forward, p. 29) CEV p. 885
If there has ever, in the history of humankind, a ‘bone of contention’, or more accurately, a place of contention, it must be the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. To those of the Jewish faith it is the location of their former temple, the Second Temple, the one that Herod the Great enlarged and improved and that the Romans destroyed in AD 70. And to those of the Islamic faith it is the location of their third holiest site—after Mecca and Medina, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques, and the location of the prophet Mohammed’s ascent into heaven.
Judaism’s offence and irritation at a Moslem edifice being located here is rooted both in history and in prophecy. In terms of their history as a people and nation, any intrusion upon the Temple by non-Jews has been greeted with much dismay, anger and sorrow, as with its destruction by the Babylonians and Romans, or with its desecration by the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, in 167 BC, or as with Pontius Pilate brazenly bringing into its precincts articles that orthodox Jews saw as sacrilegious.
Some of this disgust is picked up in today’s reading as Ezekiel speaks of it being defiled by harlotry (that is, idolatry and sacred prostitution—see 2 Kings 23:7) and by the practice of burying kings within its walls. What is more, in terms of prophecy, many Jews (and Christians as well) believe that the Scriptures promise that the Temple will one day be rebuilt, and sacrifices offered there once again once the Messiah comes—or returns. So, as one might well guess, the whole location, its use and access to it, is fraught with controversy and tension.
While much of the descriptions of the Temple (see Ezekiel 40-48), its layout and dimensions, can certainly be seen as literal, there is also a sense that it could be interpreted in more symbolic or spiritual terms. There are a couple of verses here that particularly appeal to Christians. The first part of verse 7 has God saying, ‘this temple is my throne on earth. I will live here among the people of Israel forever.” Christians see this as applying to Christians individually and to the church corporately as being the new dwelling place of God via the Holy Spirit. And, verse 10 reiterates the
previous injunction that, as the earthly dwelling place of God, we, as His people and dwelling place, must be kept holy and undefiled.
This, in Christian circles, has led to yet another debate, namely over the sacred and the profane, especially as it pertains to places of worship.
Ezekiel, in today’s passage, is most adamant that there must be some sort of distinction, some sort of separation, a demarcation, between the two.
Many in our modern age make mockery of this thought, suggesting that God is present and can be worshipped anywhere, and that the church as a building is in no way special or unique. But this ignores two facts, firstly that human beings generally need a focus for their worship, a place, rather than ‘just anywhere’, and secondly that God sets apart, and commands, the use of such ‘designed’ places for our worship. And so it follows, that we, who are both corporately and individually, His places of habitation, also need places where we can come together to express and celebrate, and be built up, enabled, to more adequately and faithfully express it. No wonder, then, that this sense of ‘temple’, of being and expressing the presence of God, has been so important to generation after generation.
Forward notes: “And there, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east; the sound was like the sound of mighty waters; and the earth shone with his glory” (verse 2).
“My grandmother was into her eighties before she saw the ocean for the first time. I can still recall the look of glory on her face when her feet touched the sand of Huntington Beach, and she heard the thundering sound of mighty waters for herself.
“My wife and I moved to Huntington Beach less than a year before her visit, and we loved living by the ocean. But for all the times we visited the beach or drove along Pacific Coast Highway, I never experienced such a clear moment of transcendence. I marveled at the scenery, but I missed the glory of it all, the glory that was there so plainly for my grandmother.
“Ezekiel sees God’s glory return to the temple in a vision. For the exiles, this was their greatest desire and the hope that coloured their dreams. As Ezekiel sees God’s presence filling the temple, his perspective changes. Suddenly the desolate temple is radiant. That is the power of perspective when we look for God’s glory around us.”
Moving Forward: “Where do you see God’s glory? Look with fresh eyes today.”