The sanctuary of the exile.
The Jews of Jerusalem boasted themselves in their temple, but with a false confidence, for that splendid edifice was to be razed. On the other hand, the poor exiles of Babylon looked upon their state of separation from Jerusalem as involving a loss of the privileges of the sanctuary. Daniel prayed with his window open towards Jerusalem, as though God were still to be sought in the sacred city (Daniel 6:10). But Ezekiel gives the captives the assurance that God will be their Sanctuary during the short time of exile in the distant land of their captivity.
I. GOD IS THE BEST SANCTUARY. No Solomon can arise by the banks of the Chebar to build a new temple. The splendour of Lebanon and the skill of Hiram, together with the wealth and devotion of the Jewish nation at the height of its glory, produced a wonder of the world, which a feeble band of heartbroken captives could never dream of equalling. Yet the sorrow-stricken remnant of pious Israel were to have something better than gilded walls and cedar pillars. They were to have God as their Sanctuary.
1. God vouchsafes his presence to his people. He does not only give a house of worship; be comes himself.
2. God's presence sanctifies. It is a sanctuary. The place where Moses stood before the burning bush was "holy ground," for God was there (Exodus 3:5). Chaldea was far from the "Holy Land;" yet if God were there he would make light in the centre of heathen darkness. Wherever God visits us he makes a sanctuary. The workshop is a holy place when God is in it.
3. God's presence saves. The temple was regarded with a false confidence and a foolish superstition as a charmed asylum, but the event proved the delusiveness of such an assumption. When God is with us anywhere, however, we are safe; for he is "a Sun and a Shield."
II. THIS SANCTUARY IS TO BE FOUND IN EXILE.
1. In exile from the native land. The colonist far removed from the home and Church of his fathers, may find God in the bush or on the prairie. Though no "place of worship" may he within his reach, he need not feel banished from gracious influences. If his heart turn to God, God will be with him as his Sanctuary.
2. In exile from the old delights. When trouble comes, a man is, as it were, driven from the land flowing with milk and honey out into a waste howling wilderness. But One is with him, and the God who met the poor fugitive Jacob will make a Bethel in the desert of trouble.
3. In exile from heaven. We seek another country. Here we are pilgrims and strangers; our citizenship is in heaven. Nevertheless, God is with us here and now to train and guard and cheer us with the sanctuary of his presence.
4. For a short season. God would be the Sanctuary in exile "for a little time," not because he would soon desert the banished, but because he would bring them home again. If God is with us in trouble, he will bring us out of trouble. He is with us here for a season, that he may lead us to be with him in heaven forever. Christ came into exile from heaven to be with us here on earth that he might bring us back to God. He "tabernacled with us," was our Sanctuary in exile during his earthly ministry. Now he has gone to prepare a place for us in the eternal home.