S48 || Why the Future Millennial Temple Matters || Ezekiel 40:1 - 48:35 || Session 48

A demolished temple, a displaced people, and a prophet who receives blueprints on Passover—Ezekiel’s final vision is both a balm and a jolt. We step into chapters 40–48 and trace why the eight-chapter deluge of measurements and procedures is not filler but a signal that God intends a real place, a defined priesthood, and a rebuilt rhythm of worship marked by His presence. The dimensions don’t fit the Second Temple mount, and the Shekinah glory’s return through the East Gate never occurred in the Second Temple era, which pushes us toward a future fulfillment where holiness and order shape the life of the nation.

We wrestle with the hardest question head-on: do renewed sacrifices undermine Christ’s once-for-all work? Drawing from Hebrews and the broader story of Scripture, we explore how Old Testament saints were saved by faith and how sacrifices functioned as shadows pointing to Christ. From that vantage, Ezekiel’s offerings can be understood as memorial, not rival atonements—akin to how the Lord’s Supper looks back in gratitude and proclamation. Along the way, we note striking differences from Moses’ system—the absence of the ark and incense altar, the prominence of the sons of Zadok, and a defined role for “the prince”—all of which suggest a new phase of worship under the Messiah’s reign.

Then the river flows. Starting at the temple threshold, deepening step by step, it heals the Dead Sea and transforms the land with fruit-bearing trees whose leaves bring healing. With named locations and clear bearings, the vision resists abstraction and harmonizes with Zechariah and Revelation’s river of life. Finally, God redraws Israel’s tribal inheritances, fulfilling sworn promises to the patriarchs. The through-line is hope: a holy God returning to dwell with His people, orderly worship that honors His character, and creation renewed from the sanctuary outward.

If this exploration deepened your curiosity or clarified your view of Ezekiel’s finale, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review to help others discover the show. Got thoughts or questions? Email us at info@reasoningthible.com and join the conversation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For Ezekiel 40–48
• 2:10 Dating The Vision And Exile Context
• 4:35 Which Temple Is This
• 8:20 Dimensions That Don’t Fit The Second Temple
• 12:30 Sacrifices And The Blasphemy Objection
• 19:10 Memorial Sacrifices And Old Testament Faith
• 24:30 Why The Tedious Details Matter
• 28:10 Holiness, Separation, And Priestly Orders
• 32:40 The Prince, Missing Furnishings, And Differences
• 36:50 Shekinah Glory Returns From The East

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:20

Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. Today we are in the last part of the book of Ezekiel. We're going to be talking about the temple section in chapters 40 through 48. Now, in this section, we really need to take a big picture view before we just dive in. The first 24 chapters of the book of Ezekiel talk about judgment against Jerusalem. Then from chapters 25 to 32, they include judgment of nations that surrounded Israel. Then in chapters 33 to 39 include the restoration of Israel. Here, chapter 40 through 48 describes a temple and the sacrifices that happen in it. In this, there are some, of course, interpretive questions that we need to wrestle with, and we'll do that. As we look through this chapter, chapter 40, verse 1 gives the date that Ezekiel receives the revelation from God. As we've pointed out every time we've seen that throughout the book of Ezekiel, he was always very careful to document what message came on that date. Our Bibles have documented eyewitness accounts down to the very day that God revealed himself to these prophets. And as we've seen, there were sections of it that were predicted and fulfilled within Ezekiel's lifetime so that the people around him knew that he was a true prophet. Chapter 40, verse 1 is 573 BC, the 25th year of the exile, and 14 years after the fall of Jerusalem. With this, they had been in exile for a while, and Jerusalem had been destroyed for a while. The Jews have been scattered, and they realize that their situation is not going to be getting any better anytime soon. It seems that God reaches down with a sense of encouragement at just the time when we need it the most. Now, the tenth of the first month is Passover. This is also interesting in that God gives this revelation on Passover at a time when there'd be a holiday, everybody would be focused on spiritual things. Now they're given a brand new message. The message, of course, is the temple. In the temple here that we see, he's going to give several chapters of very tedious descriptions of the temple. And we need to kind of have an idea of which temple this might be. The first temple, which was designed by David and built by Solomon, was destroyed by Babylon. And that's recorded in 2 Kings 25:9. It's also recorded here in the book of Ezekiel in chapter 33, verse 21. Babylon came in and destroyed Solomon's temple. When the temple was destroyed, then the people were scattered. Therefore, the temple rituals stopped and the sacrificial system stopped. When that happened, then the nation really was in danger of losing its identity simply because the nation Israel, the worship and the government and their identity centered around this temple worship ceremony. When that stopped and the temple was destroyed and scattered, the Jews would have been devastated. They would have been a very demoralized, depressed people. Here, we're now at the point where Israel is demoralized and depressed. God gives the dimensions and the building plans for a new temple. The timing there is very critical, I think, because again, Israel was in the depths of depression. Steve, what general things can we say about these several chapters of this temple description?

SPEAKER_01: 4:29

I think a key thing that we can say is that the dimensions that are mentioned here don't really match the second temple rebuild. That second temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel. That's noted in Ezra and also talked about a little bit in Nehemiah during that time period of coming back from the Babylonian captivity. And then the glorification of the temple takes place right around the first century BC and then the first century A.D., around the time of Jesus' coming, Herod is fixing the temple up, and the pictures that we see today are really of called Herod's temple, but it's still the second temple. But we know the dimensions of the Temple Mount. We have the remnant of that. The second temple was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans, but the Temple Mount is roughly about 40 acres. The things that are described here in these final chapters of Ezekiel talking about the temple dimensions itself really don't match, would fit within that 40-acre site that we know is there today. So I think we're pretty safe in saying that this is a future temple. It's not only about the temple dimensions, but it's also talking about in all of these chapters about the different sacrifices and things like that. It's almost like it's a second Levitical description of how to worship God in this temple that's given here in Ezekiel. Well, obviously, that's post-Jesus Christ. The reasons that are given here just don't match the things that were going on during the second temple time period. I think we can say clearly that this is still sometime that's in the future.

SPEAKER_00: 6:23

From chapter 40 through 48 is mostly very detailed descriptions of this temple. The final verse of the book at the end of chapter 48 says the Lord is there in this temple. And so that suggests a permanency of God fellowshipping with ethnic Israel. That I think gives us another clue as to the permanency of it, simply because God has not been blessing the nation of Israel because of their disbelief and disobedience, as we've seen throughout this book. This brings up the question then. There's so much detail here about a temple. It's not just in passing. Again, there's like eight chapters here. The question then, of course, arises: where does this temple fit in the timing of the entire history and biblical history? There was the first temple that was there from David and Solomon's day up until it was destroyed by Babylon. Israel goes off in captivity. When they came back, as we saw in Zechariah and Nehemiah, they rebuild the temple. That lasts until the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD, and there's not been a temple since. Where does this temple fit? Different Bible teachers have very different interpretations of when Ezekiel's temple fits into history and the significance of it. In the passage, God doesn't tell Ezekiel when this is going to be built. The vision just has Ezekiel being taken to Jerusalem, and Ezekiel just starts describing the details of the building. The passages about the temple don't say when. Now it does say some very specifics about the building, and it also has some specifics about the sacrifices that'll go on. Chapter 43, verse 21 speaks of the bull for the sin offering. Now, this is significant because it brings into question whether this temple is Herod's temple and the Zerubbabel, Herod's temple, second temple, or whether the sin offerings are going to be reinstituted in the future. Some Bible teachers take offense at the idea of a future temple, future to us, where sacrifices would start again. These teachers take the idea that if there was a restart of animal sacrifices, that this would be no less than blasphemous against the Christian faith simply because there's several verses in the New Testament that speak of Jesus being the final sacrifice. Hebrews 10:9 says God takes away animal sacrifices so that Jesus could come and do the Father's will. Jesus paid for our sins once for all by his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption in Hebrews 9:11. When Jesus died, the veil of the temple tore. Those were all symbols that the old system was gone. The again, book of Hebrews, very clear that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrifices, and we don't need those again. Some Bible teachers say that if we take Ezekiel's animal sacrifices, if these were a future sacrifice, then especially a sin sacrifice, as I just said, this would be no less than blaspheming the finished work of Jesus Christ. Steve, I have a response to that. Any comments from you?

SPEAKER_01: 10:06

Well, there's nothing that says that these sacrifices can't be memorial sacrifices, ones that look back on what Jesus did. We as Gentiles have a period, usually in our church, it's once a month or once a quarter of what we call the Lord's Supper. It's a time of communion. Whenever we take some grape juice and a little bit of a cracker, and symbolically we drink of it and eat of it in order to remember Jesus. Jesus said during that last supper, do this in remembrance of me. We do things that are commemorative. Now, obviously, we don't do an actual sacrifice, but that was the Passover dinner, the satyr that they were having whenever Jesus said that. I think there could be a made a case that Jewish believers have a Passover Seder every year. In that Seder, they do and remember Jesus at that time whenever they have that particular satyr. It's not one that look forward to Jesus coming, the Messiah coming as the Passover lamb, but it would be one in which they look back on what Jesus did as he has told us to do. The other thing is that you have people prior to the giving of the Mosaic law and the temple system itself, sacrificial system, that sacrificed and worshiped God. Abraham did it, Abram before his name was changed to Abraham, Noah did it, Job did it. We have different examples that even prior to the giving of the law and the laying down of the sacrificial system, that people sacrificed to God in a way of worship. There's nothing to say that these sacrifices that are are described here in Ezekiel can't be ones of just that. Memorial services that are looked upon as a remembrance of what Jesus Christ has done for us, looking back to what he did versus prior to that looking forward to it. So I think there's maybe a little bit too much that has been made out of it. People get a little bit emotional over it, a little bit maybe too dramatic, saying it's a slap in the face of God, things like that. I think if you just look at it and understand what's going on here, there's a case to be made that this is really in the future what's going to happen. And it describes the glory of God that's going to be there during all of these sacrifices that are taking place. Bottom line is I think it's sacrifices for worship of God.

SPEAKER_00: 12:42

The reason we bring this up is you mentioned, Steve, people get emotional sometimes. People get very emotional over this idea of a future restarting of animal sacrifices and hold it to be blaspheming the name of God. That's why we're dealing with it here. They get quite emotional. In response, answering this question of would a future animal sacrifice be blasphemous or detrimental to the Christian faith. Just a couple of questions that I think could clarify this. One is how were people saved in the Old Testament? It was not by the law of Moses, simply because a couple of reasons. One, there was no law of Moses in between Adam and Moses, which is at least as long of a period of time as between Moses and Jesus. So there were huge sections of timeline in the Old Testament that was prior to the Mosaic Law. People couldn't have been saved in the Old Testament through the Mosaic Law because it wasn't always there. Secondly, people were not saved in the Old Testament by the keeping the law simply because the New Testament tells us it's not. The New Testament tells us, quote, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins in Hebrews 10.4. And these Old Testament systems were, quote, a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Christ in Colossians 2.17. The law was a shadow of things to come and not the reality, Hebrews 10.1. The law didn't save people. It wasn't by keeping the Old Testament sacrifices that people were saved in the Old Testament. If it was the animal sacrifices that was effectual for taking away sins, then all God would have had to have done is kept that sacrificial system going forever. I mean, he kept the Passover ceremony going forever. Why couldn't he have kept the animal sacrifices going forever? And if the animal sacrifices were effective in taking away sin, then Jesus wouldn't have had to have died. He would have had to have just kept the animal sacrifices going forever, and that would have been it. Wouldn't have had to have died. But the Old Testament animal sacrifices were not effective. People were saved by faith. Genesis 15, 6. Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteousness. Therefore, the Old Testament sacrifices were looking forward to Jesus, and there's no reason why a future one can't look back. Another question, if we notice in the Old Testament, we're told that Moses on top of Mount Sinai was shown an example of a temple in heaven. We're told over in the book of Hebrews that there's a temple in heaven where Jesus presented his blood. The next question is: is the heavenly temple blasphemous when it has ongoing ceremonies? Well, obviously not. Was the Old Testament Mosaic system blasphemous when it wasn't effective for taking away sins? Well, obviously not. I just think that a lot of the emotion that gets around this is centered around people's end times views that might get challenged with whether or not there's really a future for the nation Israel. And that's possibly why they get so emotional. But if the Old Testament system wasn't blasphemous, if the heavenly temple ceremonies aren't blasphemous, then a future one that looks back as a memorial service is not blasphemous. Now, in this section, again, we said chapter 40 to 48, it really does get quite tedious. We're going to spare you the reading of it simply because there's so much detail here that it really gets more than a little tedious. Let me just pick out a couple of verses just to give you a taste. I'm reading in chapter 40, verse 9. He measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits, and its side pillars, two cubits, and the porch of the gate was faced inward, and the guard rooms of the gate faced toward the east, numbered three on each side. The three of them had the same measurement. The side pillars also had the same measurement on each side, and it goes like that on and on and on for several chapters. In these sections, it gives the size of the side rooms in the temple, the size of the porch and the posts that were next to the porch, how wide the gates were, how many gates there are, and where they were on the temple grounds, how far apart the doors and the gates were, where the windows were, and what kind of ornaments were on them, how many steps were on the stairs, how many tables there were for butchering the animals, how thick the foundation was, the size of the walls, and it just goes on and on. Why does God take his precious word and spend so much time giving these tedious details?

SPEAKER_01: 17:45

Because he's describing an actual place. He's describing the building and dimensions of an actual temple that he wants to be built in honor of him. It's no different than what the description he gave in the Old Testament and regarding the tabernacle. He was very specific on how the tabernacle was supposed to be put together in Moses' time. In fact, he even got so specific in that that he said these tribes are to be placed on the east, north, south, and west. Whenever you break camp to move to another location, these are the tribes that go first, these are the tribes that go last. God is very specific in many of the details that he gives for people to honor him and obey him and worship him. I think he's just being consistent here in Ezekiel, just as he has been consistent in the earlier books of the what we call the Old Testament.

SPEAKER_00: 18:49

I think you're exactly right. The reason for the detail is because this is a real place. It's not figurative of the church, it's not a figurative explanation of a spiritual reality in the New Testament church. He's talking about an actual building. And there's no reason to have eight chapters of tedious detail if it was going to be an allegory for a spiritual condition of salvation. If we look at some of the things, we can get a clue as to some of the meanings, but God probably has many more. If we look at chapter 42, verse 20, he tells us that there's walls in this new temple in between the place where the holy areas are and the place where the common areas are. And so God never mingles holiness and non-holiness. God is always pure and holy and must therefore be separate from anything that is sinful or common. The outer areas were where the sin offerings were, and the inner areas are where the holy God is. So thus there's a separation between the holy and the profane. God does that everywhere. Some of the symbolism and why all these things are there, we can tell. Other things God hasn't revealed to us yet. We have here also a description of a sacrificial system. Ezekiel describes the glory of God returning to this temple and a series of purification ceremonies before sacrifices start again. The temple has to be purified, the grounds have to be purified. He specifies the purification rituals. These purification ceremonies suggest that God is giving instructions for the restarting of temple ceremonies. Several passages speak about sacrifices in the temple, specifically burnt offerings, 4038, 4039, 4041, 4042, all speak of slaughtering animals and burnt offerings. So there's going to be a return of the burnt offerings and sacrificial system. Also note that chapter 40, verse 46 speaks of the priests in charge of the altar and tells us that they were going to be a specific group that was descended from the people that were faithful. The sons of Zadok, who in 4811, God says these priests were the ones who stayed faithful and didn't go astray. The thing that we can learn from that is that God knows who it is that are following his ways and who are not. And those that are faithful to him and following his ways will get rewarded and will be blessed by God. Now, if we go through here, I notice there's some differences in between Ezekiel's temple and the old tabernacle and temple ceremonies that were described in Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy. One is that the size of the temple and the courtyard specifically are different. In 4214 era of Ezekiel, the priests were to leave their garments inside the temple building proper before going out into the courtyard. That was different than in the old ceremony. There's no mention here of the ark or the laver or the lampstand or the altar of incense. There's some distinctions. The priest here in Ezekiel take off their garments and lead them in the temple. That was not a command. It also gives no mention here of a high priest. There's some distinctions that are not mentioned here. We have to, again, doesn't tell us everything. It just tells us that this is not the exact same temple or nor the exact same temple ceremonies. Again, new purification ceremonies that didn't exist in the old system. God also gives Ezekiel several commands about the activities of what it calls the prince. Now the Mosaic law had no role for a prince or any other kings. In fact, they were commanded to be separate. But here in this ceremony, there's several specific commands for what it calls the prince. As we saw earlier in the book, the prince is most probably David. David being the prince and having a role in the temple ceremony would align with this temple being a millennial temple. Steve, any other comments about that?

SPEAKER_01: 23:35

I think a key thing, and we'll discuss it here in just a little bit, is that the glory of God is going to be there, the Shekinah glory, and is going to reside in this temple. That didn't happen during the second temple. The glory of God wasn't there. We've talked about that when we've gone through the gospels. Yeah, there was a likeness of Jesus whenever he came to the temple, and then whenever he ascended back to heaven. We made a comparison to the glory of God there, but Jesus didn't reside in the temple. He went and taught, and then he left to go back to spend the night somewhere else, and he came back into the temple. So he visited, but he didn't reside there. The glory of God, the Shekinah glory, wasn't residing in the temple during the second temple period. It is going to reside during this temple. So once again, I think we can make the case, along with what you've pointed out, certain elements not present in this temple, such as the Ark of the Covenant versus the Second Temple and the First Temple, not being present, not supposed to be there, as that this is a different temple that's going to happen. It's going to be a temple that's going to be in the future that we would most likely say it's going to be during the period of the Messianic kingdom.

SPEAKER_00: 24:56

And that section that you were just talking about is in Ezekiel chapter 43. I want to read part of that just to reinforce what Steve was just saying. Ezekiel 43:4 says this. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing towards the east, and the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court. And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. Then I heard one speaking to me from the house while a man was standing beside me. 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 among the sons of Israel forever, and the house of Israel will not again defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die. Steve, it says in there that the glory is going to return from the east. That's significant for a reason. Then it also says in there that my soles of my feet will dwell with Israel forever. How long is forever?

SPEAKER_01: 25:58

Forever means forever. Every time that we ask that question, it's going to be the same answer. It's always forever. This glory is described in verse three. Ezekiel says, and it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when he came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Kebar, and I fell on my face. If you remember, back the very first chapter of Ezekiel talks about this vision that Ezekiel had of the glory of God arriving. Here we have a bookend of the book of Ezekiel. The glory of God arrives in a vision in the first couple of chapters. Here at the ending chapters, Ezekiel is seeing this glory of God once again. So we can say that it is the exact same glory that he saw at the beginning of the book, is the exact same glory of God that he's seeing that's going to reside in this temple.

SPEAKER_00: 26:57

If we remember from back in Ezekiel chapters 9 through 11, the glory of God was there. It left through the east gate out to the Mount of Olives. Here it's coming back in through the east gate to the temple again. As we said at different books we've taught, Jesus started at the Mount of Olives in the triumphal entry, went back in through the east gate, found it wanting, and then left again back out to the Mount of Olives where he ascended in Acts chapter 1. The symbolism of this East Gate is very profound, which is why this prophecy right here of the glory of God returning back through this East Gate. The Muslims in history walled up the East Gate and put a cemetery in front of it to try to keep God out, but somehow I don't think it's going to be effective in keeping him out. We have here a restarting of the temple ceremonies. We have the ceremonies that the priests are supposed to do. Too many times, I think, Steve, we have church leaders that just don't study these things and draw these wonderful lessons out of here. The distinctions are between things that are have been profane that need to be cleansed. There's a lot of instructions here on how to cleanse the temple. And we need to be separate from the world. We need to be cleansed from our sins. We need to have our churches as holy places rather than profane places. Chapter 46 has instructions on how the people are going to enter the gates to the temple for worship. It's very specific on where the people were supposed to come in, where the people were supposed to go out. What this tells me is that God is a God of order. He is not a God of chaos. Paul told the Corinthian church to do everything, the phrasing he used was decently and in order in 1 Corinthians 14, 40. We have here a God that is a God of order, a God of cleanliness and purification. We have a God that is separate from that which is profane. I think whatever our view is of the end times, we can take some great lessons on that out of this section. Next, we have a very interesting end times section that I want to bring out. Steve, can you look at chapter 47 and read the first 12 verses?

SPEAKER_01: 29:24

Then he brought me back to the door of the house, and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east, and the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar. He brought me out by the way of the north gate and led me around on the south side of the outer gate by the way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side. When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand. And he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, reaching the loins. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded. He said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought me back to the bank of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then he said to me, These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Araba. Then they go toward the sea, being made to flow into the sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh. It will come about that every living creature that swarms in every place where the river goes will live, and there will be very many fish, for these waters go there, and the others become fresh. So everything will live where the river goes, and it will come about that fishermen will stand beside it from Engedi to Enaglaum. There will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be according to their kinds like the fish of the great sea, very many. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh, they will be left for salt. By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other will grow all kinds of trees for food, their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

SPEAKER_00: 31:52

Now the story of the river is quite interesting, and it has some profound implications in other parts of Scripture. The first thing we notice in this section is that the river flows from the temple. It flows from the very temple of God. It flows from where God is in the temple out to nourish a land. A river of fresh water in that region will transform the landscape. God will change the land. If we remember back in 3819, God is going to cause an earthquake and change the landscape. If you also, if you were with us when we studied Zechariah, Zechariah 14.8 says the river flowing from Jerusalem is going to divide. And one branch is going to go east to the Dead Sea, and the other branch goes to the Mediterranean. In the millennium, the landscape is going to be drastically changed. A river of fresh water flowing through that region, and we saw it's going to be a very large river, it would transform the geography tremendously. 4710 lists specific towns that are going to be replenished by this river. The reason I bring that up is because if this was just a figurative allegory for a spiritual concept, I mean, we could do that, right? We could go over to John 7, where uh Jesus talks about rivers of living water flowing from our heart, or John 4 when he talks about springs of water bubbling up to eternal life. We could read that back into the Old Testament and try to make these allegorical, but the language doesn't allow for that. Secondly, there's too much specifics here about what's going to happen with specific towns. Allegories don't mention specific towns and specific directions of the river. Also, the river here provides abundant life both on the shore and in the sea. The river flows into the Dead Sea and heals the water. The Dead Sea now is just that. It's dead because of the salt content. Nothing lives there. This water is going to replenish even the dead. It was not the case that in the intertestamental period there was some source of life that proceeded from the temple to bring life to dead people in and around Israel and the nations around there. By the time Jesus came, he accused the Jewish leaders of being whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones. I would hold here, Steve, this is a literal river that gives literal life to a very dry and thirsty land.

SPEAKER_01: 34:35

I don't think that you could take it any other way. And as we mentioned many times in going through studying the word of God, is that yes, there can be certain doctrines and theologies spoken about, but when you go verse by verse through the text, then you have to deal with what the text says. This is very plain and clear to me, and I think to you as well, that this river is real and the places are real that are spoken there. Then the next two verses, if I could read those real quick, verse 13, chapter 47 says, Thus says the Lord God, this shall be the boundary by which you shall divide the land for an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. You shall divide it for an inheritance, each one equally with the other. For I swore to give it to your forefathers, and this land shall fall to you as an inheritance. In other books of the Old Testament of the prophets, God has promised a restoration of the nation of Israel, a restored kingdom. Over in Acts chapter 1, verse 6, the disciples standing before the resurrected Jesus ask him, Lord, is now the time whenever you're going to restore the kingdom. Here we have in Ezekiel chapter 47, verses 13 and 14, God giving and laying out the boundaries to the nation of Israel. He says it's going to be divided equally, for he says, I swore to give it to your forefathers, and this land shall fall to you as an inheritance. As we've talked about this time of being sometime in the future, I think we can see here that God still has something planned for the nation of Israel. And we can see through these verses that he's very specific about it. If you follow through on the verses in chapter 47, he gives very descriptive places of each tribe and where the inheritance is going to be. So this obviously isn't a listing of inheritance from the book of Joshua, not that time frame, obviously. This is another time frame, still yet in the future, that God is going to list out in the nation of Israel, the 12 tribes are going to have their inheritance in the land once again.

SPEAKER_00: 37:05

One of the reasons why we go through this in so much detail is because there's other places in the Bible that these ideas tie together. Zechariah talks about a river flowing out. The book of Revelation, chapter 22, picks up this imagery from Ezekiel and describes a river with abundant life on the shores that heal the nations. If we understand what the book of Revelation is doing by pulling out these images from the Old Testament, then it just makes a lot more sense. That brings us to the end of the book of Ezekiel, and it's been a great study. Steve, we always like to remind our listeners that our website has a lot of resources. We have lesson plans that we give away. We have all of the audio and video lessons. People can use this to teach in their church and their Bible studies. So we just encourage you to look at our website. We also would encourage your feedback if you can send us an email at info, that's INFO at reasoningthible.com. Then we'd love to get your feedback on any of our books. And Steve, it's been a great study.

SPEAKER_01: 38:21

It's been a wonderful study and a fascinating study, and I'm looking forward to going through our next book.

SPEAKER_00: 38:27

And we'll trust that you'll be back here doing that with us as we continue to reason through the Bible.

SPEAKER_01: 38:33

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.