Proclaim the House of the LORD

By Dan & Brenda Cathcart

The video version of this teaching is available at: https://youtu.be/e61vrRzISmk

The reading for this teaching is: Ezekiel 43:10-27

Ezekiel was a priest and prophet who lived in Babylon at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of God. Although Ezekiel wasn’t in Jerusalem to physically see this destruction, he saw it in a vision. Ezekiel also saw a vision of a new temple or house of God. In this portion of the scriptures, Ezekiel 43:10-27, God commands Ezekiel to describe this temple to the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 43:10 NKJV 10 "Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.

A description of the altar follows this interchange, not a description of the temple. Further, why would describing the temple to the house of Israel make them recognize and be ashamed of their iniquities? And what patterns were they to measure?

The word “describe” in this verse we just read is “nagad,” number 5046 in Strong’s Concordance, meaning to front. That is, to stand boldly out opposite and announce, proclaim, expose, explain, or praise. The word “temple” in this verse is “beit,” number 1004 in Strong’s Concordance, meaning house. Ezekiel was to proclaim, expose, explain and praise the house of God! Although a description of this house is included, Ezekiel was to do more than just describe the house! The house of Israel was to be shown the house of God and they were to measure the patterns that they saw.

Let’s go back a few chapters so we can understand the context of this instruction God gave to Ezekiel. These instructions were part of a vision that Ezekiel had on the tenth of the month of Nisan.

Ezekiel 40:1 NKJV 1 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was captured, on the very same day the hand of the LORD was upon me; and He took me there.

The tenth of Nisan is an important day for the children of Israel. This is the day that they selected the Passover lamb while they were still in Egypt. They kept and protected the Passover lamb for the four days leading up to the Passover examining it for blemishes.

Exodus 12:3 NKJV 3 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

For Ezekiel the priest, this day would be a day that he would deeply experience the loss of the temple in Jerusalem. Without a temple, the Passover as practiced for hundreds of years could no longer be observed. God commanded that the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins at the conclusion of the Passover, be observed at the place where He caused His name to reside. For hundreds of years, that place was at the temple in Jerusalem presided over by the priests. But, nineteen years before this vision, Ezekiel had another vision, recorded in chapters eight through eleven, in which he saw the Glory of the LORD depart from the temple and the city. The Glory of the LORD first crosses over the threshold of the temple.

Ezekiel 10:18 NKJV 18 Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.

Then the Glory departs from the city to pause on the Mt. of Olives.

Ezekiel 11:23 NKJV 23 And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.

God’s presence was no longer in the house that David and Solomon built for Him! Seven years later, on the ninth of Av, the temple was destroyed. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were still practiced but not at Jerusalem and not at a central temple of worship. Ezekiel, the head of his household, would have selected the lamb for his household on this day that he received the vision of a new house for God! What an incredible joy that vision would have been!

Ezekiel 40:4 NKJV 4 And the man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house of Israel everything you see."

Once more, we see the instruction that Ezekiel was to “declare” everything he saw. This word, translated “declare” is “nagad” the same word translated “describe” in Ezekiel 43:10.

This opportunity to tour God’s house would be like being invited to tour every nook and cranny of Bill Gates’ brand new house. You are even allowed to measure the size of the rooms and examine the furnishings and share everything you saw! You would certainly take pictures and videos of everything and post them on Facebook! Our son recently returned from a trip to India where he was able to take a tour of the Taj Mahal. He came back with lots of pictures and short videos which he shared with us but he was not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the Taj Mahal.

As Ezekiel completed the tour of the future house of God, he was taken to the eastern gate and witnessed the Glory of God coming to take up residence in His house.

Ezekiel 43:1-2 NKJV 1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.

Imagine that once you have finished your tour of Bill Gates’ house, he drives up the driveway to move in and invites you back into the house for a private conversation. This is kind of what happened for Ezekiel except Ezekiel got to witness the arrival of the glory of God!

Ezekiel 43:4-5 MKJV 4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose view is eastward. 5 And the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner chamber. And behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.

Ezekiel was brought into the house, into the inner court, to have a conversation with God!

Ezekiel 43:6-7 ASV 6 And I heard one speaking unto me out of the house; and a man stood by me. 7 And he said unto 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 for ever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, and by the dead bodies of their kings in their high places;

God explained that the house of Israel would no longer defile His house, the place of His throne. This implies that the house of Israel had defiled God’s previous house, the house that had been destroyed more than twelve years earlier. They defiled God’s house by their whoredom; they were unfaithful to God by worshiping other gods in God’s house. The “dead bodies” of their kings probably refers to both the bodies of the kings and the lifeless idols the kings worshiped. God uses the same word to describe His judgment on those who do not obey God and keep His commandments.

Leviticus 26:30 ASV 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.

God goes on to condemn the house of Israel for violating the thresholds and doorposts of God’s house.

Ezekiel 43:8 NKJV 8 "When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger.

Remember the context of this vision was four days before the Passover. On the Passover in Egypt, they were to kill the lamb selected on the tenth of the month, the day of the vision, at the threshold of their house and put the blood of this lamb on the doorposts and lintels.

Exodus 12:6-7 NKJV 6 'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 'And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

To understand the significance of God’s words of judgment to the house of Israel, we have to understand that the Passover sacrifice is a threshold covenant sacrifice. The lamb was the covenant sacrifice killed at the threshold of the house.

Exodus 12:22 NKJV 22 "And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.

The word “basin” is the Hebrew word “saf,” number 5592, meaning something that contains, a dish, basin, or threshold. This is the same word that is translated threshold in Ezekiel 43:8. The threshold was a shallow trough across the base of the doorway. The late nineteenth century theologian H. Clay Trumbull explains the significance of the threshold in his book The Threshold Covenant. When an honored guest arrived, the resident of the house would meet the guest at the doorway with the sacrificial animal. The animal would be slain at the doorway with the blood draining into the threshold or basin. The host would take some of the blood and put it around the doorway on the doorposts and the lintels. When the guest entered the home, he passed through the blood entering into a threshold covenant. The covenant agreement was that the guest would not harm any of the family and that the host would protect the life of the guest above even those of his own family.

God’s statement that the house of Israel put a threshold by His threshold and a doorpost by His doorpost is that they had violated the threshold covenant and the Passover sacrifice which established the house of Israel as God’s people! Instead, they had entered into a different threshold covenant with their idols! Further, they practiced the worship of those idols inside God’s house putting a threshold within God’s threshold and a wall between them and God even in God’s house! God showed their actions to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 8:9-12 NKJV 9 And He said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there." 10 So I went in and saw, and there-every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'"

In reality, the elders of the house of Israel were the ones who put the barrier between them and God erecting walls and hiding their eyes from seeing and observing God’s commandments. Instead they entered into a different threshold covenant and shed innocent blood.

Ezekiel 9:9 NKJV 9 Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, 'The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!'

As a result of their iniquities, the house of Israel was in exile and the house of God destroyed! However, Ezekiel was to describe, explain, proclaim and praise the coming house of God so that the house of Israel would be ashamed of their iniquities. How would this make them ashamed? God says that they were to measure the pattern. Our first clue to this pattern is that the glory of God approaches the temple from the east. There are two words in Hebrew that are translated as east or eastward. One is the word “Mizrach,” number 4217 meaning sunrise. The second word is “qedem,” number 6924 meaning the front of time or place, before, east, or eternal. Ezekiel uses this second word which is the word used to describe the location of the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:8 KJV 8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

The use of the word qedem draws the mind toward the Garden of Eden and God’s creation. In contrast, the seventy elders who defiled the house of God, bowed toward the east, qedem, to worship the sun.

Ezekiel 8:15-16 NKJV 15 Then He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these." 16 So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

God instructed Ezekiel to describe the entire design of the temple including the exits and entrances.

Ezekiel 43:11 NKJV 11 "And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, its entire design and all its ordinances, all its forms and all its laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its whole design and all its ordinances, and perform them.

There were three gates to the house of God on the east, north, and south sides. The entrance through which the glory of God entered was that of the east facing the altar. The steps to ascend to the altar came from the east. The description of the altar uses some unusual words that have a dual meaning. The Stone Edition Chumash comments that “Ezekiel uses symbolic names that are not found elsewhere in Scripture.”[i]

Ezekiel 43:13-17 MKJV 13 And these are the measures of the altar by the cubit. The cubit is a cubit and a span; even the base shall be a cubit, and the width a cubit, and its border by its edge all around shall be a span. And this is the upper part of the altar. 14 And from the base on the ground even to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit. And from the smaller ledge even to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the width one cubit. 15 And the altar hearth shall be four cubits, and from the altar hearth and upward shall be four horns. 16 And the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long, twelve wide, square in its four sides. 17 And the ledge shall be fourteen long and fourteen wide in its four sides. And the border around it shall be half a cubit, and its base a cubit around. And its steps shall face eastward.

In verse 13, the word for altar is “mizbach,” number 4196 in Strong’s Concordance literally meaning an altar from a word meaning to slaughter. This is not surprising. As we go on, Ezekiel describes two “ledges” around the base of the altar and around the top of the altar. The word “ledge” is the Hebrew word “azarah,” number 5835 meaning a surrounding, enclosure or courtyard. The only other place this word is used in the Bible is in the description of Solomon’s temple to describe the court of the priests and the courtyard containing the altar and the laver. The ledges or courtyard around the altar are there for the priests to walk around the sides.

In verse 15, the first word for “altar” is “har’el,” number 1025 meaning the mountain of God. The second word for “altar” is “ari’el,” number 739 meaning the Lion of God! Ezekiel is describing a courtyard containing the mountain of God upon which is the Lion of God! The priests approach the mountain of God and the Lion of God from the surrounding ledges or courtyard! The Lion of God is the altar on the Mountain of God!

God’s instructions to Ezekiel continue with how to dedicate the altar. The word used for altar in this passage reverts back to the usual word “mizbach.”

Ezekiel 43:18-20 NKJV 18 And He said to me, "Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: 'These are the ordinances for the altar on the day when it is made, for sacrificing burnt offerings on it, and for sprinkling blood on it. 19 'You shall give a young bull for a sin offering to the priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister to Me,' says the Lord GOD. 20 'You shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim around it; thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it.

The dedication begins with a sin offering brought to the Levitical priests of the lineage of Zadok. Zadok was high priest under David and Solomon. The name Zadok, number 6659, means “just, clean or righteous.” The blood sprinkled on the altar makes atonement for it. This process of dedicating the altar continues for seven days following the pattern of dedicating the altar in the wilderness and the altar in Solomon’s temple.

This sin offering is made on the mountain of God on the altar of the Lion of God! The writer of Hebrews explains that Yeshua, the Passover Lamb, is both the sin and the covenant sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:15-19 YLT 15 And because of this, of a new covenant he is mediator, that, death having come, for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those called may receive the promise of the age-during inheritance, 16 for where a covenant is, the death of the covenant-victim to come in is necessary, 17 for a covenant over dead victims is stedfast, since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim liveth, 18 whence not even the first apart from blood hath been initiated, 19 for every command having been spoken, according to law, by Moses, to all the people, having taken the blood of the calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he both the book itself and all the people did sprinkle,

The pattern of the altar revealed by Ezekiel pointed straight to the Messiah!

On the eighth day, the altar is fully dedicated to the LORD and open to receive the offerings of the people.

Ezekiel 43:27 NKJV 27 'When these days are over it shall be, on the eighth day and thereafter, that the priests shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar; and I will accept you,' says the Lord GOD."

The Lord God will accept not just the offerings but He will accept the people! The word for “accept” is raw-tsaw,” number 7521 meaning to be pleased with, to satisfy a debt, pardon or reconcile. There on the altar of the mountain of God in the presence of the Lion of God, God will declare Himself pleased; that the debt has been satisfied.

Ezekiel 20:40 JPGreen For in My holy mountain in the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord Jehovah, all the house of Israel shall serve Me there; all of them in the land. There I will accept them; and there I will seek your heave offerings, and the firstfruits of your offerings, with all your holy things.

Seeing the pattern of the altar and sacrifice of Yeshua the Messiah will cause the house of Israel to be ashamed of their iniquities. They could not pay the penalty for their transgressions; neither can we. However, the payment has been made by the sacrifice of Yeshua, the Passover Lamb of God.

Hebrews 9:28 NKJV 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Yeshua is coming again to bring the realization of the gift of salvation! The patterns in the temple and the altar of God reveal the coming of Messiah! The house of Israel will recognize that the LORD does see them and has not forsaken either them or the land. The house of God will be rebuilt in Jerusalem on God’s holy mountain. His glory will come by way of the East from the Mount of Olives to fill His house! And God will accept His people. All Israel and the nations will know that the LORD is God.

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the connection of this teaching to the Torah Portion Tetzaveh, Exodus 27:20-30:11.

2. There were many connections to creation and the Garden of Eden in this haftarah. The first is the word “nagad” for declare or proclaim God’s house. In Genesis 1:18 where God states that He will make a helpmate “suitable” or “comparable” to Adam. The Hebrew word is “neged” #5048, from the root nagad. How is Eve’s role with Adam similar to Ezekiel’s role in this situation? What are some other connections to creation and the Garden of Eden?

3. How does God convey the importance of the threshold covenant? 

4. Ezekiel was to “describe the pattern” of the house of God. The description of the house of God is in Ezekiel 40-43. What patterns in the house reveal Messiah?

5. What will it mean for the Jewish people when the temple and/or the altar is rebuilt and the sacrificial system reinstated?

© 2019 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.

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[i] The Stone Edition Chumash. ArtScroll Series. Rabbi Nosson Scherman and Rabbi Meir Zlotositz General Editors. Mesorah Publications. ©1998, 2000. P1159.