The Prophecy
So now let us bring these apparently unconnected threads together. We have the three items;
The temple that is representative of the ecclesia, as we have just shown;
The imagination of men's thoughts being only evil continually; and,
The law of leprosy in the wall of a house.
The Spirit brings the connections together in the prophecy of Ezekiel for us, so that we can see the intended meaning, which, as we saw earlier is "to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean".
The House of God was intended to be clean, that is undefiled. In order to achieve this situation and to maintain it, the way of worship was provided by God to Moses. If the method provided was not followed according to the commandments then the worship was unacceptable. The only acceptable form of worship was on God's terms, but Israel as a nation were unable to maintain the correct form of worship, often worshipping idols at the same time as they worshipped the true God.
"Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth."
In Ezekiel 8:9-12 we read of their idolatry in a vision given to the prophet "And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth." There are two specific points to note in these verses: firstly that the idols were portrayed upon the wall, just as the leprosy was evident in the walls of the house condemned by the priest; and, secondly, that it was done in the chambers of the imagery i.e. it was caused by their own imaginations that exuded from the thoughts of their hearts.
The consequences of this defilement, as well as others described in the early chapters of the prophecy, is that the glory of Yahweh is removed from the temple. "Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. "And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city."Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD's glory" (Ezekiel 10:3-4).
"Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above" (Ezekiel 10:18-19). Then in chapter 11 verse 23 the glory departs via the Mount of Olives "And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city."
So we see the progression of the glory of Yahweh as it leaves the temple in the visions given by the Spirit to Ezekiel. It moves from within the house to the threshold, then to the mountain on the east of Jerusalem via the east gate. This is quite probably the same route that Jesus and the disciples followed as they left Jerusalem together for the final time before his ascension to His Father's side. We know that Jesus the Messiah was the glory of God from John's Gospel "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14) and also in Hebrews 1:3 "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person", so Jesus as the glory of Yahweh departs in the same way (Acts 1:9-12Acts 1:9-12 9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.). But the glory shall return, as Zechariah prophecies "and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives" (Zechariah 14:4Zechariah 14:4 4 ¶And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.), and also as Ezekiel prophesied "Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh 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 shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east" (Ezekiel 43:1-4), and "Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face" (Ezekiel 44:4).
The saints must therefore be separate from anything that would defile them and obedient to the principles and commandments given in the Scriptures. If there is anything that defiles then the ecclesia is unclean and unholy.
The glory of God is therefore fully restored, and more, to the house of Yahweh as it was at Solomon's dedication of the original house. Yet in this prophecy we see the purpose of Yahweh revealed, which is to fill the earth with His glory by the establishment of the millennial reign of His son over all the earth "for the law shall go forth of Zion" (Micah 4:2Micah 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.). At the same time "the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains" (Micah 4:1Micah 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.) indicating that the saints will be reigning over the nations. The house of Yahweh at this time will of course be holy, or separated unto Yahweh, for His special purpose of bringing the peoples of the world to a knowledge of Him and his plan of redemption in order to be a reflection of His character and a glory unto His holy name. The ecclesia of the saints in the time of their probation must also be holy as given in the following quotations from Peter; "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5), and "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
The saints must therefore be separate from anything that would defile them and obedient to the principles and commandments given in the Scriptures. If there is anything that defiles then the ecclesia is unclean and unholy.
Remember, how at the beginning we discussed the Law of Moses as given to deal with the leprosy in a house, and the actions that had to be taken by the priest to remove the leprosy; and also that leprosy is a symbol of sin? The Jewish nation was defiled as can be seen in the actions of the Priest, the head of the household of God, and were in accordance with the Law of Moses. In John 2:13-17John 2:13-17 13 ¶And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. is the record of the first inspection of the 'house' by the Priest at the beginning of his ministry. The second occasion at the end of his ministry is recorded in Luke 19:45-46Luke 19:45-46 45 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; 46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.. So the house of Israel was inspected twice, and the house was cleansed by the removal of the defilement, yet even after the second cleansing the house remained defiled. The only course of action under the Law of Moses was that the unclean stones were all removed to an "unclean place": the type is easy to see; the defiled Israel was removed from the House of Yahweh in AD70 by the Roman armies to an unclean place amongst the nations. Thus the remainder of the ecclesia – the undefiled Jews and Gentiles that had accepted the Messiah – were holy, separate from the defilements of the world.
And because the nation was defiled the glory of Yahweh departed from the temple, going out from Jerusalem to the mountain on the east, before rising up to heaven as prophesied by Ezekiel as we saw in an earlier section. We are told in the Scriptures that the glory of God is Christ "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14), and similarly "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3). When we consider the means by which the prophecy of Ezekiel described the removal of the glory of God from the temple and Jerusalem we see the same means described in the gospels when the Messiah ascended up to heaven following the forty days spent with his disciples after his crucifixion and resurrection.