Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Ezekiel-Chapter 45

Ezek 45.1-25 deals with the division of the land during the Messianic Kingdom, and the persons and uses for it. One area is for the Temple, and others are for the priests, the Levites, the prince, the city, and the Israelites. It also discusses the offerings of the people, the prince and the times they were to be given. We will also see that the rules will be much different than one would expect.

v 1…”And when you shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer an allotment (terumah) to the Lord, a holy (has a kedusha meaning it has certain limitations and restrictions) portion of the land (dedicated to Yehovah); the length shall be 25,000 cubits, and the width shall be 10,000. It shall be holy (a kedusha) with all its boundary roundabout (by setting this area apart, it acknowledges the inner kedusha of the whole).

v 2…Out of this there shall be for the holy place (the Temple) a square round about five hundred by five hundred cubits, and fifty cubits for its open space (kept free of buildings in case they come too close to the kedusah of the Temple compound) roundabout.

v 3…And from this area you shall measure a length of 25,000 cubits and a width of 10,000 cubits; and in it shall be the sanctuary, the most holy place (in the midst of the portion of land).

v 4…It shall be the holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests (homes for them), the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the Lord, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary (this area is thirty-six times larger than the Temple Mount).

v 5…And an area 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width shall be for the Levites (a portion equally as large as the priests), the ministers of the house, and for their possession twenty chambers (grouped close to the Temple for the Levites on duty to guard the Temple).

v 6…And you shall give the city possession (an area) 5000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long (the capital of the nation and total area under its control. The city itself occupied an area of 4500 by 4500 cubits as seen in 48.16), alongside the allotment of the holy portion (running next to it); it shall be for the whole house of Israel (all tribes having an equal interest).

v 7…And the prince (Hebrew “nasi” or president and head of the nation who oversees affairs under the Messiah; see comments on 44.3) shall have land on either side of the holy allotment (terumah) and the property of the city, facing the holy allotment (terumah) and the property of the city, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border (extending outside the boundaries of the strips as far as the land extends to the east and west, running parallel to the strips belonging to the tribes).

v 8…This shall be his land and for a possession in Israel; so my prince shall no longer oppress my people (in order to enlarge his holdings, etc), but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.”

v 9…’Thus says the Lord God (Adonai Yehovah), “Enough, you princes of Israel (this is a call to the former kings of Judah. The greed and robbery done in the past shall cease); put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness (as defined in the Torah). Stop your expropriations (expulsions) from my people,: declares the Lord God.

v 10…You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath (liquid and dry measurements).

v 11…The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity, so that the bath may contain a tenth of an homer; and the ephah a tenth of an homer, their standard shall be according to the homer (or as the homer was; one homer is equal to ten baths, or what was also equivalent to 30 seahs; each seah being equivalent in volume to six kabs, and each kab equivalent in volume to 24 medium size eggs).

v 12…And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs (a unit of weight and currency); twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels shall be your maneh (or “mina”- in short, there will be no adulteration of coins).

v 13…This is the offering (terumah) that you shall offer (for the worship of Yehovah that would fall on the prince in fixed contributions); a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat; a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley;

v 14…and the prescribed portion of oil (the bath of oil), a tenth of a bath from each kor (which is ten baths or a homer, for ten baths are an homer);

v 15…and one sheep from each flock of two hundred from the watering places of Israel (good pastures)-for a grain offering, for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make atonement (reconciliation or to restore a covering) for them,” declares the Lord.

v 16…All the people of the land shall give (join) to this offering (terumah) for the prince of Israel (the people would give it to the prince, who would now be able to provide for the worship in the Temple as a sign he represents the people).

v 17…And it shall be the prince’s apart (his responsibility) to provide the burnt offering, the grain offerings, and the libations at the festivals, on the new moons, and on the sabbaths, at all the appointed festivals of the house of Israel; he shall provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offerings, to make atonement (reconciliation) for the house of Israel (Now, do sacrifices and offerings take away sin? No, they never did, but confession and repentance do in faith as part of the steps of bringing a korbanot. Atonement, or reconciliation, means to restore a covering. There are two levels of atonement/reconciliation. The higher level of atonement is for salvation, what Yom Kippur was and the death of Yeshua. The lower atonement is for when the presence of God dwells among sinful man, individual korbanot will need to be made. Another way of putting this is when the korbanot are brought it is a rededication of the sinner back to their partner, God, at the covenantal center which is the Temple).”

v 18…”Thus says the Lord God, “In the first month (of the religious calendar which is Aviv or Nisan), on the first of the month (a new moon or Nisan 1), you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary (this is new and not found in the Torah. Here is a sin offering service on the new moon before the festivals in Nisan. In 45.25 we have another sin offering before the festivals in Tishri, the seventh month).

v 19…And the priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering (korban chata) and put it on the doorposts of the house (Temple), on the four corners of the ledge (azarah) of the altar (the lower part), and on the posts of the gate of the inner court is also not in the Torah).

v 20…And thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who goes astray or is naive; so shall you make atonement (restore a covering) for the house (Temple).

v 21…In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month (Nisan 14), you have the Passover, a festival of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten (both festivals seen as one as early as Ezekiel).

v 22…And on that day (14th) the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering (this carries the idea of Yom Kippur to Passover).

v 23…And during the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without blemish on every day of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering (in the Torah it is two bulls, one ram and seven lambs in Num 28.19, now it has changed to this).

v 24…And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah with a bull, an ephah with a ram, and a hin (about one and half gallons) of oil with an ephah (much more than the Torah prescribed).

v 25…In the seventh month (Tishri), on the fifteenth of the month, at the festival (of Sukkot), he shall provide like this (like at Passover in v 23-24; things have changed since Num 29.12-34 also), seven days for a sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil (it is the belief with some commentators that First Fruits, Shavuot, Rosh Ha Shannah and Yom Kippur are not mentioned because no special “consecration” sacrifices were prescribed for those days. The “consecration” ended on the last day of Sukkot so there is no mention of Shemini Atzeret either).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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