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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday August 16, 2015
THE DIVISIONS OF THE LAND
(Special offerings and celebrations)
Ezekiel 45-46
In Ezekiel 45, verses 1-7, the LORD tells Ezekiel that when the
Israelites divide the land after their return from Babylon, they must first set
aside a section for HIM as HIS holy portion. This piece of land must measure 8
1/3 miles long and 6 2/3 miles wide. A section of this land measuring 875 feet
square was to be set aside for the Temple itself, with an additional strip of
land 87 ½ feet wide left empty all the way around the Temple area (Vs.1-2).
Within this sacred plot of land, GOD instructed HIS prophet that
there will be measured out, a strip of land 8 1/3 miles long and 3 1/3 miles
wide, and within it, is where the Most Holy Place will be located. It is there
that the holy priests will minister to the LORD in the sanctuary (Vs.3-4a). The
priests will use this space for their homes, and the Temple will be located
there also (v.4b).
The remaining strip of land next to the priests and the Temple (8
1/3 miles long and 3 1/3 miles wide) would be used as a living area for the
Levites who worked in the Temple. They were to build their towns and villages
there. Adjacent to the larger sacred area of land will be a somewhat smaller
strip of land, 8 1/3 miles long and 1 1/3 miles wide where anyone in Israel can
come to live (Vs.5-6).
And then there would be two special sections of land set apart for
the prince. One of those sections will share a border with the east side of the
sacred land and city, and the other section would share a border with the west
side. Therefore, this strip of land would extend along the east side of the
Jordan River, and on the west side of the Mediterranean Sea (Vs.7-8).
In verses 9-12 GOD uses “the offerings of HIS future promised
blessings” to inspire, or exhort the coming princes, or leaders of Israel to
repentance. The civil leaders of Israel’s pre-exilic days, because of their
out-of-control greed and selfishness, had recklessly disregarded and ignored
the rights of the common people that they were sworn to protect. Here in these
verses we see these rules being set for the civil leaders to abide by, coming
from the mind of GOD, and the mouth of Ezekiel;
“For
this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression and do
what is just and right. Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land.
Stop expelling them from their homes, says the Sovereign Lord.
10 Use only honest weights and scales and
honest measures, both dry and liquid. 11 The
homer will be your standard unit for measuring volume. The ephah and the bath
will each measure one-tenth of a homer. 12 The
standard unit for weight will be the silver shekel. One shekel will consist of
twenty gerahs, and sixty shekels will be equal to one mina.” (NLT)
Weights
used in the Old Testament times varied somewhat, and oftentimes people used
those variations to cheat their fellowman. Here GOD is admonishing the leaders
to incorporate and use a more consistent way of measuring in the marketplace
and elsewhere.
In
verses 13-25 we see attention being given to “special offerings” and “celebrations”,
starting with those offerings of the people that are presented to GOD by the
princes, or civil leaders of Israel (Vs.13-17). Here the LORD sets aside a tax
to be paid to the civil leader. These taxes would represent the various
offerings that will be used to make atonement for the people who bring them,
and those people are told to join the civil leader when he brings their
offering. The civil leader would be required to provide all of the various offerings
that were given at the various required festivals, and at the Sabbath days.
In
the early spring, on the first day of each year, Nissan 1 (mid-April on
Gregorian calendar), the sanctuary had to be purified. This day called for the
sacrificing of a young bull with no physical defects as a “sin offering”, and
perhaps represented a “Day of Atonement”, much like the one traditionally
observed during the seventh month of the year (Leviticus 23:26-32). On this
occasion the priest would take the blood from the bull and put it on the
doorposts of the Temple, the four corners of the upper ledge on the altar, and,
on the gateposts at the entrance to the inner courtyard. This was also done on
the seventh day of the new year, for anyone who had sinned unintentionally
through error, or ignorance (Vs.18-20).
On
the fourteenth day of the new year the Passover was celebrated in all of
Israel. The Passover would last for seven days, and during that time, only
bread without yeast could be eaten. On the first day of the Passover the prince
would provide a young bull as a sin offering for himself and the people of
Israel (Vs.21-22). Every day, for the duration of the Passover feast, the
prince would also prepare a burnt offering to the LORD. This daily offering
required seven young bulls, and seven rams free of any defects, along with a
provision of a half bushel of flour for a grain offering, and a gallon of olive
oil with each bull and ram. It also required the sacrifice of a male goat each
day as a sin offering (Vs.23-24).
And
finally, during the seven days of the third festival, the “Festival of the
Tabernacle”, or “Festival of Shelters”, which begins on the fifteenth day of
the seventh month each year (early autumn), the prince will provide the same
sacrifices for the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the grain offering for
himself and the people.
In
Ezekiel 46, after instructing Israel on the religious feasts that are required
by GOD, Ezekiel now informs GOD’s people on what GOD expects from them
regarding their daily worship, and regarding keeping HIS regulations for the
Sabbath Days and New Moon sacrifices. He begins by instructing the people that
the east gateway of the inner wall must be kept closed during the six workdays
each week. It was only to be opened on Sabbath Days, and those days of the New
Moon offerings (v.1). On those days, the prince will enter the foyer of the
gateway from the outside, and stand by the gatepost while the priests offer his
burnt offerings and peace offerings up to the LORD. The details of those
offerings are highlighted in verses 4-7. The civil leader (the prince) will
worship inside the gateway passage and then go back out the same way he came in,
and the gateway will remain open until the evening. Meanwhile, the common
people will worship the LORD in front of the gateway on those Sabbath days, and
days of New Moon offerings (Vs.2-7).
In
verses 8-10, the LORD lays out the orderly way in which everyone will “enter”
and “exit” the Temple. There was no entrance to the Temple on the west side,
and the east gate was permanently restricted to everyone except the prince. Thus
access and exits for the common people would be on the north and south sides of
the Temple. Those who came in through the north gateway would have to exit
through the south gateway, and those who entered through the south gateway
would have to exit through the north gateway. And the prince could only enter
and exit through the east gateway at all times. Unlike on Sabbath Days and New
Moon Days, when the east gateway will remain open until the evening, on the
days of special religious festivals, the east gateway will be closed
immediately after the prince leaves. If the prince decides to give a “freewill offering”
to the LORD, the east gateway will be opened for him (v.12).
In
verses 16-18 the LORD says that; “If the
prince gives a gift of land to one of his sons as his inheritance, it will
belong to him and his descendants forever.
17 But if the prince gives a gift of land from
his inheritance to one of his servants, the servant may keep it only until the
Year of Jubilee, which comes every fiftieth year. At that time the land will
return to the prince. But when the prince gives gifts to his sons, those gifts
will be permanent. 18 And the prince
may never take anyone’s property by force. If he gives property to his sons, it
must be from his own land, for I do not want any of my people unjustly evicted
from their property.”
The
“Jubilee Year” comes once every fifty years and “goodwill gifts” are governed
by those years for gifts that are given to servants. The Jubilee Year also affects
the ownership of property that is sold to non-relatives, because every fifty
years property that was sold to non-family members would have to revert back to
the original owner (Leviticus 25:10-13). Land that was sold or given to family
members would remain permanently with the buyer or beneficiary, and does not
have to be returned to the original owner in the Jubilee Year.
In
verses 19-24 the “Temple Kitchens” where the sacrifices are prepared are
addressed. In this passage the angelic being brings Ezekiel to the entrance of
the north gateway and led him to the sacred rooms of the priests. He then
showed Ezekiel a place at the extreme west end of their quarters. He explained
to the prophet that this was where the priests cooked the meat from the guilt
offerings and sin offerings, and bakes the flour from the grain offerings into
bread. The cooking was done there to keep from having to carry the sacrifices
through the outer courtyard where the general public was permitted to go.
Afterwards,
he brought Ezekiel back to the outer courtyard and led him to each of the four
corners of the area. In each corner there was an enclosure that measured 70
feet long and 52 ½ feet wide, surrounded by walls. All along the walls were
fireplaces situated under a ledge of stone. These were the kitchens that were
used by the Temple servants and assistants to boil the meat sacrifices offered
by the people of Israel. When the people offered “fellowship offerings” to the
LORD, they would be able to eat part of those offerings in a fellowship meal
with other parishioners, as well as with the widows, orphans, and others who
were in need of food provisions.
A
Sunday school lesson by,
Larry
D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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