Then the man brought me to the gate facing east … - Ezekiel 43:1

Today's Scripture Reading (July 17, 2020): Ezekiel 43

I live in the northern end of a major North American city. The significance of the geographical location of my home, at least for me, is that most of the places I frequently visit outside of my local neighborhood are located south of the city.  This means, to get where I want to go, I have first to cross the city, which can be an ordeal in itself. Of course, the city planners recognized my plight (okay, they understood my suffering and that of another million inhabitants of the city) and built a road that does nothing but circle the city. It is possible to get onto this road, and never get off it, just traveling in circles around and between the metropolitan population centers of the area. The highway goes absolutely nowhere. And I have threatened that one day I will do precisely that; I will go to this road and travel around the city, re-entering the city at the exact place where I left it. Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, I haven't been that bored yet, although I know of parents who have found that a lap around the city can do wonders to settle an upset child.

The actual purpose of the road is not to give bored people that opportunity to drive in circles. The route provides a quicker way to get where it is that you need to go. You can exit the city and travel on this highway, which has a higher speed limit and no stoplights, and then re-enter the city close to where you need to be. Or you can exit the city in the north and drive to the cities and towns located to the south of the urban center. (It also works if you want to go east or west, or if you live in the south and need to go north of the city.) Wherever you need to go, it is a quick and efficient way of getting you where you need to be. Of course, the exception is the central core of the city. To get there, you still have to fight through the traffic of the city.

Ezekiel here begins a discourse on the Eastern Gate of the Temple. There is a significance here that is merely geographical in nature. The Eastern Gate of the Temple was close to the Eastern Gate of the city, or the gate called Beautiful, the Golden Gate. And it is the proximity of these two gates that is important. If you wanted to go to the Temple area, the easiest way to get there was to enter the city through the Gate Beautiful and into the Temple through the Eastern Gate.

When Ezekiel saw the presence of God leave the Temple, he writes that "The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it" (Ezekiel 11:23). God left through the Eastern Gate. Now, God takes Ezekiel to Eastern Gate of the Temple in his vision to witness the return of the glory of God through that same gate. Old Testament Scholar Daniel Block makes this observation about the Eastern Gate: "Although Yahweh could have entered the temple area through the northern or southern gate, the choice of the east gate is deliberate, leading in a straight line along the central spine of concentrated sacrality to the holy of holies." Apparently, it was the easiest way to enter the Temple for both God and man.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 44