When Israel is in the depth of their distress
during the midnight of their captivity, Ezekiel receives a glorious vision
of the coming morning when their city would be restored. The vision of the
new city (which begins in Chapter 40 and goes to the end of the book) is
given which such awe-inspiring detail and such imposing grander that it
could not but bring hope and assurance of the return of the glory of God
to their city.
Ezekiel is taken to the top of a mountain where he saw the frame of a
city, its plan and model. The dimensions of those visionary buildings of
the city are staggering to the mind. The new temple is more spacious than
all of old Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem is of greater extent than all
the land of Canaan. Obviously, with those dimensions, it is a reference to
the spiritual city, the New Jerusalem, the people of the New Testament.
This new city that Ezekiel saw actually had no temple in it as the old
Jerusalem. The city itself would become the temple, the place where God
dwells.
There was a tradition in the Jewish faith that prohibited the Jews from
reading the book of Ezekiel until there were thirty years old. The
tradition also stated that although those who did read it probably would
not understand everything in it, but "when Elias comes he will
explain it."
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