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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Ezekiel 43: The Return of the Glory
The moment we've waited 43 chapters for finally arrives – the glory of God returns to the temple. With the sound of rushing waters and divine light illuminating the landscape, Ezekiel witnesses the fulfillment of God's promise to restore His presence among His people.
This pivotal chapter reveals God's heart for renewal even after judgment and exile. "This is the place of my throne and the place where I will rest my feet. I will live here forever among the people of Israel," God declares. But His return comes with conditions – the people must abandon their idolatrous ways and honor His holiness.
The detailed specifications for the temple and altar might seem tedious at first glance, but they reveal something profound about approaching God. These precise measurements and purification rituals weren't meant to establish legalism but to restore proper worship patterns forgotten during exile. They create a framework for encountering God's presence in freedom, not fear.
Pastor Brandon draws a powerful parallel to our spiritual lives today. Many believers either carry wounds from legalistic religious backgrounds or lack foundational knowledge of Scripture. Either way, returning to God's word isn't about imposing burdensome regulations but creating space for authentic encounters with Him. "We don't do a single thing in God's word so that God will love us. We do all things in God's word because God loves us."
What's your reaction when someone mentions following God's word? Do you feel the weight of obligation or the invitation to freedom? Join us as we explore how God's presence transforms everything it touches and how spiritual disciplines become pathways to encounter Him rather than rigid rules to follow. Subscribe to Bible Breakdown for more insights that will deepen your understanding of Scripture and transform your relationship with God.
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Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, ezekiel, chapter 43, and today's title come on is the Return of the Glory, the Return of the Glory of God. We have been waiting for this for 43 chapters, but here we go, finally, and so, if you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to Ezekiel, chapter 43. While you're doing that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing wonderful work there every single day and it's a joy, it is an honor to see. What they are writing every day is we're just engaging with God's word, I'm gonna tell you, and they've earned it. They have earned it this time because Ezekiel is a hard book to get through, because there's just so much difficulty that's going on which reminds me of the overall focus of Ezekiel, and that is God's promise of renewal. Well, here's the thing you don't need a promise of renewal unless you're in distress, like if everything's going great. You don't need to get renewed. Things are going great.
Speaker 1:But over the course of Ezekiel's ministry we have seen that he has been just prophesying over several, several years of you know, jerusalem's gonna fall, and then it falls, and then the nation is gonna be scattered, and then it does. And then they go through this season where they just have to grapple with why are we here? Why are we here? And we're going to see that as we continue and as we get toward the end of the Old Testament, whenever God does bring them back at the end of 70 years, they are still grappling with this idea of how could we have let ourselves do this? And it's just so. That's kind of where they are now. But at the same time, god is now talking to Ezekiel and he's saying but it's not over, it's not over, it's not over. I'm going to come back, I'm going to bring my glory back, and this is what it's going to look like. And so over the past couple of days he has been showing Ezekiel a spiritual example by showing him the new temple dimensions, and it was an example of him saying I'm going to bring my presence back, I'm going to bring my house back, and then, once everything is set and in order, the glory returns. And so we're going to read about that today, as the presence of God comes back to the people of Israel. You ready? Chapter 43, verse 1 says this After this, the man brought me back around to the east gateway.
Speaker 1:Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters and the whole landscape shone with his glory. Now pause. If you read the book of Revelation, what did it say? The voice of God sounded like Like this. And so, once again, revelation is borrowing from Ezekiel to say this is what it's like when the glory of God returns, verse 3,. The vision was just like the others I had seen, first by the Kibar River, and then he came to destroy Israel and my face fell down to the ground.
Speaker 1:The glory of the Lord came into the temple through the east gateway and the Spirit took me and brought me to the inner courtyard and the glory of the Lord filled the, and I heard someone speaking to me from within the temple, while the man who had been measuring the rods stood beside me, and the Lord said Son of man, or remember, buddy, this is the place of my throne and the place where I will rest my feet. I will live here forever, among the people of Israel, and they and their kings will not defile my holy name any longer and their adulterous worship of other gods or by honoring the relics for their kings who have died, of their kings who have died. They will put their idol altars right next to mine. Excuse me, let me try it again. They put their idol altars right next to mine, with only a wall between them and me. They defiled my holy name by such detestable sin so I consumed them in my anger. So, in other words, he's talking about what had happened in the past. Verse nine now, let them stop worshiping other gods and worshiping the relics and honoring the relics of their kings, and I will live among them forever. Other words you get your act together. I'm ready to come home.
Speaker 1:Verse 10, son of man describe to the people of Israel the temple "'I have shown you, "'so that they will be ashamed of all their sins, "'and then let them study its plan, "'and they will be ashamed of what they have done. "'describe to them all the specifications of the temple, "'including its entrances and exits, "'and everything else about it, "'tell them about its decrees and laws? "'write down all the specifications and decrees "'as they watch "'so. And laws Write down all the specifications and decrees as they watch, so they will be sure to remember and follow them. This is the basic law of the temple. Absolute holiness. The entire top of the mountain where the temple is built is holy. Yes, this is the basic law of the temple, verse 13.
Speaker 1:These are the measurements of the altar. There is a gutter all around the altar that is 21 inches deep, 21 inches wide and the curb nine inches wide around its edges, and this is the height of the altar. From the gutter, the altar rises three and a half feet to the lower ledge that surrounds the altar and 21 inches wide. From the lower ledge, the altar rises seven feet to the upper ledge and is also 21 inches wide. To the top of the altar, the hearth rises another seven feet higher and the horn rises up from each of the four corners. The top of the altar is square, measuring 21 feet by 21 feet. The upper ledge also forms a square, measuring 24 and a half feet by 24 and a half feet, with a 21-inch gutter and a 10 and a half-inch curb all around the edges. There are also steps going up the east side of the altar.
Speaker 1:Then he said to me son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says. These will be the regulations for the burning of the offerings and the sprinkling of blood when the altar is built. At that time, the Levitical priests of the family of Zadok, who minister before me, are to be given a young bull for a sin offering, says the Sovereign Lord. You will take some of its blood and smear it on the four corners of the altar and the four corners of the upper ledge and the curb that runs around the ledge. This will cleanse and make atonement for the altar. Then take the young bull for the sin offering and burn it at the appointed place outside the temple area.
Speaker 1:On the second day, sacrifice the sin offering of the young male goat that has no physical defects, then cleanse and make atonement for the altar again, just as you did with the young bull. When you have finished the cleansing ceremony, offer another young bull that has no defect and a perfect ram from the flock. You are to present them to the Lord and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to the Lord. Every day for seven days, a male goat, a young bull and a ram from the flock will be sacrificed as a sin offering. None of these animals may have physical defects of any kind. Do this each day for seven days to cleanse and to make atonement for the altar, thus setting it apart for holy use. On the eighth day, and on each day afterward, the priest will sacrifice on the burnt offerings and the peace offerings for the people. Then I will accept you.
Speaker 1:I, the sovereign Lord, have spoken. What in the world does that mean? Well, here's the thing. This is what is so amazing about this. So God wasn't making a new decree in this moment. God was restoring back what the temple was supposed to be back then. Now, imagine for a moment. They didn't have free copies of the Old Testament to pass around to everybody, so it was entirely possible that a lot of people who are reading this, they didn't know the old paths, they didn't know what the temple was supposed to be for, because for a long time now, as God was saying, they were worshiping me, but they were also worshiping idols and it was getting all mixed up and everything and it was just crazy. So he's like we're starting over again and we are going to sanctify the altar all over again, exactly what it's supposed to be for, because I'm coming, I'm coming back and he is setting up again what had gone before so that his glory could come.
Speaker 1:And here's the lesson for us, and that is this there are people who are in the christian world that they grew up knowing God's word. They grew up around church. They went to vacation, bible schools and Sunday schools and Sunday mornings and Sunday nights, and so they know all about what God's word has to say. And actually the problem is is a lot of them are in positions to where they had to deal with a lot of legalism and a lot of negative things, and so they're in a space to where they really struggle with it, because so much of honoring God's word had to do with form but not holiness. They did it so that God would love them, not because God loved them, but there's a lot of people that have no idea. They have no idea what God's word has to say, and so it's so important for us to go back to the old ways, not so we can revisit legalism and not so that we can tie any yoke of bondage around anybody.
Speaker 1:As the Bible would say, we don't do a single thing in God's word so that God will love us. We do all the things in God's word because God loves us, because we have been set free through the blood of Jesus. That's why we honor God. And he said the culture of my house is holiness, the culture of my house is purity, and it's not out of a sense of legalism, it's not out of a sense of fear, it's out of a sense of awe and wonder. God, I'm so thankful that you have built your house. In other words, you have invited me into your presence. It is my honor to honor you. I'm going to focus on loving you, and as I love you and as I seek to follow you, all these broken places are going to fall to the left and fall to the right, because my focus is on you. And so he's saying I want to return my glory, so get your house in order so that you may partake.
Speaker 1:So my question for you is this what does it mean to you? What's the reaction you have when I say we need to follow God's word? Have you been around church for a while? And so when we talk about being holy as God says, I am holy. Does that immediately kind of trigger something inside of you? Because for you in the past that meant legalism and it meant a lot of rules and it meant a lot of regulations and all this kind of stuff? And if so, can I tell you that's not God, that's the enemy. That's that's the enemy playing on negative past experiences, because he doesn't want you to have encounters with God and so he wants you to lean back from the presence of God, and so he's going to do that by creating the fear of legalism.
Speaker 1:God doesn't create legalism, he creates freedom. And the difference is is we do most of all the same things as far as in like the principle of God's word, but the idea is out of a sense of freedom. And so my question for you is is what happens when I say let's do that? On the other side, if you're like come on, let's do it, let's do all the things you tell me and I'll do it? Also, realize God is not honored by you just simply obeying rules and regulations. God is honored by you walking in freedom, and the quote unquote rules and regulations, the things that God says do and don't do, is so that he can create freedom, and so the more freedom you walk in by doing what his word says. That's how you honor God. Spiritual disciplines, things like this, these are vehicles to have encounters with God, and so it's shifting your mind around to not think of rules and regulations as if I do this, god will love me. It's doing the things because God loves me, and every time I do these things in the right way and for the right reason, more freedom comes.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now.
Speaker 1:God, thank you so much that your word brings freedom.
Speaker 1:God, I am so aware, and I've talked to so many people, that they struggle with the idea of honoring your word, not because they don't love you, but they have been broken by maybe well-intended but wrong people in the past who have said things like you have to earn God's love, you have to earn God's affection. I just bind that in the name of Jesus and I ask you, holy Spirit, that you will begin to set people free to realize they've never been more loved than they are right now. And yes, we do honor your word, we do follow your word, but not out of a sense of obligation or a sense of passive aggressiveness, but, quite the opposite, out of a sense of honor and love. And it's because you love me that I will follow you and I will follow your word. I pray, holy Spirit, that you will open our eyes to see that more every day. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:And what God's word says in Ezekiel 37, verse 14, it says I will put my spirit in you and you will live again. My hope for you is that you walk in more freedom every single day. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Ezekiel, chapter 44.
