The Infilling Cloud/Pillar and its Significance
The history of the tabernacle and temple(s) is of great significance to biblical understanding. Erection of these structures, their consecration and their destruction are deeply significant. As an example, a high point in Israel’s religion was reached with the completion and consecration of the tabernacle in which was seen a visible cloud by day/pillar of fire by night indwelling the tabernacle. [1]
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. [2]
The infilling of the Holy-of-Holies with the divine Presence was deeply significant, showing that the tabernacle was God’s house. The appearance of the cloud symbolized that God was indwelling His house and thus present with the Israelites.
The tabernacle was a portable structure that allowed quick and easy encampment from which the Divine Presence directed camp activities such as wanderings and temporary settlements. After entering the land, the tabernacle was located at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1), Nob (1 Samuel 21) and Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39) before David began preparations for a more permanent temple structure in Jerusalem. After seven years of building by Solomon, the temple was completed and a second high point was reached in the Hebrew cult with the indwelling of the temple by the cloud/pillar:
10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.
12 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; 13 I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.” 1 Kings 8 (cf. 1 Chronicles 5:13)
The “Unfilling” of the Temple and its Meaning
With God’s presence infilling the temple, Yahweh now had a permanent dwelling place, “a place for [Yahweh] to dwell forever”. But “forever” was predicated upon Solomon’s obedience (1 Kings 9:6-9), who would soon after enter into forbidden political alliances with surrounding nations (Exodus 23:32; 34:12-15; Deuteronomy 7:2) solidifying these pacts in marriage (1 Kings 11:1-7). The marriages would lead he and the nation into idolatry despite God’s warning that Israel would be exiled and their temple abandoned (2 Chronicles 7:19-22). God’s warning included destruction of the temple and ridicule of God’s people.
Following Solomon’s reign, his kingdom was split. The Northern kingdom quickly fell into idolatry and eventually fell to the Assyrian empire with much of the nation exiled. The captives from the Northern kingdom quickly assimilated into Assyrian culture never to be heard from again. The Southern kingdom (Judah) underwent cycles of idolatry and revival before finally falling to Babylon. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed with many taken into exile as the prophets had warned. Before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple however, Ezekiel received a vision of the temple germane to our discussion:
1 I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim. 2 The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in. 3 Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks. Ezekiel 10
18 Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. 19 While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
1 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east. There at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. 2 The Lord said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who are plotting evil and giving wicked advice in this city. 3 They say, ‘Haven’t our houses been recently rebuilt? This city is a pot, and we are the meat in it.’ 4 Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man.” 5 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on me, and he told me to say: “This is what the Lord says: That is what you are saying, you leaders in Israel, but I know what is going through your mind. 6 You have killed many people in this city and filled its streets with the dead. 7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: The bodies you have thrown there are the meat and this city is the pot, but I will drive you out of it. 8 You fear the sword, and the sword is what I will bring against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. 9 I will drive you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners and inflict punishment on you. 10 You will fall by the sword, and I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 11 This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it; I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. 12 And you will know that I am the Lord, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.” Ezekiel 11
Yahweh was preparing judgment for the city of Jerusalem for their covenantal sins. In the vision, Ezekiel sees the cloud, the visible presence of God exiting the Holy-of-Holies, abandoning the Solomonic temple. Yahweh’s exodus portends destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. With God’s departure, the temple is left desolate. Ezekiel’s vision closes with the prophecy that Judah will be carried into Babylon in exile. The destruction of the temple and city followed in 587 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar. Yahweh’s abandonment of temple was deeply significant when contrasted against its consecration. In the latter, God indwells His House, bringing peace and safety to Israel. The land has been subdued and Israel victorious over her adversaries. Her sins however, have emptied God’s house, leaving the control room of the cosmos unoccupied, anticipating coming chaos in judgment for Israel’s sins. Israel has moved from God’s blessing to God’s judgment. What followed was the destruction of the temple, Jerusalem, the land and captivity/exile of the people in judgment.
Scripture’s Silence Regarding an Infilling of Ezra’s Rebuilt Temple
With the completion of God’s judgment upon Israel, Yahweh allowed the return of the exiles some seventy years later. With great difficulty, the returning remnant were able to erect a second temple upon the site of Solomon’s temple. With its completion came another consecration ritual:
15 The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. 16 Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. 17 For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their groups for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses. Ezra 6
At the consecration and dedication of the second temple, one important element is absent. The cloud, the visible presence of Yahweh, is not seen (re)inhabiting the second temple, in contrast to the dedication of the tabernacle and Solomonic temple. The lack of the visible presence is confirmed in Jewish writings. [3] The second temple was no longer the dwelling place of God. He did not make the second temple His home after His abandonment of Solomon’s temple. It would seem that He distanced Himself from His people as a result of their idolatry. Thus, the grandeur of the second temple would never approach that of the first temple.
Further, the significance of the second temple in Judaism would be diminished when compared with the first temple. Mainstream Judaism chose not to participate in the exodus, leaving only a remnant to return to rebuild the temple. Most preferred to remain in Babylon. The importance of sacrifice had already diminished. The temple’s importance would also wane with the development of synagogues. Likewise the importance of Jerusalem would be diminished. [4] This truth was not only borne out in the pre-exilic vision of Isaiah 23:1-24:14 but foreshadowed in the post-exilic dedication of the second temple that Yahweh chose not to dwell within. Inherent in Yahweh’s refusal to indwell the second temple was an implication that a new age was dawning. The old era of Yahweh tabernacling in a temple of stone now seemed past. Though known to Judaism (1 Kings 8:27), its reality went unperceived. But God would build a far greater temple in due time.
The second temple would later undergo an exterior facelift and a greatly expanded temple complex under Herod the Great. Though again lacking the cloud of Yahweh’s presence, the temple continued to carry significance to the Jewish population. Its destruction in 70 A.D. would carry profound impact upon the Jewish people in Palestine. It would again end the Jewish cult practice of sacrifice and eliminate the one place Jews would gather to celebrate the cult and band together in unity of belief and purpose. The Jews would be scattered again and all future worship would be conducted sacrifice-less in local synagogues throughout the world. There was no longer a central meeting-place where all Jews would gather three-times annually before the face of God and remember Yahweh’s miraculous deeds (Exodus 23:17; Deuteronomy 16:16). Yet well before the destruction of Herod’s temple, Yahweh had given assurance He would not leave His people. That assurance had been given to the exiles before the promised destruction of the Solomonic temple prophesied in Ezekiel 11:
14 The word of the Lord came to me: 15 “Son of man, the people of Jerusalem have said of your fellow exiles and all the other Israelites, ‘They are far away from the Lord; this land was given to us as our possession.’ 16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ 17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’ 18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.” 22 Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. 23 The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. 24 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.
The key is vs 16, in which Yahweh reveals to Ezekiel and the exiles that God was already a sanctuary (מִקְדָּשׁ miqdash) to the exiles though they are far from the temple and thus unable to offer sacrifices. [5] Their inability to reach the temple was a covenantal violation yet Yahweh would be merciful to them despite the judgment upon them. God would be their sanctuary in the absence of the Jerusalem sanctuary. [6] Ezekiel has just experienced a vision in which God was departing the temple, defiled with Israelite and Levitical idolatry. It portended the Jerusalem temple was no longer a valid, operational temple, no longer God’s house. That God takes a moment to assure those already in captivity that the Lord is their sanctuary points toward a new reality that Israel’s sanctuary was now transitioning into a spiritual sanctuary through God’s unseen presence, a spiritual temple from which spiritual sacrifices could be offered. This assurance is critically important as it justifies changes soon-to-come in Judaism given the absence of a temple.
The assurance doesn’t end there however. Yahweh promises to return the captives to Israel from whatever nations where they may reside in exile (vs 17). With their return comes another transformation where God’s people will no longer be guilty of idolatry (vs 18). Their past idols will be removed as Yahweh will give them a new heart of flesh to replace their current heart of stone (vs 19) and a new spirit that will enable them to keep His covenantal laws (vss 19-20). Yahweh then warns of judgment upon unrepentant idolators (vs 21) before exiting the temple and city (vs 23), resting apparently above the Mount of Olives before completing the vision. With the temple’s destruction and their exile, Yahweh promises to be their sanctuary. That Yahweh will be their spiritual sanctuary while in captivity begins the process of reinterpretation of the temple despite the promise of return. Critically, their return brings a new heart and new spirit, foreshadowing the new covenant brought by the Messiah. The transition from a stone temple as the only place of God’s presence to a spiritual sanctuary where Yahweh could be found throughout the nations into which His people were scattered foreshadows and anticipates the house of God as His people. It is hinted with the promise to give them a new spirit, opening the possibility of God’s indwelling presence (as a cloud or pillar of fire) in a new sanctuary, His people.
Relevance to God’s People Today
Ethical Insights
The brief overview of Israel’s temple-history provides important lessons. God’s intention had always been that His house would be the center of life for His people. The tabernacle, set up in the center of the camp, and its successor the temple erected in Jerusalem, the city that came to represent God’s people, affirm temple centrality to the cult. Sabbaths, festivals, sacrifices and offerings were all conducted at the temple. The cult required three times per year that every Israelite appear before the temple, establishing its importance to every Hebrew, free or slave, debtor or lessor. Its consecration and indwelling assured peace and security for God’s people. They would be protected from outside raiders, famine, drought, pestilence or other maladies. With God in His House, Israel would be perpetually blessed.
Unfortunately, Israel failed to honor her covenantal obligations, aggregiously practicing idolatry that brought abandonment of God’s house, unfit for a holy God after being sullied with the idolatrous sins of its priests and Levites. God’s abandonment seen in vision by Ezekiel, appears to be a recapitulation of the episode of Israel’s idolatry in the wilderness (Exodus 32-34). The idolatrous episode of the golden calf postponed Yahweh’s plans for the erection of the tabernacle to a later date, also delaying the anticipated Divine Presence that would fill that tabernacle. It would leave the Israelites without the Divine Presence in their midst. In the interim, Moses constructed a tent of meeting as a place to seek the Lord. [7] But this tent was located outside the camp and far from it (Exodus 33:7). [8] God had not left them completely. He would still honor His promise and His Presence would go before them, taking them to the land. Yet the Israelites would suffer for their sin. Over three thousand were slain by the sword (Exodus 32:28) on those who participated directly in the idolatry with a further delayed judgment of a plague (vs 35) likely on those who did not intervene against the evil, leaving only a remnant – those who had remained faithful. All those who were guilty would have their names blotted out of the book of life (vs 33).
Ezekiel’s vision shows strong parallels. There is a picture of the leadership who committed the idolatry and whose judgment is immediate (Ezekiel 9:6-7), seen in those appointed to execute judgment with a weapon in hand. There is a remnant that was not guilty who were sealed with a mark (vs 4), indicative that their names would not be blotted out. All others would be judged through the later fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar (11:21).
Ezekiel’s vision of Yahweh’s temple-abandonment parallels the tent of meeting outside the camp that followed Israel’s idolatrous worship of the golden calf. Deferment of the tabernacle’s erection meant the divine Presence would not be in the center of the camp, much as Yahweh’s presence would no longer occupy the Jerusalem temple. That the divine Presence was located outside the camp seems to parallel Yahweh’s throne chariot resting above the Mount of Olives – outside the temple, not close as it rested outside the community symbolized in Jerusalem.
That Ezekiel’s vision ends with Yahweh’s presence resting above the Mount of Olives, seems designed to show that His people, though deeply sinful like the generation of Moses day, would not be abandoned. As that generation had a tent of meeting as a sanctuary to meet with God, so Yahweh had promised to be a sanctuary to the exiles who would find themselves in the wilderness of the nations, far from Jerusalem. Similarly, as Yahweh would later fulfill the erection of the tabernacle and subsequently indwell it with His Presence, we find a promise of a restored temple to be erected in the future (Ezekiel 40-43) with the promise that this new temple would be filled with Yahweh’s Presence (Ezekiel 43:1-5).
While all Christians should be encouraged by the promise of a restored temple, signifying restoration of God’s presence with His people, the rewards of obedience and judgments for disobedience should not be trivialized. God dwells among a holy people in a holy place (the temple). Too often sin is minimized in the church, claiming we’re fallen beings subject to sin but serving a God that is all forgiving. God is above all forgiving – but to those who repent, and repentance implies a turning from sin. If we do not turn from our wicked ways but continue in sin, we risk exclusion from God’s blessing and exclusion from His holy community. Christians cannot use our sinful nature as license for sin. Ezekiel testifies that we have been empowered by God’s Spirit to live our lives faithfully to the covenant. Thus, we should no longer consider ourselves fallen creatures but new creations – made holy before God by the transformative power of His Spirit.
The consequences of sin must be more deeply considered within the church. Sin by members of God’s community brings destruction of God’s creation. Since creation is a model of redemption, sin has the power to destroy God’s redemptive work in the church and its members. It further has the power to destroy the redemptive work in the unsaved – those outside our community we seek to lead to Christ. Critically, sin makes God’s House unfit for habitation. It means that those who sin, should consider themselves in the outer court, living among the spiritually dead. Priestly access to the Holy Place – the place of communion with God, is denied to those whose lives are marked by unconfessed sin or where true repentance is lacking. It means that those guilty of unholy living should consider themselves unsaved. Their sin has “undone” or “uncreated” their new creation in Christ. Hence why the Old Testament required that those who sinned be separated from the congregation until they repented and completed ritual sacrifices and washings emblematic of cleansing. This is the “path” of sin with individual believers. They are moved outside the community.
For corporate sins of the church, the consequences are similar. God moves “outside” and distant from His people, signaling a loss of God’s blessing upon the community and the onset of God’s judgments. Spiritual and physical chaos follows and no one should expect God will bring deliverance to His people until after the judgments have played out. The destructive power is not to be under-estimated. Better our leaders urge holiness than cheapen God’s grace with excuses.
Eschatological Insights
Ezekiel is a tremendous book that takes the reader from destruction of God’s temple, land and people to a restoration evident in a new temple, a restored Edenic land and a transformed people capable of living faithfully. But it is not merely a transformed people. Important differences are presented in the description of the land as Edenic and the temple that is uniquely different from the Solomonic temple. With Moses’ generation, a tabernacle was built and Yahweh infilled it, but that tabernacle was a physical structure made with human hands. Though Ezekiel’s prophecy also assured a new indwelt temple, there are hints that this new temple would not be a literal temple of stone like its predecessor. Ezekiel made frequent allusions to Eden, both the failed attempts of men to implement Edenic kingdoms (Ezekiel 17:1-10; 19:10-14; 28:11-19; ), and Yahweh’s final realization of His restored eschatological-temple, also described using Edenic language (Ezekiel 36:35; 37:5, 26-28; 47:1-12). [9]
Eden represented a prototypical sanctuary between God and Adam, suggestive that the new sanctuary did not need to be a physical structure made by men but could be provided by God (i.e. made without human hands). [10] Further, Ezekiel makes frequent allusion to Yahweh’s sanctuary as a mountain, another prototypical symbol for a sanctuary. [11] Other prophets similarly spoke of the sanctuary or final temple of the Lord employing mountain imagery (Isaiah 2:2; Daniel 2:35; Micah 4:1). That these temple-symbols occur is suggestive that the final eschatological-temple may not be a physical structure made with human hands like the Solomonic temple. Such an idea is consistent with hints from other prophetic writings including Isaiah 4:5-6; 57:15; 66:1-2; Zechariah 2:4-5, 10. The promise of God’s temple as a nonphysical structure is apparent in Leviticus 26 as part of the covenant of Sinai:
9 “ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. 11 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
Note the reference to fruitfulness and increases in number, pointing to the final fulfillment of the Genesis 1 creation-narrative. Note also Yahweh will walk among them, as He did with Adam in Eden, again pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of a restored Eden as a model of the restored temple. [12] It supports that Palestine was theologically viewed as Eden by the Jewish people. These biblical references support a transition from a physical temple too small to hold God’s glory to a nonphysical temple of Yahweh dwelling with His people, as He had originally dwelt with Adam before the fall.
Given these clues, it should not have been a great surprise to Judaism. Yet Yahweh did allow His people to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple seventy years after its destruction. It suggests two sanctuaries during a period of transition. The presence of two temples should not be viewed as conflicting however. The rebuilt second temple lacked the divine Presence, affirming it was no longer God’s dwelling place. It did however serve a purpose of uniting the returning Jews, encouraging them that Yahweh had not forsaken them. A faithful remnant returned and Yahweh rewarded them with a rebuilt temple and rebuilt walls of Jerusalem. Their weeping at the opening of the second temple however, confirms that His people must still await a final eschatological period of blessing and fulfillment where Yahweh would again indwell His temple and abide with His people. [13]
In the interim, they had a central space that brought unity of purpose and service to God. That purpose would be preserved in the expansion conducted under Herod though the divine Presence would again be lacking. Yet Yahweh’s divine Presence remained with His people in the form of an invisible sanctuary over His people until the coming of the eschatological age in which the final temple would be realized. With that temple came the promise of a new covenant and a total deliverance from Israel’s idolatry through a change in their hearts. Ezekiel’s prophecy anticipates the coming new covenant in the Messiah. It would be the Messiah who would change their hearts through inauguration of a new covenant, and with it a restored final eschatological temple. With this history as background, we are now prepared to discuss the creation of a new eschatological temple and examine the transition from the old temple and the significance of its destruction.
[1] Prior to the completion of the tabernacle, the “tabernacle of the congregation” (AV) served as a smaller meeting-place between Yahweh and Moses. During this time, Moses would enter the “tent of meeting” (RSV) and the cloud would appear outside the tent as the symbol of the divine Presence. These meetings occurred outside the camp in contrast to the tabernacle, which was located in the camp’s center during the wilderness wanderings. Gooding, D. W., The Illustrated Bible Dictionary Part 3,Tabernacle, Wheaton, IL, Inter-Varsity Press, Tyndale House Publishers, 1980,p. 1506
[2] The inability of Moses to enter the Tent of Meeting or the priests to enter the temple after God’s indwelling-fullness links to creation, first in the choice of verbage – “filled” מלא (male’) – a word used in the creation narrative (Genesis 1:22, 28) and second in establishing a domain on earth for God; a domain separated from man yet filling the building with life, much as the domains in creation were filled with lifeforms for which those domains were created.
[3] Jewish tradition confirms the absence of the ark of the covenant and the shekinah from the second temple: “The Sages (Yoma 21b) tell us that the Second Temple, which had not been anointed (see Tosefta Sotah 13:2) lacked five things, among them Shechinah, the evident Presence (as it were) of God.”. Goldwurm, Rabbi Hersh, Daniel, A new Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources, Brooklyn NY, Mesorah Publications Ltd, 1979, p. 261
[4] Watts notes the vision of Isaiah 24 attempts to convey to the post-exilic Jewish community that the importance of cities as centers of political power was coming to an end. A new era was dawning in which Jerusalem would not attain its prior greatness and glory under King David. The prior role of Jerusalem “is gone forever”. Watts, John D. W., Isaiah 1-33, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 24, Waco TX, Word Books, 1985, p. 319
[5] It is interesting that Ezekiel uses this word miqdash in his description of the final eschatological temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28; 43:21; 44:1, 5-16; 45:3-4; 45:18; 47:12; 48:8) while Jeremiah also used it in his description of the destruction of the Solomonic temple (Lamentations 2:7, 20). Both see God’s sanctuary as the temple, whether embodied in the physical Solomonic temple, the promised eschatological temple or the interim nonphysical dwelling Yahweh makes with His people in exile.
[6] Notice the very similar wording in Haggai 2:5 upon their return and completion of the second temple. Yahweh’s spirit remains among them.
[7] So Cassuto, U., A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, Jerusalem, Magnus Press, 1974, p. 425-426
[8] Note the parallel motif in Ezekiel 8-10. Ezekiel is shown the gross idolatry of Israel in chapter 8. Anticipating the exit of His Spirit from the temple (chapter 10), Yahweh asks Ezekiel, “do you see . . . the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary?” (vs 6). As with the idolatry in the wilderness, Yahweh must now reside outside the camp, far from them.
[9] Noted within some of these Edenic descriptions are attempts at an expanded kingdom, much like the mandate to fill the earth, a likely allusion to expanding the garden, eliminating the dry unfertile ground outside. For a more thorough discussion of this topic, see Beale, G. K., The Temple and the Church’s Mission, A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, Downers Grove IL, InterVarsity Press, 2004, p. 335-354
[10] That Eden was a prototypical sanctuary will be analyzed in future studies on Eden.
[11] Note particularly Mount Sinai, which was the meeting place between Yaweh and His people before a tent or tabernacle was established. That the covenant was executed there also supports that the Mount was a prototypical sanctuary or temple. Ezekiel’s references to mountain-sanctuaries or temples include Ezekiel 17:22-23; 20:40, cf. 28:14-16. Note particularly Ezekiel 40:1-2 which speaks of Ezekiel being taken to a very high mountain and seeing on its south side a city, which most agree is Jerusalem. Yet there is no very high mountain in Jerusalem, hinting figurative language, suggesting superiority of Ezekiel’s final eschatological-temple.
[12] Though reference is made to Yahweh walking among the Israelites in the wilderness, it was accomplished through His presence in limited space of an unapproachable room in the Tabernacle. The promise here appears to be unveiled, as in Eden with Adam.
[13] It is quite possible Jeremiah realized this truth. Despite mourning the destruction of the temple, he foresaw a day when the temple would no longer contain the ark, a powerful symbol of Israel’s covenant. The lack of the ark implied that Yahweh no longer had his footstool. In the last days, His throne would be in Jerusalem, rather than in heaven with the ark as His footstool (Jeremiah 3:16-17). Note the reference to increased peoples in the land, again pointing toward the final eschatological fulfillment of the Genesis 1 creation mandate of fill the earth.