Showing posts with label Ezekiel's Temple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezekiel's Temple. Show all posts
Ezekiel's Temple Contents and Synopsis
Introduction
- Brief account of the author's teenage discovery of Ezekiel's vision.
- The Covenantal basis of this Temple in Ezekiel 37.
- Ezekiel's instruction in 43:11 to transmit to the House of Israel the overall plan or layout of the Temple---particularly its system of “exits and extrances” ---and the Temple rules pertaining thereto.
- The carrying out of that task as the fundamental goal of this present book.
- Brief survey of the Torah's sacrificial system and the role in it of the desert Tabernacle and later Temples.
For the benefit of readers who may be struggling (as the author has) to understand this Temple's physical layout, an optional diagram is included that shows the course of the initial trip through the Temple that Ezekiel records, giving the verses that apply to each Temple feature described.
PART ONE: The Scriptural Framework of Ezekiel's Temple
- The biblical motivation for associating the Temple's East-West Axis with the Covenantal promise “I will be their God” and the North-South Axis with the complementary promise, “They shall be My people.”
- The biblical facts in Ezekiel's vision structured by the two axes, the E-W Axis displaying God's sovereign, saving acts on behalf of His people that they could never do for themselves, and the N-S Axis displaying the working of God's Spirit in his people to make them able and willing to worship and serve him.
- The altar of burnt offering at the intersection of the two axes and its role in propitiating God's righteous anger at sin.
- The actions of Ezekiel's mysterious “Prince” on both Temple axes, and his Messianic dimension as a mediator between God and his people.
PART TWO: The New Testament Temple Built on Ezekiel's Scriptural Framework
- How the same Temple features and Bible verses discussed in Part One are fulfilled---and even exceeded---in the Person and Work of Yeshua/Jesus.
PART THREE: Ezekiel's Temple and the Structure of the Four Gospels
- The structural similarity of Ezekiel's Temple layout with its two axes, as described in Parts One and Two, to the individual themes and emphases of the four Gospels.
Following is a somewhat speculative demonstration, not central to the main theme of the book, that the famous four “Gospel symbols” of lion, ox, eagle, and man can be associated with particular Gospels on the basis of Ezekiel's Temple plan, along with an analysis of Ezekiel's chapter 1 vision of the moveable throne of God's glory. (Readers not interested in the possibility of identifying the “Gospel symbols” are invited to skip over to Part Four.)
PART FOUR: Some Questions and Answers
- Likely questions anticipated and answered, relating to whether this vision is intended for literal construction and the significance of specific features like the complicated gatehouses in chapter 40, the many priestly requirements detailed in the vision, and Ezekiel's plan for new tribal allotments in Israel.
- Also questions about the influence of Ezekiel's vision on what is known of later Temple construction in Israel, culminating in the “textual temple” of the Talmud, including the consequences of rejecting Yeshua as the promised Messiah on the “layout” of that “temple.”
- After a question relating to the “Covenant of Grace” in this book's subtitle, a final question asks what overall lessons can be drawn from this Temple study for 21st century Jews and Gentiles. Some of the author's personal salvation story is alluded to in the final pages.
AFTERWORD: From Ritmeyer's Square to New Haven Green
- In his life's work The Quest (2006), the preeminent archaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer documented a 500 x 500 long-cubit square in Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Possible relationships to Ezekiel's vision are discussed.
- The city plan (1638) of New Haven, Connecticut, with its central square of 500 x 500 long-cubits (today's New Haven Green) is discussed in connection with a 1604 European analysis of Ezekiel's Temple and the biblical motives of John Davenport, the city's co-founder.
Ezekiel's Temple Book Reviews
What Others Have Said about Ezekiel's Temple by Emil Heller Henning III
“I wanted you to know that the study of your book has gone
well so far. A couple of individuals in the [adult Sunday School]
class...wanted me to be sure to let you know their appreciation for your
work...I believe it is a fine alternative to the sort of thing one finds out
there (even in the Reformed Churches, alas)...Your subtitle 'a scriptural
framework illustrating the covenant of grace' pretty well sums it up. I think
that people find this approach to be a helpful one.”
– J.C., Connecticut
“This afternoon I read Ezekiel's
Temple and found it extremely interesting and exciting. After finishing the
book I found myself once more adoring our 'only wise' God...Your explanations
of the 'North-South Axis' and the 'square' nature of the ground plan of the
Temple were extremely helpful. Above all, I appreciated your Messiah-centered
focus and your gospel application...I pray also that it will be used to help
Jewish people see that 'all the prophets prophesied not but of the days of the
Messiah.'”
– M.M., United Kingdom
– D.W., South Carolina
“[I was] excited at your plain, but beautiful words, the
expression of the Spirit of our God and Father...You have treated His Set-apart
Word with respect, and not [tried] to force ideology or dogma into your
pattern, but you searched with diligence for the truth.”
– D.F., Washington State
Ezekiel's Temple
Bible readers have long pondered the complicated Temple vision in Ezekiel's last nine chapters. In an attempt to explain why this vision is in the Bible, this study focuses especially on what the prophet was explicitly told to show Israel---the Temple's “design,” “plan,” or “layout,” and in particular its “exits and entrances” (Ezek. 43:11).
Professional architect Emil Heller Henning, who has reflected on this Temple for some five decades, shows how two little-noticed, intersecting axes structure Ezekiel's complex plan and its system of “exits and entrances,” and frame a vivid symbolic portrait of God's eternal Covenant with Israel that looks forward to the Person and Work of the Messiah.
Visit Ezekiel's Temple for more information.
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