Between The Advents

Ezekiel 37 is one of the most preached passages in Ezekiel. It’s a beautiful representation of restoration, resurrection and a future filled with Gods presence for his people.

In the first oracle of the passage, verses 1-14 Ezekiel shows what Gods spirit is capable of doing, restoring a host of skeletons into an army of men. A picture of Israel restored to life again by the power of the spirit.

The second oracle in verses 15-28 shows the old divisions between Israel and Judah will pass away, the new remnants will unite the people in one land under one king.

Key passages such as V11 “these bones are the people of Israel’ V12 “I will bring you back to the land of Israel” V14 “I will put my spirit in you”. These verses show us clearly that this is about Israelites in exile. So we must have to ask the question, when does this happen, or when will this happen? In V1-14 there’s this bringing people back to the land and bringing people back from the dead. In v15-28 it’s a clear unified Israel, all 12 tribes, in Hebrew languages we see the vocabulary used is referring to future, so how far future? Is it beyond the New Testament? Is it end times? Or was this fulfilled in the New Testament? We must remember and understand that future in the Old Testament can be, and often times is fulfilled in the New Testament.

So, let’s dive into the elements of this text. The elements of this whole chapter are, God bringing them back to Israel. V12 “I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”. We have God putting his spirit upon them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. And lastly, we have God dwelling among them ²⁷ My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people”. We certainly have seen this happen in scripture in Acts 2 at Pentecost.

Acts 2

At Pentecost Jewish people came from all over the known world and that’s where and when the spirit of God shows up. The spirit is in their midst and from that point on will inhabit his people. Ezekiel 37 describes the nations being brought back and the spirit dwelling within them, we have this very instance at Pentecost. Jewish people are gathered from all the lands of which they have been scattered, they come back to Jerusalem and then, there, the sprit of God descends upon them. Just as he said he would do in Ezekiel 37.

The main issue or push back people will get with this view is that people will ask “well what about the temple?”. Well, the Temple, according to John and Paul is the body of Christ, and according to Jesus himself John 2:19-21 ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. And Paul states, “We are the temple of the living God,” echoing Old Testament tabernacle promises (“I will dwell among them”). This continues the theme of God’s indwelling presence within his people.

Paul refers to individual believers as the temple of God in 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” This is Paul’s strongest parallel to the concept of divine tabernacling, explicitly linking the church to God’s dwelling place and again in 1 Corinthians 6:16 “For we are the temple of the living God” we see the same idea.

There does not need to be a future temple. The New Testament is very clear with its use of temple language associated with Jesus’ body and believers, why would we look for a literal future temple when we see one already within Christ and those who believe in him as the Messiah?

Anyone who takes a literal view of the temple creates a massive theological conundrum, because if Gods presence is within us, If Christ and the body of Christ (us) are the temple than a temples purpose would solely be for sacrifices. In Hebrews we see verses that show because of Christ there is no more need for sacrifices for sin. (Hebrews 10:10, 10:12, 9:26, 9:12, 7:27, 10:14). And the temple that is viewed in Ezekiel 40-48 involves sacrifice, so if we take this as a literal future kingdom would we dare to call the writer of Hebrews a liar? As John makes his point in Revelation 21:22 “I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple”. New Testament writers did not have a view of a literal temple, us, as believers of the body of Christ do not need to add our dogmatics to the text to create this future literal temple. Its poor eschatology, and bad eschatology hurts people.