Today's Favorite Verse: Ezekiel 40:2, 4, 41

Today's Favorite Verse: Ezekiel 40:2, 4, 41

"In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.

Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew their sacrifices."

Ezekiel is shown a vision of a city and temple to be built. There is a lot of detail on its exact measurements. I wondered if Ezekiel's temple was the second temple and found that one didn't meet all the design requirements. This is a vision of a future temple to still be built. It could be the third temple, the one that has to be rebuilt and some think it maybe yet a fourth one to come after that.

Now that all made me wonder how you would have tables to slew sacrifices if Jesus Christ fulfilled that role as the ultimate sacrifice? We no longer practice the law of Moses and sacrifice animals. I suppose the tables could be used for the blessing and passing of the sacrament? What is another possibility is that temple never was going to be built. The vision has another purpose. I found one such suggestion by Elder James E. Talmage.

“In the twenty-fifth year of the Babylonian captivity, while yet the people of Israel were in exile in a strange land, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel; the power of God rested upon him; and he saw in vision a glorious Temple, the plan of which he minutely described. As to whether the prophet himself considered the design so shown as one to be subsequently realized, or as but a grand yet unattainable ideal, is not declared. Certain it is that the Temple of the vision has not yet been builded.

The immediate purpose of this revelation through the vision of the prophet appears to have been that of awakening the people of Israel to a realization of their fallen state and a conception of their departed glory.” (Elder James E. Talmage, "The House of the Lord", pp. 37–38.)

(Old Testament Student Manual, Kings-Malachi, "Prophecies of the Restoration", (27-29) Ezekiel 40-44 The Vision of a Future Temple)

It seems possible that this glorious temple was simply for an awakening, since the man in Ezekiel's vision told him to set his heart upon all he would be shown.

Day 3001