EZEKIEL - CHAPTERS 45-45 BEHOLD THE GLORY OF GOD
“BEHOLD, THE GLORY OF GOD”
(Ezekiel 43, 44 & 45)
Taught by: Carolyn Sissom
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
43:1-2 “Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east; and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and his voice was like a noise of many waters; and the earth shown with His Glory.”
Here in chapter 43, Ezekiel sees the temple filled with the Glory of God. After he patiently surveyed the temple of God, he is honored with a sight of the glories of Heaven. When he saw this glory, he fell upon his face (verse 3) in humble and reverent adoration. But the Spirit took him up, (Verse 5) “So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house.” Also in verse 3, the prophet identified with the Lord (“When I came to destroy the city.”)
“This is to have its accomplishment in that divine grace which shines so brightly in the gospel church, and fills it. Consider also The Lord Jesus (God’s Glory) being brought to the temple to be circumcised and dedicated (Luke 1-2)
In Verse 6, the measuring man, Jesus Christ, “I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son, of man, the place of my throne…He is here revealing to him the place of God’s throne. (Psa. 68:18: You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive; you have received gifts for men; yea the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” It will be forever. (Rev. 21:3) “And I heard a great voice of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
The wall of verse 8 is the veil. “In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations.”
The chapter can be divided into three main divisions: the Lord’s entrance into the sanctuary (1-12), the size of the altar of burnt offering (13-17), and the ceremonies in the dedication of the altar (18-27).
It is significant new thing.
43-43 – reveal that the Glory returned from the East and not the West—God’s Glory returns from the dawning of a New Day and not from any previous movement or method. It is the purpose for Ezekiel’s Temple:
- 42: 1-20 – To demonstrate God’s holiness.
- 43:1-17 – To provide a dwelling-place for the Divine Glory.
- 43:7 – To provide a center for the Divine government.
- 43: 18-27 – To celebrate His finished work on the cross for us.
To this point, we see the complete exclusion of man from the design of the Temple shows the inability of man to determine the standards of Divine holiness. Its entire design was a caricature of the holiness and the perfection of God.
10-12: “You son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. If they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the going out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof and the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy, Behold, this is the law of the house.” The specifications of the minute detail reveal that nothing is unimportant to the Lord. Ezekiel is to show the head of the house to the Body of the House. The Lord Jesus is the pattern (blueprint). 9heb. 8:5b) “See says he that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you at the mount.” The form and fashion of the house reveals the need to submit to the Pattern. This is the formation (Isa. 43:1) of the More Excellent Ministry (Heb. 8: 1-6). The King-Priest minister after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7) this is a man in the throne with a ministry without prejudice. (11 Cor. 5:17-21). The law of the whole house is most Holy. (Rev. 21:27) “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
We must put away the Kings (kingdoms) or idols in verse 9. (11 Cor. 6: 14-18). The altar of Verse 13 is the altar of burnt offerings. It speaks of a fresh access to God. The word for “altar” in verse 16 is “harel” and means the hearth; the mount of El.”
The verses that follow reveal the ordinances for the dedication of this altar. The Zadok priesthood is linked to the young bullock in verse 19.
The Eighth day in verse 26 is the number of new beginnings of eternity.
Chapter 44 deals with ungodly and Godly priests. The main subject is the regulations for the priests of the Lord who serve in the Temple. Purity of worship is safeguarded and emphasized throughout.
This chapter is a powerful revelation of the Zadok Priesthood, which is the same principle of the Melchizedek Priesthood, or the royal Priesthood. I have a Book, on The Sons of Zadok, written by Dr. C. R. Oliver. The whole book has the main text of Ezekiel 44. It is a tremendous study. The following is a brief quotation from that book:
The house of Israel is to cease their abominations which are listed. This list constitutes the unrighteous work of the “system Priests…”
They have not kept the charge of my holy things:
System Priests may minister to the people only.
1. They went astray with the people, so they are connected.
2. They shall be ministers in my sanctuary.
3. They shall be servants in the house.
4. Slay the burnt offering
5. Sacrifice for the people
6. Stand before them to serve them (Reason): stood with them during worship of idols; caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity.
7. They shall be Gatekeepers of the house.
8. They shall not come near unto me to serve me as priests, shall not come near my holy things, shall bear their shame and their abominations.
9. They shall be in charge of the house for all the service thereof and all that shall be done therein.
The house of Israel and its Levitical Priesthood is linked inseparably to the sin and error of their “system” way of doing things. They are limited to earthly ministry. They were not disciplined, “de-churched,” counseled, or removed by the Lord. They were to serve the people. (Servants serve the “system.” “Friends” serve as Sons in ministry to God. The disciples once were servants of the system, but now they operate like Sons of Zadok and are of the same house Jesus. As servants of the “system” they are to be blocked from the holy, the most holy things of God. When they stand to minister o the people, they are silently praying that their adulteries are not discovered. When they counsel those who have wrecked their lives through sin, they are aware of the wreck of their own life. When they socialize with the crowds, they recognize that instead of living the separated life, they are more at home with the “flow” of the crowd than the Glory of the Cloud.
But the priests the Levites, the Sons of Zadok,” is the way Ezekiel 44:15 begins its separating process. God wants His people to know He is contrasting the “system” and separating it from His Sons. To the “system” God is a God of judgment and distance. To the Sons, He is Father and full of fellowship. These two groups have nothing in common.
(15-31) “Sons of Zadok are a separate class. Every biblical reference to them sets them apart. They operate in power in the presence of God. their ranks are just the priestly sons of Levi, who through history have had their Eli’s. Their ranks are holy; their duties are holy; their specific instructions are holy (what they teach, where they live). Their quarters separate them to themselves. Since they are delineated apart from the other priests and Levites, they operate on a different plane. Theirs is a higher Law. Like the law of gravity is superseded by the law of lift, their law of holiness supersedes all that has been operating before. This is why the Lord is careful to make sure that He calls them separately each time in the giving out of the general laws regarding His spiritual Temple. He shows favor and special concern for the Sons of Zadok. When they are reviewed in this manner, like the groupings of scriptures that deal only with them, it is easy to see their distinguishing characteristics. It is important to review the Sons along these lines and not muddle them with others mentioned in these passages.
First they must have Holy Hands – they never entered into the way of the “ungodly” they kept the charge. What God ordered to be done, they continually attended to. They did not sink into the ways of sin “for a season”. They stood before the Lord in holiness and did holy work. Many congregations of today have never seen Holy Work. Many aspects of congregational life are rife with man’s programs, and man’s fleshly goals. Intent upon hearing of the Acts of God in evangelical circles, they are bereft of the Ways of God.
Next is Sacred Sacrifices. The Sons of Zadok knew what it was to come near to God. Righteous Samuel battled the Eli system. He called down the king who could have ordered his death. The “Eli system” had rather take an offering than obey. They would rather put on a production featuring a thousand sacrifices than repent and humbly walk before God. A parade is easy to organize among those of the “system,” for they are geared for such.
Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite hear, O God, you will not despise.”
Their constituency is different from the “system” people. Zadok priests assist the elect who bring the type of sacrifices mentioned as “acceptable”.
Mark 12:33: ‘And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Paul when he received a love gift from the Philippians in 4:18 said that give was “an odor of sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.”
Ezekiel says they must live their lives differently than the “system” priests. Their clothing must be handled differently. Instead of a Cossack, robe, habit, collar, or other liturgical garbe, the Sons of Zadok wear spiritual clothing often indiscernible by a lost church and world. Not until the spirit illuminates them to have “eyes that see” can they be truly known. Their raiment, worn in the presence of the Most High, was linen. They wore no:” wool” from sacrificial sheep. The clothes were housed in special chambers bathed in prayer.
They were to discern the clean from the unclean. What is clean to God? What is unclean to God? Our counsel must reflect God’s right to discern. (24) “And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my assemblies; and they shall hollow my Sabbaths.” The Zadok ministry will teach (by a lifestyle) the difference between the Holy and Profane, the clean and the unclean. This has been the issue of Ezekiel’s entire prophecy: Idolatry! They will minister judgment. They will not defile themselves with anything that is dead. I believe this death has to do with that which is absent of the Holy Ghost. The Lord shall be the possession of the sons of Zadok. They shall partake of the firstfruits; they will be the firstfruits!
Rev. 14: 1-5: “And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a 144,000 having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps; And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four bests, and the elders; and no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins, These are they which follow the Lam wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfuits unto God and to the Lamb.”
Chapter 45 is full of sacred arrangements. It begins to talk about the principle of inheritance and the apportionment of the Land. It includes the portion of the land for the Lord (1-8), exhortations unto righteousness (9-12), the offerings of the people (13-17), the sin offerings of the first month (18-20), and the celebration of the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (21-25).
Verse 1 mentions the word Inheritance. It means to apportion. Thus the principle of inheritance here reveals the truth hat God will apportion His Name to His people! The Lord Himself receives a Holy Portion (Heb. 1: 1-3) “”God who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory , and the express image of his person, and upholding things by the word of his power, when he has by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
The Zadok priesthood will share in that glory, for he is their portion (44:28) “And it shall be unto them for an inheritance; I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.
The Prince will have a portion. We all agree this Prince is the Lord Jesus Christ. the principle of the just balance is seen in verses 9-12. Other regulations are mentioned in verses 13-17. The house shall be reconciled in verse 20. Verse 21 refers to the Feast of Passover and Verse 25 refers to the Feast of Tabernacles.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scriptures quoted from King James Version. Text quotes from The Sons of Zadok by: C. R. Oliver, Principles of Present Truth and Matthew Henry.