What does Ezekiel’s vision of a Temple mean for us today? Today’s passage gives us a few more hints.

Back in chapters 10 and 11, in a vision he received several years earlier, Ezekiel had seen God’s glory departing from the Temple because of His people’s unfaithfulness (10:4, 18-19; 11:22-23). But in chapter 43, Ezekiel sees God returning to His new Temple (43:2-4). Even though the people had been sent away into exile, God was thus promising to come back and live among them.

And God kept His promise. Of course, He led the people back to the Promised Land from their exile in Babylon. And they would build a new Temple on the same site that David had chosen so many years before. But that Temple would not come close to the grandeur of the one Ezekiel described so vividly. Moreover, God’s people never achieved the purity of worship and the perfection of living that Ezekiel saw.

But God did keep His promise, not by building a building, but by building a Church. Jesus offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice, fulfilling all the work of the priests that Ezekiel so carefully described ( Ezekiel 43:18-27). And as a result, all those who trust in Him have become the true Temple of God, made with living stones. God lives among and within us so that we might offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God (I Peter 2:5).

And that leads us to another lesson we can learn from Ezekiel’s vision. For when we see such an image of God’s perfect holiness, we should be moved to greater repentance, to put away anyone and anything else in which we might be tempted to place our faith (Ezekiel 43:10). And we should be inspired to live lives of greater holiness, bringing our thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds into closer agreement with God’s will (43:11).

No, that doesn’t mean we’re called to build a perfect building for God. But every day, in every way, as individuals and as groups of believers we are called to build a purer Church. Will we make that our purpose today?

Ezekiel 43:1-12 (NASB)

Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east;
2 and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.
3 And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east.
5 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.
6 Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me.
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 among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die,
8 by setting their threshold by My threshold, and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger.
9 “Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will dwell among them forever.
10 “As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the plan.
11 “And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws. And write it in their sight, so that they may observe its whole design and all its statutes, and do them.
12 “This is the law of the house: its entire area on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.