Congregation Bible Study (30 min.): Rr ch. 13 paras. 1-6 and video.
1-3. (a) Why must the sight of the imposing temple precinct have comforted Ezekiel? (See the drawing at the beginning). b) What are we going to analyze in this chapter?
IMAGINE Ezekiel at 50 years old. He has spent half his life in exile. The temple in Jerusalem has been in ruins for many years. If Ezekiel had ever cherished the hope of being a priest there, his dreams were ruined, as was the temple. The exile is still fifty-six years away, so it is unlikely that he will live to see the return of Jehovah's people to their land, much less to see the temple rebuilt. --Jer. 25:11. Maybe you got a little sad thinking about all this.
But Jehovah, who is so good, takes advantage of just that moment to show Ezekiel a vision full of detail, a vision that will undoubtedly comfort this faithful man and give him hope. Through this vision, Jehovah takes him back to his land and places him on a very high mountain. In this high place, the prophet meets "a man who looks like copper." This man, who is actually an angel, takes him with him and takes him on a tour of the entire imposing precinct of the temple (read Ezekiel 40: 1-4). What you see seems so real! In addition to strengthening Ezekiel's faith, this experience must have impressed him, and even puzzled him a bit. Although the temple he is looking at has many characteristics that are familiar to him, it is quite different from the one he knows, the one in Jerusalem.
This fascinating insight is found in the last nine chapters of the book of Ezekiel. Let us now analyze what we must take into account when studying and understanding this vision. Later we will see if the temple of Ezekiel was the great spiritual temple of which the apostle Paul spoke in depth centuries later. And finally, we will explain what this vision meant for the Jews who were in exile with Ezekiel.
A different approach
4. Regarding the temple of vision, how was it explained in the past? And how should we approach the vision now?
Long ago, our publications claimed that the temple of Ezekiel's vision was the same as the great spiritual temple, the one that the apostle Paul described by inspiration in his letter to the Hebrews. * Seeing it this way, it seemed logical to establish what we called types and antitypes. So, taking Paul's explanations of the tabernacle as a starting point, we gave a symbolic meaning to many of the features of the temple that Ezekiel saw. However, a more in-depth study of the matter, accompanied by prayer and meditation, seems to indicate that to explain the vision of Ezekiel's temple it is necessary to approach it from a simpler point of view.
5, 6. a) Why do we say that the apostle Paul was humble in speaking about the tabernacle? b) What did Paul say about some objects in the tabernacle? c) How could we analyze Ezekiel's vision of the temple?
Therefore, it seems more sensible not to attribute a prophetic or symbolic meaning to every detail of Ezekiel's vision. Why? Let's look at an interesting example. When Paul spoke about the tabernacle and the spiritual temple, he mentioned such items as the golden censer, the Ark cover, and the golden jug containing the manna. But did he give them any prophetic significance? It seems that the holy spirit did not prompt him to do that, rather, Paul wrote, "Now is not the time to discuss these things in detail" (Heb. 9: 4, 5). The apostle was willing to wait and humbly accept Jehovah's guidance through his holy spirit (Heb. 9: 8).
We can analyze Ezekiel's vision in a similar way. This vision is also full of details. So it seems more appropriate to humbly wait for Jehovah to clarify the matter if necessary. --Read Micah 7: 7. Does this mean that Jehovah's spirit has shed no more light on this vision? Of course not.
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