The Golden Gate

 

I read Ezekiel 43 this morning. Ezekiel writes of a vision he had regarding the east gate of Jerusalem. It is a prophecy about the God of Israel, or the Messiah returning at the end times. 

"Afterward, he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the east; and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with his glory."

This is the gate used by Jesus to enter the city on Palm Sunday. It angered the theologians of the day as Jesus was enacting the future procession of the Messiah through the east gate at the end of days. The symbolism was not lost on the people or the rulers of Jerusalem, and they were enraged by the audacity of the act.

The prophet Ezekiel was born in Judea approximately 622 BC. He died in Babylon (after the destruction of the temple and the sacking of Judea by the Babylonians) in 570 BC.

Knowing the prophecy of the returning Messiah, the Muslims sealed up the east gate of Jerusalem in 810 AD. In 1102 AD, the Crusaders reopened the east gate, but it was closed again in 1541 after the Muslims reconquered the city in 1187. It has remained closed until the present day with many Muslims buried in a cemetery before the gate. This cemetery was imposed in a belief that any Messiah would never cross over unhallowed ground containing dead bodies.

Centuries before, Ezekiel had his prophetic vision of this closed gate and cemetery. "While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple; and he said to me; 

'Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry, and by the dead bodies of their kings, by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorpost besides my doorposts with only a wall between me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger. Now, let them put away their idolatry, and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.'"

When the Messiah comes - he comes for the whole earth with mercy or judgement based on our decision to believe.