It is not always easy to track Ezekiel’s chronological references, but he makes this one clear: “In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me there. He brought me, in visions of God, to the land of Israel” (Ezekiel 40:1-2). He gives us these exact details of time to provide a context for what he will say next: because the rest of the chapter does not talk about chronology, but about the vision God gave him.

Even so, it will be helpful for us to pause for a moment, as we read the story many centuries later, to appreciate that chronology again. Ezekiel had been taken as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylon during the earlier part of the Exile. That meant he had already been living in Babylon for more than 10 years before the destruction of Jerusalem brought the rest of the people into captivity: and that had happened 14 years before the events in this chapter. Thus it was going on 25 years that Ezekiel had been living in exile far from Jerusalem. During that time he would have experienced moments of despondency and moments of hopefulness. And there were still many years of captivity to run.

Yet in this vision, God showed Ezekiel the temple as it would be rebuilt. The description is exacting and detailed. “There was a barrier before the recesses, one cubit on either side; and the recesses were six cubits on either side” (40:12). “The nave of the temple and the inner room and the outer vestibule were paneled, and, all around, all three had windows with recessed frames” (41:15-16).

We can describe Ezekiel’s state of mind, though it is hard for us to know just how devastated he felt. Surely his heart ached, with the terrible knowledge that his city and his homeland were destroyed, and the temple of his Lord lay in ruins. He had lived as a captive in this foreign land for nearly all his adult life, and he would die there. Yet God gave him this highly-detailed vision of how it all would eventually be rebuilt: not in his own day, but some day.

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We are not good at patience, Lord. When we are depressed we want a solution, and we want it now. We have confidence that you will bring us restoration: but it might not be as quick as we’d like. Teach us, Holy Savior, to trust in you, and in your timing, to accomplish your good will.

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