Page 242 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

'>236 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
So even then the prophet is commanded to set the
house before Israel in its measured pattern, that they
anight feel of what their iniquity deprived them. Deeply
will the vision act on them by-and-by.
“ Thou, 0 son of man, tell the house of Israel of the
house that they may be ashamed of their iniquities,
nnd let them measure the pattern. And if they are
ashamed of all that they have done, let them know the
form of the house, and its arrangements, and the goings
-out of it, and the comings in of it, and all the forms of it,
and all the laws of i t ; and write it in their sight, that
dhev may observe all its forms and all its statutes and
do them. This [is] the law of the house : on the sum­
mit of the mountain shall its whole limit round about
,be most holy. Behold, this [is] the law of the house.”
(Ver. 10-12.) Far more than of old shall holiness
reign in that day. Compare also Zechariah xiv.
Next in order we have the measurement of the altar,
and then its statutes for the offering of burnt-offerings
and sprinkling of blood.
We have already seen that it is in vain to apply this
description to the past return from Babylon. Much
more evidence will follow in refutation of such a thought.
The present chapter is evidence enough; there has
been no return of the Shechinah. The Jews were
then groaning under Gentile power. Since the de­
struction of the city by the Komans still less can it
apply. Why then should men evade the only alterna­
tive ? The fulfilment is future. Israel shall yet return
to the land, and be converted indeed, and blessed, under
.Jehovah their God, but as Israel, not as Christians,
which all believers do become meanwhile, whether Jews