Ezekiel

LIFE LESSONS
THE PROPHETS: EZEKIEL
DR. JIM DIXON
EZEKIEL 24:15-24
FEBRUARY 8, 2004

The word Shekinah is one of the most important words in Hebrew and Christian theology. The word Shekinah is a Hebrew word but it is not found in the Bible although the biblical and Hebrew word for tabernacle does share the same root. The word Shekinah is found in the Jewish Targums and in the Talmudic literature. It is of course found in contemporary Christian writings and contemporary Jewish writings. The word Shekinah means, “dwelling” or “presence.” It refers to the divine dwelling or the divine presence. It refers to the visible presence of God.

When we think of the Shekinah, when we think of the visible presence of God, we think of the Holy of Holies, of the tabernacle and the temple where the Shekinah resided, where the presence of God dwelt above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, above the Golden Lid and the Winged Cherubim. There resided the Shekinah, the presence of God. By some people’s thinking, the Shekinah dwelt within the Ark of the Covenant itself.

The Hollywood movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” gives a glimpse Hollywood’s picture of the Shekinah is, their effort to portray the holy beauty, the holy awe, the holy terror of the presence of God. As the Ark of the Covenant was opened and they took the sand out of the Ark which was the remains of the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant upon which the Decalogue had once been engraved, suddenly the Shekinah began to appear in flashes of light and as the Angel of the Lord. If we had let the clip go, the Angel of the Lord would have morphed into the Angel of Death and the judgement of God would have descended upon the murderous Nazis. Of course, it portrayed the heavens as opening and the Shekinah ascending. Hollywood’s view of the Shekinah, the visible presence of God. Of course, Harrison Ford and Karen Allen were spared because they knew not to look on the divine presence.

We come to Ezekiel today. The prophet Ezekiel was absolutely focused on the Shekinah. The prophet Ezekiel was focused on the presence of the Lord. The book of Ezekiel is all about the presence of the Lord. From the prophet Ezekiel, we have two life lessons this morning. The first life lesson is this. The presence of God is the greatest of all treasures. Perhaps you thought the greatest treasure was your wife or your husband or your children or your grandchildren. Perhaps you thought the greatest treasure was your bank account or your health or your good reputation. But, you see, the Bible is clear. The greatest treasure of all is the presence of God. We might accurately conclude that the Bible itself is all about the presence of God.

When you look at the Jewish Temple, there was a temple treasury and that was a national treasury. There were twelve treasury boxes called the Korbinus into which the people put their tithes and offerings. Then there was the national treasury itself in the temple and it was called Gaza, a Persian word meaning “treasure.” Of course, the Hebrew word, “otsar” and the Greek word “thesauros” from which we get the word treasure—these words were used to describe the temple treasury. But the Jews had this saying, that the greatest treasure was in the Holy of Holies. The greatest treasure was in the Holy of Holies because that’s where the Shekinah was, hovering over the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. That’s where the presence of God was. The treasure.

God wants to ask whether we treasure the presence of God this morning. Now, the Bible is really all about the presence of God. You begin with Genesis and the Garden of Eden as described in Genesis, chapter 2 and 3, and it’s all about the presence of God. Adam and Eve in their purity and their innocence enjoyed the presence of God and it was treasure to them. But they sinned and their fellowship with God was broken and they were banned from Eden. An anointed cherub and a flaming sword protected the way so they could not return to Eden. They guarded the entrance. They could not return to Eden. They could not return to the presence of God. Their fellowship with God had been broken by sin and they were separated from the divine presence.

In the course of time, the Bible tells us God chose a people through which He was to bless the nations and the people that God chose were the people of the Jews. God chose to make himself present to them. So, we come to Exodus, chapter 3. God makes himself present to Moses in a burning bush on Mt. Horeb, on Mt. Sinai, in a kind of theophany. The Shekinah, the visible presence of God appeared. Moses knew this was treasure. God chose to manifest His presence to the people of Israel whom He had chosen and so as they left bondage in Egypt and began to journey across the wilderness, God manifested himself through a pillar of fire in a glory cloud that led His people through the wilderness. It was the visible manifestation of the presence of God. It was what the Hebrews called “the Kabod,” the “glory,” the “Shekinah.” It was treasure.

In Exodus, chapters 19 and 24, we see God appearing again to Moses in a kind of Shekinah on Mt. Horeb in relationship to the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus, chapter 40, we see that God decides to tabernacle with His people. He, in some sense, places His presence in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, Exodus 40.

In 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, God chooses to manifest His presence in the Holy of Holies of the temple. 2 Chronicles, chapter 7. The presence of God in the tabernacle and in the temple. It was, in the words of Ezekiel, “the pride of their power, the delight of their eyes, the desire of their souls” or it should have been. But as we saw with Jeremiah and now with Ezekiel, the people were covenant breakers and the people lost the presence of God. Jerusalem fell. The temple was destroyed. The Ark of the Covenant disappeared and the Shekinah departed.

Some Jewish people believe that the Shekinah reappeared with the building of the second temple and entered the Holy of Holies, that it was still there with the temple of Herod. But when that temple was destroyed in 70 AD, some believe the presence of God descended into heaven. Some believe that it hovered at the Wailing Wall, the stones that remain to the Temple Mount. To this day there are Jews who place their prayers in the Wailing Wall on the Temple Mount because they believe the Shekinah, the presence of God, still is at least residual there. Other Jews believe that the presence of God disbursed amongst the tabernacles of the Jews, the synagogues. But of course, most of the Jews knew they were Shekinah-challenged. They didn’t have the presence of God anymore. Most of the Jews believed that the presence of God had departed with the destruction of the first temple in 587 BC. But in the course of time, God decided to present Himself to the whole world and so God sent His Son into the world. The ultimate Shekinah.

Of course, in John, chapter 1, the Son of God is called, “The Word.” In the Greek, that’s the word “logos.” In the Hebrew, “dabar.” In the Aramaic language the term for “word” is “memra” and the interesting thing is that for the Aramaic-speaking people, and Jesus spoke Aramaic, mimrah was a title for the Shekinah. And so, Jesus is The Word. He IS the Shekinah, the visible manifestation of God in its fullness.

You come to John 1:14 and the Bible says, “And the Word, the Shekinah, became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Remember the word tabernacle shares the same root in the Hebrew with Shekinah. “We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” Again, the word is “doxa,” the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “kabod” which was another word for Shekinah. In every way possible, God is letting us know Jesus Christ is the fullness of God. He is the Shekinah, the fullness of His manifestation, the visible image of the invisible God. “In Him all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.”

In Matthew 17, we see the kabod, the glory of Christ as He is transfigured on the Holy Mount and radiates light in the presence of Peter, James and John, Moses and Elijah. Of course, Jesus left this world and ascended into heaven with the promise of His return. His second coming in the Bible is called the “Parousia,” which means, “the presence.” He will present Himself again. The divine presence will come again.

In the meantime, He has not abandoned us. Jesus told His people… “All who believed in Him, all who had embraced Him as Savior and Lord,” Jesus told them that He would “send His Holy Spirit,” and so we have Pentecost. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the company of believers, the women and the men who believe in Jesus Christ. In a sense, the presence of God came within the individual believer.

When you first accepted Christ… In that moment when you accepted Christ, the presence of God came within you as you asked Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, Jesus sent His presence within you. It’s all about the presence of God. Of course, we’re promised not only Christ’s presence within us as Christians but we’re promised that we’ll have special manifestations of His external presence as well. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I will be.” As we’re assembled here in this place, Jesus is with us. His presence is here even now. Within us as believers and without, He is here.

Of course, as Christians we know that when we partake of communion, there’s a special presence in and through the bread and the cup. He has not abandoned us, but it’s all about the presence of God. We look forward to the day when we will see Him face-to-face. We see that as we come to the end of the Bible in Revelation 21 and 22 and we see the picture of the New Jerusalem and again the promise of the full presence of God. God will be with His people. It’s all about the presence of God from beginning to end. We come to Ezekiel and Ezekiel knew this. He knew it was all about the presence of God. He knew the presence of God, the Shekinah, was manifested in the Holy of Holies of the temple. But he said in Ezekiel 9 that the presence of God was about to depart. In Ezekiel 24, he became a “sign for the people” which we’ll look at in a few minutes.

In Ezekiel 40-48, Ezekiel was taken into exile in the year 598 along with many of the Jews. The city of Jerusalem was still intact, conquered by the Babylonians but not destroyed, and the temple was still in one peace. It was still there, still in some sense, “the pride of their power, the delight of their eyes, the desire of their souls,” but many of the Jews had been taken into exile and this was true of Ezekiel. From exile, he was lifted up from Babylon by the great river and taken to a hill above the city of Jerusalem and he saw a vision of a millennial Jerusalem and that vision is described in Ezekiel 40-48. The millennial Jerusalem is called “Jehovah Shammah,” “the Lord is present.” This is the promised city.

The book of Ezekiel concludes with these two words: “Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is present.” This was the great hope of the Jews that they would have the presence of God once again. This is the promise of Ezekiel and of course of the scriptures themselves.

You come to the New Testament in the book of Acts in the 17th chapter and we see the Apostle Paul speaking to the Greek philosophers in the city of Athens. He’s speaking to the Areopagus, whether it was assembled on Mars Hill next to the Acropolis or whether it was in the Stoa Brasilia, we do not know. But we do know he was speaking to the Jewish philosophers, and amongst those people were basically two philosophical groups. There were the epicureans and there were the stoics.

The epicureans believed that God was distant, that He had created the world but stepped back, like a watch, and it was just left alone to work or not work. He was distant. The stoics were pantheists and they believed that God was everywhere and in everything and in everyone. And so, Paul spoke to these philosophers and he basically told them that they were both wrong. The epicureans were wrong; “God is not distant,” Paul said. “He is our Creator. He’s not far from any of us. In Him we live and move and have our being.” But he told the stoics that they were wrong too. The Creator is not one with His creation. God stands separate from the Creation. He does not exist within idols or even buildings made of stone. He stands separate from the creation but Paul concludes by telling them all about Jesus Christ through whom they can receive the divine presence.

This is the message of the gospel, that you can actually come into the presence of God and receive His eternal presence as you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. When you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, He actually comes into you, brings His presence within, and He promises to never let you go. You’ll never be without Him. Not now. Not in this life. Not in this world and not in the world to come. When you ask Jesus Christ into your heart, you have the presence of God. It’s all about the presence of God and that presence is treasure.

In 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, the Apostle Paul speaks of our lives as Christians. He said, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” He was speaking of the presence of Jesus Christ within. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” What an amazing treasure—the very presence of God through the gospel. But there’s a second life lesson from Ezekiel. The second life lesson is this. We must treasure His presence. His presence is a treasure but there’s a warning. We must treasure His presence.

I know most of you have heard of Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote “The Divine Comedy.” He wrote it in the year 1308. He actually took many years to write it. He began in 1308 but he did not complete it until shortly before his death in 1321. Dante simply called it “The Comedia,” which means, “comedy,” and he didn’t say that because he thought it was funny. In the days of Dante, the word comedy did not refer to humor. It just simply referred to a happy ending and “The Divine Comedy” does have a happy ending.

In this great piece of literature, Dante divides the poem into three parts. The first part is called “Inferno,” and it describes hell. It has 34 cantos or 34 sections. The second part is called “Purgatorio,” and it describes purgatory. The third part is called “Paradiso,” and it describes heaven. The second and third parts have 33 cantos. It’s a very long, long poem and it’s incredible.

The main character in “The Divine Comedy” is Dante himself. In the beginning of the poem, he is in the forest. It is dark and he is lost. He is a sinner and he represents all of mankind. The whole focus on the poem is on life after death. The Roman poet Virgil comes along and guides him in an examination of the afterlife. Virgil takes Dante through the inferno, takes him through hell with the nine circles of hell. He sees the varying sufferings of those who denied Christ. Then he’s taken through purgatorio. He sees purgatory where the saints are being sanctified. Then he’s taken to the gates of heaven and the Roman poet Virgil hands him off to Beatrice. She takes him through the ten spheres of heaven. Finally, she takes him to the throne of God. That’s really the focus of “The Divine Comedy,” the throne of God and the divine presence. There, in the presence of God, Dante is enraptured. He’s just enraptured by the presence of God. Suddenly life has meaning and suddenly all of his questions are meaningless and he experiences perfect fulfillment in the presence of God.

When people think of Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” they think of heaven and hell and his portrayal of heaven and hell, but it’s really all about the presence of God and how the presence of God is to be treasured. Nothing is more important. Even when you think of heaven and hell, it’s really about the presence of God because heaven is eternity in His presence and hell is eternal separation from God’s presence. Eternal separation from the presence of God. People choose hell in a sense. They do not treasure the presence of God. Heaven is a place where God is treasured.

I think of our home where Barb and I live and where our kids come to visit. What makes our home, home? What makes it home? I can tell you that for me what makes our home, home, is Barb. I mean, it’s not her cooking. I mean it’s wonderful… Her cooking is wonderful… It’s not her decorations although that’s wonderful too but it’s Barb herself. That’s what makes home, home. In a sense, I’m home when I’m with Barb. What makes heaven, heaven? It’s the presence of God. If you’re looking forward to streets of gold and gates of pearl or seeing loved ones passed away, you’re missing the point. I mean that’s all part of the deal, but it’s really about the presence of God and whether or not you love and desire the presence of God. Hell is eternal separation from the Divine Presence. I think, to an extent in this life, we experience heaven and hell to the extent that we experience or do not experience the presence of God.

In Ezekiel, chapter 24, we have Ezekiel in exile. He’s been taken into exile along with some of the other Jews. As I said, that occurred in 598. The Babylonians were in control of Jerusalem. There in exile, many of the Jewish people live in a community and Ezekiel is amongst them. They’ve left many of their children back in Jerusalem and of course the temple still stands. It should be a treasure to them, the pride of their power, the delight of their eyes, the desire of their souls, but it really was not. So, God comes to Ezekiel and God says a strange thing. God says, “I’m going to take away your wife. I’m going to take her from you at a stroke. I’m going to do it suddenly and I don’t want you to weep and I don’t want you to mourn. Oh, I know you will sigh and you will groan inwardly and I understand that. I understand that but I don’t want you to publicly mourn. I want you to become a sign for the people.”

You might think, “Well, God’s awfully harsh to take away the wife of His faithful prophet. But, you see, God only knows the wonderful things that He’s prepared for Ezekiel and his wife for all eternity. And so, Ezekiel, the faithful prophet, became a sign. His wife died and he did not mourn publicly and the people came to him. They said, “Will you not tell us what this means? Why are you behaving like this? Why are you not publicly mourning?” Ezekiel said, “The Word of the Lord came to me. Say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord God, I will profane my sanctuary. I’m going to destroy the temple. I’m going to remove the Shekinah, the Divine Presence, which should have been the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, the desire of your souls, your treasure, your highest treasure. It should have been like a wife to you. I’m going to take it away. I don’t want you to mourn because your mourning would be hypocrisy. You cannot mourn that which you did not treasure.’” And so, we have this warning through the prophet Ezekiel to treasure the presence of God.

Do you? And do I? Do we treasure the presence of God? We who are Christians? We who have been blessed so much… Do we treasure His presence and do we bask in it and do we take time every day for intimacy with God? Is His presence a treasure to us?

In Sri Lanka in the town of Condi, there is a temple. That temple is called Dalada Maligawa. Dalada Maligawa means, “Glorious Temple of the Tooth.” Within that temple, this incredible temple, there is a tooth. The tooth is set in a golden lotus, surrounded by rubies and a sea of flowers. For four hundred million Buddhists, it is perhaps the most sacred object on the earth because they believe it to be the tooth of Buddha taken from his funeral pyre in 543 B.C. Protected for 800 years, it was then taken to Sri Lanka and housed in this temple. To this day, every year hundreds of thousands of Buddhists travel to see the Dalada Maligawa.

It’s kind of a sad but beautiful story. It’ sad because the tooth is just a tooth. But beautiful because there are actually some people in this world who would travel a thousand miles, some of them half-way around the earth just for the possibility of being in the presence of God. You see, they believe that the presence of God attends the tooth, that somehow the presence of God, the divine presence, surrounds that tooth. They will travel halfway around the world just to have a chance, the possibility of being in God’s presence. There’s something beautiful about that though sad. Here we are as Christians, most of us, and we have the indwelling presence of Christ and yet we won’t walk an inch to open our Bible every day or to be faithful in prayer. We don’t treasure the divine presence. God warns us—not that we would cease to be His temple, but that there are consequences when we do not treasure His presence. In His presence is fullness of joy. In a sense we bring consequences upon ourselves when we do not treasure His presence.

I want to conclude with a story, a true story, about a couple named Ray and Kathy Harshman. Ray died just two years ago in Dallas, Texas. Ray and Kathy had been married for almost 60 years. Kathy grew up in Alabama. Ray grew up in Michigan but they met in Washington, D.C. They both went to work in 1941 for the United States government. Both of them went to the 14th Street Church

Singles Department in Washington, D.C. and that’s where they met in 1941. They began to date and they fell in love. In 1942, Ray and Kathy were married. The pastor who did their wedding ceremony gave a homily, gave a message, from Ecclesiastes, chapter 4. The passage of scripture reads, “Two is better than one but a threefold cord is not easily broken.”

The pastor told Ray and Kathy that their marriage was not a joining of two but that their marriage was a joining of three, and that third person is Jesus Christ. You are joined to each other and Christ in marriage and you need to take time to be in His presence every day. And so, Ray and Kathy made a decision on their wedding night. They decided that every day they would read a chapter of the Bible together. They would start in Genesis and go to Revelation and then they would come back to Genesis and do it all over again every day of their life. They would read a chapter together and they would pray together. If they were separated, they would still, wherever they were, read that chapter that they were on and make sure they were praying. They would try to do it at the same time every night.

In the year 1943, Ray was taken to Europe. He was in the military and he was sent to the battlefront in Europe as America and the allied powers fought Germany and the axis powers. Ray and Kathy agreed that they would still read their chapter a day and they agreed that they would try to do it at the same time of day even though that would mean one would be reading in the morning and the other at night; that they would be reading the same chapter at the same time and be in prayer at the same time. They felt close to Christ and to each other as they did this.

In December of 1944 at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, in the aftermath of that battle, the horrible word came that Ray was MIA—Ray was missing in action. Of course, Kathy was in shock. She was told that there was a good chance that he had died, but as she read her chapter of scripture that next day and as she cried tears in her prayer, she sensed that the threefold cord was not broken, that Ray was still alive. She sensed it.

The days passed and in May of 1945 the war ended in Europe, but Ray had still not come home. She was told there was a chance he was alive because there were many MIAs in Europe in the aftermath of the war. The time passed, and a year later in May of 1946, she was told to move on with her life and Ray was declared dead. She was still reading her chapter a day and still spending time in prayer. She sensed and she knew in her heart that Ray was still alive. She knew it.

The incredible word came in October of 1946 that they had found Ray. In November of 1946 Ray was brought home. They met in New York Harbor and they hugged for the first time in three years. They kissed for the first time in three years. They discovered incredibly that Ray and Kathy were both in the same chapter of scripture. He had been allowed to keep his Bible the whole time. They were in the same chapter. That threefold cord was still strong. It had not been broken.

It’s an amazing story. The likelihood is that you’re not going to be asked to go to war although some of you have. Some of you have gone to war. The likelihood is you will not in this life be separated from your wife or your husband for such an extended period of time. But, you see, all of us who are Christians are called to that intimacy with Christ. We’re all called to that time in the Word and that time in prayer to cultivate the presence of God if you treasure it. The book of Ezekiel, the message of Ezekiel, and in a sense the whole Bible itself is all about the presence of God.

Hell is separation from His presence. Heaven is eternity in His presence. The Gospel is about receiving His presence. It’s all about His presence. Do you treasure His presence? If you do treasure His presence, it’s going to affect the way you live day-by-day, the time you choose to spend with Him. So, the presence of God is the greatest of treasures and the message of Ezekiel is treasure—treasure the Divine Presence. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.