40:1–48:35 Section
Ezekiel’s last vision took place after he had been in Babylon for almost 25 years. This vision included everything that Ezekiel recorded through to the end of chapter 48.
Jerusalem had already been destroyed and the temple had been burnt down. The vision was about the city and the temple being made new again. Then the world around them would be made new. In this way the vision was like the story of the dry bones in chapter 37. In that story God’s people were dead. He gave them new life by putting his Spirit in them. In this vision God gave new life to Jerusalem and the temple. Then new life spread to the world from there. New life came because God’s glory returned to the temple. This meant that God ruled from there as the only God and King. God called the temple his throne and promised to live there for ever.
Ezekiel carefully recorded how long, wide and high many parts of the temple were. He described the nation’s borders. He described how much land went to each of the 12 tribes of Israel. He carefully recorded rules for sacrifices and feasts and taking care of the temple. He described the rules for priests and princes.
These careful records didn’t describe the temple rebuilt by Joshua and Zerubbabel. They didn’t describe the temple built by Herod the Great. They didn’t describe the land and people after the exile. These careful records were signs. They were signs of what God expected from his people. God expected his people to treat his name as holy. This meant that they would worship only him and obey him completely. This would allow them to fully be his people. It would allow him to fully be their God. This is what God had always wanted and why he made covenants with them.
Ezekiel’s careful records were also signs of what God planned to do on earth. He planned to do what he had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He would use their family line to bless all nations on earth.
In the vision, all 12 tribes of Israel received land. So did outsiders who had joined them. All together they were a sign of all people who were committed to God. In the vision a river flowed from the temple down to the Dead Sea. Ezekiel knew that this area was a desert and no creatures lived in the Dead Sea. But the river turned it into an area like a garden. There were many fish and creatures and many fruit trees. The trees provided fruit for food and leaves for healing people’s bodies. They brought life and were like the tree of life. The river flowed out from Jerusalem. The water of this river brought life. It was living water.
The flowing river was like something that Isaiah described. Isaiah said that God’s message would go out from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3). This message was knowledge about who God is and how he wants people to live. It went out from Jerusalem as God’s people spread the message. They spread it by living as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Isaiah’s prophecies talked about people from all nations learning this message. The river in Ezekiel’s vision was a sign of this message. It was a sign of the blessing and life that come from knowing God. The blessing and life were for all nations. Blessing and life flowed out from Jerusalem because God was present there.
The Lord is there was the name for the new city of Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s vision. Hundreds of years later John’s visions recorded in Revelation 21–22 were like Ezekiel’s vision. They showed when Ezekiel’s vision would come true. This would be when God created a new heaven and new earth in the new creation.