“And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 40:4)
TEXT — Ezekiel 40:1-19
Message
In what is regarded as the deadliest aviation accident in history, in 1977, two Boeing 747 jumbo jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) in the Canary Islands. The collision resulted in the death of 583 people. It turned out that there was a miscommunication and misunderstanding of instructions between air traffic control and the pilots of KLM and Pan Am flights.
This led to the KLM aircraft attempting to take off while the Pan Am plane was still taxing on the runway. Across various domains, misunderstanding instructions can have serious consequences. This is why, in today’s text, Ezekiel was urged to pay complete attention to the instruction he was about to be given. Twenty five years into their captivity, Ezekiel saw a vision in which he was brought to a high mountain in Israel. Fourteen years earlier, Jerusalem had been destroyed along with Israel’s magnificent temple. In the vision, he was shown a new Jerusalem, with its temple and the accompanying features of worship. An angel was assigned to him to measure the specifications of the new city and temple while he was required to record the details, presumably to serve as a guide for the construction of the new temple. He was to record the details outlined to him, noting the exact specifications and measurements of every part of the building.
Generally, the vision was meant to encourage the exiled Jews to look forward with hope. It also pointed to the blessed restorations that would be ushered in by the gospel dispensation under the headship of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. We, too, should learn an important lesson from the instruction to Ezekiel by the angel.
The Lord has a purpose in revealing His word to you. He wants you to share the Word and the vision with others. But this can only be done if you properly understand God’s word. This means that you must “behold with (your) eyes, and hear with (your) ears, and set your heart” upon all that the Lord reveals to you.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
