Ezekiel 45

Life in the Kingdom

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Intro

√ Life in the Kingdom

In our previous studies of the Millennial Kingdom we’ve been given a preview of the…

Temple

Ministers in the Temple

In our study this evening God gives us a preview of life in the Kingdom.

How the Promised Land will be divided

Where the ministers will live

The expectations and duty of the Prince (David)

The annual feasts the people will celebrate

It’s reminiscent of the instructions that God gave to Joshua and the people when they first came into the Promised Land…

…but with some interesting differences.

Ap.

The Holy District (vs. 1-6)

Ez. 45:1 “Moreover, when you divide the land by lot into inheritance, you shall set apart a district for the LORD, a holy section of the land; its length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits, and the width ten thousand (NIV read “20,000”). It shall be holy throughout its territory all around.

Ez. 45:2 Of this there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, five hundred by five hundred rods, with fifty cubits around it for an open space.

Ez. 45:3 So this is the district you shall measure: twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide; in it shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

Ez. 45:4 It shall be a holy section of the land, belonging to the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the LORD; it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

Ez. 45:5 An area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the temple; they shall have twenty chambers as a possession.

Ez. 45:6 “You shall appoint as the property of the city an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long, adjacent to the district of the holy section; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

√ The Holy District

The division of the land begins with the most important and central part…

…the place where God lives!

That is, rather than list the division of the land as it is in Joshua 15, beginning with Judah the largest tribe…

…God begins the division of the land by designating the Holy District, the place where He lives.

The significance is that God is communicating that in the Kingdom Age He is to be the center of the life of the nation!

Ex. That’s the way it was supposed to be!

Historically that’s the way it was supposed to be! God was always to be the center of the life of the people and the nation.

Under David’s rule and the few godly kings that followed him that was the case.

During the reigns of those kings the nation and the people were blessed.

But for most of the history of Israel the people, from the peasant to the king, neglected God and relegated Him a place at the bottom of their priorities.

That was the underlying attitude of the generation in Ezekiel’s time that ultimately led to God’s judgment on the nation.

So, in the Kingdom Age God will take His rightful place at the center of life…

…nationally and personally.

Ap. God must be at the center of our lives!

Remember that Jesus said…

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” ~ Matt. 6:33

The constant struggle of the believer is to keep God at the center of our lives.

Our old nature wants desperately to be king and to rule over every area of our life.

But a life of blessing is only found when we acknowledge the Lord as King of our life and surrender our flesh and its desires to Him!

The Spirit-controlled life is the life where we put God at the center.

So, as we look at the future Kingdom Age and find God and His house at the center of the nation we’re reminded that’s God’s rightful place in our lives!

√ The Levites

You’ll recall from our study last week that the family of the Levites were divided into two groups…

The sons of Zadok who ministered to the Lord.

The rest of the Levites who ministered to the people.

In the Kingdom Age both groups will be given a place to live in the Holy District so that they will be near to the Lord and close to the place they’ll work!

That’s different than it was during the Old Testament era.

Then the Levites were allowed to settle throughout the land of Israel and rotated monthly shifts where they came to the Temple to minister.

It would seem then that during the Millennial Kingdom that God wants to emphasize the importance of the ministers being separated from the distractions of life so that they might serve Him with a single focus.

Ap. Our inheritance is the Lord

Just a note for you who may be called to pastoral ministry, be careful that you don’t get distracted from your calling by other endeavors!

It’s easy to get scared about your future, retirement, how you’ll make ends meet and get involved in some other pursuit.

I’ve seen a number of pastors lose their focus and then their ministry because they began to invest their time and energy in other pursuits.

The pastor is called to minister to the Lord and His people and to trust that God provide for his needs.

√ Another difference

We won’t get to the other tribes and their portion of the land until chapter 48, but a little preview about what’s different from the time of Joshua is that all the tribes will be on the west side of the Jordan River!

Everyone is in the Promised Land!

No more will some of the people live in the permissive will of God, rather, all the people will live in the perfect will of God!

The Prince’s Portion (vs. 7-8)

Ez. 45:7 “The prince shall have a section on one side and the other of the holy district and the city’s property; and bordering on the holy district and the city’s property, extending westward on the west side and eastward on the east side, the length shall be side by side with one of the tribal portions, from the west border to the east border.

Ez. 45:8 The land shall be his possession in Israel; and My princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, according to their tribes.”

√ The Prince’s Portion

The next section of land is dispersed to the prince, whom we earlier identified as king David.

His land will border the Holy District on the west and east sides (see map) and extend each direction to the borders of Israel.

There are at least three reasons that God would want to keep the prince close the Holy District,

1) The first is implied in vs. 8

“My princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, according to their tribes.”

That is, God wants to keep the prince and his descendants close to make sure that they don’t take advantage of the people as they so often did in Old Testament times.

Ex. Ahab took the vineyard of Naboth

While we might think it impossible for David to oppress God’s people…

…don’t forget that during his earthly rule he did take advantage of the people under his care by stealing the wife of Uriah!

2) The second reason is that the prince must be close to the Temple for God has assigned him duties in the Temple during the feasts.

3. The third reason is that it is the privilege and honor of the prince to live close to the King!

Ap. We’ll always be near the Lord!

Reminds me that one of the promises given to the Church, the Bride of Christ…

…is that Jesus is even now preparing a place for us for the specific reason that Jesus wants to be near us!

John 14:2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

The place that Jesus speaks of is heaven, and while it is somewhat unclear where the Church will be in the Millennial Kingdom…

…this much we can be sure of, we’ll be near to our King!

What a wonderful thought that the King of the Universe wants us in His presence!

The Holy Standards (vs. 9-12)

Ez. 45:9 “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Remove violence and plundering, execute justice and righteousness, and stop dispossessing My people,” says the Lord GOD.

Ez. 45:10 “You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath.

Ez. 45:11 The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, so that the bath contains one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah one-tenth of a homer; their measure shall be according to the homer.

Ez. 45:12 The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your mina.

√ The Holy standards

In this section God turns His attention back to the present and rebukes the leaders of Israel for their greed.

Apparently the leaders during Ezekiel’s day were taking advantage of the people by using corrupt units of measure designed to rip the people off.

So, God sets forth a holy standard to establish units of measure for dry and liquid commodities and weights for coin…

…both for the time that Ezekiel lived in and for the future Kingdom.

The exhortation to the princes and leaders in Ezekiel’s day was that if they wanted a place of honor in the future Kingdom…

…then they would need to start living a holy life now by treating those entrusted to their care with fairness and justice.

We find this idea expressed in Jesus’ parable of the servants in Matthew 24, the context of which is the Jewish people living during the Tribulation…

Matt. 24:45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

Matt. 24:46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

Matt. 24:47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.

Matt. 24:48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, “My master is delaying his coming,’

Matt. 24:49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,

Matt. 24:50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of,

Matt. 24:51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The point in both scriptures is that God demands that the leaders of Israel are to treat His people with love and compassion…

…if they don’t then they will suffer for their indiscretion.

The Princes Sacrifices (vs. 13-17)

Ez. 45:13 “This is the offering which you shall offer: you shall give one-sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley.

Ez. 45:14 The ordinance concerning oil, the bath of oil, is one-tenth of a bath from a kor. A kor is a homer or ten baths, for ten baths are a homer.

Ez. 45:15 And one lamb shall be given from a flock of two hundred, from the rich pastures of Israel. These shall be for grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement for them,” says the Lord GOD.

Ez. 45:16 “All the people of the land shall give this offering for the prince in Israel.

Ez. 45:17 Then it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the New Moons, the Sabbaths, and at all the appointed seasons of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.”

√ The princes sacrifices

Theses verses describe the offering, or tax upon the people of the land to provide David, with the produce and animals required for sacrifice in the Temple.

Note that it’s a “flat tax”, that is, everyone pays the same percentage of what they have.

1/6 of the produce from their fields

1/10 of the oil from their olive orchards

1/200 of the animals from their flocks

All of these gifts (or tithes) are to be given to David as representative of the people for the maintenance of the Temple and the sacrifices required.

The Holy Feasts (vs. 18-25)

Ez. 45:18 “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary.

Ez. 45:19 The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the gate of the inner court.

Ez. 45:20 And so you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned unintentionally or in ignorance. Thus you shall make atonement for the temple.

Ez. 45:21 “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

Ez. 45:22 And on that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.

Ez. 45:23 On the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for seven days, and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.

Ez. 45:24 And he shall prepare a grain offering of one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, together with a hin of oil for each ephah.

Ez. 45:25 “In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall do likewise for seven days, according to the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil.”

√ The Holy Feasts

During the Millennial Kingdom the Jewish people will celebrate only three of the six annual feasts…

New Year’s ~ vs. 18-20

The Feast of Passover & unleavened bread ~ vs. 21-24

The Feast of Tabernacles ~ vs. 25

The New Year’s feast begins on the 1^st day of the 1^st month of the Hebrew calendar (Nissan), which is early April in our calendar.

The purpose of the feast and sacrifices is to cleanse the Temple and the people.

Remember all the sacrifices are memorials, which look back to the work of Christ on the Cross.

The second feast is Passover, which begins on the 14^th day of the 1^st month (mid-April), and runs for seven days during which the people do not eat leavened bread (thereby combining Passover with Unleavened Bread).

During the feast the Prince, David, prepares the sacrifices for himself and the people…

…providing evidence that the Prince cannot be Jesus!

Note vs. 22…

“And on that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.”

Clearly the Prince cannot be Jesus for He is without sin! One more reason that Bible students suggest that the Prince must be David.

√ Tabernacles

The final feast noted is the Feast of Tabernacles…

Ez. 45:25 “In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall do likewise for seven days, according to the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil.”

It is not named in vs. 25 but we can identify it accurately by the date given…

“In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month…”

The interesting question is, why did Ezekiel only mention these feasts and not the others in Israel’s religious calendar? That is, where are…

Feast of Pentecost

Feast of Trumpets

Day of Atonement

We’re not told expressly why these feasts are not celebrated but some Bible students suggest that it may signal a change in God’s relationship with Israel…

…from an Old Testament relationship to a New Testament one!

With the inauguration of the New Covenant these feasts are rendered unnecessary.

The feasts that remain, the first and last on the calendar, are symbolic of the new relationship that Israel has with God.

That is…

Passover (combined with Unleavened bread) points the Jewish people back to the Cross of Christ.

Tabernacles celebrates God’s presence dwelling with His people in the Kingdom Age as He did during their exodus experience.

This is of course only speculation but it offers a reasonable explanation for the absence of three of the annual Jewish festivals.

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√ Life in the Kingdom