This section contains seven subsections all of which deal with the same basic subject.
Mention of the proper leadership of the Israelites in the Millennium led to an exhortation to Israel's leaders to practice justice and righteousness in the present and in the future.
45:9 The Lord next commanded the leaders of the Israelites to stop destroying the people, treating them violently, and appropriating their possessions for themselves. This is a common cry in the Bible (cf. Lev. 19; 35; Deut. 25:13-16; Prov. 11:1; Amos 8:5; Mic. 6:10-12; Matt. 5:23-24). Rather they should treat them fairly and do what was right.
45:10-12 They should also be fair in their commercial dealings. Their basic dry and liquid measures, an ephah (about one-half bushel) and a bath (about six gallons), were to be standard and equal. An ephah should always be a tenth of an homer (five to six bushels), and a bath should always be a tenth of an homer. Likewise weights should be the same. One shekel (about two-fifths of an ounce) should equal 20 gerahs (about one-fiftieth of an ounce). Twenty shekels plus 25 shekels plus 15 shekels (60 shekels) should equal one mina (about one and one-quarter pounds).561
". . . linear measurements of the ancient Near East were not as accurate as those of today. This is also true of volume measurements. Ezekiel delineated the proper standard of volume measure in the terms of his day."562
Unlike the unfair leaders in Israel's past, the prince of the future would be faithful to the Lord and upright in his dealings with the Israelites. Messiah will be the chief ruler during the Millennium, but this prince will serve under Him and will oversee temple offerings (and probably other things).
45:13-15 The Israelites in the future would bring offerings to the temple periodically, how often is not clear. The amounts that follow probably represent what they would bring for the service of the temple (cf. Exod. 30:11-16). As the following verses show, the prince would take the lead in presenting these offerings to the Lord with the assistance of the Zadokite and other Levitical priests at various times during the year.
The Lord specified that the people should bring a sixth of an ephah (one-twelfth of a bushel) of wheat or barley taken out of each homer (five to six bushels) they possessed. If their offering was oil it should be a tenth of a bath (about 6 gallons) taken from each of their cors (about 60 gallons). Ten baths (about 60 gallons liquid measure) were about the same quantity as an homer (about 6 bushels dry measure). They were also to offer one sheep fed on Israel's well-watered pastures out of every 200 they owned. These were the quantities they were to offer in their grain, burnt, and peace offerings to make atonement for themselves on the occasions that follow (cf. Lev. 9:7; 10:17).
"The required offering for grain will be one-sixth of all produce (v. 13). One percent of the oil will be given for use in the temple (v. 14) and one of every two hundred animals (v. 15)."563
45:16-17 The people should bring these offerings to the prince for him to offer on their behalf on special occasions: feasts, new month celebrations, and Sabbaths. He would make these offerings for the people as a whole to secure their corporate atonement. As mentioned previously, these sacrifices would be memorials of Christ's death and or the means whereby the uncleanness of their sins as believers would be removed so they could continue to enjoy intimate fellowship with God. These sacrifices will not result in the peoples' salvation any more than the sacrifices of the Mosaic system provided salvation (cf. Heb. 10:10).
45:18-20 On the first new year's day of each year the people should offer a young bull without blemish to cleanse the accumulated sinful defilement of the sanctuary. The priest in charge was to apply some of the blood of a sin offering to the door frames of the temple proper, the four corners of the altar of sacrifice, and the door frames of the inner court of the temple. Another offering was to occur on the seventh day of the new year, and it would cover the guilt of sins committed ignorantly. It too would result in the cleansing of the temple for another year.
45:21-24 On the fourteenth day of the first month of the year the Israelites were to celebrate the Passover and then a seven-day feast using unleavened bread (cf. Exod. 12:1-14; Lev. 23:5-8; Num. 28:16-25).564On the day of the Passover the prince would offer a bull as a sin offering for himself and the people. During the seven days of this Passover festival the prince would also offer each day seven bulls and seven rams without blemish as a burnt offering of worship and one ram for a sin offering. He would offer with each bull and each ram one ephah (about one-half bushel) of grain as a grain offering plus a hin (about one gallon) of oil with the grain. This celebration will doubtless commemorate Jesus Christ's sacrificial death as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and the importance of living sin-free in view of that sacrifice.
45:25 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at the feast on that day, the prince would repeat the cycle of offerings he made during the Passover. This feast corresponds to the seven-day feast of Tabernacles under the Mosaic system (cf. Lev. 23:39-43; Num. 29:12-38). In the Millennium it will undoubtedly be a celebration of God's faithfulness in bringing the Israelites securely and permanently into the Promised Land, which the feast of Tabernacles anticipated.
Other feasts of Israel in the past receive no mention in Ezekiel's revelation concerning future worship: Firstfruits, Pentecost (Harvest, Weeks), Trumpets, and day of Atonement. Probably they will be absent in the future millennial system of worship. Some scholars believe that by describing only two of the feasts (Passover/Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles) Ezekiel was using a figure of speech (merism) and meant the reader to understand all the others. It is, of course, a dangerous interpretive practice to assume that the writer intended something that he did not state, especially when so much detail characterizes this portion of Ezekiel.
46:1 The Lord specified that the gate in the inner east gate complex should be open only on sabbath days and on the new moon days (i.e., the first of each month). All other days it was to remain closed. An exception to this rule follows in verse 12. Observance of the sabbath day in the future, as was true in Israel's past, will remind the Israelites of God's creation of the cosmos, His creation of their nation, and His provision of rest (in the Messiah). The new moon (month) celebrations may be periodic reminders of God's providential control of nature and His faithful provision of His people's needs, as they were in the past.
46:2 On these special days, the prince would lead the people in worship. He would enter the inner east gate complex and stand in its vestibule. Evidently he will not be able to enter the inner court because he will not be a priest (cf. Num. 29:38), but he will be able to view the inner court and the altar from the doorway at the western end of the gate complex. The vestibule would be the site of his worship as he presented his burnt and peace offerings (symbolizing his personal dedication and his gratitude for God's fellowship respectively). After he finished worshipping, he would depart from that gate into the outer court, but the gate would remain open until the evening.
46:3 The other worshippers would also worship at the same gate during those special days, but they too would not enter the inner court. Only priests could enter that court.
46:4-5 On the sabbath days, the prince's burnt offering would consist of six lambs and a ram without blemish. Grain offerings were to accompany them: an ephah with the ram, and as much as he was able to provide with the lambs. He was also to offer a hin of oil with each ephah of grain. This is a variation of what the Mosaic Law prescribed (cf. Num. 28:9-10). These grain and oil offerings evidently symbolized the Lord's rich provisions for His people.
46:6-7 On the new moon days, the prince was to offer the same offerings as he did on the sabbath days plus a young bull and an ephah of flour and a hin of oil with it. This too is somewhat different from the Mosaic requirement (cf. Num. 28:11-15).
46:8 The prince would enter the inner gate complex and leave it using the vestibule, which faced the outer court (cf. 40:31). Undoubtedly the priests would use the tables in the vestibule of this gate complex and the tables in the outer court near it to prepare these offerings (cf. 40:39-43).
46:9 When the people living in the Promised Land came to worship on the appointed feasts (Passover and Tabernacles, cf. 45:21-25), they were to enter the outer court by either the north or south outer gate complexes. There was no gate on the west side, and the east gate would be sealed (cf. 44:1-2). When they finished worshipping, they should depart from the opposite gate from which they entered, not the same one. This would result in an orderly traffic pattern during these crowded times (cf. 1 Cor. 14:33).
46:10 The prince should accompany the people on those occasions entering and exiting the court with them. He would worship God as one of the people then, not as someone special.
46:11 The offerings on these special occasions were to be the same as on the sabbath days and the new moon days (cf. vv. 4-7).
46:12 When the prince brought a voluntary offering to the temple on other days, either a burnt or peace offering, the priests should open the east inner gate for him to use and close it after he departed this gate complex.
46:13-15 The priests were also to offer a daily sacrifice to the Lord every morning, namely, one lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering. One-sixth of an ephah of grain with one-third of a hin of oil mixed into it should accompany this continual daily burnt offering. Its purpose is probably to demonstrate the daily rededication of the people to the Lord, the meaning of the daily burnt offering under the Mosaic system. Under the Mosaic Law, there was a daily morning and evening sacrifice (cf. Num. 28:3-4).
46:16-17 The prince could give a gift to any of his sons out of his own inheritance from the Lord. This gift was theirs forever. However, if he gave such a gift to one of his servants, it would revert back to him on the year of liberty. This year would evidently be similar to the year of jubilee (every fiftieth year) under the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Lev. 25:10; 27:24). Its purpose, in the past and in the future, is to remind God's people that He owns everything and that they only occupy and possess what He has entrusted to them.
46:18 The prince was not to give gifts from the inheritances of the other people of the land but only from his own inheritance. Israel's leaders and people in the past had appropriated other people's property as their own (cf. 45:8-9; 2 Sam. 24:24; 1 Kings 21:19; Mic. 2:1-2). This ordinance would also result in the prince's sons remaining in his allotment of land rather than being scattered among the other tribal allotments. Since this prince would have sons it seems clear that he will not be the Messiah.
46:19-20 The Lord, or Ezekiel's guide, then took him into the structure that housed the priests' rooms that were beside the south inner gate complex that faced north (cf. 40:44, 46). This was evidently one of the two three-story structures in which the priests eat the sacrifices and change their clothes (cf. 42:1-14). At the west side of this building there were kitchen facilities where the priests could boil the guilt and sin offerings and bake the grain offerings. They were to prepare these offerings there so they would not have to enter the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people.
46:21-24 The same person then took Ezekiel out to the outer court and showed him the four corners of that court. In each of the four corners there was a courtyard 40 cubits by 30 cubits. Within each of these enclosures there were ledges with fireplaces underneath that created cooking areas where the priests were to boil the sacrifices that the people brought to the temple. Since the people would eat some of the sacrifices they brought, the outer court would be a place of both spiritual worship and social interaction. There they would enjoy fellowship with other worshippers as well as fellowship with God.
