Ezekiel 45:1-46:24
Good morning! We are nearing the finish line on our Ezekiel
series. This message is the penultimate
or next to last in the series. We are in
the “bonus round” of Ezekiel’s prophecies looking to the future beyond even our
time.
In chapters 1-11, Ezekiel
relayed the accusations against Israel for their terrible sins. Sins so grievous that they pushed God to the
point of no return where He allowed Jerusalem, the temple, and the nation of
Judah to be destroyed.
In chapters 12-33, Ezekiel
communicated the judgment on Israel, on its neighbors and on Jerusalem itself.
But, God has not abandoned Israel, far from it.
In chapters 34 till the
end of the book, Ezekiel shares hope, hope for Israel, hope for the nations,
and hope for all creation. Sometimes you
may hear the word consolation of Israel, but this is not like a consolation
prize you get when you lose. This is the
consolation of perfect comfort when God sets things right, where He takes away
their heart of stone and gives His people a new heart and a new spirit, His
Spirit, that moves His people to follow His decrees and carefully keep His
laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
As you may remember God’s
presence had departed from the temple of Ezekiel’s time all the way back in
chapter 10 before it was destroyed in chapter 33. Now, starting in chapter 40, we’ve seen a new
temple inside and out. God’s glory
returned to this new temple in chapter 43.
Last week, Brian described the return of the priesthood and their work
in this new temple in chapter 44. Today,
our focus will expand a bit more to include the immediate lands around the
temple and the duties of its ruler, the prince, particularly in worship.
With that for an
introduction, let’s pray and then examine Ezekiel 45 and 46 together.
Let’s begin with chapter
45, verse 1 …
"'When
you allot the land as an inheritance, you are to present to the LORD a portion
of the land as a sacred district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits wide;
the entire area will be holy. – Ezekiel
45:1
It’s implied within this
command that there is to be a new acquisition and redistribution of the
land. In verse 6, we will see that there
is a 5,000 cubit wide city area which makes this sacred district a square. The sacred district will have no single tribe
or ruler as its owner. It will be God’s
portion in the land.
Of
this, a section 500 cubits square is to be for the sanctuary, with 50 cubits
around it for open land. In the sacred district, measure off a section 25,000
cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide. In it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy
Place. It will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests, who minister
in the sanctuary and who draw near to minister before the LORD. It will be a
place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary. An area
25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide will belong to the Levites, who serve
in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in. “'You are to give the
city as its property an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long,
adjoining the sacred portion; it will belong to all Israel. – Ezekiel 45:2-6
This inner 500 by 500
cubit square is described in chapter 42 (v.16-20). Around that, is a 50 cubit buffer strip of
unoccupied land. The priest will have
land to live on but not to own as we were told in chapter 44 (v.28). The Levites are allowed a space in the holy
district as well.
I’m not sure that we’ve
come out and said it in the previous messages, but this city does not appear to
be Jerusalem (or at least not the same Jerusalem that we know of) although I
have seen multiple commentaries and references say that this is Jerusalem. One key verse that seems to make that
distinction is Ezekiel 40:2, “In visions of God he took me to the land of
Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some
buildings that looked like a city.” Here
in verse 6 of chapter 45, the holy city is adjacent to the sacred district. In Jerusalem, the temple complex was within
the city.
Let’s look a couple of
maps. First, is a visualization of what
we see in Ezekiel 45. It’s tricky to
find exactly what you’d like to show. I
have to apologize. The space is huge,
but maybe not quite so huge an indicated here.
In other references, I saw the space of the city referred to as 3 miles
and 7 miles instead of 4 miles and 10 miles.
When I circled back and used 21” for a long cubit, I ended up with 3.3
miles and 6.8 miles. So, I tend to think
that these spaces are a being described in our units about thirty percent too
big.
In the center, you see the
square temple complex. At the southern
edge, you see the city which is described at the end of chapter 48.
On the next slide, you see
a rendering of Jerusalem and its topography.
The walls are from Jesus’ time.
There’s not a high mountain, the city even in Jesus’ time was built
across several ridges. The current
Jerusalem extends farther. Modern cities
often don’t have sharp edges, so I made a couple more slides with the modern
city to scale in the background.
Finally, we can go back to
the other view of Ezekiel’s temple and the land surrounding it. Here is the relationship assuming 21 inches
to the long cubit. A tremendous area. I’ll point out one last detail. As you see on the right and left side, the
land is marked prince’s land, and that is exactly what verse 7 says.
"'The
prince will have the land bordering each side of the area formed by the sacred
district and the property of the city. It will extend westward from the west
side and eastward from the east side, running lengthwise from the western to
the eastern border parallel to one of the tribal portions. This land will be
his possession in Israel. And my princes will no longer oppress my people but
will allow the people of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes. –
Ezekiel 45:7-8
Chapter 44 introduced us
to this prince. “The identity of the
prince is a matter of much discussion among Bible commentators and
teachers.” A few have said he is Jesus
the Messiah. Others have said that the
prince must be a civil leader or a high priest.
I don’t expect a high priest as later we will see that the prince never
enters the temple court.
“The fact that the prince
must offer a sin offering (Ezekiel 45:22) and has sons (Ezekiel 46:16) makes it
is unlikely that the prince is Jesus Messiah.”
This prince is not Jesus because we he takes actions which would not be
consistent with things that Jesus’ has already done. But as he provides these offerings, the
prince is a picture of Christ.
As Brian pointed out, it
is possible that the events we see here are connected with the millennial reign
of Christ which is described in Revelation 20 (v.1-6). That will be a time where Satan has been
bound, and clearly there will be saints who reign with Christ during that
time. But, it is still on this present
earth as the the new heaven and new earth arrive in Revelation 21.
Let’s continue now in
Ezekiel 45 which at this moment is actually going to look back to the sins of
the princes before the exile.
"'This
is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have gone far enough, princes of Israel!
Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop
dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You are to use accurate
scales, an accurate ephah and an accurate bath. The ephah and the bath are to
be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth
of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both. The shekel is to
consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen
shekels equal one mina. – Ezekiel 45:9-12
God tells the princes
again that they must not use violence or oppression in ruling the people. Instead, they must act justly and do what is
right. They shall not steal from people,
and that includes no longer taking from them with unbalanced scales.
"'This
is the special gift you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of
wheat and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. The prescribed portion
of olive oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (which
consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten baths are equivalent to a homer). Also
one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two hundred from the well-watered
pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings
and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the people, declares the
Sovereign LORD. All the people of the land will be required to give this
special offering to the prince in Israel. – Ezekiel 45:13-16
I feel a certain tension
in these chapters. When do these things
take place? Is there time or room for
these activities after Jesus has come, sacrificed Himself, and risen from the
dead?
Some would say these
descriptions are symbolic, but it is hard to imagine symbolism being the
dominant meaning behind such detailed activity.
Back in Ezekiel 43:10-11
we learned that the temple description in part was intended to bring the people
of Israel to recognize and experience shame for their sins, the sins that had
resulted in the destruction of the first temple. “If they were ashamed of all they had done,”
then Ezekiel was to make known to them the full design of the temple.
With that information, the
people of Israel would be responsible to bring the design to reality and follow
its regulations. There is a great deal
of detail about the temple in these chapters.
As we have seen through a couple of videos and there are many more than
we watched, it appears there is enough information to bring about construction
of such a complex though there is not so much detail as a blueprint.
As we see now, the
description of life in the land of Israel under the time of Ezekiel’s temple
continues to develop with more and more clarity. There is also no other conditional language
in these remaining chapters of the book of Ezekiel (ch.44-48). Clearly, these things have not happened, yet. But, Ezekiel prophesied these things,
speaking repeatedly what the Sovereign Lord has said. Therefore, I cannot help but believe that
they are still to come whether or not I can fully reconcile every aspect.
And so, here we go into a
detailed description of the temple worship in Ezekiel’s temple.
It
will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings
and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths--at all
the appointed festivals of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain
offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the
Israelites. – Ezekiel 45:17
I won’t get into all the
differences for the sake of time as well as my own inability tie out the
significance of the differences, but the remainder of the instructions do not
match exactly the Mosaic Law of Exodus to Deuteronomy. Rabbis have given generations of effort to
reconcile them. In the end, differences
remain which when you think about it leads to a conclusion that we are not talking
about a reawakening of the old covenant.
Something different is happening.
We are clearly beyond the old covenant.
In general, the offerings prescribed in Ezekiel are bigger than those
required under Mosaic Law.
Other commentators have
explained that these activities are not intended to give the impression that
they are effective in and of themselves at reconciling the people to God but
are rather demonstrations of worship of Christ by symbolizing His sacrifice as
the true Lamb. In particular, I found
the Believer’s Bible Commentary by
William MacDonald to be extremely helpful.
He focused on our understanding of the word atonement.
There are several places
in the New Testament (Romans 3:25 NIV, 5:11 KJV, Hebrews 2:17 NIV) where you
can find the word atonement in reference to Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. Atonement in that context has a wide and deep
meaning describing the “the entire sacrificial work of Christ by which our sins
are put away and we are reconciled to God.”
But Hebrews 10 makes it
crystal clear that the “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
[or lambs and sheep] could take away sin.” (v.4) Furthermore, Jesus “after He
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”
(v.12) And still one more just to be sure that we do not “preach any other
gospel,” (Galatians 1:8) “where [our sins and lawless acts] have been forgiven,
sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.” (Hebrews 10:18)
The word atonement occurs
much more frequently in the Old Testament.
108 times in the NIV. Literally,
it means a covering. The sacrifices of
the Old Testament produced an outward ceremonial cleanness. This gave a ritual purification which allowed
people to draw near to God’s glory in the temple and have fellowship with Him. There were even sacrifices of atonement for
inanimate objects including the altar (Exodus 29:37) which obviously didn’t
“take away the sins” of those objects.
Atonement in the Old Testament made things and people ceremonially clean
and fit for God’s service.
This opens up a whole
universe of ideation around the holiness of God. How holy is God? How un-holy are we? We have the command several places in the Old
and New Testament to “be holy.” (I Peter
1:15) In fact, we are to “be holy as God is holy.” What does that mean? We’ll come back to that in closing. For now, let’s be satisfied that the worship
at Ezekiel’s temple is not contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"'This
is what the Sovereign LORD says: In the first month on the first day you are to
take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. The priest is to
take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the
temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the
gateposts of the inner court. You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month
for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make
atonement for the temple. – Ezekiel 45:18-20
As we just noted, there is
atonement for individuals and objects.
Blood atonement brings you to the seriousness of holiness. I’ve started reading in Genesis in the last
couple of weeks. In chapter 9, God
allows Noah and his descendants to eat animals after the flood, but he is
warned not to eat the blood. Even in
Acts, the apostles instructed the Gentile believers not to observe the Mosaic
Law, but on the short list of observances (3 things), the last one is abstain
from blood. Why? Because blood is life. (Leviticus 17:14)
Sin results in death. Romans 6:23 tells us, “The wages of sin is
death.” The use of blood in cleansing
individuals and objects even ceremonially is a reminder of the seriousness of
sin.
"'In
the first month on the fourteenth day you are to observe the Passover, a
festival lasting seven days, during which you shall eat bread made without
yeast. On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for
himself and for all the people of the land. Every day during the seven days of
the festival he is to provide seven bulls and seven rams without defect as a
burnt offering to the LORD, and a male goat for a sin offering. He is to
provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram,
along with a hin of olive oil for each ephah. " 'During the seven days of
the festival, which begins in the seventh month on the fifteenth day, he is to
make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and
oil. – Ezekiel 45:21-25
I never really thought
about it, but I couldn’t think of any time in the Old Testament where the
Passover is conflated with the forgiveness of sins. Passover in the bible is a remembrance of the
deliverance of the people of Israel from the destroying angel when they were in
Egypt. Of course, Jesus’ death at
Passover became the once for all deliverance from death to all who put their
faith in Him.
"'This
is what the Sovereign LORD says: The gate of the inner court facing east is to
be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day and on the day of the
New Moon it is to be opened. The prince is to enter from the outside through
the portico of the gateway and stand by the gatepost. The priests are to
sacrifice his burnt offering and his fellowship offerings. He is to bow down in
worship at the threshold of the gateway and then go out, but the gate will not
be shut until evening. On the Sabbaths and New Moons the people of the land are
to worship in the presence of the LORD at the entrance of that gateway. –
Ezekiel 46:1-3
There is no mistake that
we are talking about the Israelites’ worship of God. The focus on Sabbaths and New Moon are not
found in the New Testament nor are they observances of Gentile believers.
You might wonder about the
significance of worshiping at the New Moon especially if you remember that God
told His people not to worship the sun, the moon, or the stars (Deuteronomy
4:19). The Jewish calendar is based on
the lunar cycle. Effectively, you have
weekly and monthly observances.
In case you caught it,
I’ll mention it was the east gate of the outer court that was permanently
closed in chapter 44. Here in Ezekiel
46, we are talking about the east gate of the inner court, and it can be opened
on festival days.
As the guardian and
protector of the people, the prince stands in the gateway and both worships and
observes the sacrifices. Only the
priests and Levites are allowed into the temple court. The prince’s watchfulness is an
accountability for the priests.
All the people of the land
are to worship there as was intended from the founding of the tabernacle and
during the times of the former temples.
The
burnt offering the prince brings to the LORD on the Sabbath day is to be six
male lambs and a ram, all without defect. The grain offering given with the ram
is to be an ephah, and the grain offering with the lambs is to be as much as he
pleases, along with a hin of olive oil for each ephah. On the day of the New
Moon he is to offer a young bull, six lambs and a ram, all without defect. He
is to provide as a grain offering one ephah with the bull, one ephah with the
ram, and with the lambs as much as he wants to give, along with a hin of oil
for each ephah. When the prince enters, he is to go in through the portico of
the gateway, and he is to come out the same way. – Ezekiel 46:4-8
These specifications are
significantly larger than the Sabbath offerings of the Mosaic Law. Numbers 28:9 gives instruction to “make an
offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink
offering and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour
mixed with olive oil.” The difference is
about 5 to 1. The amount of grain and oil
would be consistent with the preparation of bread to go with the meat of the
animals.
"'When
the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed festivals, whoever
enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate; and whoever
enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. No one is to return through
the gate by which they entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate. The
prince is to be among them, going in when they go in and going out when they go
out. At the feasts and the appointed festivals, the grain offering is to be an
ephah with a bull, an ephah with a ram, and with the lambs as much as he
pleases, along with a hin of oil for each ephah. – Ezekiel 46:9-11
I don’t know the exact
quantity of people that would be worshiping, but you can imagine thousands upon
thousands. Even considering the temples
great size, it would still be necessary to arrange for an orderly flow of
worshippers.
The prince is not isolated
or apart from the people. He worships
with them.
"'When
the prince provides a freewill offering to the LORD--whether a burnt offering
or fellowship offerings--the gate facing east is to be opened for him. He shall
offer his burnt offering or his fellowship offerings as he does on the Sabbath
day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out, the gate will be shut. –
Ezekiel 46:12
The prince will make
additional offerings beyond what is required.
When he does the east gate between the inner court and the temple court
will be opened as at the prescribed times of offerings.
"'Every
day you are to provide a year-old lamb without defect for a burnt offering to
the LORD; morning by morning you shall provide it. You are also to provide with
it morning by morning a grain offering, consisting of a sixth of an ephah with
a third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour. The presenting of this grain
offering to the LORD is a lasting ordinance. So the lamb and the grain offering
and the oil shall be provided morning by morning for a regular burnt
offering. – Ezekiel 46:13-15
In Ezekiel’s temple, there
is a daily offering now memorializing Jesus’ sacrifice as the Lamb of God. In the tabernacle and earlier temples, the
daily offering anticipated the deliverance that Jesus ultimately provided.
"'This
is what the Sovereign LORD says: If the prince makes a gift from his
inheritance to one of his sons, it will also belong to his descendants; it is
to be their property by inheritance. If, however, he makes a gift from his
inheritance to one of his servants, the servant may keep it until the year of
freedom; then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance belongs to his sons
only; it is theirs. The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the
people, driving them off their property. He is to give his sons their
inheritance out of his own property, so that not one of my people will be
separated from their property.'" – Ezekiel 46:16-18
We learn a little more
about the prince here. He is going to be
married, so there is a princess. He will
have sons.
The year of freedom is a
reference to the year of Jubilee which occurs every 50 years in Mosaic
Law. Assuming that Ezekiel’s temple is
the temple of the millennial kingdom, there would be 20 Jubilee years.
The prince will rule over
the people fairly. He will not be like
the kings of old. When the people had
demanded a king, Samuel warned them that the king would take from them until
they would cry out to God for relief. (I Samuel 8:11-18) That will not be the
case in the new kingdom. The prince will
not take the possessions of the people to distribute to his sons or his
officials or his attendants.
Then
the man brought me through the entrance at the side of the gate to the sacred
rooms facing north, which belonged to the priests, and showed me a place at the
western end. He said to me, "This is the place where the priests are to
cook the guilt offering and the sin offering and bake the grain offering, to
avoid bringing them into the outer court and consecrating the people." He
then brought me to the outer court and led me around to its four corners, and I
saw in each corner another court. In the four corners of the outer court were
enclosed courts, forty cubits long and thirty cubits wide; each of the courts
in the four corners was the same size. Around the inside of each of the four
courts was a ledge of stone, with places for fire built all around under the
ledge. He said to me, "These are the kitchens where those who minister at
the temple are to cook the sacrifices of the people." – Ezekiel 46:19-24
So yes, there are a few
burnt offerings where the offering is completely consumed, but for the most
part, the sacrifices are served back to the priests and worshipers. It’s a gigantic fellowship meal that happens
weekly and monthly and during festivals.
It makes me think of Revelation 3:20 which is often used in evangelism
but was first spoken by Jesus to the church in Laodicea. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” There is fellowship among the worshipers and
God.
Reading all these details,
details about people, their roles, their specific activities, quantities for
sacrifices, exact measurements, and the absence of conditional language
following Ezekiel 43, I cannot imagine that Ezekiel’s temple is symbolic in
nature. With all this exposition that
the Lord gave to Ezekiel, that He spoke to him, I also cannot believe Ezekiel’s
temple has been lost. It must still be
to come. And, it seems to fit most probably
in the millennial reign of Christ.
Looking at the response of
the people of Israel, the Jews were transformed by the exile. Yes, they continue to have areas of weakness
and sin, worst of all, their rejection of Jesus, the Messiah. However, the sin of adulterous idolatry was
ended by the exile. And, in the
intervening 2000 years, the Jewish people have not returned to the idols that
in part caused God to withdraw His glory from the temple.
So, I’m definitely not
comfortable saying that Ezekiel’s temple will never happen. But as we saw, this as yet unbuilt temple is
truly in the likeness of the old including expanded size and sin offerings and
animal sacrifices. For me, looking at
the death of Jesus and His resurrection, I will say that I am a bit puzzled. Are days of sin offerings and animal
sacrifices still ahead of us? And so, as
we’ve seen before in Ezekiel, some things are a mystery. But as we also read several passages in
Hebrews, we saw that they don’t rule out sacrificial ceremonies in the
future. At the same time, it is clear
from them that no future (or past or present) sacrifices can ever deal
effectively with sin. There is only one
Savior, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (I John 2:1)
Looking at all these
sacrifices, daily, weekly, monthly, at festivals, whenever the prince thinks it
is needed or makes sense … that’s a whole lot of blood. Kind of gross, but also kind of sad, life
given to achieve an outward cleanness.
Our every approach to God in our fallen condition requires blood, but
not the blood of bulls or goats, sheep or lambs. The blood of THE Lamb.
Meditating on the worship
in Ezekiel’s temple, causes me to consider freshly the holiness of God. As mentioned before, how holy is God? How un-holy are we? We have the command several places in the Old
and New Testament to “be holy.” What
does that mean?
I think in one respect, it
means that we seek to maintain fitness for God’s service. Are you fit for God’s service, set apart to
Him or are you filled up with other things?
When I say other things, I mean the things of the world. What do you talk about more than anything
else? If you poke me, I talk about work
a lot. I don’t think that’s bad
necessarily. Oftentimes, God is using my
work to shape me or to point out needs or any number of good things. But, it can be bad if I’m dwelling on things
that cause me to hold on to anger or bitterness.
You probably don’t know
it, but in the church governance manual, there is actually an annual
expectation (requirement?) that the elders are supposed to get one day alone
with God each year. To some of you, that
probably sounds atrocious. To some it
may sound atrocious that it’s so few.
Perhaps to others it may sound atrocious to be so much.
I only bring it up because
I’ve found it more and more difficult to make myself available to do that. Last week though, I went to the Fall Regional
time involving several churches that we are connected with in the southeast. The focus for Friday and Saturday morning was
prayer. And, for once, we really
succeeded. We spent at least half, if
not two thirds, of the organized time in prayer.
For me personally, nothing
amazing happened. The clouds did not
part. I did not have a vision. It was just an “ordinary” time with godly men
and women focused on the Lord. And yet,
I feel different this week. Before, I
was pretty anxious and burdened. Now, I
feel more confident in the Lord’s management of my affairs. The circumstances of my life have not
changed, only I am a bit more yielded to God than I was before. I am more fitted to the things of God.
So, my word for each of
you is to take stock of your spiritual fitness.
Are you ready to serve God? Are
you ready for Him to use you to accomplish the good works that He has prepared
for You (Ephesians 2:10)? If not, make
time to spend with Him. You won’t be
disappointed. Think about what comes out
of you when you are poked? What do you
talk about more than anything else? Is
that the most important thing?
And what if you don’t know
what to do, or how to act? I send a
quote to Rebekah every week or so. This
week, I sent her a quote from this wise woman that I know. “If you do not know what to do, err on the
side of love because love never fails.”
I also post quotes at my desk once a month or so. So, you can see who the wise lady is. I’ll
read the commentary at the bottom since it is kind of small.
I could say a lot of great
things about my wife. She is a godly
woman who seeks to do what is right. She
is also wise though I doubt you could ever get her to claim that herself. You all also owe an incredible debt to her
for anything good you have received from me.
This thought comes from an observation she once shared regarding I
Corinthians 13:4-8.
I mention this because it
is another way in which we can shift our paradigms. In your current situation, how can you love
more or better. I’m convinced more and
more as time passes that expressing love in a suitable way is more effective
means to display Christ.
Love Christ, love one
another, love others.
Think upon these things,
and may God do great things in and through you.
Let’s pray.
Father God, You are
holy. We are not. Help us to come out from the things of the
world and be set apart to You as holy vessels.
Rekindle Your Spirit in us we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment