Prince at the Post - Ezekiel 46

Ezekiel 46:2 "And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate; then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening."

v3 "Likewise, the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons."

What some have called superstition may have come about from this very chapter of Ezekiel. I have heard during my life that if you go in a door you should leave by the same door. In this chapter, it is commanded to leave by a different door than where they came in. It is a good example of how things get turned around.

v9 "But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate; and he that entereth by way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate; he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.

I think this has to do with organization. If you can picture two lines going and coming from the temple. It would be difficult for everyone to get through if they turned against the traffic and there would be a log jam at the gates.

Remember, all Israel was to go to Jerusalem at certain times of the year.

The prince was different, he was to enter and leave by the same way.

v8 "And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof."

Now look at the following verse. As sons, Christians have a great inheritance. We join Christ as children of the Father.

v16 "Thus saith the LORD GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance."

Ephesians 3:6 "That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel;"

But, of course, our passage is concerning the temple activities when it is restored. I do believe that there are parallels with our spiritual worship.

Levites - Ezekiel 44

Ezekiel 44:4 "Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD; and I fell upon my face."

We leave the eastern gate where the prince shall enter and go toward the north where Ezekiel saw the reverse of earlier scripture. In the beginning of Ezekiel, the glory of the Lord departed the temple but now we see the vision of the return. I suspect this event is still to take place.

Then we see the office of priesthood narrowed to one family of the house of the Levites.

v15 "But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the LORD GOD:"

So the entire tribe of Levites can no longer enter into the most holy place, that is left for the children of Zadok who was faithful.

The Levites who went after idols and offered sacrifice to them will remain in service but are not to approach to the Lord.

v11 "Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them."

The balance of the chapter concerns the rules for the priests. It is good to know the rules before hand so there will be no mistakes.

v30 And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's, ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house."

Princes and Prophets - Ezekiel 22

Ezekiel 22:27 "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain."

v26 "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things;...

v6 "Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone were in thee to their power to shed blood."

The structure of leadership has dissolved into a quest for personal gain. The fault for the attitude of the people is laid on the leadership while making no excuse for the sin of the people.

The sins are many and are listed one by one. The Lord has said that he would not correct Israel while in Egypt or the wilderness because he had claimed them as his own and did not want to shame them in the presence of the enemy. That's what I got from previous chapters.

Now Israel took advantage and turned from God and worshipped idols. It was not just innocent mischief. Children were burned to please false gods, the laws of God were broken one by one. The strangers were mistreated. Even the house of God and the precious things were used for personal gain.

v8 "Thou hast despised mine holy things... v9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood...v12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood..." And many more. These comments were directed at the princes of Israel.

Further it tells how the priests participated with them. It also tells of the prophets who told the leaders that they were doing just fine and every thing would be just fine.

v28 "And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying Thus saith the Lord God, when the LORD hath not spoken."

The Apostle Paul told us to 'study to be quiet'. It would have behooved the prophets to say nothing rather than lie about God telling them something.

It became so bad that the Lord gave us this verse to summarize the situation in Israel.

v30 "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it but I found none."

There was no Moses to plead for the people or a David to stand at the threshing floor and say that he was the man who should be punished instead of the people.