Ezekiel 44:1-14--The Gate for the Prince

Ezekiel 44:1-14
English Standard Version

The Gate for the Prince
44 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. 2 And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. 3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”

4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD. And I fell on my face. 5 And the LORD said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning all the statutes of the temple of the LORD and all its laws. And mark well the entrance to the temple and all the exits from the sanctuary. 6 And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, 7 in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. 8 And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary.

9 “Thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. 10 But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment. 11 They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before the people, to minister to them. 12 Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their punishment. 13 They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my holy things and the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed. 14 Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it.

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Everything we have seen to this point is the path that Jesus will take when He enters the heavenly Temple.  He will be the only one allowed to enter and leave by the East Gate and He will sit in the gate and eat of the LORD's offerings (because He is not just King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but He is also our Great High Priest).  The people will instead enter by the North Gate, which looks identical to the entrance from the East except that the Altar will not be there in front of them.  They no longer need to come by way of the altar because atonement has already been made for them.

The glory of the LORD once again fills the Temple as the Son of God in all of His glory comes into the Temple and teaches His people the statutes and commands of the LORD.  The focus then comes back to the current people of Israel and Judah and how they have defiled themselves by worshiping idols and admitted foreigners who did not fear the LORD into the Temple and mixed the worship of the LORD with the pagan practices of these foreigners to try to appease them.  These people were not just uncircumcised in their flesh, but, more importantly, were uncircumcised in heart--they were not born again.  The Temple was ultimately a place for the LORD's people to gather together from every nation to worship Him.  Yes, people from all nations would gather together, but they would be the LORD's people.  Ultimately it was the job of the people of Israel to go out to the nations and share the truth with them so they could be circumcised of heart and body before they entered the Temple.  They were to accept the covenant (the Law that told people how to worship the LORD through how they live) before they came to His house to worship Him.  The LORD says that the Israelites have been bad stewards of what has been entrusted to them (the Law and the gospel and the Temple and all that belongs to it).

No foreigner will enter the LORD's Temple and the Levites who enabled this sin and ministered before the false gods and idols will bear their sin and guilt (there will be no atonement for their willful disobedience).  Specifically, the priests who became priests for the false gods will never be allowed to serve as priests before the LORD again.  They will bear their shame and guilt and the shame and guilt of the people that they led astray.  The LORD will graciously allow them to serve as Levites in the Temple, but they will not have the blessings that would normally come with being priests.  They will only receive the blessings that are common to all Levites.  They will be appointed to keep charge of the Temple and care for it in all of its service (you can go back and look at all the tasks that had to be done for the Temple and how many Levites who were not priests served there on a regular basis).  We'll come back next time to talk more about the priests who did not defile themselves and what the rules and job description for them will be going forward.