EZEKIEL 44-45 THE HOLY DISTRICT2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 44-45 The Holy District

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011. Amen. Well, here in Ezekiel chapter 44, we're once again looking at the Millennial Temple.

It's something we've been dealing with for the past couple of weeks. And here on the screen for you, I have a diagram of what the temple may look like. This is a bird's eye view. And around the outside, you have the wall that keeps the temple complex separated from the rest of Israel. And there's three gateways into the temple complex.

The bottom one is the east gateway, the left one is the south gateway, and then the right one is the north gateway. And so those would be the ways that you would get inside the temple complex. And you'd be in that gray area, which is the courtyard. It's the outer courtyard of the temple or the outer court of the temple.

And then you have the inner court of the temple there in the middle with the temple building right there in the middle, the center really of the whole complex. And in order to get into that inner court where the altar is and to offer the sacrifices, you have three more gateways, the east, the north, and the south inner gateways. And as you go through those, then you go into the inner court, which is right in front of the sanctuary.

This is all laid out very similar to the tabernacle that was set up in the wilderness and the temple that was built by Solomon. But this is a temple that is going to exist during the millennium, during the thousand year reign of Christ.

The Lord is with you, and I will be with you, and I will be with you, and I will be with you.

And so this temple will exist so that the people, the inhabitants of the earth at that time, will be able to come and to worship God. They will be offering sacrifices, which we'll talk about tonight. And those sacrifices will be similar to the Old Testament sacrifices in that they will not actually deal with sin or take care of sin, but they will be in obedience and in faith, remembering of what Jesus Christ did upon the cross.

The sacrifices of the Old Testament, the Levitical system, looked forward to the cross. They were done in obedience and in faith. And it wasn't the blood of bulls and goats that took away sin. The author of Hebrews explains that. But it was what they signified because those sacrifices all pointed to and pictured Jesus Christ.

And so in the millennium, in the same way, these sacrifices will not take away sin in and of themselves, but they will be an act of faith and an act of obedience. And so it will be a way that people will be able to walk with God. And so there's a wall all around. You have the gateways to get inside the courtyard, then the gateways to get in the inner courtyard.

And then you have the temple that will exist here. Now as we look at chapter 44 and 45 this evening, we'll be looking at some of the functions and what will be taking place within the temple. Up to this point, we've mostly just been talking about the structure itself.

the dimensions, the location of things, you know, how far things are apart from each other and that type of thing. But now we get to talk a little bit about how things will be used and some of the functions that will be going on in the temple area. So here in chapter 44, we pick it up in verse 1. It says this,

Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces toward the east, but it was shut. And the Lord said to me, This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it. Therefore it shall be shut.

as for the prince because he is the prince he may sit in it to eat bread before the lord he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway and go out the same way

Here in verses 1 through 3, now we have this situation where Ezekiel, in the middle of this vision, is taken by this angel to the east gateway in the outer gate. And so the east gateway is there at the bottom. It's the gateway there that would go in. And that gateway, he explains, is to be shut. It's to be kept shut. Why? Well, back in

Ezekiel chapter 43, last week, in verses 1 through 5, we saw the glory of the Lord enter into the temple. And so as the construction is completed, and as the temple begins to be used, the glory of the Lord enters into the temple through the east gate.

So the glory of the Lord came through the east gate on the outside and then through the inner gate on the inside and then into the temple. And that's where the presence of God is going to dwell with his people, just like in the tabernacle as well as the temple.

And so since the glory of the Lord has entered through that east gate, it is to be consecrated and reserved for the Lord. And so the gate is to be shut. It's not going to be an entrance. For those who are inhabiting the earth at that time, they will not enter into the temple through the east gate. They will go through the south gate or through the north gate. And we'll talk a little bit more about that next week in chapter 46.

So the Lord entered through the east gate, and now that he has entered, now it's to be consecrated to him, dedicated to him, and so it is going to be shut. However, there is one exception to this, and that is the prince. Now he talks about the prince here in verses 1 through 3, specifically in verse 3. He says, "...as for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord."

And so he will enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway and go out the same way. And so he will enter into the east gate, not from the outside, but from the courtyard. And so that gray area there, he will come in through the south gate or the north gate, and then he can go into the east gate from...

Now the big question here in chapter 44 is, who is this prince that is being referred to?

And the real answer for that is we really don't know for sure. This is the first time Ezekiel just kind of brings him up and begins to talk about him. And he will mention this prince quite a few times in the following chapters dealing with the worship at the temple. But he never specifies or gives a lot of detail about who this prince is.

Now it's led some to think that this prince is a reference to David and perhaps David when he returns with Jesus will be this prince and he will have responsibility in Jerusalem. And so he's going to be the prince that is involved here and that is referred to here and that is a possibility, although there's no real possibility.

or something that you can look at and say, see, it's David, you know, it says so right there. Others suggest that perhaps the prince is Jesus and that Jesus as the Messiah is the one who will have this function. And that's possible as well. But again, there's no, you know, strong or clear verse that says this is Jesus. And then others, which I kind of lean towards this opinion, is that it's some other type of ruler, right?

Aside from David and aside from Jesus, it's a ruler, it's someone who has responsibility and we don't fully know much about them and what their function will be, but they will exist. This role of prince will exist. Now in Ezekiel chapter 45, verse 8, Lord willing we'll get there in a little bit, God talks about his princes shall no longer oppress his people.

And so it gives the indication there that his princes, that there's more than one. And so there's a succession or there's a group of these princes. And the kings and the rulers of Jerusalem and of Judah before this have oppressed the people. But now this prince...

If he's the prince for the whole thousand years, we're not sure, but it seems to indicate that perhaps there's several different princes that will fulfill that role and fulfill that function throughout the millennial kingdom. And so whatever viewpoint or perspective you want to take, the idea here is that there's this prince. He has special privilege. He has special responsibility, as we'll see in the passages we're studying tonight.

And so this prince is able to enter into the east gate and he's able to fellowship with the Lord there, eat the bread before the Lord and he's to enter in from the inside and then return out the same way that he came. Verse 4.

Verse 1.

Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, O house of Israel, let us have no more of all your abominations. When you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh to be in my sanctuary to defile it, my house. And when you offered my food, the fat and the blood, then they broke my covenant because of all your abominations.

And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of my sanctuary for you. Verse 9. Thus says the Lord God, no foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter my sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.

Here in verses 4 through 9, we see God really laying down the law, setting the line, setting the standard. There will be no more abominations connected to or in relation to this temple that will exist in the millennium.

The temple that existed in Ezekiel's day or that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar after Ezekiel was taken captive, that temple had been defiled. There was abominations that were being committed there. And you remember, if you were with us earlier on in the book of Ezekiel, how God took Ezekiel to the temple, right? And had him peek through the wall and see in the inside and these

leaders, these rulers were there in the temple worshiping these false gods and in the courtyard of the temple they were practicing idolatry and worshiping the sun. There was all types of false religion and idolatry and abominations that were going on in the temple area that the people of God or the Jewish people were committing.

And that was part of the reason why their temple is in ruins now because of their rebellion against God and their worship of these false gods.

And so what God is explaining here in verses 4 through 9, he says, that's not going to be any longer. I'm not going to put up with that. That's not going to happen. There will be no abominations, no foreigners, no uncircumcised of hearts. That is, you know, their hearts need to be right with the Lord. And those who are involved in the temple worship will be required to be committed to the Lord and faithful to the Lord.

You remember in chapter 43, verse 12, we saw that the law of the temple was that it is to be holy, dedicated to the Lord, set apart for the Lord. And so that is the law that we're seeing described here, that no one who is not dedicated to the Lord, who's not sold out for the Lord, who's not completely consumed with the Lord, will be able to practice anything in the temple.

Notice here in verses 4 through 9, God is making the point over and over again that this is His temple and it's really about Him. He says there in verse 7 that when you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh to be in My sanctuary. And then He goes on to describe it as My house and you offered My food and you broke My covenant. Over and over He's emphasizing, look, this is

This is my temple. This is my house. And in the current day, as Ezekiel is writing these things, they had forgotten that. They had disregarded God. The issue was their heart. Their hearts had turned away from the Lord.

And so God says in that day, you're going to remember, this is dedicated to me. This is for the worship of me. And it's not to be used for any other purpose. And your heart needs to be dedicated to me. It's a good reminder for us, again, as we talked about briefly last week, that we see in the New Testament that Paul describes our bodies as the temple of the Lord and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so as we look at these things, we look at the law of the temple and the things that are to be practiced in the temple, we can remember, we can reflect that we are the temple of God and in the same way there are to be no abominations that are being practiced in this temple, in this

earthly temple that we have, that we are to be dedicated to the Lord. No false worship, no idolatry is to be taking place because our hearts, our bodies, our lives are to be dedicated to the Lord. We're to be completely given over to the things of God and not to be dealing with or messing around with the things of this world and the things of the flesh.

And so here we see that there will be no more abominations in that millennial tabernacle. Well, going on in verses 10 through 14, now we begin to talk about the Levites and the priests who strayed away from God. In verse 10 it says, And the Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray, who strayed away from me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.

Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

Verse 13, Verse 13,

Nevertheless, I will make them keep charge of the temple for all its work and for all that has to be done in it.

So here we have something interesting as God is explaining that there's a work to be done in the temple as sacrifices are going to be offered and there needs to be maintenance, things need to be taken care of on the temple property. So who's going to do those things? Well, it's still going to be the priests and the Levites going back to the Levitical system.

those orders are going to be restored. God knows who they are. He knows where those tribes are and who are the descendants of Levi. And so they will assume their responsibilities there in the temple and they will be performing certain functions. Well, this group that's being dealt with here in verses 10 through 14 have specific functions because of the activities that they participated in in Ezekiel's day.

And so there were Levites. They were the ones who were to take care of the temple, the area, the property, and to take care of the things that were going on. And these Levites in Ezekiel's day had turned away from God. He describes them as straying away from him after their idols. And so these Levites, who were supposed to be dedicated to the Lord, they had turned away from God and they had begun to worship these false gods.

And there in verse 12, he says that they also caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity. And so not only did they individually and personally begin to worship these false gods, but they led others to join with them in the worship of these false gods. And so that's what we saw in the history of Israel and the nation of Judah was even the priests and the Levites had turned away from God and had begun to worship these false gods.

Now, there were some of the priests and the Levites who remained faithful to the Lord, and we'll talk about those in just a minute. But what's interesting about this, and something that you and I need to consider, is that the things that we do now, and the things that we practice now, affects the

the way that we are able to serve and the functions that we have in the future. And that's something for you to consider as we are living this life day by day and as we understand that the temple of God is to be holy and dedicated to the Lord and you and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of God, that we need to be careful and we need to pay attention to what we're involving ourselves in and what we're practicing because that will impact us

the functions that we're able to perform and the roles that we'll have in the future. Paul talks about the importance of having our hearts and our motives correct as we're serving the Lord, that we would prepare for ourselves an abundant entrance to the kingdom of God. He talks about those who will just barely make it. Everything they have will be burned and they'll still kind of have the stench of smoke upon them. They're just barely...

you know, make it into eternity with God. But he says, you know, you don't want to be like that. You want to have your heart right. You want to be pursuing God and secure for yourself an abundant entrance so that God says to you, well done, my good and faithful servant. And that's something to consider. Now, they still get to serve the Lord.

But not in the capacity that they would have. And so they have limited their blessings. They've limited their opportunities to serve God because of the way that they turned away from God and followed these false gods.

And so as you consider your own life, think about that. Understand that the way that you live now, it has consequences. And you may not see them at the moment, but they may be long-lasting and far-reaching, and they may affect and impact how you are able to serve the Lord and the capacities that you have in the future. Well, going on now in verses 15 through 19, we get a peek at the faithful servants of the Lord, the Levites and the priests. Verse 15 says,

But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok who kept charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God.

Verse 2,

When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on their other garments, and in their holy garments they shall not sanctify the people.

And so here what we have in verses 15 through 19 is some instructions for the faithful priests, the faithful Levites, those who are faithful to the Lord. Even though the rest of Israel turned away, there was a few who stayed faithful to God. And those few who stayed faithful to God, they have been given a great privilege that they will be the ones who minister to the Lord daily.

in that millennial kingdom. Their descendants really will minister to the Lord in the millennial kingdom. They'll be the ones who are offering the sacrifices. They'll be the ones who are drawing near to God to minister to Him, to be inside the temple itself, the actual sanctuary, and to be performing the functions that will need to be performed. And so they will have a great privilege and opportunity because

Their forefathers or their ancestors remained faithful to the Lord. And so again, understanding that the effects of sin are long lasting and far reaching and we need to be considerate and be taking into account the real cost of sin aside from just the immediate things that we might look at and see. And so these guys were faithful to minister to the Lord.

And they get this opportunity to enter the sanctuary, to come near to his table, to minister to him, to offer the sacrifices. They get to go inside the inner court and there's certain things that they're supposed to do when they go into the inner court. And that is that they're to have a change of clothes and a change of clothes.

There's basically a changing room, you know, in the gateway. And they would go, they would change into their holy attire, which was dedicated to the Lord. And as they went in to perform their service unto God, they would wear this priestly attire that was made out of linen. God is very specific. He says nothing that would cause them to sweat. And so nothing that, you know, would be kind of work or would cause them to perspire this attire.

This linen was supposed to keep them nice and cool as they worshiped God and served the Lord. And then as they left, when they went out of the gateway, again they were to change. And so they were to have specific garments for that time that they ministered unto the Lord and served Him in that way. And so as we look at this and we understand that what God is doing here is He's making a distinction between holy and unholy.

And we'll see that even as we continue on in this chapter, that that is the point, that is the purpose of this change of garments and this specific instruction, that their job as priests is to teach the people the difference between holy and unholy. They were to model this holiness for the Lord, this holiness unto the Lord. And they had this wonderful privilege and opportunity as a result of their faithfulness to the Lord.

Well, as we go forward now in verses 20 through 31, we get some insight into the laws and the regulations, the things that they're to practice. And so I'm just going to read through it pretty quickly and we'll touch on a couple of things. In verse 20, it says,

They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed. No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court. They shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel or widows of priests. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

Verse 1.

Verse 1.

Verse 1.

Also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal to cause a blessing to rest on your house. The priest shall not eat anything, bird or beast, that died naturally or was torn by wild beasts.

And so here we have some specific laws and regulations for the priests who would serve in that millennial temple. And so first of all, they're not to shave their heads, nor to let their hair grow long. And so if you are familiar with the Levitical priesthood and the laws and regulations surrounding that, this will be very familiar to you because it's following along the same lines.

They're not to drink wine as they're serving the Lord and ministering to the Lord in the inner court. They're not to be intoxicated or under the influence of any type of alcohol.

They're also to be careful about who they marry. And so they're to marry not widows or divorced among the common people, but they're to marry only virgins or the widows of a priest. And so, again, making a distinction between the holy and the unholy. They're to be separate, to have a higher standard than the rest of the people.

He says there in verse 23, this is the objective. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy. And

And so they are going to model by the things that they follow, the way that they live, their lives model for the people the difference between holy and unholy. But also by their words, they are to declare and teach the people what is holy and what is not holy. And so they are going to be instructing the people and modeling and being an example for the people of how to live a holy life.

Also, it tells us there they're going to be able to handle controversies and there to speak the word of the Lord on behalf of God into those situations and declare what he would say and how he would determine for the situations that they face.

They are not to defile themselves in regards to dead people. And there's only a couple exceptions. If it's a real close family member like a father, a mother, a son or a daughter or a brother or an unmarried sister, then they can defile themselves and go near a dead body. But other than that, so if a cousin dies or something like that, they're not to defile themselves and be dealing with that dead body.

Let's see here. Also, he has to offer sin offerings. And so we understand that, you know, those days in the Millennium Kingdom, although it will be a time of righteousness, there will still be sin and they will need to offer sacrifices for those sins. Their inheritance, he also deals with there in verse 28. Now we'll get to in chapter 48, verse 28.

the inheritance of the land of Israel. And in the land of Israel, each tribe has its own inheritance and each family within the tribe gets its own plot of land. And they're given this by the Lord. It's theirs. They're able to provide for themselves and enjoy what the Lord has given to them. But the priests...

they don't have inheritance like the rest of the tribes. Their inheritance is the Lord. And so their inheritance basically is a relationship with God and the things of the Lord are theirs. And that's what they explain. And this is how God provides for them.

We'll see in just a moment, they're given certain pieces of land and places to stay on the land and on the plots that are reserved for the Lord. And then also they're fed by the offerings. And so as they're offering sacrifices, the people are bringing sacrifices to offer to the Lord and the priest then takes that offering and he puts it to death, he cuts it up, he puts it on the fire, he's working and as payment for that work,

He's given portions of the offerings to be able to eat with him and his family. And that's why we had the chambers that we talked about last week where the priests can eat of the sacrifices that they're offering.

Also, the first fruits of any kind are to be given to the priests. And the first fruits of the meal, like the wheat and the barley, are to be given to the priests. And so they're going to be provided for by their service to the Lord. And that is how God is going to take care of their needs, both a roof over their head, financial things, and their meals, and that type of thing.

And so the whole objective here is that God's going to provide for them, they're going to serve the Lord, and they're going to teach God's people the difference between holy and unholy. Now what's interesting about this too, and I wish...

We could spend a lot more time talking about this, but I'll just leave it to you to seek the Lord on this. But, you know, the New Testament talks about us as believers that we are a generation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood belonging to God. That's found in 1 Peter chapter 2. And this holy generation that we are, this royal priesthood, gives us, you know, certain responsibilities in this life.

And there's so many parallels that you can look at. Looking at New Testament principles and what the Bible instructs for us as Christians, they go along with, they parallel this in the same way that we are to be an example to the world around us and a light for the kingdom of God. These priests were to be an example and a light for the children of Israel. In the same way that we're to be able to model for people the difference between holiness and unholiness,

The difference between clean and unclean, that's how the priests were to operate as well. And so there's a lot of things that you can look at here and consider that you are not a priest in the millennium. That's not what I'm saying. But in a similar way, you have similar roles and responsibilities as a believer in Jesus Christ. That your job is to teach people the difference between holy and unholy. And I would encourage you to consider that. Does your life teach...

Teach people the difference between holy and unholy. Or is your life just like everybody else's life? You know, when unbelievers look upon your life, when others around you look upon your life, do they take note and say, oh, that's what holiness looks like? Or do they look and they say, oh, there's nothing different. It's just about the same. There's not really anything different about their life than my life or the lives of the people around them.

In the same way as the priests were to make a distinction and to live their lives in such a way, following the commands of God that their lives would be separate, that they would be different, that they would teach the people holiness, you and I, as we follow the Lord, are to teach the people holiness by the way that we live. We're to portray it for them, show them what holiness looks like, as well as instructing it.

It's not just about what we say or telling people that they need Jesus, but it's about living lives that demonstrate what holiness is and what it means to be dedicated to the Lord. And that's what the priests were doing or will do in that day, and that's what you and I as a royal priesthood are called to do today. Well, going on into chapter 45, we pick it up in verse 1. It says,

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 25,000 cubits and the width 10,000. It shall be holy throughout its territory all around. Of this, there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, 500 by 500 rods with 50 cubits around it for an open space.

So this is the district you shall measure, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 wide. In it shall be the sanctuary, the most holy place. It shall be a holy section of the land belonging to the priests.

Verse 1.

So here as we go into chapter 45, now he's talking about the division of the land. And as I said in chapter 48, we'll actually see that division and what land belongs to which tribe of the nation of Israel.

But before he gets there in chapter 45, he says, okay, when you divide the land, there's also to be a spot that's given over to the Lord. This portion of land is to be dedicated to the Lord. He says, set apart a district for the Lord, a holy section of land. And so this land is to be devoted to the things of God. It's only to be used for the purposes that God has declared it is to be used for.

And this holy section is right in the middle of the nation of Israel. So here on the screen you have a map of Israel. This is a map of basically modern day or New Testament Israel rather. And so here you have...

the map and then right there that blue section with the red green and purple that's that holy section that holy district that's to be set apart to the Lord it's located on it's basically centered around the city of Jerusalem which we'll talk about as we go forward and so this portion of land is to be dedicated to the Lord now he goes further to break out I'm sorry I'll scoot back here for you guys in the front row he goes further to indicate that

Aside from, you know, that this section is to be dedicated to the Lord, there's also particular parts of this section that are dedicated for certain things. And so he describes there in verse 3, the temple section, and that's the green section here on the screen. And so this section is to be devoted to and dedicated to the temple section.

Now this section, he says, is going to be 25,000 cubits long, so that the length of that green section is 25,000 cubits, and it's to be 10,000 cubits wide. The whole holy district, which is the red, green, and purple all together, is 25,000 cubits on all sides, 25,000 cubits squared.

I'm sure that measurement or that distance means a lot to you, right? So converting cubits to feet, you know, we've taken 18 inches for a cubit, although it's probably a little bit longer, and then you convert that to feet, you convert that to miles, it works out to about 7.1 miles on each side. That's 25,000 cubits is a minimum of 7.1 miles.

Now if you add in a couple extra inches to the cubit, then it would probably be around 8 to almost 9 miles. But those are particulars that aren't that important for us at the moment. And so here we have 25,000 cubits on all sides, and the temple area is 25,000 cubits.

and then 10,000 cubits wide. So seven miles long and about 2.84 miles wide, almost three miles wide, seven miles long. This is the area that's devoted to the temple. It's also devoted to the priests and this is where they will be staying and have a place to live and so on and so forth. Well, then in verse five, he talks about the section that's for the Levites and that's that red section at the top there.

So verse 5 says, an area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the temple. They shall have 20 chambers as a possession. And so that area is to be dedicated to the Levites, and that's where they will be able to stay. Again, they're not given a portion of land throughout the rest of the nation, and so they're limited to that location. That's where they will stay, and that's what God has provided for them.

Going on to verse 6, it says, You shall appoint as the property of the city an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long adjacent to the district of the holy section. It shall belong to the whole house of Israel. So the red section, that's only for the Levites. The green section, that's dedicated to the temple and the things of the temple. And then there's this purple section at the bottom, which would be devoted to the city. That would be the city of Jerusalem.

And this city is available for the whole nation. And so whoever wants to, if there's room to go and to live in the city, they're able to do so. As opposed to the red section, only the Levites can stay there and the priests can stay there. And so this purple section is devoted to the city of Jerusalem.

And there's going to be fields on either side of it, it describes. And so, you know, the people are able to use those fields and grow crops or, you know, have cattle and that type of thing. Verse 7.

Verse 8.

Verse 2.

And so here in verse 7 and 8, God now describes the portion that's given to the prince. Now again, this could be David ruling with Jesus there in Jerusalem. It could be Jesus himself. That's one possibility. Or it could be another ruler, an office, a function that we don't know much about, but that he will have responsibilities and we'll see those as we go forward in the passage. So the blue areas here on the screen, these are given over to the prince.

It's basically, you know, the same height, 25,000 cubits. And then, you know, the remainder of the land all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. And then the remainder of the land to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. And both of those are given to the prince. Now the point that God is making here in verse 8 is that they will no longer oppress the people and take land for themselves. In Ezekiel's day, in the kings that were there before Ezekiel,

They oppressed the people. They accumulated land for themselves. And so they were taking from the people's inheritance. But God says, this is going to be the limit. Now, he gets a sizable amount of land, this prince, but that's the limit. That's what is given to him. The rest of the land will be for the children of Israel, the rest of the tribes. And we'll get to that as we head into chapter 48 in a couple of weeks.

Verse 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. You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath. 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.

The shekel shall be 20 geras, 20 shekels, 25 shekels, and 15 shekels shall be your mina. Everybody got that? Alright, moving right along. No, I'm just kidding. So, God says enough. Again, He says, look, the princes of Ezekiel's day, the rulers of Ezekiel's day, they were oppressing the people. They were taking, He says, dispossessing the people. That is, they were robbing them and cheating them of the land that God had given to them.

And so what he's doing now is God is establishing the standard. This is the standard. Now, what they would do in those days is, you know, they would weigh things out and they would have differing weights and measures depending on what they were doing so that they would be able to cheat the people. And so, you know, it says one pound on it, but it's really, you know, two pounds whenever they're selling them. And what says one pound on it when they're buying, but it's really half a pound. And so, you know, they're doing that kind of thing.

to rob and to steal, to dispossess, to rob the people of the things that God had given to them. And so God says, that's it, no more of that. This prince and the rulers of that day will be doing things justly and rightly and won't be perverting justice for their own gain.

You might remember the account of 1 Kings chapter 21 where Ahab, who was king of Israel, he wanted a field. And Naboth was the owner, but Naboth wouldn't give it to him or sell it to him. And so he was really sad and pouting. And so his wife comes up with an idea. Well, why don't you do this and that? And then, you know, he'll get killed and then you can have the land for yourself. And so that's what she did. And then he was...

And Naboth was killed and then she tells Ahab, look, he's dead. Now you can go take the land that you wanted. And so that was kind of the practices and some of the things that were going on in that day as they were, you know, robbing and stealing and committing murder in order to, you know, obtain gain for themselves. And God says in that day, in the millennium, that will not be the case.

And so he establishes the standard. Now, just in case you're a little bit curious about all these measurements, an ephah would be, it's a dry measurement, but it would be equal to about 22 liters today. The same thing for the bath, only it would be liquids. And so it'd be 22 liquid liters or equivalent to about six gallons. And so a bath is about six gallons. And then the homer, that's to be kind of the basis for these measurements,

would be about six bushels if it was a dry measurement or 60 gallons if it was a liquid measurement. He mentions the shekel which would be a weight for money.

And it was to be, you know, a certain amount, basically works out to about two-fifth of an ounce, although that's not that meaningful to us today, but that was the way that they measured their money and their shekels were amounts of money. It was to be based on the gera, which is one-fiftieth of an ounce, and then amina or amina was to be 60 shekels or 24 ounces altogether.

And so these were the weights. This is the standard that they were to use. And they could no longer use differing weights and measures in order to trick or to deceive or cheat the people out of what was rightfully theirs. Verse 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. The ordinance concerning oil...

Verse 17, Verse 18,

Then it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at the feast, 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. And so what we have here in verses 13 through 17 are the offerings that were to be given to the prince...

somewhat like a tax, somewhat like provision, you know, for the prince. But then as...

All of the nation is giving these offerings to the prince. Then the prince has the responsibility to give offerings during all of the feasts, the celebrations and the sacrifices that would be going on. They would come from those things that the prince received from the people. And so it's support for the prince, but it's also preparation for those feasts and things where those sacrifices would need to be offered.

And so if you do the math on the things that are explained here, basically it's about 1.6% of the wheat and the barley that you would harvest, 1.6% would go to the prince. All of the oil that you would manufacture or provide, 1% of that would go to the prince. And then of the flocks that you would raise, sheep and goats and such,

then there would be half a percent that would go to the prince. And then of all of those things, of the offerings that are given, the amounts that are given, then he would take from those resources to provide sacrifices during the feasts and celebrations as they would offer them to the Lord. And so the people would give the prince all of these things, but then it was his responsibility to provide for those feasts and those sacrifices. Verse 18.

Thus says the Lord God,

And so here now God begins to describe some of the sacrifices and feasts that will be taking place and celebrated in that day. And so on the first day of the first month, for us that's January 1st, for them the Jewish calendar puts it about the middle of April.

The first day of the first month, they're to offer this offering to cleanse the temple as an offering to cleanse the sanctuary. And then on the seventh day of the first month, they're to offer a sacrifice for all those who have sinned unintentionally or in ignorance. And so people will still be sinning, just like we always do.

do today and continue to do today. The people of the millennium will not be different in that sense. And so they'll be offering sacrifices for those sins. And so those who have sinned in ignorance or unintentionally, this offering will be provided for them on day seven of the first month of the year. Verse 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.

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

Verse 1.

And so here he's talking about certain feasts that they will be celebrating and practicing there in that millennial kingdom. Now again, these things all correspond with the Levitical system. And so you can look at the book of Leviticus, at the sacrifices that were offered there. Those same sacrifices are mentioned here. They will be offered. The same feasts that are mentioned there in the book of Leviticus are also mentioned here. They're going to be practicing those same feasts, celebrating those same feasts.

and offering the same offerings to the Lord as were offered in those feasts. And so here he talks about the Passover feast in verses 21 through 24, but then also in verse 25 he talks about the Feast of Tabernacles. Now those are the only two feasts that are specifically mentioned, but what's interesting is they are the first feasts

And so it's understood by this that he means all of the feasts in between as well. They'll be celebrating. And so he mentions specifically the first one, the last one, and probably the others are implied by that. And so the feast of Passover, which of course we're familiar with, the Passover lamb. When Moses led the people out of Israel and they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost

to protect them from the avenging angel who would put to death the firstborn. And that's how Pharaoh finally was fed up and drove them out of Egypt. And so they celebrated the Passover in the wilderness and throughout their years as a nation. And we celebrate and remember the Passover as we partake of communion together because it was at that Passover feast that Jesus instituted communion with the bread and the cup.

And so in the millennium, they will be celebrating that feast. And there's certain sacrifices that go along with that. And so the prince, who's been given these different animals and portions from the people throughout the year, now offers and gives those sacrifices. So the sacrifices that are due, he prepares a sacrifice for himself.

as a sin offering and so this is one indication that we're not talking about Jesus being the prince because he would not need to offer a sin sacrifice for himself and probably not David either because he will return in a glorified body like you and I will he won't you know have a

A human body as we know today, even as we won't have a human body as we know today, because we'll be returning with Jesus Christ, having already been in heaven as we rule and reign with Christ on the earth for a thousand years. And so this is a human being who will exist and live during that millennial kingdom. And so he will have to prepare a sin offering for himself as well as for the people.

And then each day he has to offer seven bulls, seven rams for seven days and a kid of the goats daily as a sin offering.

And so these are the offerings that would be offered during that time. Then verse 25 is describing there the Feast of Tabernacles. Again, it's the last feast of the Jewish calendar. And that was the day, remember, they would set up booths and they would be out there and remember how God provided for them in the wilderness. And so during that feast as well, he's to provide the sacrifices and the celebration, the feasts to be performed according to what the book of Leviticus describes it as.

And so here in chapter 44 and 45, we have these instructions that are given for the land that's to be dedicated to the Lord, for the prince and his responsibilities, and then also for the priests and the Levites and their responsibilities.

And as we consider these things, once again, I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you. I think it's good for us to consider where we stand because we have been, as Peter says, we've been called as a royal priesthood, a chosen generation. And what we do today, how we live today impacts us.

The capacities and the abilities that we will have in serving the Lord in the future. And so there's a need for us to model holiness for our own sake, for the sake of the people around us. There's a need for us to walk with the Lord, to teach people the difference between holy and unholy. And that's what we're seeing here in the book of Ezekiel as we consider this temple. And so the worship team is going to come up and lead us in worship. And as they do, as you consider these things,

Some of it, yeah, you probably don't care that much about, okay? They're going to offer sacrifices. Yeah, no big deal. But there's a lot of things in here that as we consider them and what it means to us, we can understand that there is a need for us to walk with the Lord. It's important what we do today.

We can't just have the attitude that, you know, well, we'll just do whatever we want right now and then later on, you know, we'll get right with God. Or later on, we'll really get serious. Or later on, we'll deal with this sin issue or deal with that in our lives. But we need to, it's important for us to have right now an attitude and action of holiness. Holiness unto the Lord.

Again, in chapter 43, verse 12, we saw the law of the temple. And what is the law? Holiness. Holiness is the law. We've been seeing that all throughout the book of Ezekiel.

As we looked at all the judgments, it was a call to holiness. God, as He announces judgment, it's a call to repentance. And so as we, you know, we're kind of winding down the book of Ezekiel. We're almost all the way through. But up until the very end, God is going to be challenging us. He's going to be calling us to repentance. Repentance.

And so as we worship the Lord together, I want to encourage you, I want to challenge you to consider these things. The way that you live right now, if you're practicing sin, if you're disregarding the things of God, understand that those effects, those consequences are long-lasting and far-reaching even as the Levites and the priests are modeling for us in this passage.

The things that we do today affect how we can serve the Lord tomorrow. And we will limit ourselves. We will hinder our opportunities and our capacities in the future if we continue to live in rebellion against God. And so let's take this time to allow God to search our hearts, to allow God to speak to us about those things that He needs to bring to our attention. And as He does, as He brings them up to the forefront of your mind and heart, turn them over to the Lord. Repent.

Give them up to Jesus. It's not about working, you know, to make right for it. It's about receiving the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by faith and turning, being set free from those sins, not practicing them any longer, turning from them and running in the opposite direction. That is, running into the arms of Jesus and pursuing a life of relationship with Him and holiness. And so let's worship the Lord together and let God speak to you in your heart about holiness.

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