Now we reach the last of the Jehovah titles –Jehovah Shammah –which means ‘The Lord is there.’ As we study the context in which this name of God is revealed, we will discover that it is a most fitting name with which to conclude the Old Testament revelation of God. It is not without some significance that the name Jehovah Shammah is found in the last verse of the chapter of the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was called to be a prophet at a time when the people of Israel, in captivity in Babylon, were at their lowest ebb (Ezekiel 1:2-3), and he prophesied in Babylon for at least another twenty-two years (Ezekiel 29:17). The sun of Israel’s strength had long since set and the night was closing in. Israel’s spirit was broken. It appeared to the Israelites that they had been delivered from bondage in Egypt only to be sent into captivity in Babylon. By the rivers of Babylon, the Psalmist tells us, the exiles sat and wept as they remembered Zion (Psalm 137:1). Now that enthusiasm for Zion was beginning to wane. At this point God breaks into the situation and, speaking through His prophet Ezekiel, He assures the exiled Jews that a day will come when the full glory of Israel will be revealed. The nation would experience a revival and a restoration in a measure far beyond anything it had experienced in the past or could have ever imagined. It is as if God is telling His people that whatever lay ahead of them, whatever circumstance or situation they would meet, they should never forget that the God who brought them out of Egypt is also Jehovah Shammah –always there for His people. He would be with His people for ever, is His promise to them. Are you about to face a difficult day, or are you facing a difficult day now? Then take heart. Remember, the Lord will be there. Believe in Him and know that He is always in control of everything and knows what is happening, even ahead of time!

Now let us read Ezekiel 48:30-35; 30 And these shall be the exits of the city: On the north side, which is to extend 4,500 measures, 31 Three gates: one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi, the gates of the city being called after the names of the tribes of Israel; 32 And on the east side’s 4,500 measures, three gates: one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan; 33 And on the south side’s 4,500 measures, three gates: one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun; 34 On the west side’s 4,500 measures, three gates: one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali. 35 The distance around the city shall be 18,000 [4 x 4,500] measures; and the name of the city from that day and ever after shall be, THE LORD IS THERE.

What is Ezekiel 48 talking about? This chapter contains Ezekiel's vision of the land allocated to the twelve tribes of Israel (Ezekiel 48:1-7 and 23–29), the sanctuary in (verses 8–14), the city and its suburbs in (verses 15–20), the prince in (verses 21–22) and the dimensions and gates of the city (verses 30–35). What does Ezekiel 48:30-35 mean? The gates of Jerusalem (48:30-35); as he brings the account of his visions to a close, Ezekiel speaks again of the city. He points out that it had twelve gates, three in each of its four sides, representing the entire people of God (30-34; cf. Revelation 21:12-14). Illustration: My mind goes back to an experience I had when we served as missionaries in Mexico City said the narrator. One day I took the Metro (subway) to the far Southern part of the city to teach English to a couple businessmen. I had to make several transfers to different lines and finally arrived at my stop about an hour and a half later. When I got off the subway, I walked about ten blocks and suddenly I became aware of how alone I was. My heart started racing. I didn’t know anyone around me and I knew I stood out as an American. I tried not to look lost even though I sort of was. No one knew where I was, and I started to get afraid. And then, the Lord reminded me that He was/is with me. In a city of 24 million people, I was lonely but not alone because Jehovah Shammah was with me. This name means, “God is there.” To help us, always remember this truth, let’s repeat this phrase together: “God is there, He is here, He is everywhere” for us/me! In the Garden of Eden we read that everything was perfect because the Creator (Elohim: ‘Supreme One’ or ‘Mighty One’) wanted Adam and Eve to live in a place of beauty and comfort as seen in Genesis 1:9: “And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” As beautiful as the creation was, the real joy was that “God Himself walked in the garden in the cool of the day…” (Genesis 3:8). God’s Presence was to be their greatest pleasure. But because Adam and Eve chose to disobey, the entire human race was plunged into darkness and death; and so it has been till date, because today God still deals with us in the same way as with Adam and Eve, God deals with every individual and people depending on what you choose to do after He has made things known to you, you have your choice to make based on what He has made known to you but He wills that you will do exactly and implicitly as He has said or commanded. Thankfully, God continued to reveal Himself and make His presence known. Genesis 5:22 tells us that Enoch “walked with God 300 years.” We’ve learned in this series that El Shaddai (‘God’, ‘my God’, or ‘Lord’, ‘God Almighty’) also talked with Abraham. He allowed Jacob to wrestle with Him to teach him Jacob the truth that Him God is always Present. Moses, who doubted God’s presence, had an encounter with the Almighty God at the burning bush as the ‘I AM’, and later declared in Exodus 33:15: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” Moses wasn’t going to mobilize unless God moved with him because he eventually realized the importance of God’s Presence. What about you, have you realized that God’s Presence is very important in everything that you do in life, and do you always seek and call upon the Presence of God Almighty in everything that you are doing? Yahweh (‘I AM’ or ‘He That Is’ or I Am Who I Am’) demonstrated His Powerful Presence to the Israelites while they were in the desert of despair by using two symbols: By day, a cloud led them, and by night a pillar of fire pronounced His Presence going along with them as they move on. God was Personally and Powerfully Present with His people at all times and in all places. Let’s repeat this phrase again: “God is there, He is here, He is everywhere.” Do you really believe this statement as it concerns you and your situations today? You have to believe it or to make efforts to believe it because it is the obvious truth! God spoke further to Moses and said to him, ‘’I am Yahweh; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as El Shaddai, but by My name, Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them’’. On top of that, the Israelites had a portable Tabernacle that symbolized the fact that God was with them. This Tabernacle replaced the Tent of Meeting that Moses set up (Exodus 33:7-11). The Tabernacle was to be Constructed with Specific Details, that I won’t go into right now, but suffice it to say that according to Exodus 25:8, this was to be the “dwelling place for God.” This helped the Israelites know that God was Present with them. Remember that all of these are God’s way of trying to teach Man that there is a great need for His Presence to always be with Man, and today, God took man’s understanding of Him to know that His Presence is to be inside Man as Indwelling God together with His Presence! That is why today, the Body of man is God’s Indwelling Place with His Presence, which is why Satan is always trying to deceive Man not to make his body God’s dwelling Place by propelling Man into Sin, knowing that once Man’s body is filled with sin, God will not dwell in there and so our Lord Jesus Christ in His Merciful Sacrificial offering of His Life on the cross and His resurrection from the grave gained for Man in replacement of His Christ Body so that once you believe in Him, you have His Divine Body in you and God will indwell you and His Presence will be with you and Satan will be avoiding you but still waiting if you will mistakenly give him Satan a chance to invade you, please don’t give him Satan that chance! Now let’s fast forward to the time of King David and look at Psalm 139:7-10: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.” Here is a good reminder for us to know that God’s Presence is all around us! This passage establishes one of the Almighty’s attributes referred to as the Omnipresence of God. Simply stated, this means that God is always wherever He needs to be to do whatever needs to be done. He’s everywhere present at the same time. He is there, He is here, and He is everywhere. King David was eager to build a permanent place for God but was not allowed to. Instead, his son Solomon had the privilege of constructing a place for God’s Name to dwell. Can you understand, nobody can give God a permanent place to dwell not even Man’s body, rather you can build a place for God Name to dwell and not for the Whole of God, No, God already have a permanent place for Himself wholly! Using enormous resources, this project by Solomon of constructing a place for God’s Name to dwell took over 7 years to complete. The temple symbolized the fact that God was there for His people, and yet Solomon recognized that a building could not contain the awesome glory of God in 1 Kings 8:27 when he said: “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain You. How much less this temple I have built!” Did you hear that? Unfortunately, even though they now had the Temple, and the assurance of God’s Presence, the people compromised spiritually, and fell away from the Almighty God just like Adam and Eve; this is always where Man’s problem lies, man’s inability to hold unto God, man deviating from what God want through his man’s choice that is always wrong compared to that which God want! In one sense, they were more preoccupied with the place than with the Presence of God Himself just as we are doing it today by being preoccupied with Church going than with doing the Will of God or what God want. In love and mercy knowing that Man’s falling away from Him God will bring ruin to man, God then brought numerous prophets on the scene to bring them Israel back to Himself, but these prophets were often met with resistance which is resisting God because He sent them. So know it that any time you are resisting a servant of God who God sent to you, know exactly that God is the One that you are resisting and it has a consequence! Finally, because of their disobedience, God mobilized the Babylonians to come and attack Jerusalem, and 400 years after it was constructed, the Temple was destroyed, and the people were deported on exile to what is modern-day Iraq, formerly called Babylon. Can you see what is happening in God--Man relationship when an individual or a people fall away from God’s desire and will, it always end in disaster, in failure, in ruin or in death! Let us always be very careful in our dealings with God, especially when God expects so much from you based on the so much He has invested on you for humanity to benefit from! As you probably already guessed, I had to make a visual chart of the order of the gates as I was reading. We are not told the size of the gates or where they are specifically placed on the walls. I’m assuming that they are all the same size though. I would also expect that they are evenly spaced along the walls. Note that Leah is Jacob’s first wife and the older sister of his second wife and favored wife Rachel. Leah was the mother of six of Jacob’s sons, including his first four Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, and later two more Issachar and Zebulun and a daughter Dinah. The younger daughter of Laban and wife of Jacob, Rachel is the mother of Joseph and Benjamin; Rachel’s maid Bilhah had two sons Dan, Naphtali. Leah’s maid Zilpah had two sons Gad, Asher. First of all, Ruben, Judah, and Levi stayed together on the North wall. These are the three most prominent of Leah’s children. Rachel’s children stay together on the East wall. Joseph and Benjamin are Rachel’s children from her own body and Dan is the first from her maid. Issachar and Zebulun are still together. This time they are led by their older brother Simeon. They occupy the Southern wall. The last three are Leah’s children by her maid and the last of Rachel’s children by her maid. Gad, Asher and Naphtali. They occupy the Western wall; the one which has no entrance to the Temple corresponding to it. I’m more than certain that this does NOT mean they have any less access to the Lord. Someone had to be on this wall and these three carry less ‘clout’ or distinction. God made preparations to welcome ALL His children into His city. They all came as equals. Joseph did not receive two portions in this. All God’s children are equal. There will be a difference in ‘rewards’ for each of us but there is no difference in His welcome for each of us. There is no sin that can separate us from His love. You are the only one that can separate yourself from God, not God. Even when you do separate from Him, He still wants you back! But you are the one that will realize and take yourself back to Him, He won’t force you because He has given you a free will to exercise having made you to know the Good from the Bad, He wants you to make a choice out of love for Him! Thank You Father for making a place for me in Your love for me. I know I don’t physically belong to the bloodline of Israel but I do spiritually. I’m YOUR child and welcome in YOUR city. I wonder what my ‘house’ will look like in Your city. As long as it is in Your city, it doesn’t matter because I know that You have my peace, my good and my comfort in mind. Being close to You is all I’ll ever need, please Lord help me to always have Your Presence and Your Indwelling in me. Thank You Lord Jesus for making a way for me into Your city. I would have no other hope but You. You are my everything! Always help me Lord to maintain my way and be on course with You as You lead!