Ezekiel 40:4 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
If you have ever been to the area around Phoenix, Arizona and stood on the edge of the valley looking into the desert, you have probably had a vision. I’ve stood in Buckeye, Arizona and behind me was a Walmart, ahead was the desert, and between the two there were roads that already have curbs and fire hydrants. What was I looking at? It was a vision, something that did not yet exist but the city fathers fully had in their minds. It is not completed, but in their minds it was. It was a finished fact.
There is a vision that is much more certain, the vision that God Himself has. I know God, but God knows everything. So, God knows what will be. It is a little bit like when a new president takes office and it is said of him, “Well, they are already measuring the curtains for the White House residence.” Are they actually measuring the curtains? Maybe not, but those are the words used speaking of the vision of what is anticipated.
In Ezekiel 40-43, Ezekiel has a vision. The vision is of a man with a measuring reed, and he is measuring a temple and city that will yet be. In Ezekiel’s day the temple had been destroyed and Jerusalem had been sacked. What Ezekiel saw was a vision that was much more vibrant and just as real as his history and his current reality.
In Ezekiel 40:2 the context is the years of the captivity after the city was smitten. It says, “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.” There was a man with a measuring reed, and verse 4 says, “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.” So, what God was going to show through this man with the measuring reed was to be absorbed by Ezekiel and given to God’s people.
What follows is amazing to tell. In fact, chapters 40-43 have probably more detail that you want to read and absorb and more than I understand. You read of God’s holiness, the defilement that had been brought by sin, the cleansing from sin, the consequent glory of God appearing, and God saying in Ezekiel 43:27, “I will accept you.”
What you have here you may read and think, “Wow, why all this detail?” You may not understand half the details you are given, but the point is this is as certain as done. This is what I can see; this is what God knows. I see through my eyes, hear through my ears, taste through my tongue, but God does not just perceive; He knows. He lives in absolute reality. I don’t know everything. I perceive things, but even the things I perceive sometimes are false. Someone says, “Seeing is believing.” Not if you are smart it doesn’t because there are so many things we can see today that just aren’t true. No one in their right mind would say, “I know it is true because I saw it on the internet.” The internet is subject to deceit and so are my perceptions, but God knows the beginning from the end and faith sees more clearly. It sees more clearly than what I can actually see through my physical eyes. We think faith is blind, but faith is not blind if it is in a reliable source, the authoritative truth of God and His Word. So, faith in God’s Word sees more clearly.
I wonder what my grandparents would think about my daily life. I don’t realize the radical changes that have happened in the last twenty years. For instance, I was on a toll road in Florida and a machine over my head automatically read a barcode on my truck and charged me for driving on that road, or I went to a grocery store and used the self-checkout. Nobody would have thought of these twenty-five years ago. I have a smart phone and the things that are possible, good or bad, are just mind-blowing. So, my grandparents who were here not that long ago would have a hard time comprehending an average day in my life.
On the other hand, my children would have a hard time imagining what my life was like in 1980. In other words, one group has a hard time looking into the future and another group has a hard time looking into the past. God knows the beginning from the ending, and faith sees more clearly. I know God, but God knows everything. In Ezekiel 43:3 Ezekiel mentions that the vision he had was like the vision he had back in chapter 1 when his body was in captivity but he would see things that were beyond the boundaries of captivity. Faith sees more clearly.
So, there are three challenges. First, have open eyes. The man says to Ezekiel, “Behold with thine eyes.” Is seeing believing? In the 1990’s there was a company called Glamour Shots that would take your photo and glamorize it to make you look prettier or more handsome. That is so quaint when you live in a day of AI, where you see things that literally did not happen. So have open eyes not merely to what your eyes take in but to what God knows. Faith sees more clearly. Pity the man who knows only what he thinks he has seen. Have open eyes to what God has taken in through eternity.
Second, have open ears. Ezekiel is told, “Hear with thine ears.” Hearing the words of the Lord is oftentimes the challenge of God’s Word. Hear what God is saying. When I was a child, my mom would often look at me and say, “Wil, are you listening to me?” My ears could hear sounds and I was looking at my mom, but out of the mist of my own mind, I could hear, “Wil, are you listening to me?” Why was she asking that? Because there is a difference between perceiving sound and listening. The truth is that we see through our eyes but we see with our brain. We hear through our ears, but we hear with our brain. That is why he says, “Have open eyes; have open ears.”
Third, he basically says, “Have an open heart.” That is the sum and substance. Set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee and declare it to the house of Israel.” Have an open heart. We see and hear with our brains, and that is why it is important to have an open heart to what God has said. If I am dependent upon what I can experience in a day to know what I know I am a very limited person indeed. But if I realize that I know God and God knows everything, then I realize that faith sees more clearly. Do I understand everything I read in the flurry of details about the future temple in Ezekiel 40-43? No, but God does. He has demonstrated that in the details He has given, and faith sees more clearly. May God help us to come to God’s truth, have open eyes, ears, heart and a ready mind of understanding.