The Sunday School Lesson God's Glory Returns by Terri Rummel
Apr 08, 2018
God's Glory Returns (25:44)
Referenced Scriptures: Ezekiel 43; Ezekiel 47
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What does the word "heaven" mean to you? Many who do not follow Christ perceive heaven to be a place where all who do good things will go. For them, heaven might be an extension of what they enjoy in this world, with no thought given to the God of heaven, much less His expectations of those who would like to go there.
Today's lesson finishes the Ezekiel unit on a very hopeful note. There is coming a day when we will be in the presence of God, ruling and reigning with Christ, then enjoying His blessings for all eternity. As we look at Ezekiel 43 and 47, think about what it means to be in God's presence - that is, what it means to be in heaven.
The scriptures below are from the WEB Bible.
Ezekiel 43
1) Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east.
2) Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory.
3) 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 on my face.
4) The glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
5) The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house.
6) I heard one speaking to me out of the house; and a man stood by me.
7) He said to me, Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings [in] their high places;
8) in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door-post beside my door-post, and there was [but] the wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: why I have consumed them in my anger.
9) Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.
10) You, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.
11) If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and the fashion of it, and the exits of it, and the entrances of it, and all the forms of it, and all the ordinances of it, and all the forms of it, and all the laws of it; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all the ordinances of it, and do them.
12) This is the law of the house: on the top of the mountain the whole limit of it round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
13) These are the measures of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth): the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border of it by the edge of it round about a span; and this shall be the base of the altar.
14) From the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the breadth a cubit.
15) The upper altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar hearth and upward there shall be four horns.
16) The altar hearth shall be twelve [cubits] long by twelve broad, square in the four sides of it.
17) The ledge shall be fourteen [cubits] long by fourteen broad in the four sides of it; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom of it shall be a cubit round about; and the steps of it shall look toward the east.
18) He said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.
19) You shall give to the priests the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me, says the Lord Yahweh, a young bull for a sin-offering.
20) You shall take of the blood of it, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border round about: thus shall you cleanse it and make atonement for it.
21) You shall also take the bull of the sin-offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place of the house, outside of the sanctuary.
22) On the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin-offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bull.
23) When you have made an end of cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.
24) You shall bring them near before Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to Yahweh.
25) Seven days shall you prepare every day a goat for a sin-offering: they shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.
26) Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they consecrate it.
27) When they have accomplished the days, it shall be that on the eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace-offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord Yahweh.
Ezekiel 47
1) He brought me back to the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.
2) Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of [the gate] that looks toward the east; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
3) When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles.
4) Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through [the waters], waters that were to the loins.
5) Afterward he measured one thousand; [and it was] a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.
6) He said to me, Son of man, have you seen [this]? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.
7) Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
8) Then said he to me, These waters issue forth toward the eastern region, and shall go down into the Arabah; and they shall go toward the sea; into the sea [shall the waters go] which were made to issue forth; and the waters shall be healed.
9) It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters are come there, and [the waters of the sea] shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.
10) It shall happen, that fishermen shall stand by it: from En-gedi even to En-eglaim shall be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.
11) But the miry places of it, and the marshes of it, shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt.
12) By the river on the bank of it, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not where, neither shall the fruit of it fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters of it issue out of the sanctuary; and the fruit of it shall be for food, and the leaf of it for healing.
13) Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This shall be the border, whereby you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph [shall have two] portions.
14) You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall to you for inheritance.
15) This shall be the border of the land: On the north side, from the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad;
16) Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer-hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran.
17) The border from the sea, shall be Hazar-enon at the border of Damascus; and on the north northward is the border of Hamath. This is the north side.
18) The east side, between Hauran and Damascus and Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the [north] border to the east sea shall you measure. This is the east side.
19) The south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea. This is the south side southward.
20) The west side shall be the great sea, from the [south] border as far as over against the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side.
21) So shall you divide this land to you according to the tribes of Israel.
22) It shall happen, that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you and to the strangers who sojourn among you, who shall father children among you; and they shall be to you as the home-born among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
23) It shall happen, that in what tribe the stranger sojourns, there shall you give him his inheritance, says the Lord Yahweh.
The WEB Bible is provided by Public Domain.