14 September

Bible In 365 Days                                 

Ezekiel 46-48

Ezekiel 46

This passage constitutes one paragraph dealing with the arrangements for the feasts, and appointed times and seasons. Twice a year the sacred ceremony of cleansing the sanctuary was to be performed, on the first day of the first month, and on the first day of the seventh month. In this provision the holiness of God is insisted upon, in that it is an atonement for the house on the behalf, not of any individuals, or of specific sins, but "for everyone that erreth, and for him that is simple."

The Passover feast was still to be observed, and also the feast of Tabernacles. In addition to these great festivals, arrangements were made for the ceremonial observance of sabbaths, and of months, and also for the daily offerings. In this connection instructions followed which made it impossible for the prince at any time to alienate ultimately his inheritance in the land. What he gave to his sons must be of his own inheritance, in order that the people be not disinherited. Ezekiel was conducted by the angel through the boiling houses in which the servants of the sanctuary were to prepare that portion of the offerings of which the people were to partake.

Ezekiel 47

Again Ezekiel was taken to the door of the house, and there beheld the wonderful symbolic river. Its source was the sanctuary. It proceeded under the threshold, and past the altar, and outward in an eastward course, a steadily growing stream. A thousand cubits beyond the place of its emergence it was ankle deep, a thousand farther it reached the knees, a thousand farther the loins were covered, and a thousand farther it became, in the stately language of the prophet, "a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through."

Having observed this growth, the prophet was taken back to the brink of the river, and then in language full of poetic beauty he described its effect. Trees were seen growing on either bank. The angel told him that the waters went down into the Arabah, and ultimately into the sea, and that its waters would be healed by the inflow of the river of life. The inclusive statement of the effect is stated in the words, "Everything shall live whithersoever the river goeth."

Following the vision of the river, the prophet received instructions concerning the new division of the land, the possessions of the tribes running from east to west. The country thus divided would belong to the tribes of Israel, and any stranger dwelling therein was to have an inheritance in the land in common with the children of Israel.

Ezekiel 48

The disposition of the tribes in relation to the sanctuary was then given. On the north of the sacred land Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah were to find their possessions, and in that order from north to south. In the sacred land itself, at the very center, stood the sanctuary, and the priests' possession was immediately round about it. On the north of the land of the sanctuary and the priests, was the possession of the Levites, while on its south were the city and its adjacent lands. On the east and the west of all these was the princes' portion. Then to the south of the sacred land lay the portions of Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, and in that order from north to south.

The last vision granted to Ezekiel was of the city at the south of the sacred land, having three gates toward each of the points of the compass, on which were inscribed the names of the tribes of Israel.

The final words of this prophet of hope announced the name of the city, "Jehovah-Shammah," signifying, "The Lord is there." Thus the lonely witness to the glory of God, in exile in Babylon, rejoiced "in hope of the glory of God."

It is a fit and exquisite termination to this most wonderful book. Ezekiel had been arrested and inspired by visions of the essential glory of God, which he was able to describe only in terms full of majestic suggestiveness, which even to this day we read with great reverence and wonder. He had observed the reprobation of his people, and had seen that at its deepest it consisted in the fact that Jehovah had withdrawn Himself from them. Through all the clouds and darkness in the midst of which he lived, he had looked on to the people's restoration, and had seen that it consisted in the return of Jehovah to their midst, and all the burden of his message ended with the simple and sublime word, "Jehovah is there."