“Interpretation of Ezekiel 40–48 and Its Homiletical Implications”

This article reexamines the hermeneutical challenges surrounding the temple vision of Ezekiel 40–48 and aims to present an integrated account of the text’s theological structure and homiletical possibilities. After critically reviewing the allegorical, literal-futurist, literary-symbolic, and theological-eschatological interpretive traditions, the article adopts a redemptive-historical typological approach — one that retains the strengths of each view while correcting the historical limitations of literalism and the abstractness of pure symbolism.

From this perspective, the measurements and structure of the temple, the sacrificial regulations, the priesthood and princely institutions, the vision of the life-giving river, and the distribution of the land are all analyzed within a unified theological pattern: the restoration of God’s presence and the spread of holiness. The study further examines, through the lens of canonical theology, how the Ezekiel temple vision finds its fulfillment and reinterpretation in the New Testament — in Christ’s temple ministry, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the eschatology of the New Jerusalem.

Of particular significance, the article applies these hermeneutical findings to the preaching context, presenting Ezekiel 40–48 not as a collection of moral lessons or obscure visionary texts, but as a preaching text grounded in God’s sovereign saving activity and grace. From this foundation, the article derives homiletical principles for preaching on holiness, community ethics, the church and worship, and eschatological hope — equipping preachers to help their congregations reinterpret their lives in light of God’s activity within the text. In conclusion, Ezekiel 40–48 is not merely a blueprint for a temple, but a comprehensive theological vision presenting the structure of a new creation community in which God’s presence has been restored — a vision that continues to carry enduring hermeneutical and pastoral significance for the church’s preaching and theology today.