37:1-3 The Holy Spirit brings Ezekiel to a valley to see heaps of dried-out bones. Ezekiel must be used to getting transported by the Spirit to different places and seeing wonders because his answer to God's question, "Can these bones live?" was not disagreement but simply, "You know, Lord." Lord, please give me that kind of perspective--to not assume things are too dead or hopeless, but wait to see what You think of each situation!

37:4-8 God tells Ezekiel to prophesy that God will reconstitute those bones into people. I would have been speechless at this point, but Ezekiel does it, and, sure enough, there was this awesome spectacle of bone being joined to bone and muscles and skin growing over each skeleton. (You've got to hear Michael Card's song about this event, "Valley of Dry Bones" c. 1992 The Word) But there was no "ruach" in them; this word means both "spirit" and "breath."

37:9-14 It took a second prophecy and a second act of God to bring life and breath to this "dead horde." I think this is significant, because these chapters in Ezekiel also seem to be speaking of two events, one essentially physical (the flesh on the dry bones) and one essentially spiritual (the "ruach" that entered the bodies). The former has to do with the physical restoration of Israel as a political nation after it had been destroyed, scattered and dried up; the latter has to do with the spiritual life of the church that God would establish. This was a message of tremendous hope to the exiled Jews in Babylon where Ezekiel was based!

37:15ff God gives Ezekiel a second sign of the physical restoration of Israel: two sticks. God tells Ezekiel to write "Judah" on one stick and "Ephraim" on another stick, symbolizing the Southern and Northern Kingdoms of Israel, both of which had been taken into captivity and were no longer in the land of Israel, but scattered throughout Syria, Babylonia, and beyond. Ezekiel is instructed to join those two sticks together, symbolizing the restoration of the Jews to nationhood as one nation again. The captivity will end, God promises to the exiled Jews in Babylon, and you will be a nation once more under a king!

But once again we come to a double meaning. It doesn't quite work if you take it literally to mean that King David (who has been dead for about 500 years) will reign over this renewed nation forever and that they will obey God and live in Palestine forever and have a temple that will be there forever... Perhaps it can be said that Zerubbabel, who led the exiles back from Babylon, was fulfillment of the promise of David's rule, since he was a descendant of David. Perhaps the Jews returning to Palestine, re-establishing their nation under Ezra and Nehemiah, and rebuilding the temple could be taken in fulfillment of this prophecy, but if the reader stops there, it is not complete. We must deal with the "forevers" in this passage. The prophecy was obviously not fulfilled literally because the temple was later destroyed, rebuilt, re-destroyed, and then had mosque built over it. The Jewish people also were dispersed again and went without a nation for hundreds of years during and after the Roman empire. The physical nation and its temple were NOT forever.

God is giving a spiritual double-meaning of the church here! The Davidic king is Christ Jesus who reigns forever in heaven; the people who will never be defiled by idols or their transgressions and who will be "cleansed" to be God's people are Christians. Despite the fact that they come from many "dwellings" all over the earth in many nations, the church will have "one shepherd" for all of them--Jesus, the head of the church.

37:26 Galatians chapter 4 expounds on this covenant concept. The everlasting covenant in the Bible refers to God's plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, hatched before the foundation of the world. Arthur Pink has a good book on this subject, too.

37:26-28 What is the sanctuary that God will dwell in forever? A temple made with bricks and metal? No; the eternal souls of men. This is the promise of the Holy Spirit's coming, given some 600 years before Pentecost!

God, I praise You for the demonstration of Your power in restoring the hopelessly scattered nation of Israel, not once, but twice! But I praise You even more for the even greater act of establishing an everlasting spiritual kingdom through Jesus Christ and making Your dwelling-place within me!

38:1-4 God gives Ezekiel a unique prophecy, different from what has been heretofore given. This concerns more distant nations in a more distant future. The prophecies are to be directed to Gog, which is the continent of Europe where Noah's grandsons, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal and their descendants settled. (Ancient genealogies of several of the European kings show their descent from these men!) I don't know that the debate over whether "nashiah rosh" means "chief prince" or "prince of Rosh" and the significance of "Rosh" in Russia" is all that important. What is important is that God is using these nations for His purposes to show the world that He is God. GOD is the One who brings these nations out to battle against His own people.

38:5-8 There is some alliance with Persians and Africans, because they too are going to be in the army of Magog. There will be many nations fighting together. God tells Gog to get ready for a big battle. Again, God is in control. The timeframe is that it is to happen "in future years," and it will happen at a time when Israel is at peace after God's People have been gathered back from exile among the nations.

38:9-16 These nations, under God's control, will form a vast army to come against God's people. They are coming to plunder the land, and they figure it will be easy game. But God has the purpose of doing all this to demonstrate His glory to these far-flung nations.

38:17 God has a trick up His sleeve, and He has been telling His prophets about this for some time. God seems to be pretty smug about this one. Patrick Fairburn's commentary says Isaiah 34, Joel 3, and Zecheriah 14 mirror this prophecy, and the link with John's prophecy in Rev. 20 is unmistakable.

38:18-23 So, what will happen? God, who led this vast army up to plunder Israel, is going to stomp on them. Up until v.18, this army looks invincible; it appears so mighty that nothing can stand in its way. But when God turns against them, they are suddenly hopelessly destroyed. I get the picture of my wife going after a bug, "killing" it several different ways to make sure it's good and dead. Earthquakes, landslides, swords, infighting, plagues, storms, hailstones, burning sulfur--when God fights against this formidable army, they will not win! But you'd better believe that people all over the world will hear about an event that significant, and they will get the idea that there is a powerful God defending His people!

39:1-8 These first verses recap the prophecy so far: God's raising up an army from Europe against Israel in the future, it's destruction, and God's glory being magnified not only among the nations, but also in Israel. The rest of the chapter covers the aftermath of this war.

39:9-10 The Israelites will benefit greatly from the spoils of this war. They'll plunder the dead soldiers and use their weapons for firewood!

39:11-16 The process of burying all the dead will be quite an ordeal. The location of the burial appears to be in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, and it appears that the Jews will have a team of people employed full-time in burying all the body for 7 months and more. Why bury them? I'm not sure. It was important to righteous Jews; Tobias makes a big deal of it in the Apocrypha. What about the names of the burial valley and the town there? I can't find any map with "Hamon Gog" or "Hamonah" on it.

39:17-20 God, ever the God of all creation, doesn't leave His wild animals out. They get a tremendous feast of the carrion, too.

39:21-29 Now the videographer, as it were, grabs the zoom lens and brings it back for us to see a much bigger view. In fact, this is a tremendous overview of the formation, sin, exile, restoration, preservation, and translation of Israel, spanning over a millenium in 9 verses! The whole point of Israel's history was to show the glory of God and to bring many people to know that He is God. God established the nation of Israel, putting His glory there and giving them His laws so that all the nations--as well as Israel--would know that He is God (v.21-22). He exiled Israel to show His holiness among the nations, and He promises to restore the tribes of Israel after punishing them for their sin, in order to sanctify Himself among the nations and show Israel that He is God. And again in this chapter, as in the last few, we see a transition between the physical Israel and the spiritual Israel over which He will pour His Spirit.

So...the million dollar question : What is this battle in chapters 38 & 39? When I first read it, my mind jumped to the wars of the Maccabes which occurred after Israel's reconstruction--vast armies of allied nations including Greeks, Syrians, and Egyptians, came against Israel, and Israel won against seemingly impossible odds. I also think of more recent times when the nation of Israel has been re-reconstructed in the last couple of decades and finds itself pitted against a coalition of almost every Arab nation, fed by guns manufactured in Russia. I believe that prophecy can well carry multiple waves of meanings, and so perhaps, both of the above are foreshadowed in this prophecy, but this passage cannot be completely understood without recognizing its eschatological overtones. I believe that it is also speaking of the nations in rebellion against God, squaring off against Christians--the spiritual Israel--and the final judgement that Christ will bring on them in His second coming. Some commentators go so far as to say that this is merely spiritual allegory, symbolizing evil against God's people throughout all of history, and God's temporal and ultimate triumph over it. But the point, I believe, is NOT to hang everything on which historical (or allegorical) event this describes, but to recognize that GOD is the one in total control of history--even over the evil things that happen, and He is working all things in such a way that His people--as well as all the nations--will know that He is God.

40:1-4 In about 572BC, fourteen years after the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army, God gives Ezekiel another vision that takes him to the temple in Jerusalem. But this is not the temple which the Babylonians just destroyed, it is a magnificent new structure. God commissions a special helper--perhaps an angel--to take Ezekiel around this great structure and measure every part of it. Ezekiel is to carefully notice all that he sees and hears and relate it to Israel in detail. To that, Ezekiel was indeed faithful, for he spends four entire chapters describing this temple in painstaking detail! His tour of the temple proceeds from the outside through the East Gate into the outer courtyard (Chapter 40), then into the Inner Courtyard, the Outer Sanctuary of the Temple itself, and into the Holy of Holies (Chapter 41), then back out again to explore the priest's quarters (Chapter 42) and the Altar (Chapter 43).

In this case, a picture is worth about 3,000 words. I tried as best I could to put down in a drawing what I read, but there were a lot of confusing things in the description (different English translations had significantly different information), so I'm not sure I got it all right. I tried to make everything to scale, so that the sizes of everything are in the right proportions. I'm sure an architect could do better--let me know if you see changes that should be made!

One thing that is curious about this temple of Ezekiel's is that there is no curtain separating the Holy place from the Holy of Holies, but rather a door--in fact, as far as I can tell, there is NO Holy Place, just the Most Holy Place. And in that Place, there is no ark. Could this be a foreshadowing of Christ's work? The whole structure, however, seems to be designed around the making of animal sacrifices, with the slaughter tables, the sacrificial tables, the altar, and the quarters for the priests that performed the sacrifices.

The temple appears to be somewhat larger than Solomon's temple was (His was 90 feet wide--I Kings 6, whereas this one is 150 feet wide) although the holy place is the same size (30 feet cubed).

NOTE CONCERNING THE EAST GATE: Ezekiel entered through the East gate to explore the temple. Later, God entered through the East Gate in His glory. Since God had entered through that gate, it was ever after to be kept shut. The people of Israel were only to enter through the North or South gates.

43:1-6 Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord in the inner court, and God proclaims, "This is the place of my throne, where I put my feet, and where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever." (v.7) So this temple is a place where God will live forever among His people and His people won't dishonor God's Name again. This kind of language makes me think God is not talking about the physical nation of Israel, but perhaps of His Church or of heaven.

43:7-9 God is particularly incensed at the "harlotry" and the idolatry of the kings placed side-by-side with the temple. There is some confusion in English translations over what this idolatry of the kings was--perhaps their actual corpses set up in crypts for veneration, perhaps just statues of them, or perhaps idols which they had set up. This may well refer back to Ezekiel 8, where God showed Ezekiel all the idols which had been set up in His temple before the exile.

43:10-12 Finally, God gives the purpose of this vision of the future temple: that Israel may be ashamed and repent and "observe the whole design and all its statutes," especially the statute of holiness. Why would an architectural blueprint cause repentance? Perhaps the destruction of the temple by the Chaldeans caused the Israelite people in exile to feel a void--the center of their worship was gone and they couldn't observe all their worship anymore in Babylon. To see a blueprint for a new temple given by God Himself could cause them to be sorry for the sin they had done and have hope and purpose to do it right next time.

This section is apparently directed to the religious and civil leadership of the people who would, in the future, reconstruct the nation of Israel under Cyrus' decree. God gives specific instructions on how to set up the nation again. Can you imagine how much this passage meant to Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah a generation after this prophecy?

In the temple blueprint, attention was already given to the living quarters for the priests who would keep charge of the temple and for the Levite sons of Zadok who "keep charge of the altar," "come near to the Lord, and minister to Him" (40:45ff). In chapter 42, mention was made of the chambers where the priests would eat the holy things--grain and meat--and where they would change from their special holy garments to their "street clothes."

43:18-27 Special preference is given to the sons of Zadok, who are to draw near to God and minister to God, offering sacrifices on the altar, according to the pattern set up in the early chapters of Leviticus. When the Israelites made the altar after their exodus from Egypt, they consecrated it by simply anointing it with oil, but this time, they will have to burn sacrifices on it for a week to set it apart as holy. (This indicates a physical temple rather than a purely spiritual one.) After these seven days, God promises to accept the Israelites. What a glorious promise after the rejection the Israelites had felt from God in the Exile--God would ACCEPT them!

44:6-31 Apparently the priests of Israel had not only followed after idols, but had also abandoned their posts to let foreigners lead the worship of God. Therefore, in the promised restoration, God would only allow the Levites of Zadok's family, who had been faithful to him in the last days of Israel, to do the most holy priestly duties and offer sacrifices. Notice that this is not blind xenophobia--God says "uncircumcised in heart and flesh." God recognizes the importance of having a right heart toward Him above whether or not the flesh is circumcised. The point is not that foreigners had been officiating sacrifices, but that the men who should have been taking proper leadership had abdicated their positions, leaving people who had no knowledge of God to lead the people in worship! Put in those terms, it doesn't sound too far from the way things are today in some church circles! Don't abandon your post; be faithful like the sons of Zadok, and you will receive your reward from God.

Ezra traces his ancestry back 5 generations to Zadok in chapter 7 of his book. When the temple was rebuilt, Ezra led in the worship of God. He and his family offered sacrifices while the other Levites were allowed to do janitorial work in the temple, as well as run the customer service department and slaughter the animals. James wasn't kidding when he said in chapter 3 of his book that "teachers...incur a stricter judgement." The priests who led Israel into idol worship would pay for generations to come. Those of us who are spiritual leaders of family, church, or government would do well to be paranoid about leading God's people astray!

There were several things these priests were to observe when serving in the presence of God:
* wearing 100% linen underwear, robes, and turban (so as not to sweat), then changing out of them before going in public
* keeping their hair trimmed (but not shaved)
* abstaining from wine while in the inner court (it was fine to drink wine outside)
* marrying only an Israelite virgin or the widow of a priest
* teaching the Israelites God's law (including the cleanliness laws and holidays) and judging
* never touching a dead body (except in the death of an immediate family member, and even then there had to be an elaborate cleansing ceremony)
* not having family lands, but rather eating the food the Israelites sacrifice to God
* not eating birds or animals found dead in the wild.

Some of these things are obvious--such as teaching the law and not running the risk of getting drunk while on the job. Others are ways of demonstrating God's holiness to the people: If God is life, they should have nothing to do with death; likewise, if God is a God of order, they should reflect orderliness by not having unkempt hair, etc. Most of these things would be wise for any man to follow, especially anyone in occupational ministry today--is your church pastor faithful to teach God's word, including the law? Is he content to live off the tithes given by his people or is he greedily seeking to supplement his income with other jobs?

It's interesting that God did not want the people to be "consecrated" by the priest's special garments (and in ch.46 by the sacred offerings). God does not reveal to His people what He will not hold them accountable for. Out of His mercy, He protects us in some areas from knowledge that would bring condemnation upon us. He blinded the Jews to their responsibility to evangelize the Gentiles so that He would not have to judge them for disobedience in that area. (For in-depth teaching on this subject, see the Book Unveiled at Last by Bob Sjogren.) Conversely, He holds leaders to a higher standard of judgement because He reveals more of Himself to them. Thus the sons of Zadok who were exemplary in their faithfulness to God as a family were not to expose a people prone to unfaithfulness to more demands of holiness than they could keep up with.

45:1-6 God, ever practical in His ways, makes sure the priests have the land they need. The sacred area is about 7 miles long and 5½ miles wide. Half of this 38½ square mile property would belong to the priestly family of Zadok and contain the temple area already described (including a 25-yard clearance all around it). The other half of the property would belong to the rest of the Levite families. There would also be about a 10 square mile tract adjoining the sacred property which no one could own outright, but would be a common urban area for the whole nation.

46:1ff The priests were to open the East gate all day on the Sabbath and the New Moon, when the prince was to make his sacrifices. Perhaps this was a way for the religious leaders to hold the political leader responsible to his duty before God. The open gate reminded everyone that the prince was expected that day.

46:13-15 Then God instructs the priests to offer a sacrifice of a perfect year-old male lamb every morning along with grain and oil. The perfect, young, male lamb foreshadows Jesus Christ, who was perfectly without sin, killed at a young age, and was, of course, a male. Jesus was only killed once, but God applies the blood of Christ's death to His people every day as we sin and ask forgiveness through Him. Thus we don't have to offer animal sacrifices anymore, but do you take time each morning to worship God and ask Him to forgive your sins? The principle still holds.

46:19-24 God even makes provisions for kitchens for his priests; at each corner of the inner courts, in the priests' quarters is an area where the priests can boil their meat to eat!

This is the political leader--a man like Nehemiah. Perhaps he is "prince" and not "king" because God knew that Israel would be under the rule of other foreign kings for most of its post-exilic period.

44:1-3 While the prince has special privileges, he must never stand in the place of God. He was to show this by never crossing the threshold of the gate God Himself had entered in ch. 43, although he did have the special privilege of entering the portico above the gate. As a ruler, a prince (or president) has special privileges, but he must always see himself as under God's authority. In return, God will give extra attention and instruction to such a leader (as He does here), and will hold the civil leader responsible to obey these instructions.

45:7-9 One of the special instructions is the definition of the land belonging to the prince. It should border the temple area and the city, and run parallel to the tribal portions. This is an important principle: a ruler should not own all the land in his country. This fundamental principle was violated by the U.S. government when they began instituting property taxes. God honors the right of private property; not even the prince has the right to confiscate the property of the least of his citizens. No property could be confiscated to build parks or highways, and no property could be confiscated for non-payment of taxes or for environmental indiscretions. Private ownership of land was absolute. God knows the temptations to abuse power which a ruler faces, and He pre-empts them with clear commands.

45:9-12 Another one of these special instructions to the prince is to use consistent standards of weight and measure. You may think that baths and homers are irrelevant today, but it causes real problems when people fudge on their measurements! And what about the dollar? Ever since the dollar was taken off the gold standard, our government has been able to rob it's citizens through inflation. By printing more money and lending imaginary dollars, the government has increased its wealth while simultaneously driving down the value of the hard-earned money of the people. This is wrong!

45:13-25 The prince was also responsible to help represent the people before God by providing the animals used for the corporate sacrifices. He was to offer a special sin offering of a bull for himself as the leader of the nation and also to offer a bull as a sin offering for all the people in the nation. Additionally, he was to lead in the offering of grain, oil, and animal sacrifices on all the holidays. This not only set an example for the people to follow, it was also a recognition of the prince's subordination to God Almighty. The tithe of his wheat, barley, oil, and sheep acknowledged God as the true king and owner of all that was in the prince's possession; the prince was not the ultimate sovereign, he was but a steward of the wealth God had entrusted to him. The offering of sin offerings also recognized God as the ultimate lawgiver and judge who determines what sin is and punishes sin not atoned for. In this way, the political ruler could not become a despot who made his own rules; he had to follow God's laws.

46:1-12 While the Israelites are to enter by the South or North gate, the prince has the privilege of entry around the East gate. (Why did people have to exit through the opposite gate from which they entered? Maybe that kept traffic from getting too clogged up?) Anyway, every Sabbath day the prince was to sacrifice 7 animals and provide grain and oil. Once a month, on the New Moon, he was to do the same, adding a bull. He is welcome to come any other time he wants to give a freewill offering, but the weekly and monthly offerings are required by God. These are times of worship where the prince acknowledges regularly and publicly God's sovereignty over him.

Just as the priests are in a special position of representing the people before God, so the civil leader is also in a special position before God representing the people. God acknowledges this and reserves special places in this temple for these two types of leaders--the inner courts for the priests and the East Gate for the prince. Yet despite the special position, they are not to be aloof from the people they represent; the king is to "go in among" the people in the temple when he offers his worship.

46:16ff God gives yet another safeguard on the property of the king. According to God's principle of private property, the land allotted to the king is his, just as the other tribal lands are not his. He can apportion his land as inheritance, but HE CANNOT GIVE IT AWAY TO NON-FAMILY MEMBERS. Why is this? It will always be the temptation of any leader to give favors to people he likes and wants to keep loyal to him, and when the king starts passing out favors, it comes at somebody's expense! When the President of the U.S. passes out billions of dollars to aid another nation's economy, he does so at the expense of the people in his nation. When a king passes out his land to certain noblemen, it is at the expense of his sons who should have received their father's land as inheritance. And what if the king made a bad judgement and his son has to live with a scoundrel for a next-door-neighbor for the rest of his life? According to this regulation, the slate can be cleared and the land belonging to the king's family stays in his family... and the king's family doesn't mess with anybody else's family property.

God, Your principles are perfect. I long for the time when I can live in a land where the leaders follow Your principles! That must have also been how the Jews in Babylon felt, keeping these principles in Ezekiel's writings, yet having to live under the pagan Chaldean government, longing for the time when You would release them to reconstruct their nation. I don't know if there will be a Christian reconstruction or not in the future of this world, but I know I can look forward to heaven, where things will be better for its citizens than things in Israel ever were!

47: 1-12 Now we come to the curious vision of a river which flows Southeast from the temple into the Dead Sea, growing deeper quickly from its source near the altar. This powerful river brings life with it, causing trees to grow alongside it, and even desalinating the Dead Sea so that it will be filled with tons of fish! Fishermen will be able to make a living all along the coast of what was once the Dead Sea, from the Northwest bank (Eneglaim) to its Central West coast (EnGedi)!

This is no ordinary river. There has never been anything like it in Israel. That, coupled with the fact that the trees along its banks will bear fruit every month of the year make me think we're looking at figurative prophecy or perhaps a scene of heaven. The Apostle John sees the same river of life with trees bearing fruit all 12 months and with leaves for healing in his vision in Revelation 22:1-2. This must be the source text for the hymn, "Like a River Glorious is God's perfect peace, Over all victorious in its bright increase... Perfect yet it groweth deeper all the way." I believe that this river is a symbol of the life God gives--eternal life. God is able to renew what was once unlivable, God is able to give eternal spiritual life, and God can even raise the physically dead. God's passion for life and His generous giving of life is incredible. Through God's life-giving work, he saves us from sin, and just as the Dead Sea is transformed into a fishery in this vision, so God can transform people who have ruined their lives with drugs, marriages that have broken apart, churches who have become lukewarm, and even whole cities and nations through revival!

47:11 However, just as this river of life leaves brackish backwaters, so too God doesn't send His life-giving power into every city, every marriage, or every person. Many will lie untouched by His life and will remain stagnant, sterile cesspools.

Oh God, how I long to see life-giving revival flow from You to my church, my community, my nation! Please don't relegate me to the swamps and marshes that are not overrun by Your river! I beg You to bring revival to my land too!

This river may also speak of Jesus, the Messiah, who, according to I John 5:20 IS "eternal life." It is Jesus who spread God's life from His place among the reconstructed nation of Israel out to every nation on earth!

47:6 As I stand back and look at all this which the river symbolizes, I pass on the angel's question, "Have you seen this?" Do you understand what eternal life means? Has this river of God flowed through your life?

47:12 The trees here remind me of another tree. Psalm 1:3 says that God's people "will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yields fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither." I believe that Ezekiel's trees may well represent God's people who are kept vibrantly alive by the river of life flowing from God's sanctuary. It is noteworthy that the life doesn't stop at these trees, but is passed on to others through fruit good for eating and through leaves good for healing. Are you passing on God's life and healing to others like those trees are doing?

NATIONAL BOUNDARIES 47:13-23

The boundaries described here don't seem to match any historic configuration of Israel's borders. It's possible that they are about the same as the ones Moses gave to Israel in Numbers 34, but we can't be sure, because so many of the cities he gave as boundaries are lost to our knowledge today. Israel didn't really fill the same boundaries Moses gave them, anyway. It resembles the boundaries under king David to the North, but chops out huge tracts of land he held to the Southeast. It resembles the current boundaries of Israel to the Southeast, but would also encompass the southern half of Lebanon and the lower lobe of Syria. Moreover, it totally ignores the Philistines, Samaritans, Edomites, and the other Northern peoples around Tyre and Damascus who would certainly dispute Israel's ownership of their lands! I honestly don't know what to make of it! Maybe it's speaking of the land the Jews would be given by Cyrus, then again maybe this, like the preceding passage on the river, is also figurative despite its realistic geography. Could it be that the new heavens and new earth will have similar geography yet be without the national rivalries? I don't know.

One thing's for sure, God says that His people will be allotted land in Palestine again, and there will be inheritance passed down among the families within those borders in an equal and fair manner.

47:22-23 God also recognizes, as he always has done, the presence of Gentiles among His people. He says that they shall share in the inheritance right along with the Jews. Emphasis is given to the fact that they are permanent residents, "staying" and raising children there; these "aliens" must be committed to being with God's people.

God sent the Apostle Paul "in order that [the Gentiles] may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me." (Acts 26:18) Father, I thank You that You have given ME a place, among Your people, the Church, the New Testament Israel. Help me to be faithful to stay an integral part of Your people and help me to understand what it means to have an inheritance in the land of Your people. I know that I have eternal life now and an "inheritance which can never perish, spoil, or fade kept in heaven." (I Peter 1:4 cf Acts 20:32, Eph.1:11-18; Col;.1:12; Heb.9:15) I look forward to receiving THAT inheritance!

48:1-:1-29 Now we see the allotments given for each tribe of Israel within the national boundaries. The number 12 is commonly given for the tribes, but, depending on how you count, it could be as low as 10 and as high as 14. There were 12 sons of Israel, but Dan is sometimes omitted for his Gentile-ish ways and Levi is sometimes omitted because the priests are a special case. On the other hand, Joseph is seldom mentioned because his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh often are included as part of the 12. So we really have the land divided into 14 sections all stacked on top of each other, "east-to-west." (See Map from Ch. 47) These tribal allotments do not match any historic configuration of the family properties of Israel; this is something totally new. Dan used to be in the North and the Central coastal area; now he's united in the North. Manasseh was also divided into two parts, one of which bordered Naphtali, and another of which bounded Ephraim, but the two parts were not touching each other. God brings them together in between the same tribes here. Also, according to the historic tribal boundaries, Ephraim and Reuben weren't neighbors, neither were Zebulun and Gad or Benjamin, Simeon, and Issachar--but they're neighbors now!

48:8-22 This is a repeat of 45:1-8, further describing the special section in the middle in which would contain the capitol city, the prince's estates, the Levite's lands, and the temple.

There are many similarities between this vision in Ezekiel to the revelation of the holy city in the book of Revelation.

48:35 "The name of the city from that day, will be, 'The LORD is there.'" What an awesome way to end the book! Most English translations translate the "Jehovah-Shammah" as "The LORD is there," but Patrick Fairbairn insists that it should be interpreted, "The LORD is thither." --The Lord is in the temple facing the city, not actually in the city itself. Whatever the case, God is not far off, He is among His people and promises that it will always be so.

But what does it all MEAN??? I believe that Ezekiel is seeing past the physical reconstruction of Israel to a heavenly kingdom. Perhaps the realignment of the tribal areas foreshadows a homogenization of the nation of Israel, which, as far as I know, has never re-divided itself according to the twelve tribes since the Babylonian captivity. Perhaps there will be some kind of tribal layout in heaven--I don't know. It does, however seem significant that the temple and the city where God dwells is in the center of the nation. It is a place where the politics will be fair according to God's laws and where the leaders of worship will do everything right and be holy. It is a place where the trees bear fruit 12 months out of the year. I believe this is something only to be fulfilled in heaven, but it is foreshadowed by the church today. We are a holy nation; we are to bear fruit for God all the time and bring healing to the nations. We are a people with the Spirit of God living in our hearts! Just as God will be the central figure in heaven, so also we must reflect that by making God the central figure in our Christian life as well. Let us strive to give a good reflection of this place described by Ezekiel, and let us yearn with all our hearts for its fulfillment in heaven!