Today’s reading: Ezekiel 46; 1 Timothy 5
Now that we are near the end of these nine chapters, I’m lumping Ezekiel 40-48 all together in a single post about how we should think about/understand this section of Scripture.
These are a set of chapters that I have heard taught a few different ways in the past, and I have never been quite sure what to make of them. A big part of me wants to take them as literal because of how detailed they are, but taking them literally introduces all kinds of problems. If this temple and its services are literal, when do they come about? They couldn’t be after Jesus’ return because the reintroduction of sacrifices wouldn’t make any sense. Plus, the prince in these chapters can’t be said to be the Messiah, at least not as we know Him in Jesus, because he is described as having children and as only being in charge of a small area while Jesus rules everything. But if it’s not after Jesus’ return, how could this temple exit in the world as it is now? How could a small stream issue forth from the temple that expands like is described?
Michael Heiser’s episodes about this section on The Naked Bible Podcast (episode 156 & episode 157) are really helpful on this. Heiser lands squarely on the side of this being intended by Ezekiel to be taken figuratively, including pointing out issues with a literal interpretation that I hadn’t considered before, and also pointing to internal clues that this is intended other than literally. There’s also a compelling tie-in to the Jubilee that he draws into the conversation about it as well that is really fascinating.
I’m not even going to try to reproduce it all here, it’s just too much and too detailed for a short blog post, but it’s highly worth a listen if you feel confused about how you should be thinking about these chapters.
I still feel a little confused why so much ink is spilled on so much detail in these descriptions, but despite that mild confusion, I am well convinced at this point that Ezekiel was not intending that we take his description as being of a literal future temple.
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