Page 452, and what we're going to look at is describing the return of the Shekinah glory. You remember and recall why the Shekinah glory left. It was in Ezekiel, and they had corrupted the temple. They were worshiping all kinds of foreign gods in the temple, even Tammuz. And in Ezekiel's vision, he saw the Shekinah glory leave, and the glory went out the Eastern Gate and into the Mount of Olives, if you recall that. We're in Ezekiel 42, which is millennial passages, and now Ezekiel sees a picture of the future, and he sees the return of the Shekinah glory, and the Shekinah glory comes back in through the eastern gate and then rests in the temple, the millennial temple, during the millennial age. Okay, so here's, I guess, the questions when we need to start exploring. Why does the temple need the Shekinah glory in it? Whether it was Moses, the tabernacle, Solomon's temple, God resides there, but when the Shekinah glory comes and rests there, what is God saying about that place? It's holy and it's authorized by Him. It's blessed by Him, right? It's sanctioned by Him. And that's a key understanding about any temple. Okay, here's the mistake that's happening today. The Jews are trying to rebuild their temple. Okay? And they're doing it in violation of Isaiah 66. But God will not authenticate this future temple because the Shekinah will not come back and rest in that Tribulation Temple. And so they won't see the return of the Shekinah because this is the Tribulation Temple that the Antichrist will desecrate. And so if I was Jewish, This is what my prophets are saying that should happen, that the Shekinah should come back. And if they don't see that, that should be a clue to them that something's not right with this temple. Anytime there's a tabernacle or a temple, the Shekinah will return to it to authenticate it. It did in Solomon's day, it did in Moses' day, and it'll do it when Messiah builds the millennial temple. Okay, so then you have the return of the Shekinah, And then what Ezekiel predicts is that there will be a closing of the eastern gate permanently. Once the Shekinah goes through that eastern gate, the gate will then remain shut forever. Why? Why must that happen? Why does that happen? If you've ever been to Israel, or if you've heard certain teachings, they will show today the Eastern Gate, or the Golden Gate, and they will show that it's bricked up. Have you seen that? It's sealed by the Turks. The Turks basically sealed it and put all kinds of dead bodies in front of it, thinking that a Jewish Messiah would not decide to desecrate himself. And so they think that these dead bodies buried in front of the Eastern Gate are going to prevent Messiah from going through the Eastern Gate, which is ridiculous. I can't believe they think like that. But that's how Muslims think. They don't think rational. If Messiah is God, I guess they had never read that he splits the mountain in half and so dead bodies are... Ridiculous, that's not going to help stop him. Anyway, so today a lot of people who don't understand the Bible and that this is future will see the closing of the Eastern Gate today as prophetically significant and tack it to Ezekiel. And that is a big, big mistake. Because what's missing? The Shekinah hasn't went through it. The gate is only sealed after the Shekinah glory goes through it, which will only happen after the second coming. Okay? And so it's really important that you watch. Sometimes, and I've told you guys this before, you will have people with what's called an over-realized eschatology. That they start taking millennial passages and making them for today. Like I told you guys about being in Israel and they'll highlight that, oh look, the land's blossoming and it's blooming and this and that. And they're saying, see, that's a fulfillment of prophecy. And it's like, no. That's a millennial passage. That blossoming of Israel happens only when Messiah is here. And so they'll over-realize their eschatology. So that's what happens a lot of times with the current Eastern Gate, is people have an over-realized eschatology. Okay, so here's the question. Why does the gate then remain shut forever once the Shekinah glory goes through? It's never going to leave. The symbolic nature of bricking up the eastern gate forever once the Shekinah comes through shows us that the Shekinah will never leave again. It's there permanently, forever, because the Jews will never rebel. And so it kicks off a whole stream of thought. Like I told you, there's no unsaved Jews in the millennial reign. They will not rebel against God. Therefore, the Shekinah remains there and never leaves. Now, there's different aspects of the Shekinah glory. And I'll just highlight a few things. The Shekinah glory will not only be there in the temple, Jesus will emanate the Shekinah glory Himself there as well. Then you will have a Shekinah glory that encircles the walls of Jerusalem. And then you will have a Shekinah glory that actually covers the whole land of Israel in the form of a cloud in the day and higher by night. just like he did with Moses. And so you have all these manifestations of God's glory and the Shekinah all manifested through Jerusalem and Israel for all to see. So as people approach Israel, every time they approach Israel, they will see this bright light that is seen only in heaven, but now will be seen on earth. As they approach Israel, they will see that God is with Israel, and it will signal to everybody that God is there. So that's a little bit about the Shekinah glory, and we will see the return of that. Now, here's another question, just trivia. Where was the Shekinah glory during Jesus' ministry? Where? In Him? At what? Right? The Shekinah glory pointed out where the Messiah was born. Right? So you can have multiple manifestations of the glory of God. Because there's three persons. Right? The Star of Bethlehem is not an astrological thing, like a burning ball of gas. That's not the sign. What led the wise men was the Shekinah. Because you can see the movement of the Shekinah. It doesn't follow the path of a star. And it hovers above the house. So it can't be a star. It would have burned up everything. So it's the Shekinah. Shekinah pointing out where the Messiah is born. Okay. Where else was the Shekinah? Somebody said it. It was veiled, you couldn't see it, but it was there. Where was the other glory manifested, which you couldn't see? In the Messiah, right? How do you know it was in him? On the Mount of Transfiguration, what happens? He reveals his glory. That's why when you read John, He will say, and we beheld His glory. When He says we beheld His glory, we saw the Shekinah in Him. That's what He's saying. And so the Shekinah was hidden by the fleshly body of the Messiah, the additional nature they took on, and it was veiled by His humanity. But it was there, the Shekinah was there, and they saw it. for an instant in the Mount of Transfiguration. Okay, now let's go move to the debate with the Jews. He told them, destroy this temple and in three days I will make it rise. And they misinterpreted him by saying, well, this temple has been here for years, centuries, what are you talking about? They missed it, right? What did he refer to? Himself. But it wasn't a metaphor per se, because where was the Shekinah? In Him. What did Paul say in our bodies is what? Our bodies are what now? The temple. He was referring to his own body being a moving temple where the Shekinah indwelt. And so when he says destroy this temple, he literally is a temple, a movable temple. Like a tabernacle. And why did the writers keep saying, and he tabernacled with us? They're connecting Messiah to the tabernacle. And they're connecting Messiah that, like with Moses, he was a movable tabernacle and his Shekinah was inside the tabernacle, although you couldn't see it. So if you went to Moses' day and you saw the tabernacle, what was it wrapped in on the outside? Skin. You remember what kind of skin it was? It was like an animal skin. It was like a dolphin or porpoise skin. Something that could take the heat. So when you looked at it, it was covered in skin. But you couldn't see the Shekinah inside of it. The Shekinah was there. So what was that a picture of? A picture of Jesus. the skin, the body veiled the Shekinah inside of him. Now I said this about you, and I think you already understand this. Paul says you're a temple. So guess what? The Shekinah is in you too. How so? The Holy Spirit, right? How was that manifested? They actually visibly saw Shekinah in the book of Acts coming upon them. Do you remember that? The Shekinah is seen as fire, right? When did fire happen and come upon believers in the book of Acts? The tongues of fire. At when? Pentecost. The tongues of fire were there and then now you can't see them because the tongue of fire is within our spiritual soul, our spirit. It's veiled. You can't see it. You can't see it. But it's veiled by skin, it's veiled by our body. But the Shekinah, now we are a movable tabernacle. Everywhere we go, we take the Shekinah with us, the Holy Spirit with us, because He permanently indwells us, and it's that tongue of flame which represents the Shekinah that dispersed among the disciples and the believers at that time. You have it too. Interesting that people who are involved in the occult, witches, Satanists, you know what they indicate to us when they see us? that we glow. It's not like something, someone that's demon-possessed, someone that has, you know, we're not talking about the average Joe walking out here. We're talking about people involved in the occult, Satanism, witches. When they get saved and they come to faith or whatever, they report that they saw us have light. that we walk around with light. In the spiritual realm, they see it. Now, we're not talking about average Joe with regular physical eyes. But when someone's demonically possessed and stuff, they start seeing spiritual realities. And they know. They understand who believers are and who are not. And that tells you even the demons know this. Even the demons know who are the believers and who are not. Because in the spiritual realm, that's identifiable apparently by light. Some type of light that we carry. And it has to do probably with the Shekinah that indwells us through the Holy Spirit. It has to be. I don't know what else they could see. It's our personification. Yeah. What did Jesus say we were? You are the light of the world. If he puts his own light, the Shekinah, in us, that allows us to be the light to a dark world, to shine out. And he says, who puts a bushel over a light and covers it, right? He says, no, let your light shine before men so they may see your good deeds, right? Let that light shine out by your actions. So there's something there with this manifestation of the Shekinah. And like I've told you before, one of the rewards to believers is that we will shine like the stars. Now that's interesting, and I think I've told you this, the currency of heaven is not only how close you are with Messiah, or what I mean by that is how close you serve him, we will all see him and see him face to face, but how close you serve him, but the other currency is how much you shine in the next life. And that is according to your rewards, is how much light you reflect off of the Shekinah. Reflect, like the moon does of the sun. Refract, that's the word I'm looking for. Refract, like the moon does. That is the currency of heaven, is how much you shine, apparently. So anyway, there's a long study there you can do about light. Shekinah and believe it or not you follow that theme of light all the way from Genesis to Revelation. It is a consistent theme. John particularly picks up that theme of light because he will say don't walk in darkness and that becomes the opposite of that. Okay. Let's talk then about the millennial system of priesthood and sacrifices, and let's talk a little bit about that. The issue we want to focus in on here, and there's a lot of minutiae here, and I don't want to get caught up in it because, man, it gets into the weeds, and you can kind of read that on your own. The issue then is we've talked about the system of sacrifices, the priests that are involved in that, the sons of Zadok, and the sacrifices, but what I want to focus in on is David. And David is a key character here in Jerusalem, and I want to focus in on him. Let me read this real quick for you. If you read Ezekiel in context and you read it with the flow of Ezekiel, before you get to chapters 40 and 48, which are millennial temple passages, you'll get to Ezekiel 36, 37, 38, and 39, obviously, and their predictions and things about Israel. Okay. One of the predictions of the dry bones vision in chapter 37, which is the dry bones, the reestablishment of Israel, right? And the blowing of the breath of life back into the imagination. One of the key things in this, in verse 24 of 37, is David, King David. That David will be resurrected and he's called in Ezekiel the prince. I'll read this in verse 24 of Ezekiel 37. David my servant shall be king over them. And they shall all have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them. Then you move down to verse 25 at the end of it. My servant David shall be their prince forever. That starts the whole theme of the prince portions in Ezekiel 40 through 48. So anytime in 40 through 48, you see a reference to the prince. The prince is David. King David resurrected back as a basically a co-regent for Israel. Now why is David there? Why does Messiah need a co-regent? Why have David there? What is the big deal about that? Why do the 12 apostles rule the 12 tribes? What's happening here? In the millennial reign, yes. Everything I'm talking about is millennial. What is the big deal? Why isn't it satisfactory for David just to inherit the new Jerusalem? Why isn't it satisfactory for just the apostles to inherit the new Jerusalem? Why are they back in Israel ruling and reigning over a physical people as immortals over mortals? Why is that important? That's true, not so much with Israel, but Gentiles are subject to disbelief. Why is God requiring resurrected individuals to rule and reign over mortals? Why is that? Why is David necessary? Why are you and I necessary? Covenant? Well, the Davidic covenant is there, obviously, and Messiah fulfills that. but it has to do with rewards. There's something there I want you to see about David because it speaks to you and I. And when you understand what's happening with David, you will then understand your role in the kingdom. So David then becomes the prince of Israel. He's a vice regent under the Messiah who rules the entire world, right? So David basically is the king of Israel. And then under him are the 12 apostles, which were promised to rule the 12 tribes. But these are immortals who are ruling over mortals. So this then has to do with the righteous conditions of the kingdom. Okay, follow me with this. In order to have righteous conditions in the kingdom when you're dealing with mortals who still possess a sin nature, your rulers have to be fundamentally different than them, if that makes sense. You cannot have rulers who have sin natures. You cannot have rulers that possess the sinful disposition to do their own thing, to be selfish, to self-aggrandize themselves, to make mistakes. Can't have that because this is the millennial kingdom. Everything is perfect. Everything is righteous. So like if you use a modern day example, even the best Christian leaders in politics will fail. Because you can't get away from your own selfish interests. You can't get away from the sin pool. You know what I'm saying? Even the best of the politicians will succumb to things, temptations and stuff. You have to have rulers who can't succumb to temptation. You can't have rulers who can be bribed. You have to have rulers that do not possess a sin nature. Hence, The way the environment will be ruled is through immortal humans to ensure that the governance of the planet stays righteous. Okay, question then. How does that figure in for you? How does looking at King David and the necessary need for him to be resurrected without us in nature What does that mean for you? You will be perfect. You will be a perfect ruler because you will not possess a sin nature. You will be fully righteous, glorified. You don't get hungry. You don't need to sleep. You don't need to eat. You actually make the perfect king and queen because nothing can tempt you. All that's on your mind is executing righteousness and justice and following the Messiah. Hence, you then make the perfect type of prince, queen, king, whatever you want to call it. And that's why it's necessary that part of your reward is to rule and reign with the Messiah. He needs you to help him govern the planet that are still full of mortals. So guess what your tasks will be? Your day-to-day tasks. Yeah, that might be somebody's. But if you get the rule and reign, you will then govern mortals. You will then execute judgment, execute punishment, execute righteousness and justice to mortals who are put under your dominion. You will be a king one day. You will be a queen one day. And you will have subjects under you. But you will have to rule them. And you will have to punish them sometimes. You will have to reward them. And I know that concept seems so foreign, because none of us has ever had an exalted position of anything. We've always had to work for somebody, we've always been under somebody's thumb, and we've always had somebody telling us what to do. But at that point, your only boss is Jesus. And then everyone else is under you as you govern them. And any people that get knuckleheaded in this, you get to put them down. You punish them. Sure, absolutely. Well, so here's where we're going with this. If you get to rule and reign is the caveat. If you, because if you do, it's quite something, but you're making a very good point. Hold on, Dave. Let me finish her thought. If you squander the lessons here and don't learn the lessons, you can't be used to rule. Because let's say you're given a budget in the kingdom. And Jesus and you are going to have this conversation. Well, I wanted you to rule and reign. And part of that is giving you a budget. But you blew through your budget for 80 years, 80, 90 years on planet Earth. And you didn't live by a budget. You have proven that I can't trust you with a budget. Hence, you're going to clean toilets. So, I use that as an example, but whatever lessons you don't learn, it could DQ you from ruling and reigning. Because why are you going through what you're going through? Because I can guarantee you the junk you're having to go through right now is what you will have to execute when you rule and reign, if you do rule and reign. Well, what do you mean? Well, the knucklehead in your family that you keep having to mess around with might be a knucklehead in the kingdom that you have to pound. And you better learn how to deal with knuckleheads right now, because if you want to rule, then you will be rewarded. Okay, here's your knucklehead. Well, I know how to deal with this guy. Boom. And he says, yeah, that's why I put you in that position, because you figured out how to deal with knuckleheads. And now I can trust you with knuckleheads under your rule, or whatever. Difficult people, how to handle difficult people. Great, because in the millennium, you're going to handle a lot of difficult Gentiles. And you better know how to deal with them. That's what we're saying. Right? And you're called a king priest. You have the title, you have the position, but you can lose that position if you don't live faithfully. It could be. It could be. Because you and I, all of us here, unless you're full blood Jewish, all of us are Gentiles. Okay? That means you will be ruling and reigning in some part of the earth outside of Israel. and you will be given dominion. If you get the chance to rule, you will be given a dominion somewhere on planet earth. And under your watch, you will watch in the 10th generation, a rebellion happen right in your kingdom. Yeah, that's probably a bad deal, right? That's a bad deal. And so I want you to think about it. I mean, see, when we talk about the kingdom, we're not talking about heaven, where everyone gets along and everyone's a believer. We're not talking about heaven. When you're on the kingdom, some of the people, the subjects under you may not be believers. Now they have to march in order, but they may not be believers, but it's up to you to keep order. Well, I didn't know I was gonna have to do that. Well, welcome to the kingdom. Because this is what you're going to be doing. Why do you think he continues to say, you will rule and reign with me? You will dash them to pieces like pottery. What does that mean? I'm going to dash people to pieces like pottery. What does that mean? I'm in charge of discipline. But you say, well, I thought Jesus was in charge. Yeah, but he delegates it to you. The rod of iron rule is delegated to you to keep order in your community. Wait a second. What? I'm sorry, but it's a heavy responsibility. No doubt about it. And it's that responsibility is given to only those who are faithful because he's got to have you ready in order to deal with that. See, all that you're going through right now is not so that you can have pie in the sky. It's so that he can actually use you in the kingdom for a purpose to keep order. That's what this is about. Now, what are you learning through life? You're learning about authority. That's number one. You're learning about authority and how to interact under that authority, whether it's a husband and a wife, whether that's with a church, whether with spiritual leaders or the authority of scripture. This is your authority. You're learning authority because in the kingdom, you have to have the lines of authority. What else are you learning? You're learning how to suffer well. That's another big aspect. You're learning how to suffer well. Why? Because suffering produces character that meets the challenge to the next level. So in order to get you ready for the next challenge in the kingdom, you have to learn how to suffer well. It's the only thing that develops your character. If you look for life to be stress-free and no suffering, Your character will not develop. That's what it means to fellowship in the sufferings of Messiah. Why did Messiah suffer? Obviously for us, but it says he learned obedience through suffering. Why did Messiah have to do that? He learned obedience? Why? Yes, he submitted to the Father's will. He did obedience. It says he learned this. Now we're talking about his humanity, right? We're talking about his humanity, not his deity. We're talking about his humanity learned to be obedient. And he was obedient all the way. But why? Not just for salvation. Why was he being obedient? He was showing us an example of what he needs from us. That's one of the other reasons he was obedient. It's not just simply to fulfill the law. It's to show us an example And what does that example show us? Okay, obedience brings blessing, and part of that blessing is you conform yourself to the image of Christ, you become like him, and your character and maturity develops in order to be used at a greater level. He is faithful in little, I will give him greater things. Does that make sense? So what you're going through right now, you could say, my life stinks right now, Brandon. I got health issues. I got this going on. I got a knucklehead, this guy got a knucklehead daughter, whatever it is. And you're saying, I don't know how to deal with this. Figure it out. Don't chalk it up and say, I just don't want to deal with it. I'm just going to walk away. I'm going to withdraw. I'm not going to deal with this. If you have a knucklehead, figure out how to deal with it. Because if you don't, that could keep you from ruling and reigning. If you withdraw, if you won't engage, if you won't suffer well, that could actually keep you from ruling and reigning. So it's hard. I know it's hard. It's not easy. It's not fun. Yeah, Steven. I think, number one, you're looking at eschatology, and that's number one, so they don't know the eschatology. Number two, this is uncomfortable. This is uncomfortable talk, because I'm putting it out there, and it's always been there, but it really then throws back the responsibility on all of us as believers. I don't like to suffer. Just like we had, you know, Mark here on Sunday, he's talking about suffering. I don't like it. I want to run away from it, is what I feel like doing. I want to withdraw. It's my natural inclination is to withdraw. get away and that's the wrong move. It's the wrong move to do. I'm in the people business. There's a lot of people that we're dealing with and there's a lot of people you're dealing with and you start realizing, Hey man, there's some people that really are easy to get along with and there's some people that are very difficult to get along with and you got to love them the same, but It takes wisdom and navigational skills relationally in order to deal with that individual. It's an easier route to say, I just don't like that person. Their personality grates on me. They have this chip on their shoulder. They have this issue. And you know what the tendency is? Pull away. Just pull away. Because if I'm away from them, I don't have to deal with them. But what Jesus is saying is, no, embrace it and figure it out. Figure out how to deal with a difficult person. Be others-oriented. Because my first reaction is, I want to preserve myself. I'm thinking about how this person affects me. And they suck the life out of me, Brandon. They suck every inch of my energy out of me. I can't stand being around them. They suck the life out of me. But what is God trying to do? Figure him out. And dealing with somebody? Well obviously it depends on if they're a Christian or a non-Christian. You handle a non-Christian completely different because they don't know any better. Paul will mention that. But a Christian who habitually sins, you have to figure out what sin it is. Like is it habitual sin of Well, I mean, obviously the big ones, I mean, like the sin of pornography, right? Okay, they won't stop doing pornography. That's an easy one. That's black and white. Hey, dude, man, if you don't stop, we're going to cut you off, man. That's easy. Or, you know, whatever, like an outward manifestation of sin that everyone sees, man. It's embarrassing the family. It's embarrassing the church. You've got to cut those people off. Now, like for instance, if it's a habitual sin of like a bad attitude. That's a little bit different because it's more of an internal thing and very few people see it and the person still struggles with it. That's not something you would cut someone off with. You would cut someone off when there's like a physical manifestation of the sin and they're just flaunting it, man. Like, you know, living with somebody or something like that, shacking up or something. And that's a good response, and I'm glad you're doing that because the typical response is not that. The typical response is to get very ticked off that this is happening to me. Oh, what she was saying is she draws, when she's suffering, she draws close to the Lord. She leans on the Lord. She trusts in him. And it helps her have this view of heaven in her mind. That's the proper response. That's the mature response. And, but I can tell you this, the overwhelming Christian response is not that. It is, I'm ticked off. I'm mad at God. How dare He do this to me? As much as I serve Him, as much as I do for Him, I make the coffee for the church. How dare He give me a health issue? How dare I have a bunion? Doesn't He know I have to walk and make the coffee, and now I have to walk with a bunion? I can't walk. It hurts my foot. I know it sounds stupid, that people get goofy, man. They get real goofy. But here's the deal. Do you think you should suffer or not? Okay, because if you had the attitude of, hey man, I shouldn't suffer, I follow Jesus. Well, I don't know what Jesus you're following. And as you know now, you have all suffered in some form or fashion, whether that is a knucklehead in your family, or that's your own health, or you've lost people, you're gonna suffer. And if you don't learn how to suffer well, I can tell you where you're gonna go with it. You're gonna get bittered up, mad at God, and you're going to walk away and shipwreck your faith. That's what'll happen. I deal with it all the time. People are so ticked off at God. Why did you let this happen? Why did you let me marry this person? If you knew he was a knucklehead, why didn't you tell me in a sign? But at the end of the day, what does God say to you? Hey dude, you picked that one out. You're a human being, you have freedom. If you married a knucklehead, that's on you. That ain't on me.