Lent 2023 day 41

 After nearly 40 years of being a Christian its not too often these days that I hear something in a sermon Ive never heard before. But yesterday I did. So, apologies to readers from MCC but Im pinching this directly from Rory Blake-Knox because I thought it was fascinating.

Ezekiel chapter 10 tells of the departure of the glory of God from the temple in Jerusalem. God had had enough of the idolatry and disobedience of His people so He decided to remove His presence from the place He had been dwelling with His people since Moses built the tabernacle and later Solomon constructed the mighty temple.   The exit route is detailed by Ezekiel.  First the glory leaves the Holy of Holies and moves to the threshold. God then leaves the temple and moves to the east gate of the city

The east gate is probably the one referred to as "the gates of righteousness" and "the gate of the LORD" in Psalm 118:19-20 and the "everlasting doors" in Psalm 24:7, 9. It is called the "Sun gate" in a Talmudic passage (Erubin 5:22c) because the sun would shine through it in the morning. Also through this gate traditionally the king and the ark entered the city in sacred processions.  The glory then moves to a mountain on the east side of Jerusalem- the Mount of Olives. It is presumed that from there God's glory returns to heaven.   

East Gate Jerusalem

Yesterday was Palm Sunday.  We followed Jesus as He came from Bethany in the east, over the Mount of  Olives into Jerusalem through the East gate on temple mount - the same way the glory of God had left, but in reverse. Bethany was the place where traditionally the paschal lamb was sourced so it too would have travelled that same road to get to the temple and the place of its sacrifice.  According to Jewish tradition the shekhinah glory of God will return through the east gate ( Sun Gate).  Jesus , the sacrificial lamb, was carrying the divine presence back to the place where it had last been seen hundreds of years previously!  But this time He was fulfilling the prophesy which comes a few verses later in Ezekiel 11

19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Mount of Olives

I love this stuff! I love the way God stitches everything together so beautifully with so many layers to discover.  I had never seen before that Jesus's ' triumphal entry' into Jerusalem was fulfilling the Jewish belief that the glory of God would one day return in the way it left. Of course we later see Jesus being taken up to heaven from Bethany on the Mount of Olives.  For a second time the manifest presence of God was departing ; but this time He was leaving in order that the Holy Spirit could be released to become the indwelling glory that Ezekiel had forseen.  

How perfectly it all fits together.  It blows my mind that people can think that the Bible is a random collection of disparate writings with no divine inspiration and authorship. Or that people could have sat down to work out every detail of every Biblical prophesy and then written the gospels to make it seem that they were being fulfilled.  Its just so incredibly improbable!

As we head into the last few precious days of Lent 2023 let's be open to seeing this old story in new ways and understanding even more of what Jesus was doing that Passover 2000 years ago. And as we do, let's allow praise to rise.