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Ezekiel 43:7
Verse
Context
The Glory of the LORD Returns to the Temple
6While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple, 7and He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile My holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and by the funeral offerings for their kings at their deaths.8When they placed their threshold next to My threshold and their doorposts beside My doorposts, with only a wall between Me and them, they defiled My holy name by the abominations they committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger.
Sermons
Stephen Kaung
T. Austin-SparksT. Austin-SparksSummary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Matthew Henry
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Son of man, the place of my throne - The throne refers to his majesty; the soles of his feet, to his condescension in dwelling among men. Where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel - The tabernacle and temple were types of the incarnation of Jesus Christ: "Destroy This Temple, and after three days I will raise it up; - but this he spake of the temple of his body;" Joh 2:19, Joh 2:21. And in That Temple "dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Into this immaculate humanity did the glory of the Supreme God enter; and thus, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." And this Jesus is Immanuel, God with Us. In him we find united the ineffable majesty of God, with the abjectness of man. He humbled himself in human nature, not only to bear the form of a servant, but to suffer death upon the cross as a malefactor slave! But by these means he has purchased eternal redemption for us; and the spiritual Israel, who find redemption in his blood, shall be raised up wherever his holy name shall be proclaimed; and shall not, like the old apostate Israel, defile that great name by idolatry or a life of wickedness, but they shall show forth the virtues of Him who has called them from darkness into his marvellous light.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
the place--that is, "behold the place of My throne"--the place on which your thoughts have so much dwelt (Isa 2:1-3; Jer 3:17; Zac 14:16-20; Mal 3:1). God from the first claimed to be their King politically as well as religiously: and He had resisted their wish to have a human king, as implying a rejection of Him as the proper Head of the state. Even when He yielded to their wish, it was with a protest against their king ruling except as His vicegerent. When Messiah shall reign at Jerusalem, He shall then first realize the original idea of the theocracy, with its at once divine and human king reigning in righteousness over a people all righteous (Eze 43:12; Isa 52:1; Isa 54:13; Isa 60:21).
John Gill Bible Commentary
And he said unto me, son of man,.... A kind, usual, and singular appellation, given to this prophet: these are the words either of the man that stood by him, so the Arabic version; or of Jehovah, speaking out of the house to him: the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet: that is, this house, the church of God, is the place where the throne of the Lord is set; where he rules and reigns; where he sets his feet, and is his resting place; even his, whose throne is the heaven, and the earth his footstool; here Christ, as King of saints, dwells, and here he walks and shows the glory of his majesty: where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever; not Carnal, but spiritual Israel; such as are Israelites indeed, or which the church will be full in the latter day, both Jews and Gentiles; and in the midst of these will Jehovah dwell, and grant his gracious presence, and never more depart from them: this shows that this house or building can not be understood of the second temple; since the Lord did not dwell in that for ever, but has left that house desolate hundreds of years ago: some Jewish writers (p) have owned that it belongs to the times of the Messiah: and my name shall the house of Israel no more defile, or "profane"; or cause to be blasphemed by immoralities, or false doctrines, or superstition and will worship; denoting the holiness of life, purity of doctrine and worship, in the churches of Christ in the latter day; see Isa 4:3, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom: that is, idolatry, which is spiritual fornication; such as the kings of Israel, and their subjects, were often guilty of, before their captivity in Babylon, though not after; nor will they ever return to it in the latter day, when converted; for they will never espouse the idolatries of Rome; and those kings and people that bear the name of Christians, and yet commit fornication with the whore of Babylon, shall do so no more after these times, Rev 17:2, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places; or, and "their high places" (q); that is, by both; by the carcasses of their kings being buried in or near the house of God; so the Targum adds, at their death (r); or by human carcasses being sacrificed to Molech or Milcom, which signifies their king: or else the idols themselves are so called, because lifeless and abominable; see Jer 16:18, and the worship of which the kings of Israel encouraged by precept and practice, order and example, and therefore called theirs; and also by their high places, which they made for idolatrous worship, and which were made where the carcasses of their kings were laid, as Ben Melech observes; and all which were done, especially in the reigns of Manasseh and Ammon: but now nothing of this kind shall be hereafter, or any thing now similar to it, in the antichristian state. (p) Vid. R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. p. 51. (q) "et excelsis suis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (r) So Abendana takes this word to signify "in their death"; their carcasses being buried in their gardens, as Manasseh, 2 Kings xxi. 18.
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
God does here, in effect, renew his covenant with his people Israel, upon his retaking possession of the house, and Ezekiel negotiates the matter, as Moses formerly. This would be of great use to the captives at their return both for direction and encouragement; but it looks further, to those that are blessed with the privileges of the gospel-temple, that they may understand how they are before him on their good behaviour. I. God, by the prophet, puts them in mind of their former provocations, for which they had long lain under the tokens of his displeasure. This conviction is spoken to them to make way for the comforts designed them. Though God gives and upbraids not, it becomes us, when he forgives, to upbraid ourselves with our unworthy conduct towards him. Let them now remember therefore, 1. That they had formerly defiled God's holy name, had profaned and abused all those sacred things by which he had made himself known among them, Eze 43:7. They and their kings had brought contempt on the religion they professed, and their relation to God, by their spiritual whoredom, their idolatry, and by worshipping images, which they called their kings (for so Moloch signifies) or lords (for so Baal signifies), but which were really the carcases of kings, not only lifeless and useless, but loathsome and abominable as dead carcases, in their high places, set up in honour of them. They had defiled God's name by their abominations. And what were they? It was in setting their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, that is, adding their own inventions to God's institutions, and urging all to a compliance with them, as if they had been of equal authority and efficacy, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Isa 29:13); or, rather, setting up altars to their idols even in the courts of the temple, than which a more impudent affront could not be put upon the divine Majesty. Thus they set up a separation wall between him and them, which stopped the current of his favours to them and spoiled the acceptableness of their services to him. See what an indignity sinners do to God, setting up their walls in opposition to his, and thrusting him out from what is his right; and see what injury they do to themselves, for the nearer any come to God with their sins the further they set him at a distance from them. Some give this sense of it: Though their houses joined close to God's house, their posts and thresholds to hi, so that they were in a manner his next neighbours, there was but a wall between me and them (so it is in the margin), so that it might have been expected they would acquaint themselves with him and be in care to please him, yet they were not so much as neighbourly. Note, It often proves too true, The nearer the church the further from God. They were, by profession, in covenant with God, and yet they had defiled the place of his throne and of the soles of his feet, his temple, where he did both reside and reign. Jerusalem is called the city of the great king (Psa 48:2) and his footstool, Psa 99:5; Psa 132:7. Note, When God's ordinances are profaned his holy name is polluted. 2. That for this God had had a controversy with them in their late troubles. They could not condemn him, for he had but brought upon them the desert of their sins: Wherefore I have consumed them in my anger. Note, Those that pollute God's holy name fall under his just displeasure. II. He calls upon them to repent and reform, and, in order to that, to be ashamed of their iniquities (Eze 43:9): "Now let them put away their whoredom; now that they have smarted so severely for it, and now that God is returning in mercy to them and setting up his sanctuary again in the midst of them, now let them cast away their idols and have no more to do with them, that they may not again forfeit the privileges which they have been taught to know the worth of by the want of them. Let them put away their idols, those loathsome carcases of their kings, far from me, from being a provocation to me." This was seasonable counsel now that the prophet had the model or pattern of the temple to set before them; for, 1. If they see that pattern, they will surely be ashamed of their sins (Eze 43:10): when they see what mercy God has in store for them, notwithstanding their utter unworthiness of it, they will be ashamed to think of their disingenuous conduct towards him. Note, The goodness of God to us should lead us to repentance, especially to a penitential shame. Let them measure the pattern themselves, and see how much it exceeds the former pattern, and guess by that what great things God has in store for them; and surely it will put them out of countenance to think what the desert of their sins was. And then, 2. If they be ashamed of their sins, they shall surely see more of the pattern, Eze 43:11. If they be ashamed of all that they have done, upon a general view of the goodness of God, let them have a more distinct particular account of the temple. Note, Those that improve what they see and know of the goodness of God shall see and know more of it. And then, and not till then, we are qualified for God's favours, when we are truly humbled for our own follies. "Show them the form of the house; let them see what a stately structure it will be; and withal show them the ordinances and laws of it." Note, With the foresights of our comforts it is fit that we should get the knowledge of our duty; with the privileges of God's house we must acquaint ourselves with the rules of it. Show them these ordinances, that they may keep them and do them. Note, Therefore we are made to know our duty, that we may do it, and be blessed in our deed. III. He promises that they shall be such as they should be, and then he will be to them such as they would have him to be, Eze 43:7. 1. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name. This is pure gospel. The precept of the law says, You must not defile my name: the grace of the gospel says, You shall not. Thus what is required in the covenant is promised in the covenant, Jer 32:40. 2. Then I will dwell in the midst of them for ever; and the same again Eze 43:9. God secures to us his good-will be confirming in us his good work. If we do not defile his name, we may be sure that he will not depart from us. IV. The general law of God's house is laid down (Eze 43:12), That, whereas formerly only the chancel, or sanctuary, was most holy, now the whole mountain of the house shall be so; the whole limit thereof, including all the courts and all the chambers, shall be as the most holy place, signifying that in gospel-times, 1. The whole church shall have the privilege of the holy of holies, that of a near access to God. All believers have now, under the gospel, boldness to enter into the holiest (Heb 10:19), with this advantage, that whereas the high priest entered in the virtue of the blood of bulls and goats, we enter in the virtue of the blood of Jesus, and, wherever we are, we have through him access to the Father. 2. The whole church shall be under a mighty obligation to press towards the perfection of holiness, as he who has called us is holy. All must now be most holy. Holiness becomes God's house for ever, and in gospel-times more than ever. Behold this is the law of the house; let none expect the protection of it that will not submit to this law.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
43:7b-9 If God were to remain with his people, standards would have to be raised and regulations enforced that would guard against the repetition of past abuses. Israel and their kings would not defile God’s holy name by their spiritual adultery with other gods or with relics of their kings who had died—memorial markers to dead kings—within the grounds of the Temple of the living God. There was no place for honoring human kings in the palace of the divine King. In the future, the proper hierarchy would be reestablished by removing the residence of the earthly ruler to a greater distance from the spiritual center of the land (see 45:7). Putting the earthly ruler in his proper place was a necessary precondition for God’s dwelling perpetually in his rightful place.
Ezekiel 43:7
The Glory of the LORD Returns to the Temple
6While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple, 7and He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile My holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and by the funeral offerings for their kings at their deaths.8When they placed their threshold next to My threshold and their doorposts beside My doorposts, with only a wall between Me and them, they defiled My holy name by the abominations they committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger.
- Scripture
- Sermons
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Ezekiel: Vision of the Temple
By Stephen Kaung1.9K1:12:47EzekielPSA 46:10EZK 43:7EZK 43:10JHN 7:38ACT 13:2GAL 5:22REV 22:1In this sermon, the preacher discusses the visions that God gave to the prophet Ezekiel while he was among the captives by the river Chiba. One of the visions was of the glory of the Lord, where God was on his throne carried by the children. This vision led to God commissioning Ezekiel to be a prophet and go to the children of Israel to proclaim his word. The preacher also mentions other prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Daniel, who each received different aspects of revelation from God.
The Persistent Purpose of God - Part 9
By T. Austin-Sparks1.9K52:41Purpose Of GodEZK 43:4EZK 43:7MAT 6:33JHN 5:39EPH 3:8EPH 3:10COL 1:27In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. They describe a house as a channel through which God's life flows, and this life is not something artificial or secondhand, but a natural outpouring. The testimony of this life is what truly matters, not just a system of doctrine or teaching. The speaker also highlights the threefold purpose of the house: as a place of God's glory, a representation of the new creation in Christ, and a vessel to fill all things. Ultimately, the sermon encourages believers to live a life filled with the Holy Spirit and to let that life be the testimony of their faith.
Jesus' Millennial Throne: The Corridor of Glory
By Mike Bickle251:02:50Millennial KingdomConvergence of Heaven and EarthPSA 119:96ISA 4:4ISA 66:1JER 3:17EZK 43:7ZEC 6:12MAT 25:31EPH 1:10REV 15:8REV 21:24Mike Bickle explores the profound concept of Jesus' millennial throne, emphasizing the convergence of heaven and earth as central to God's eternal purpose. He highlights that rather than believers leaving earth for heaven, God's plan involves bringing the heavenly realm to earth, culminating in the establishment of Jesus' throne in the Millennial Jerusalem. Bickle explains that this throne represents a merging of the spiritual and material dimensions, where believers will reign with Christ in a restored paradise, reflecting God's glory. The sermon encourages a shift in perspective regarding the end times, urging believers to understand their future role in God's kingdom on earth. Ultimately, Bickle presents a vision of hope and restoration, where the fullness of God's presence will dwell among His people forever.
Millennial Jerusalem: The City of the Great King (Ps. 48)
By Mike Bickle241:05:17Millennial KingdomThe City of GodPSA 48:1PSA 50:2ISA 2:2ISA 62:7JER 3:17EZK 43:7MAT 5:35EPH 1:9HEB 11:10REV 21:2Mike Bickle explores the concept of Millennial Jerusalem, emphasizing its significance as the city of the great King, where the earthly Jerusalem is fully restored and united with the new Jerusalem from heaven. He highlights that this city will be the epicenter of God's glory, where believers will dwell forever, experiencing a unique blend of natural and supernatural realities. Bickle encourages listeners to embrace new biblical ideas and to seek understanding through scripture, as the Millennial Jerusalem represents a profound fulfillment of God's promises. He emphasizes the importance of the convergence of these two Jerusalems, which will bring unprecedented glory and blessing to the earth.
Convergence: Earthly Jerusalem and Heavenly Jerusalem
By Mike Bickle1650:30Millennial KingdomConvergence of RealmsGEN 28:12ISA 2:2EZK 43:7ZEC 14:16MAT 5:35JHN 1:51HEB 12:22REV 21:2Mike Bickle discusses the profound connection between the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem, emphasizing that during the Millennial Kingdom, the New Jerusalem will descend and serve as the eternal capital for the redeemed. He explains that this convergence allows for a dynamic relationship between the two cities, where the resurrected saints will inhabit the New Jerusalem while engaging in assignments on the Millennial Earth. Bickle highlights the significance of Jesus' throne being present in both Jerusalems, symbolizing the unity of the heavenly and earthly realms. He encourages believers to understand the fullness of God's plan, which includes the healing of nations through the leaves of the Tree of Life from the New Jerusalem. Ultimately, he paints a picture of a glorious future where the two realms will operate together in harmony.
The House of God: The Greatness of Christ and His Church
By T. Austin-Sparks0The Greatness of ChristThe Nature of the ChurchEZK 43:7MAT 16:18ACT 2:4ROM 11:331CO 3:16EPH 3:9COL 1:18HEB 3:61PE 2:51JN 5:11T. Austin-Sparks emphasizes the significance of the House of God as depicted in Ezekiel, warning against reducing spiritual truths to mere technical systems that can stifle the life within the Church. He highlights that the House is not a system but a spiritual entity centered on Christ, where God's glory, government, and life flow freely. Sparks urges believers to recognize the vastness of Christ and His Church, cautioning against the tendency to confine them to human understanding. He stresses the importance of maintaining a spiritual perspective to ensure the Church remains vibrant and effective under God's governance. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deeper appreciation of the life that emanates from the true House of God.
- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Matthew Henry
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Son of man, the place of my throne - The throne refers to his majesty; the soles of his feet, to his condescension in dwelling among men. Where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel - The tabernacle and temple were types of the incarnation of Jesus Christ: "Destroy This Temple, and after three days I will raise it up; - but this he spake of the temple of his body;" Joh 2:19, Joh 2:21. And in That Temple "dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Into this immaculate humanity did the glory of the Supreme God enter; and thus, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." And this Jesus is Immanuel, God with Us. In him we find united the ineffable majesty of God, with the abjectness of man. He humbled himself in human nature, not only to bear the form of a servant, but to suffer death upon the cross as a malefactor slave! But by these means he has purchased eternal redemption for us; and the spiritual Israel, who find redemption in his blood, shall be raised up wherever his holy name shall be proclaimed; and shall not, like the old apostate Israel, defile that great name by idolatry or a life of wickedness, but they shall show forth the virtues of Him who has called them from darkness into his marvellous light.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
the place--that is, "behold the place of My throne"--the place on which your thoughts have so much dwelt (Isa 2:1-3; Jer 3:17; Zac 14:16-20; Mal 3:1). God from the first claimed to be their King politically as well as religiously: and He had resisted their wish to have a human king, as implying a rejection of Him as the proper Head of the state. Even when He yielded to their wish, it was with a protest against their king ruling except as His vicegerent. When Messiah shall reign at Jerusalem, He shall then first realize the original idea of the theocracy, with its at once divine and human king reigning in righteousness over a people all righteous (Eze 43:12; Isa 52:1; Isa 54:13; Isa 60:21).
John Gill Bible Commentary
And he said unto me, son of man,.... A kind, usual, and singular appellation, given to this prophet: these are the words either of the man that stood by him, so the Arabic version; or of Jehovah, speaking out of the house to him: the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet: that is, this house, the church of God, is the place where the throne of the Lord is set; where he rules and reigns; where he sets his feet, and is his resting place; even his, whose throne is the heaven, and the earth his footstool; here Christ, as King of saints, dwells, and here he walks and shows the glory of his majesty: where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever; not Carnal, but spiritual Israel; such as are Israelites indeed, or which the church will be full in the latter day, both Jews and Gentiles; and in the midst of these will Jehovah dwell, and grant his gracious presence, and never more depart from them: this shows that this house or building can not be understood of the second temple; since the Lord did not dwell in that for ever, but has left that house desolate hundreds of years ago: some Jewish writers (p) have owned that it belongs to the times of the Messiah: and my name shall the house of Israel no more defile, or "profane"; or cause to be blasphemed by immoralities, or false doctrines, or superstition and will worship; denoting the holiness of life, purity of doctrine and worship, in the churches of Christ in the latter day; see Isa 4:3, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom: that is, idolatry, which is spiritual fornication; such as the kings of Israel, and their subjects, were often guilty of, before their captivity in Babylon, though not after; nor will they ever return to it in the latter day, when converted; for they will never espouse the idolatries of Rome; and those kings and people that bear the name of Christians, and yet commit fornication with the whore of Babylon, shall do so no more after these times, Rev 17:2, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places; or, and "their high places" (q); that is, by both; by the carcasses of their kings being buried in or near the house of God; so the Targum adds, at their death (r); or by human carcasses being sacrificed to Molech or Milcom, which signifies their king: or else the idols themselves are so called, because lifeless and abominable; see Jer 16:18, and the worship of which the kings of Israel encouraged by precept and practice, order and example, and therefore called theirs; and also by their high places, which they made for idolatrous worship, and which were made where the carcasses of their kings were laid, as Ben Melech observes; and all which were done, especially in the reigns of Manasseh and Ammon: but now nothing of this kind shall be hereafter, or any thing now similar to it, in the antichristian state. (p) Vid. R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. p. 51. (q) "et excelsis suis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (r) So Abendana takes this word to signify "in their death"; their carcasses being buried in their gardens, as Manasseh, 2 Kings xxi. 18.
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
God does here, in effect, renew his covenant with his people Israel, upon his retaking possession of the house, and Ezekiel negotiates the matter, as Moses formerly. This would be of great use to the captives at their return both for direction and encouragement; but it looks further, to those that are blessed with the privileges of the gospel-temple, that they may understand how they are before him on their good behaviour. I. God, by the prophet, puts them in mind of their former provocations, for which they had long lain under the tokens of his displeasure. This conviction is spoken to them to make way for the comforts designed them. Though God gives and upbraids not, it becomes us, when he forgives, to upbraid ourselves with our unworthy conduct towards him. Let them now remember therefore, 1. That they had formerly defiled God's holy name, had profaned and abused all those sacred things by which he had made himself known among them, Eze 43:7. They and their kings had brought contempt on the religion they professed, and their relation to God, by their spiritual whoredom, their idolatry, and by worshipping images, which they called their kings (for so Moloch signifies) or lords (for so Baal signifies), but which were really the carcases of kings, not only lifeless and useless, but loathsome and abominable as dead carcases, in their high places, set up in honour of them. They had defiled God's name by their abominations. And what were they? It was in setting their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, that is, adding their own inventions to God's institutions, and urging all to a compliance with them, as if they had been of equal authority and efficacy, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Isa 29:13); or, rather, setting up altars to their idols even in the courts of the temple, than which a more impudent affront could not be put upon the divine Majesty. Thus they set up a separation wall between him and them, which stopped the current of his favours to them and spoiled the acceptableness of their services to him. See what an indignity sinners do to God, setting up their walls in opposition to his, and thrusting him out from what is his right; and see what injury they do to themselves, for the nearer any come to God with their sins the further they set him at a distance from them. Some give this sense of it: Though their houses joined close to God's house, their posts and thresholds to hi, so that they were in a manner his next neighbours, there was but a wall between me and them (so it is in the margin), so that it might have been expected they would acquaint themselves with him and be in care to please him, yet they were not so much as neighbourly. Note, It often proves too true, The nearer the church the further from God. They were, by profession, in covenant with God, and yet they had defiled the place of his throne and of the soles of his feet, his temple, where he did both reside and reign. Jerusalem is called the city of the great king (Psa 48:2) and his footstool, Psa 99:5; Psa 132:7. Note, When God's ordinances are profaned his holy name is polluted. 2. That for this God had had a controversy with them in their late troubles. They could not condemn him, for he had but brought upon them the desert of their sins: Wherefore I have consumed them in my anger. Note, Those that pollute God's holy name fall under his just displeasure. II. He calls upon them to repent and reform, and, in order to that, to be ashamed of their iniquities (Eze 43:9): "Now let them put away their whoredom; now that they have smarted so severely for it, and now that God is returning in mercy to them and setting up his sanctuary again in the midst of them, now let them cast away their idols and have no more to do with them, that they may not again forfeit the privileges which they have been taught to know the worth of by the want of them. Let them put away their idols, those loathsome carcases of their kings, far from me, from being a provocation to me." This was seasonable counsel now that the prophet had the model or pattern of the temple to set before them; for, 1. If they see that pattern, they will surely be ashamed of their sins (Eze 43:10): when they see what mercy God has in store for them, notwithstanding their utter unworthiness of it, they will be ashamed to think of their disingenuous conduct towards him. Note, The goodness of God to us should lead us to repentance, especially to a penitential shame. Let them measure the pattern themselves, and see how much it exceeds the former pattern, and guess by that what great things God has in store for them; and surely it will put them out of countenance to think what the desert of their sins was. And then, 2. If they be ashamed of their sins, they shall surely see more of the pattern, Eze 43:11. If they be ashamed of all that they have done, upon a general view of the goodness of God, let them have a more distinct particular account of the temple. Note, Those that improve what they see and know of the goodness of God shall see and know more of it. And then, and not till then, we are qualified for God's favours, when we are truly humbled for our own follies. "Show them the form of the house; let them see what a stately structure it will be; and withal show them the ordinances and laws of it." Note, With the foresights of our comforts it is fit that we should get the knowledge of our duty; with the privileges of God's house we must acquaint ourselves with the rules of it. Show them these ordinances, that they may keep them and do them. Note, Therefore we are made to know our duty, that we may do it, and be blessed in our deed. III. He promises that they shall be such as they should be, and then he will be to them such as they would have him to be, Eze 43:7. 1. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name. This is pure gospel. The precept of the law says, You must not defile my name: the grace of the gospel says, You shall not. Thus what is required in the covenant is promised in the covenant, Jer 32:40. 2. Then I will dwell in the midst of them for ever; and the same again Eze 43:9. God secures to us his good-will be confirming in us his good work. If we do not defile his name, we may be sure that he will not depart from us. IV. The general law of God's house is laid down (Eze 43:12), That, whereas formerly only the chancel, or sanctuary, was most holy, now the whole mountain of the house shall be so; the whole limit thereof, including all the courts and all the chambers, shall be as the most holy place, signifying that in gospel-times, 1. The whole church shall have the privilege of the holy of holies, that of a near access to God. All believers have now, under the gospel, boldness to enter into the holiest (Heb 10:19), with this advantage, that whereas the high priest entered in the virtue of the blood of bulls and goats, we enter in the virtue of the blood of Jesus, and, wherever we are, we have through him access to the Father. 2. The whole church shall be under a mighty obligation to press towards the perfection of holiness, as he who has called us is holy. All must now be most holy. Holiness becomes God's house for ever, and in gospel-times more than ever. Behold this is the law of the house; let none expect the protection of it that will not submit to this law.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
43:7b-9 If God were to remain with his people, standards would have to be raised and regulations enforced that would guard against the repetition of past abuses. Israel and their kings would not defile God’s holy name by their spiritual adultery with other gods or with relics of their kings who had died—memorial markers to dead kings—within the grounds of the Temple of the living God. There was no place for honoring human kings in the palace of the divine King. In the future, the proper hierarchy would be reestablished by removing the residence of the earthly ruler to a greater distance from the spiritual center of the land (see 45:7). Putting the earthly ruler in his proper place was a necessary precondition for God’s dwelling perpetually in his rightful place.