Bible Chronology (43): From the Temple to Artaxerxes (18)

In Ezekiel 8-11, Ezekiel had a 2nd major vision where he saw the Glory of God leaving the Temple on account of Israel's idolatry, which was even going on within the Temple itself. This idolatry had aroused God's anger, so that He was now ready to move in Judgment. The departure of God's Presence from the Temple marked the start of this time of Desolating Judgment, as signified by the scattering of burning coals over the city (10:2). By this departure in 588 BC, God was initiating the Desolations of Jerusalem. From the moment God departed from Jerusalem, her desolation was inevitable and irreversible, for she was now without His protective covering. The start of this Desolating Judgment was physically manifested as the final Siege of Jerusalem by Babylon, at the very same time that God's Glory departed from the Temple. After Ezekiel's first vision, when God called him to be a prophet (1:1 - 3:14), in 4:1 - 7:27, God revealed the Desolations that would fall on Israel, which would begin with the final Siege of Jerusalem, and that the cause of these desolating judgments was 430 years of sin (idolatry), from 1018 - 588 BC, made worse by the fact that God's Presence and Glory was with them in the Temple. It was direct sin against the holiness of God. Finally, we show that these 430 years (of idolatry, against God's Presence in the Temple) began from the Dedication of the Temple, when God's Glory filled the Temple, because even by the time the Temple was dedicated, Solomon had allowed idolatry to take root at the heart of Israel; and even though God had appeared to him immediately after the Dedication of the Temple and warned him about this very issue (1Kings 9:1-9), he did not repent, but rather he greatly multiplied his foreign wives and for their sakes he increased his permission and promotion of idolatry in Jerusalem. This meant that his sin was rebellious in nature. The fact God had appeared to Solomon twice made this sin even more serious. 1Kings 11:1-13 describes how this idolatry began during Solomon's reign, and that it was so serious, that God announced to Solomon that as a result of this sin, his Kingdom would be divided after his death. So, clearly the 430 years of sin against God's Presence in the Temple are not to be measured from the Division of the Kingdom, as some say, but must start before that, even at the Temple's Dedication. Thus, the 430 years of sin against God's Presence in the Temple covers the entire time that God's Presence was in the Temple from its Dedication in 1018 BC, until God's Glory departed the Temple in 588 BC, as witnessed by Ezekiel, at the start of the final Siege of Jerusalem, which resulted in the Temple's destruction in 586 BC.