The life of Israel saved, as the prophet Ezekiel describes it in the final chapters of his book, is centred on...
The life of Israel saved, as the prophet Ezekiel describes it in the final chapters of his book, is centred on the Temple. There can be no place in it for a repetition of what caused the country’s destruction. The prophet therefore sets out in detail the Lord’s words about the ordering of the country, the prince’s place and duties, and the foundations of its economy. This fact is itself decisive, because here the foundations are being laid for a moral ordering of social life.
The prophet pointedly avoids speaking of a king and a kingdom in Jerusalem: some thirty years before this prophecy, the prophet Jeremiah had announced the end of the rule of David’s dynasty. There would be no more kings in Israel until the coming of Christ, the Son of David. It is possible that Ezekiel saw clearly that Israel would not have full political independence in the future either, but that its spiritual uniqueness would be preserved within world empires — the Persian Empire, that of Alexander the Great, and then the Roman Empire. In any event, the prophet speaks of a prince whose power is very limited.
Here, as though it were entirely self-evident, the prophet proclaims some quite astonishing things. The prince’s principal duties that the prophet thinks it necessary to mention are religious. He offers sacrifices for the whole people and represents them before God. We might say that the prince is entrusted with a measure of responsibility for the people. For the ancient East, and indeed for later societies, this idea is highly unusual. Even in the Russian Empire, the last emperor entered ‘master of the Russian land’ in answer to the census question about his occupation; all the more did the rulers of antiquity think of themselves in this way. But in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, not only are certain duties laid upon the prince, his rights are also substantially restricted.
In the period before the exile, kings and their associates often used force and unjust judgements to take land from their subjects, depriving people of their main source of sustenance. The chapters of the First Book of Kings devoted to the prophet Elijah tell of this very vividly. The later prophets, including Jeremiah and Ezekiel himself, also denounce these cruel exercises of power. The blood with which Israel stained the Holy Land, as Ezekiel describes it, was shed in struggles with princes over plots of land. In the renewed Jerusalem, the prince is forbidden to encroach upon his subjects’ land. His allotment is clearly defined, and the prophet emphasises that this is done so that the princes will no longer oppress God’s people.
But the demand for justice, the demand not to harm the weak and defenceless, applies not only to the prince. The Lord commands the whole people to maintain honest weights and measures. Notice that at that time this also implied honesty in setting exchange rates. The prophet also specifically lays down the procedure for the inheritance of land. In other words, there can be no economic fraud or deceit in trade beside the walls of the new Temple. Thus the prophet dares to make a moral assessment both of the state and of society’s economic life, something we are far from always prepared to do. The main point of his words is that deceiving and robbing the poor and defenceless is a sin before the Almighty.
In the same way, the order of sacrifices to be offered by the prince, as set out by Ezekiel, deprives him of power in the spiritual sphere. Many kings of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms before the exile thought themselves entitled to approach the altar according to their own judgement and to organise religious life as they saw fit. For the most part, this meant that kings permitted, and sometimes actively imposed, foreign pagan cults; both Solomon and most of his descendants, down to Manasseh, did this. Only occasionally, as in the days of Hezekiah and Josiah, did the voice of faith and conscience sound in the kings’ hearts and actions. But from now on, the prince’s participation in the worship of God is strictly regulated, thereby emphasising that before God the prince is a human being like everyone else. The prophet specifically says that when all the people come before the Lord, the prince ‘must be among them; when they go in, he goes in, and when they go out, he goes out’. For the ancient world, where the sovereign was often not only the high priest but also an earthly god, this is an utterly unique position. In the prophet’s words we see a kind of foreshadowing of the denunciations that the first Christians would hurl at the Roman authorities who compelled them to worship the emperor.
It is very important that the prophet does more than distinguish the secular from the religious in the life of Israel saved. A moral assessment of secular life in the light of God’s law implies that nothing in the life of God’s people is religiously neutral: their whole life must be service to God. When the Lord says to the scribes putting Him to the test, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’, His words will echo Ezekiel’s prophecy that the Kingdom of God stands incomparably above the kingdoms of this world.
45 The division of the holy land, Eze 45:1-8.
The ordinances that were given both to the prince and to the people, Eze 45:9-12.
The oblations to be offered, and the princes part therein, Eze 45:13-17.
Particularly, in the beginning of the year, Eze 45:18-20.
And in the passover, and feast of tabernacles, Eze 45:21-25.
45:2 Of this - Whole portion of twenty five thousand cubits long, or twelve miles and half, and ten thousand broad, or five miles and a little more. For the sanctuary - For a platform for the sanctuary, both house and court.
45:3 And in it - In the center of this.
45:6 The possession - Land to be a possession to the citizens of Jerusalem, and to be the content of the city. Broad - About two miles and half broad, and twelve miles and half long. Long - This must run along parallel in length with the holy portion, though but half its breadth. For the whole house - As the capital city, to which the tribe's resort, it must be large enough to entertain them.
45:7 The prince - The king. Our side - One half of the prince's portion lay on the west side of those three already set out.The other side - The other half lay on the east - side thereof, so the portion of the city, Levites and priests, lay in the middle.The holy portion - Of priests, and Levites, and sanctuary.Before - It lay parallel as broad as these three were broad, and so run on both sides in its breadth from north to south, and had its length as the other, from east to west. Over against - What is called now over - against, or by the side, is called before three times together. So now you have an exact square of twenty - five thousand cubits laid out for God, the Levites and city, which appears thus in the breadth.
And the length of each, twenty - five thousand, that is twelve miles and half square.
45:9 Let it suffice - Be content, aim not at more.
45:11 Of one measure - One shall contain as much as the other, the ephah shall contain as many gallons of dry, as the bath of liquid things. An homer - Thirty bushels. So the ephah will be three bushels in dry things, and the bath eight gallons in liquid things.
45:12 Twenty gerahs - A gerah was one penny half - penny, the shekel then was two shillings and six - pence, twenty shekels was two pounds ten shillings, fifteen shekels was one pound seventeen shillings and six - pence, and twenty five was three pound two shillings and six - pence.Maneh - It seems there was the small, the middle, and the great Maneh.
45:13 Offer - In the daily service, the morning and evening sacrifice.
45:14 Bath - Which contained about twenty - four gallons.The cor - Or homer; these were two names of the same measure.
45:16 With the prince - By a common purse of prince and people.
45:18 Thou shalt take - Procure, this the prince must do.
45:20 For every one that erreth - For all the errors of all the house of Israel, through ignorance. For him that is simple - That is half - witted, or a fool. Reconcile - Cleanse, as ver. Eze 45:18, which legally was defiled by those errors done in the city, or courts of the house, whither these persons might come.
45:21 In the first month - Nisan, which is part of March, and part of April with us.
45:22 Upon that day - Upon the fourteenth day, on which the passover was slain.
45:24 An hin - This was about one gallon and three quarters of a pint.
45:25 In the seventh month - According to their ecclesiastical account, which is Tisri, and answers to part of our August and September.In the fifteenth day - On that day the feast of tabernacles began, and continued seven days. He - The prince.In the feast of the seven days - Hence we also may learn the necessity of frequently repeating the same religious exercises. Indeed the sacrifice of atonement was offered once for all. But the sacrifice of acknowledgement, that of a broken heart, that of a thankful heart, must be offered every day. And these spiritual sacrifices are always acceptable to God through Christ Jesus.
46 Farther rules for the worship of the priests and the people, Eze 46:1-15.
A rule, for the prince's disposal of his inheritance, Eze 46:16-18.
A description of the places for the boiling and baking the offerings, Eze 46:19-24.
46:3 In the sabbaths - Both weekly and other holy days, which are called sabbaths.
46:9 Go forth over against it - Perhaps, only to prevent all jostling and confusion.
46:17 His inheritance - Whatever lands of the prince are given to servants, shall at the year of Jubilee revert to the sons of the prince.For them - And to theirs after them.
46:20 The outer court - Where the people were.
46:21 A court - A smaller court made up on the outer sides with the walls of the greater square, and on the inside made with two walls, the one forty cubits long, the other thirty cubits broad.
46:23 A row of building - A range of building on the inside of the walls of the lesser courts. Four - Four courts in the four corners.