Ezekiel 40 - Introduction

Third Section. Ch. 40 48. Final condition of the redeemed people

This concluding section of Ezekiel's prophecy is in many ways remarkable, and the main idea expressed by it needs to be carefully attended to.

The passage is separated by an interval of twelve or thirteen years from the latest of the other prophecies (except the brief intercalation, Ezekiel 29:17 seq.). It stands therefore apart from the rest of the Book, with the ideas of which it is not easy in some parts to reconcile it. Some scholars indeed (Stade, Hist. 11.37) consider that in the interval Ezekiel had broken with his former conceptions. There does seem a discrepancy between the place assigned to the "Prince" in this passage and the more elevated part which the Lord's "servant David" plays in earlier Chapter s.

On the whole, however, the passage can be only understood if we keep before our minds all the teaching of the earlier part of the Book, and also suppose that the prophet had it vividly before his own mind. This passage contains no teaching. All that the prophet wished his people to learn regarding the nature of Jehovah and the principles of his rule, his holiness, his wrath against evil and his righteous judgments, has been exhausted (4 24). All that he desired to say about the revelation of Jehovah's glory to the nations, that they may know that "he is Jehovah," and may no more exalt themselves against him in self-deification, and no more disturb or seduce his people, has been said (25 32). And the great operations of Jehovah's grace in regenerating his people, and in restoring them to their own land, have been fully described (33 37). All this forms the background of the present section. The last words of 1 39 are: "And I will hide my face from them no more; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." The people are washed with pure water, a new heart and spirit is given to them, the spirit of Jehovah rules their life, and they know that Jehovah is their God.

Therefore the present section gives a picture of the people in their final condition of redemption and felicity. It does not describe how salvation is to be attained, for the salvation is realized and enjoyed; it describes the people and their condition and their life now that their redemption has come. This accounts for the strange mixture of elements in the picture for the fact that there is "so much of earth, so much of heaven" in it. To us who have clearer light the natural and the supernatural seem oddly commingled. But this confusion is common to all the prophetic pictures of the final condition of Israel redeemed, and must not be allowed to lead us astray. We should go very far astray if on the one hand fastening our attention on the natural elements in the picture such as that men still exist in natural bodies, that they live by the fruits of the earth, that death is not abolished, that the "Prince" has descendants, and much else, we should conclude that the supernatural elements in the picture such as the elevation of Zion above the mountains (cf. Isaiah 2), the change in the physical condition of the region of the holy city (cf. Jeremiah 31:38; Zechariah 14:10), and the issue of the river from the Temple spreading fertility around it and sweetening the waters of the Dead Sea (Zechariah 14:8; Joel 3:18), were mere figures or symbols, meaning nothing but a higher spiritual condition after the restoration, and that the restoration described by Ezekiel is no more than that one which might be called natural, and which took place under Zerubbabel and later. Ezekiel of course expects a restoration in the true sense, but it is a restoration which is complete, embracing all the scattered members of Israel, and final, being the entrance of Israel upon its eternal felicity and perfection, and the enjoyment of the full presence of Jehovah in the midst of it. The restoration expected and described by the prophet is no more the restoration that historically took place than the restoration in Isaiah 60 is the historical one. Both are religious ideals and constructions of the final state of the people and the world. Among other things which gave rise to what appears to us an incompatible union of natural and supernatural were two fundamental conceptions of the Hebrew writers. They could not conceive of a life of man except such a life as we now lead in the body. This bodily life could be lived nowhere but upon the earth, and it could be supported only by the sustenance natural to man. Ezekiel considers death still to prevail in the final state. In this he is followed by some prophets after him (Isaiah 65:20), who do not expect immortality but only patriarchal longevity, a life like the "days of a tree," while others assume that death will be destroyed (Isaiah 25:7-8). The other conception was that true religious perfection was realized only through Jehovah's personal presence among his people, when the tabernacle of God was with men. The words with which Ezekiel closes his Book are: "And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there" To us a bodily life of man upon the earth such as we now live, and a personal presence of Jehovah in the most real sense in the midst of men, appear things incompatible. To the Hebrew mind they were not so, or perhaps in their lofty religious idealism the prophets did not reflect on the possibility of their ideals being realized in fact. The temptation, however, to allegorize the prophetic pictures of the final state, and to evaporate from them either the natural or the supernatural elements, must be resisted at all hazards.

Consequently we should go equally far astray on the other hand if fastening our attention only on the supernatural parts of Ezekiel's picture, such as the personal presence of Jehovah, the stream that issues from the Temple, and other things, we should conclude that the whole is nothing but a gigantic allegory; that the temple with its measurements, the courts with their chambers, the priests and Levites with their ministrations that all this to the prophet's mind was nothing but a lofty symbolism representing a spiritual perfection to be eventually reached in the Church of God of the Christian age. To put such a meaning on the Temple and its measurements and all the details enumerated by the prophet is to contradict all reason. The Temple is real, for it is the place of Jehovah's presence upon the earth; the ministers and the ministrations are equally real, for his servants serve him in his Temple. The service of Jehovah by sacrifice and offering is considered to continue when Israel is perfect and the kingdom the Lord's even by the greatest prophets (Isaiah 19:19; Isaiah 19:21; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 66:20; Jeremiah 33:18).

There can be no question of the literalness and reality of the things in the prophetic programme, whether they be things natural or supernatural, the only question is, What is the main conception expressed by them? It would probably be a mistake to suppose that the picture given by the prophet in this section is a picture of the life in all its breadth of Israel redeemed. Many sides of the people's life do not come into consideration here. For the prophet's view regarding these his previous Chapter s must be consulted. The Temple, the ministrants and their ministrations and also the Prince and people are all here spoken of from one point of view. As already said the section is not a description of the way by which salvation is to be attained, it is a picture of salvation already realized and a people saved. The sacrifices and ministrations are not performed in order to obtain redemption, but at the most to conserve it. They have two aspects: first, they are worship, service of Jehovah; and secondly, they have a prophylactic, conservative purpose, to secure that the condition of salvation be in no way forfeited. The salvation and blessedness of the people consists in the presence of Jehovah in his Temple, among men. His people, though all righteous and led by his spirit, are not free from the infirmities and inadvertencies incidental to human nature. But as on the one hand, the presence of Jehovah sanctifies the Temple in which he dwells, the land which is his, and the people whose God he is, so on the other hand any uncleanness in the people, the land or the Temple, disturbs his Being and must be sedulously guarded against or removed. It was former uncleannesses that caused the Lord to withdraw from his House (8 11); and it is only when it is sanctified that he returns to it (43). Hence the care taken to guard against all "profaning" of Jehovah, and to keep far from him anything common or unclean. First, the sacred "oblation," the domain of the priests, Levites, prince and city is placed in the centre of the restored tribes, Judah on one side of it and Benjamin on the other (Ezekiel 45:1-8; Ezekiel 48:8 seq.). In the midst of this oblation is the portion of the priests, that of the Levites lying on one side, and that of the city on the other. In the middle of the priests" portion stands the Temple. This is a great complex of buildings, around which on all sides lies a free space or suburbs. Then comes a great wall surrounding the whole buildings, forming a square of five hundred cubits. Within this wall is an outer court; and within this an inner court, accessible only to the priests, even the prince being debarred from setting his foot in it. In this inner court stands the altar, and to the back of it the Temple House. The House has also a graduated series of compartments increasing in sanctity inwards an outer apartment or porch, an inner or holy place, and an innermost, where the presence of Jehovah abides. Only the priests can serve at Jehovah's table, the altar, and enter the house, and only the Levites can handle the sacred offerings of the people, whether to slay them or boil them for the sacrificial meal. All these arrangements have one object in view, to guard against disturbance to the holiness of Jehovah, who dwells among his people.

This, however, suggests another point. It has been remarked in disparagement of the prophet that he makes little reference to moral law in this section, occupying himself with mere "ceremonial." The objection forgets two things: first, that the background to this final picture of the people's condition is formed by the whole great passage, ch. 33 37. It is a people forgiven and sanctified, and led by the spirit of God which the prophet contemplates in ch. 40 seq. He does not inculcate morality, because he feels that morality is assured (Ezekiel 36:25-29). It is true that the people is not perfect, but they only err from inadvertency. But secondly, these errors of inadvertency disturb the Divine holiness equally with offences which we call moral. The distinction of moral and ceremonial is unknown to the Law, and if possible more unknown is the idea of a factitious "ceremonial" which has a moral symbolical meaning. The uncleannesses and the like which we now call "ceremonial" were held real uncleannesses and offensive to God, and the purifications were not symbolical but real purifications. These things which we name ceremonial belong rather to the aesthetic in our view than to the moral, but in Israel they were drawn in under the religiousidea equally with what was moral.

Ch. 40 43 The new Temple

The passage contains these divisions:

First, Ezekiel 40:1-27. Preface (Ezekiel 40:1); description of the gateway into the outer court with its various chambers, and of the outer court itself with its buildings.

Second, Ezekiel 40:28-47. Description of the gateway into the inner court with its chambers, and of the inner court itself.

Third, Ezekiel 40:48 to Ezekiel 41:26. Description of the House or Temple itself with the annexed buildings.

Fourth, ch. 42. Description of the other buildings in the inner court, with the dimensions of the whole.

Fifth, Ezekiel 43:1-12. Entry of Jehovah into the House thus prepared for him, to dwell there for ever.

Sixth, Ezekiel 43:13-27. Description of the altar of burnt-offering in the inner court, and of the rites to be performed in order to consecrate the whole edifice.