Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_200.lzh/6_232.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-18 | 7KB | 128 lines

Ver. 4. And the gtor!! of the. Lord came into the house,
&e.] Before described and measured; and being fitted
and prepared, the builder and owner of it comes and
takes up his r, esidence in it; as Christ will do in iris
church, more especially and more visibly in the latter
day: by the way of the gate whose prospect is towards
the east; which was the direct way into the outward
court, and so to the-inward court, and into the holy,
and into the most holy place; and was the way by
which he departed from hence, ch. x. 18, 19.
Ver..5. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into
the inner court, &c.] The prophet was fallen down on
his face, upon the sight of the glory of the Lord, and
there he lay, until a wind came, as the word signifies;
or the Holy Spirit, which is compared to the wind, for
its in,aisible and irresistible power, came and took him
up: humble souls are regarded by the Lord; he raises
them up, and exalts them, and brings them into
nearer and more intimate communion with God; and
gives them clearer views still of the glories of Christ's
person, grace, and love: and it is the spirit of God
only. that does this, and that to priests only, such au
one as Ezekiel was; for none but priests went into the
inner court: and, behold, the glory of the Lord.filled the
house; the body of it; both the holy and the most
holy place, with all its courts and apartments; so the
glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle when that
was set up in the temple of Solomon, when it was
built; and' the glory of the Lord will fill the church of
God, yea, the whole earth, in the latter day, Isa. vi. 3.
ofthisChrist's personal appearance in the second tem pie,
which gave it a greater glory than the former, was an
emblem and pledge, Hagg. ii. 7, 9. here, it may be ob-
served, no mention is made of a cloud, as at the setting
up of the tabernacle, and dedication of the temple;
denoting the clear light of the Gospel in those times,
and how the glory of the Lord will be seen with open
face by all the saints.
Ver. 6. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the
house, &c.] The holy place, the pr6phet being in the
inward court: this is Jehovah the Fatber, the God of
Israel, whose glory entered into it; who utters his
voice out of Zion; who speaks in his church by his
word, and the ministers of it; and which is to be
heard and regarded, not as the word of man, but as
the word of God: and the man stood by me: whom he
saw at tirst with a measuringdine in his hand, ch. xl. 3.
and with whom he had been all along, and had seen
him measure the house, and all belonging to it: he stood
by him as the Mediator between God and him; as the
medium of communion with him; as the advocate
with the Father: he stood by him to interpret what
was said to him; to guide him further into the know-
ledge of divine things; to assist him, protect and de-
fend him, to continue him in fellowship with God,
and to preserve him in grace to glory. Here is an ap-
pearance of the three Persons in the Godhead; the
other speaking. to the prophet out of the house; the
Son in human form standing by him; and the Spirit of
the Lord, who had took him up from the ground, and
had brought him into the inner court.
Ver. 7. Ann he said unto me, sort of man,, &c.j A.
kind, usual, and singular appellation, given to this
prophet :- these are the words either of the man that
stood by him, so the Arabic version; or of Jehovah,
speaking out of' the house to him: the place of my
throne, and the place of the soles 9f my feet that is, this
house, the church of God, is the place where the
throne of the Lord is set; where he rules and reigns;
where he sets his feet, and is his resting-place; even
his, whose throne is the heaven, and the earth his
footstool ; here Christ, as King of saints, dwells, and
here he walks and shews the glory of his majesty:
where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel
.for ever; not Carnal, but spiritual Israel; such as are
Israelites indeed, or' which the church will be full in
the latter day, both Jews and Gentiles; and in the
midst of these will Jehovah dwell, and grant his
gracious presence, and never more depart from thetn:
this shews that this house or butlding ca,not be under-
stood of the second temple; since the Lord dkl not
dwell in that for ever, but has left that house desolate
hundreds of years ago: some Jewish writers {p} have
owned that it belongs to the times of the Messiah:
and my name shall the house of Israel no more tiefile, or
.profane; or cause to be blasphemeel by iramoralities,
or false doctrines, or superstition and wiii-worship;
denoting the holiness of life, purity of doctrine and
worship, in the churches of Christ in the latter day; see
lsa. iv. 3. Joel iii. 17. Zech. xiv. 2O, o, 1: neither they,
nor their 'Icings, by their whoredore : that is, idolatry,
which is spiritual fornication; such as the kings of
Israel, and their subjects, were often guilty of, before
their captivity in Babylon, though not after; nor will
they ever return to it in the latter day, when con-
verted; for they'll never espouse the idolatries of
Rome; and tbose kings and people that bear the name
of Christians, and yet commit fornicatioa with the
whore of Babylon, shall do so no more after these
times, Rev. xvii. 2, 16: nor by the carcasses of their
kings in their high places; or, and their high places {q};
that is, by both; by the carcasses of their kings being
buried in or. near the house of God; so the Targum
adds, at their death {r}; or by human carcasses being
sacrificed to Molech or Miichom, which signifies their
king: or else the idols themselves are so called, because
lifeless and abominable; see Jer. xvi. 18. and the
worship of which the kings of Israel encouraged by
precept and practice, order and example, and there, fore
called theirs; and also by th,dr high places, which
they made for idolatrous worship, and which were
made where the carcasses of their kings were laid, as
Ben Melech observes; and all which were done, espe-
cially in the reigns of Manasseh and Ammon: but now
nothing of this kind shall be hereafter, or any thing
now similar to it, in the antichristian state.
Vet. 8. In their setting of their threshold by my
threshold, &c.] The threshold is the way of entrance
;nto the house; when men open any other way of en-
trance into the house of God than he has directed, it is
setting up their threshold by his: the Gospel way of
entrance into the church of Christ is Christ himself,

{p} Vid. R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. p. 51.
{q} \^twmb\^ & excelsis suis, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
{r} So Abendana takes this word to signify in their death; their
carcasses beimg buried in their gardens, as Manasseh, 2 Kings xxi. 18.