(REFLECTIONS ON EZEKIEL 40:1-49)

1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on me and he took me there. 2 In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. 4 The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”

Jerusalem, the temple, the people of God all are no more, or at the very least will not be as they were before. Yes, this entire process from exile to rebuilding the temple, to hope for New Jerusalem and an eternal temple, is not an easy process, but it is a process that cannot be avoided. The old order of things need to be broken down, in order to be built back up, not based on the Law, the old ways, but through Jesus Christ.

No matter how difficult this process is for the people of God to understand, they can now hold on to hope because of the visions of God. This is the same hope that we as the church of today must hold on to, and the hope that the church of the future must continue to hold steadfast to as well. The visions of God help us have a grasp of the big picture and that is why we must hold firm to our faith, trust in God’s leading, and practice endurance as we wait for the day of the Lord.

In today’s Scripture, Ezekiel was taken to a very high mountain and shown the visions of God. Ezekiel began to be led into the promises of God, the hope of the future, the perfect temple, and was told to share this big picture to Israel. The visions of God begins in Ezekiel 40 and will last until Ezekiel 48, and as the church we also inherit these visions as our hope for the Lord’s new heaven and new earth.

Many times we get caught up in our visions, or the visions of people around us. We often talk about a vision for a company, a church, a family, an individual. However, these visions are short-sighted and only temporary no matter how far reaching we think that they are.

May the visions of God, not of man, be our guide, our north star, giving us hope that whatever we are experiencing now is not meaningless, but that it is all for the purposes of God’s kingdom. As we live in this journey of life, may the visions of God help us not to live only for today, but for eternity, because that is our true hope in Jesus Christ.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ezekiel 40