What is the significance of the city called "TheLordIs There" in Ezekiel 48:35?

After the prophecy of the division of the land, comes the majestic ending, the last message this man of God uttered: "And the name of that city from that day shall be 'Jehovah Shammah,' the LORD is there." It is a fitting finale to this great book. In its beginning, we see the glory of the Lord departing. Throughout the pages of the book we read of Israel's rebellion, Jerusalem's judgments, the nation's disobedience and rejection. Then follow the messages of hope-- Israel's conversion, the regathering of the twelve tribes, the final conflict, the returning glory of the Lord; and from that day the name of the city will be Jehovah Shammah. Because He has manifested His gracious presence in the midst of His people and established His throne, blessed His people with all the spiritual and national blessings promised by His holy prophets, destroyed all their enemies, and covered all with His visible glory once more, therefore the city will have the name "Jehovah is there." What a glory it will be for Him. The city through which He once walked with weary feet, the Son of God garbed in servant's form, the city through which He was dragged, when the cross was laid upon His shoulders, the city which cast Him out, the city outside of which He endured the cross and despised the shame--that same city will be made in that day the glory spot of the earth.

This then is the last and chief glory — the presence of Jehovah in the city of His choice. In this Israel shall boast above all their privileges; and justly, for it is the complement and crown of all. How bright an end of their long wanderings, and of their manifold sorrows! How worthy of His redeeming grace, who will cleanse away the guilt which shed it, when they turn to Him in faith, discerning and owning at length their self-destructive folly in the light of His love, who never wavered but died for them so many centuries before they broke down in shame and contrition before Him!

The prophet Ezekiel concludes his prophecy with the words: "The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there (Jehovah-Shammah)." That striking statement refers to the focus of interest in the millennium. One might have been tempted to think that the characteristic mentioned should have been the transcendent glory which will make everything in the millennial state effulgent with the praise of the Lord. But not so, it is the Lord's presence which will be the most prominent feature of that day of bliss to come.

What will be known in a national (yea, in a universal) way in that day to come, is known in a specialised way in this era, which is the Spirit's day. The Lord's people have now the special privilege of anticipating the universal condition obtaining in the "world to come." "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

There is a powerful and abiding source of blessing which greatly surmounts the evil, and almost effaces it; nevertheless it is not entirely taken away. Still the name of the city, of the seat of power, that which characterises it, is "Jehovah is there" — Jehovah, that great King, the Creator of all things, and the Head of His people Israel.

Jehovah-Shammah. The favoured city of Jerusalem is to bear another of the Lord's Names in the Millennium, a Name that tells of His presence among His people, for it means "Jehovah is there." In the earlier part of Ezekiel, the prophet in vision sees the glory of Jehovah depart from the House of Jehovah, and from the city (see Ezek. 10:18-19, Ezek. 11:23); but at the close he sees the House according to the divine pattern, and the glory filling the House (Ezek. 43:1-5). Living waters stream from the sanctuary, and even the waters of the Dead Sea are healed. The sacrificial system is re-established to recall all that Christ's death has meant for them, and the tribes are given their inheritance according to the commandment of Jehovah. In the midst of a scene ordered by the Lord Himself He can take His place amongst His people, so that their city, which is His city, can be called "The Lord is there" (Ezek. 48:35).

Name, signifying 'Jehovah is there,' to be given to Jerusalem, when it is brought into full blessing in the millennium. Ezek. 48:35 margin.

With the Spirit among them, all born of God, and Christ over them and the sanctuary of God in the midst of them forevermore, well may the city and the land be called "Jehovah-shammah," the Lord is there.

Does this not prove that the city takes its character from the temple, in short that everything morally flows from God's dwelling place? In this way the temple and the city cannot be divorced, and, in a certain way, are looked at as one; that is, the temple is Jehovah's dwelling place, so is Jerusalem, the city of God. Its name is to be Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there.

Jehovah promised that His presence should go with him, and in that fact fear was to be allayed and rest was to be found. The next verses show how fully Moses realized that to have the presence of God with them was the all-essential thing without which they could not go forward, nor could their special place as the people called out from amongst the nations be maintained. Their subsequent history fully bore this out. As they departed from the Lord, so they lost their separated place, and the departure of the glory from the midst of the city, recorded in Ezekiel, was the commencement of the long epoch during which they have been dispersed among the nations. Yet even so they have never lost their identity, and ultimately, restored by mercy, Jehovah will be in their midst, so that the name of the Jerusalem in the coming age will be, Jehovah-shammah "the Lord is there" (Ezek. 48:35).

In her palaces God is known. As Ezekiel tells us, "The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there [Jehovah-shammah]" (Ezek. 48:35). In the first place He will be known there as a refuge, or high fortress, for Armageddon has just taken place. The kings of the earth were assembled "to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14). They have been utterly discomfited and broken; so much so that the spared of Israel will say, "As we have heard, so have we seen …" They had heard of God's great work of deliverance in the days of old (See, Ps. 44:1) and had been grievously disappointed when they expected Him to accomplish a like deliverance through themselves. Now, when the Lord Jesus has come forth in His glory, and accomplished at one stroke, and by His mighty arm alone, a deliverance which goes beyond the highest hopes of men, they acknowledge with thankfulness that the work is done. They have seen with their own eyes all that they had heard and more than they had hoped: and the beauty of it is that in contrast to any previous deliverance, which lasted only for a time, this deliverance abides, "God will establish it for ever."