Ezekiel 44-48

Introduction

In large part, in large part, the book of Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel is to bring the people back to the living water. And we’ll see a little bit more in the lesson today.

A vision, and uh it is directed to, of course, the exiles, to have them look toward the future. It also helps us look toward today, right now, real time. My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the first one, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and the second one, they have manufactured some for themselves, as uh what I take the meaning of the second half of that from Jeremiah 213. In that day, when is that day? Living waters will flow out of Jerusalem. Now, our real time, real time for our study today is somewhere 585-572, Zechariah prophesied 522 to 518. So we’re looking at some 50 years later on, the second prophecy from the day that Ezekiel lived. So in that day, Zechariah still pointing toward the future, that day was from then until even beyond our time.

Anybody disagree with that?

Looking backward to where we finished up with on Wednesday. Chapter 43 verses 18 through 27 has the priestly duties to include the sacrifices that the priests do. Why? Why were priests still necessary? Now we’re looking at this. The question, the way this question relates is after the exiles come back. Why are priests still necessary? And why should animal sacrifices be necessary?

That’s right. That’s right. And uh behold days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. The new covenant has not been made yet.

When he said, coming from Hebrews 13, the Hebrew writer said, a new covenant he has made the first obsolete. So until that first covenant is made obsolete, then the old covenant continues to exist. Now we’ll move forward into today’s lesson with 44. If you were here on Wednesday, you saw this same basic sketch, outline, drawing, whatever. And uh in this one, this would be the temple proper, the inner court here. This is the outer court, east gate, south gate, north gate. And part of part of our study, we saw that interior, north to south, east to west, the complete thing was 300 cubits. But then we went further in our study and we found that outside measurements was five hundred reeds. Five hundred reeds is about three thousand cubits without the hand breadth of them.

Well, it’d be three thousand cubits regardless. But uh 3,000 cubits is about 4500 feet. That sounds right. I’m not enough to get it.

1. The East Gate Shut and the Prince

And looking backward a bit to chapter 43 and verse 4, remember the glory of the Lord came into the house of the gate facing toward the east, down at the bottom. That way. Now, our beginning our study today. Then he brought me back by the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east, and it was shut. Why was the gate shut?

I had gone through that gate already. That’s right. God had gone through the gate. And he tells us in verse 44, too, the Lord God of Israel has entered by the prince shall set in it as prince and eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by the porch at the gate and shall go out the same way. Who is this prince? This prince.

Prince or princes. But who is this prince? Jesus Messiah.

2. Foreigners Uncircumcised in Heart and Flesh

I think that these two are related. The prince here and the prince back in chapter 34 and verse 24, I believe he’s talking about, he’s pointing forward to the toward the Messiah. He brought me out by way of the north gate, and the glory of the Lord build the house. So he come, he brought him out of the north gate. This would be a north gate to the outer court. Or I mean to the north gate to the inner court, north gate to the outer court. Right there. Verses 6 through 8. Say to the rebellious ones, enough of your abominations, O house of Israel, you have brought foreigners in. You have brought in foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. Take a look in your workbooks.

Page 107, the middle of the top half of the page. Foreigners will be excluded. Foreigners will be excluded. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Brother Hark Rider about this. I don’t know the detail that he would have presented had he been teaching this himself. But he says Israel had polluted the Jerusalem temple by bringing in foreigners uncircumcised in heart. They had done that. But as far as the lead-in statement, foreigners will be excluded, I want us to understand a little bit different than just saying foreigners will be excluded. No foreigners in the house of the Lord. That is not the message. Who is uncircumcised in heart and in flesh? Who are they? Who are these ones uncircumcised in heart and flesh? Look backward. Kings, priests, prophets, and even the people.

And Francis.

For the sake for the sake of doing so before other people and not from the heart, we just well knock out wick. I think that’s the meaning here. No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary.

Well, I’m just going to say Jesus used this term in uh the New Testament when he was talking to Peter. Uh, when he was paying the tax, the teaching tax, he said, from whom do the kings of the world collect taxes, from sons or from foreigners? And Peter answered, from son, you know, from foreigners, not from sons. He said, The sons are free. The Lord had that term in his mind from the Old Testament, that if you’re heir, if you’re family, then the king recognizes you and loves you. But if you’re not king and you’re not family, you’re a foreigner. I mean, it wasn’t talking about, you know, just being a Jew, it was talking about all those outside the love and grace of God. You’re considered a foreigner.

Has the Lord ever baners from his sanctuary? From Numbers chapter 9, chapter 15. If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover of the Lord, what do we have to do? We’re all strangers or aliens unless we observe what is holy to the Lord. And that being his laws and his statutes, his word. You shall have one statute, one law, people Israel. Just as you do, so shall they do. Who are the foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh? We talked about this a little bit, but this is the way.

With the rest of our lesson. Who are they? These. And this is from Matthew and Isaiah. Isaiah first and then Matthew. This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. These are those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh. The Levites.

3. The Levites Not of the Line of Zadok

And those not of the line of Zadok, they go back to 1 Samuel, Eli, Eli’s sons who had defiled the sacrifice. You remember they were dipping into the pot with the big pork, taking it and giving the fat and everything, the entire thing, just giving it to people without respecting the Lord, or rising up the fat as a franklin aroma to the Lord. And then that carries forward to the days of Solomon when Abathar, when Abathar opposed Solomon as being king, and Solomon banished him in fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy having to do with the sons of Eli because of the sins that they had committed. So the line of Zadok, the line of Zadok, the line of Zadok comes from Moses’ son, Elizar. The other Levites come from the line of Ithamar.

And that is the first half of that proverb. The bold portion of it is basically the picture that I see about the Levites, not of the Son, not of the line of Zadok. But he blesses the house of the righteous.

These are the ones who went far from the Lord when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols. And we have long and large discussions on this through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, how they went after their idols. And they shall bear the punishment for their inequities. And remember this.

And go back to Exodus 19 3. And I think I’ve used this two or three times in this class. If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be to me a kingdom of holy priests and a holy nation. That pertained to the priest, to the Lord’s servant, to everyone who served the Lord. That promise existed.

Though the Levites had defiled his holy name, they will be benefactors of his great mercy. And this chapter continues on and paints the picture of what they must do to be brought back. And we’re going into that right now.

Shall bear the punishment of their inequity. They shall not come near me and serve as priests for me. Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the house of all its servants of all its servants. Now, what he is outlined here, it’s a task for servants and not for priests. Household servants. It would have better for them if they had not known the way of righteousness that having known it to turn away from the holy commandment and had handed on to them. And this is from the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter. It would have been better for those Levites, not of the line of Sadal. But by his great mercy is an opportunity to repent, to demonstrate their faith by their works.

Acts 17, 30. The same thing was occurring in that day that Paul was speaking of here, and Luke recorded for us.

4. The Faithful Priests, the Line of Zadok

Chapter 44, verses 15 through 20. Now up to now, primarily have been talking about priests, not of the line of Zadok, the unfaithful priests. Now we’re going to contrast what we’ve been talking about with those who were faithful. The line of Zadok. They shall come near to me. They shall stand before me. They shall enter my sanctuary. Come near to my table, minister to me. They shall be clothed in linen, wool they shall wool shall not be on them. Now you remember in previous classes, we uh it was, and this came from a sundry law, you shall not wear garments of linen and wool together. And we go on down with linen and uh linen garments, the being garments of the priest, the turban, undergarments, and out of garments.

I found it interesting that they were not to wear anything that they would cause them to sweat.

I don’t know.

I don’t uh the reason that I didn’t mention that, quite frankly, is I don’t understand it. I don’t have a meaning for why one should not sweat. They’re in a fiery area. I mean it just don’t wear any garment that will cause you to sweat, is the language that she’s talking about, which is within these verses here somewhere. But the property of the fabric lets your sweat evaporate in the in the desert. And that was the good thing about linen. Because if you do sweat, you’re unclean. Think of all the hand washing and the body washing they had to do. Good explanation. He had to be as physically pure as possible. And uh, I guess we’ve all worn wool. And we know what happens when we wear wool.

What is the deliverance? When uh top right, verse 19 through 20, when they go into the outer court, they shall put off their garments. Now, this is a very, very interesting and telling portion of this of this prophecy here as we go forward. They put on other garments so that they will not transmit the holiness of the people with their garments. Don’t be a show off. Don’t be a show-off to the people. They shall not shave their heads, not let their locks grow long, they shall only trim their hair. Now, what does this remind you of in a prophecy from Isaiah chapter 52, and I believe verse 9? It was a morning ritual. He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground.

This is Jesus. He had no stately form. Or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. Jesus was plain and common and an unassuming man in the flesh. And we are to be perfect as he was perfect, at least he was totally weird to be like him. Is that not what the scripture tells us? So I I’ve always had the question, you know, in the Old Testament, the law and the priests, priestly garments, it’s so elaborate. It’s so ornate. And to go from that into the plain, the common. That what was pleasing to God back then is not within that. It’s just such a contrast to me. And confusing along those lines, confusing for a lot of people, is we have the scripture, and I can’t uh uh I I can’t quote exactly where it is in the scripture, but it is there, and y’all will recognize it.

Jesus is our high priest, but not of the order of these priests, he’s the order of Melchizedek. And who is Melchizedek? What was his priesthood? Pardon me? Everlasting. Everlasting, and his priesthood was directly from God, just as Jesus, Jesus being our high priest.

Further contrast, and we’ll go through this pretty quickly here. They shall not drink wine, they shall not marry widow or divorce women, but take virgins of the household of Israel. Israel. Israel, as is mentioned in these chapters. Israel, as is mentioned in these chapters, who do we think Israel is Israel depicted in these chapters is everyone who is faithful and holy to God. Everyone who serves God. Likewise, in these chapters, you do not see Jerusalem mentioned. You do not see a city mentioned. You see the word city, but you do not see the city name.

This is the picture here.

Going forth to all the nations. And it is going to begin with this fact with the faithful remnant coming back. The thankful remnant is what is going to spread the Lord’s word, keep his word, and ultimately bring it to us as the gospel of Christ. They shall teach responsibilities of all priests, and we are all priests. Whether we teach like Josh did this morning, or I’m trying to now, or if it’s just person to person, neighbor to neighbor, we’re all to teach and spread the God the Lord’s word.

My friend, what you’re doing, what you’re doing. Have you ever thought about what you’re doing? Have you ever thought about what you’re doing? Is it right? Is it in accordance with what God would have you do, what the Lord would have you do? That is that is what the judgment part of it means. Not to you better stop what you’re doing. I’m gonna have you arrested. It’s not a consequential, consequential judgment. It’s a stop and think about it in accordance to the law.

And they shall not possess land, and the Lord says, I am their possession. They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering. Now, these are the faithful priests, the sons of Sadon. The ones who had served the Lord through all of this, throughout. Let’s see, how much we about uh around 700, 700, 800 years. This is the period that the sons of Sadok had been faithful to the Lord. Every devoted thing that is in Israel shall be theirs. Every devoted thing that the Lord has belongs to his faithful priests. The Lord provides for those who are his.

On their whole life. No, uh, the way the script, you’re you’re correct, the way the scripture is written, it is not a prohibition on the whole life. It was not a prohibition on their whole life. And when we talk about wine, think about wine as, and this is the way it’s described in the scripture. Wine is two things. Wine and strong drink amounts to two things. One is an intoxicating beverage, or today we could look at it as drugs or anything else that intoxicates. But Paul in Ephesians, Ephesians, I believe it is in, well, I’m not sure which verse it is, but he refers to wine and strong drink as dissipation. And in Isaiah 27, 28 and 29, they were all drunk. They were all drunk, meaning the priests, the princes, the prophets, they were all drunk, not with wine or strong drink.

And that, what Isaiah was talking about there is the dissipation part of it, is when we drink, should we drink? How can we judge ourselves as to when we’re going to be intoxicated, equivalent to the dissipation, and put ourselves in a condition to where we are not Bible servants of the Lord as Jesus was, as we described in a previous verse there. But I agree with what you said. It does not. What they said is what the scripture says there is wine. Do not drink wine while you’re in the house of the Lord. It does not say that you can drink it when you come out, though. It might imply it, but it doesn’t say it. Back to move along here. Alright, I’m going to go through this quickly.

5. The Holy Allotment and the Princes

These are not necessarily confusing measurements, but the Lord’s holy allotment. 45-1. Oh 45-1, there where I have cubits and reads. New American Standard Version has for that verse.

Would be a significant difference.

Who come near to the Lord? That’s the sons of Zadok. The Levites’ possession. These are the ones that ministers or servants to the house. They’re the ones that were not previously faithful to the Lord. And then we have the city’s possession for the whole house, and the city’s possession is for the whole house of Israel. And what is that? Where’d that come from? Map of Jerusalem. That is a satellite photo of Jerusalem. Sunlight photo of Jerusalem. And right about there is the Mount of Olives. Right about there is where the temple was. And right here, this is would have been called the Valley Kidron, the Brook Kedron that went around this way and went out toward the sea. We’ll see a little bit more of that later.

But when we look at all these measurements, how much of that area there did it are they talking about? I don’t know. But uh I read in uh a King James, a King James Bible that I have in a postscript or subscript to it that that is 8.3 miles that they’re talking about. I don’t know. Because it changes as we go through the scripture. Those measurements change, yes, sir. You can be sure that Memiah and Ezra knew exactly what it is. And the ones who were receiving the message that day from Ezekiel knew what it was, too. The prince shall have the land on either side of the holy allotments, so my princes shall no longer oppress me or oppress my people. Now here’s a little bit of what I see.

Okay, the holy portion’s in the center.

The holy portion, the uh the holy place, the sanctuary of Zadok, Levites and the servants, and the whole house of Israel. And the portion for the prince is outside that. So this prince is different to the other prince. This is not, this prince is not the Messiah. Kathy, do you see it that way?

Enough, you princes of Israel, put away violence and destruction and practice justice. And prophecy from Isaiah. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and the princes of his people. It is you who have deviated the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. Now, these words here at 45, 13, and 20, these are my words, a summary. This is my summary of 13 through 20. The princes must now atone for their sins against God and the people, and provide for others rather than just themselves. Now this is scripture. On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a bull for sin offering. So the prince not only provides physical sustenance, he provides that which is required for spiritual sustenance as well.

Oh, down at the bottom, east. See that big red X?

That’s the way the Lord came in, right?

An explanation of how princes may atone for their sins. He provides offerings for self and people. Now, when the people enter, the prince can enter. But when the people go out, the print goes, the prince goes out. So who is the prince to the people? Basically, this picture is the people are actually greater than the prince, or at least the prince is not greater than people anymore. He who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate. He who enters the south gate shall go out by the way of the north gate. Now why would that be? There may be many reasons, but my twisted mind takes me in a particular direction. But why? Perhaps this is the message. If you have indeed heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self.

And that is from Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. Basic. Yeah, there’s no coming back, there’s no looking back, there’s no going back to the self of old. If you go back to the self of old, it’s a little bit like what Peter said. Dog returning to its vomit or a sow to the waller. What’s that? Didn’t he turn it back? No, turn down.

6. The Living Waters

Let’s see what we’re looking at here. Chapter 47, verse 1. Then he brought me back to the door of the house. Behold, water. This is this is my favorite part of this. Behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing from down under from the right side of the house. From south of the altar. Well, I don’t know if that’s where water was coming from, the little red arrow. But he brought me out by the way of the north gate and brought me around on the outside by way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side. Now, I believe that’s the picture that he’s trying to give to us.

He walked brought him around that way. And right there’s my little trickle of water. But water was trickling out. Now we’re back to Jerusalem. And uh there is the red, the red is where the city is at. The vision of the flowing waters, whom the what the exiles may have understood, what they may have saw as Ezekiel was explaining this to them.

Thousand cubits down the brook of Kidra. Now, the origin of that, do y’all remember the origin of the springs there in the temple? The uh the springs Gion or the Gaian Springs, they flowed out from under the city of David, modern day pool of Salaam, and this is where, through those frames, is where Joshua and his people are believed to have gone through to capture the city originally. And it comes out of the side there and originally flowed into the brook of Kidron, but now it flows nowhere except to the pool of Salaam. And it is described as today as kind of a wet weather spring. Another thousand cubit water to the knees, like so. Another thousand water to the lawn, like so. Another thousand, it was a river.

One could not board, for the water had risen enough to swim in a river that could not be forwarded. What is this river? What is our picture? Okay. The slide that I had you in the beginning, it’s the living waters. He’s describing living waters again. And uh this is how the book of Ezekiel comes together. From the beginning, we see a vision. Ezekiel sees the vision. The wheel and the wheel eyes all around, uh, the four faces, the four beings, so forth. That is the omnipotence of God that he’s looking at. God of the world, God of the universe, and God of the universe, bring the living waters. Bring the living waters back to everyone who will receive it. And there’s the last.

Where do the living waters come from? Down underneath some explain this. Some teachers and some commentators in their commentary explain this. The water coming up is symbolic of the resurrection of Christ. I do not explain it that way. But it’s even that and what I’m trying to explain should mean the same thing. It’s living waters. Christ is our living waters. Christ is our life. Yes. Could it also be with the the growing and the blooming and the rising of the water? At least the message of him.

That is around to pride.

That is part and parcel of the message. There is so much that one, when you look at this, when you study it, when you compare it to other scriptures, both new and old testament, that can be pulled into this. There’s just so much. Okay, now following the living waters and the vision going out. What we have here, top left, that’s a long view photo of the Dead Sea. And note how barren it is around the Dead Sea. And that bottom left, that is also, that is actually from inside one of the eleven caves at Qumran, looking out onto, still barren and dead. And of course, the waters they flowed out from the temple along here, down this way, through the Arabah, going over to the sea.

The waters went everywhere. And uh, does it remind you of this? The Lord God planted toward the east in Eden. Out of the ground, the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. The tree of life, also in the midst of the garden of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. Now, in Ezekiel’s vision here. There are waters flowing through the Dead Sea, down through the Dead Sea, out to the south, out to the west, out toward the Araba. And trees were growing up. These trees are seemingly, at least to me, the tree of life. The tree of life. The entire picture he’s painting here is of the Garden of Eden.

Garden of Eden brought back to all the faithful. Garden of Eden brought back to all the faithful. To us today, we have the Garden of Eden in Christ. Revelation 22, 1 through 3. He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, coming out from the throne of God of the Lamb in the middle of the street. On either side was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse for those who are faithful in God. Chapter 47, going toward the end. Supposed to be equally divided. You shall divide this land. Okay, you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among yourself and among the aliens.

They shall be to you as native born. They shall be allotted an inheritance with you. There are no ideans, there are no foreigners.

In the area where he stays. And from Isaiah and Matthew, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit within him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. And this is definitely talking about Jesus. Division of the land. And 48 1 through 7, you find that for the northern portion, 48 23 through 29, and in the center, 48, 8 through 14, a holy allotment. Now I don’t know if any of you have noticed what I put on the board here, but when I read in chapter 48, the way this is displayed in the scripture, this would be Dan, and this is 48 1 through 7. Dan, Asher, Naphthalite, so forth and so on going across.

Seven. And then we have five. As they’re displayed in the scripture, it’s not like it is on a mouth of Israel. They are linear from east to west. You’ve got Dan and then next, and then next, and then next. And then we come here, and Benjamin starts. That’s the way it’s set forth in Scripture, and it makes it very difficult to understand. And quite frankly, I don’t mind saying, I don’t understand why it is displayed that way. But in the center, in the center is those things that are holy. The remainder shall be for the prince. See, the prince is uh the prince is still not where the prince ought to be here. His heart apparently still does not seem to be right. I don’t know.

Conclusion

I don’t have a full grasp of that, but uh I believe this is our last slide here. Oh. Lastly, it sets forth in the last few verses. 4500 cubits on either side. Either side will have three gates representing three tribes. And forty, five hundred times four is eighteen thousand.

It’s not going to be Jerusalem. The city of the Lord, city of God, city of Christ. Thank you. And on Wednesday, we will.