Ezekiel 45:7-25--The Portion for the Prince

Ezekiel 45:7-25
English Standard Version

The Portion for the Prince
7 “And to the prince shall belong the land on both sides of the holy district and the property of the city, alongside the holy district and the property of the city, on the west and on the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions, and extending from the western to the eastern boundary 8 of the land. It is to be his property in Israel. And my princes shall no more oppress my people, but they shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes.

9 “Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD.

10 “You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, the bath containing one tenth of a homer, and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. 12 The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina.

13 “This is the offering that you shall make: one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley, 14 and as the fixed portion of oil, measured in baths, one tenth of a bath from each cor (the cor, like the homer, contains ten baths). 15 And one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the watering places of Israel for grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings, to make atonement for them, declares the Lord GOD. 16 All the people of the land shall be obliged to give this offering to the prince in Israel. 17 It shall be the prince's duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.

18 “Thus says the Lord GOD: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and purify the sanctuary. 19 The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20 You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple.

21 “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. 23 And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. 25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil.

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"The prince" is what the king of Israel is called.  Interestingly enough, Israel never had another "king" after the Exile.  They had "governors," but no more "princes" or "kings" (other than the puppet governments established by the occupying forces like Rome that established the Herods as "kings," but they had no right to the throne of David).  So, this probably means that we now are looking forward to something prophetic about the land that will be given to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords--Jesus, the Messiah when He comes into His kingdom (same Land, different Temple).

In this day and time, the people will live within their tribal allotments and will no longer war with each other and try to take land from one another.  This future king will be just and will no longer oppress  and mistreat the LORD's people because of pride, ambition, or selfishness.  He will do away with all violence and will rule with justice according to the Law of the LORD.  No longer will the people use unjust weights and measures to cheat one another in the marketplace, and all the people will willingly give their children to the Lord as His servants.

The people will willingly offer all of the required grain offerings, and the accompanying oil and wine and the animals for the grain offering and peace offerings.  The prince will himself provide all the animals for the burnt offerings (this could literally be true that Jesus will offer burnt offerings from the animals that are without spot or blemish that belong to Him, or it could be a way of saying that He has already paid the penalty that would be paid by the burnt offerings by offering Himself as substitutionary atonement on the cross because He is the propitiation for our sins.  I lean towards the former because it is the most obvious meaning and because of what is said shortly hereafter that we are at a point in time where people can still accidently sin--we are not to the point in history yet where all sin is abolished, so the need for these burnt offerings may still have meaning and purpose for those who believe themselves to be under the Old Covenant).  The people will still give an extra tithe to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords separate from the tithe that they give to take care of the Levites and the Temple.

The priests will still practice the Day of Atonement, though if we are talking about the future Temple.  It would seem at whatever time this text is speaking of (possibly during the Millennial Kingdom, but before the New Heavens and the New Earth) that sin still exists and there as I mentioned earlier.  This is the perfect version of the theocracy that Israel never achieved.  There will be a time when the LORD will be their King and Jesus will be the Prince of Peace, King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He will shepherd and protect His people and teach them to walk in the ways of the LORD.

They will also celebrate the Passover on its assigned day.  It will have a different meaning for all those who realize that Jesus fulfilled it and provided a better Exodus, not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles.  The prince will provide the required offerings for that day on behalf of the nation.  He will also do the same for the feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Trumpets (and any of the other feasts that I have forgotten to name).  He Himself will stand in place of the nation and pay all the debt that they owe to make them clean and holy before the LORD, though they are still personally responsible to choose to love and obey Him.  I know some people like to say they don't believe in a separate Millennial Kingdom, but I see no other way to interprets this particular text.  It has to be talking about Jesus in the future, but it has to also be at a point in the future where sin still exists, but it would seem that people are more obedient because it does not appear that they are committing any high-handed sins of rebellion, just accidently sinning when they are ignorant of the Law or are caught off-guard in the moment and they later realize that they errored.  There is a time coming when sin will be abolished, but it seems that has not happened yet--it is not good enough to simply bind Satan.  People will not suddenly stop sinning, though it would seem that they would have prolonged life and blessing.  Is that enough for the LORD?  I don't think so--He allows one final rebellion where Satan, sin and death are all destroyed and all God's people are gloried and made to be perfectly like Christ so that we are always obedient and will never again sin.  All things will be made new and beautiful and the perfection of the Garden of Eden will exist again, but this time with an uncountable number of people that the Lord has redeemed to make a people for Himself.