When Ezekiel was taken captive into Babylon, Daniel had already been there for nine years. Ezekiel and Daniel were probably very close, even though Daniel was related more to the life in the palace, and Ezekiel spent much of his time in the country by a river bank.
Frequently he was caught up in the spirit, traveling back and forth in a type of spiritual transportation system somewhat like that experienced by Philip in the New Testament.
Ezekiel prophesied a great many visions and dreams. It would be very interesting for any Bible student to study the visions and dreams in the Scriptures and then find where the same imagery, vision, or idea is repeated.
For example, some that are found in the book of Zechariah are also found in the book of Revelation. Many of the visions that the Lord gave to Ezekiel are repeated elsewhere. Ezekiel was an extraordinary man of prophecy, which we will soon see, as the Lord opens the book of Ezekiel to reveal its astounding truths.
Chapters 40 through 48 of Ezekiel contain a prophecy that undoubtedly relates to the end-time Kingdom. Ezekiel was given this vision during the twenty-fifth year of the exile, fourteen years after Jerusalem had been destroyed by Babylon. The exiles wept because they realized that the temple of Solomon had been destroyed and the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down. The city was nothing but a heap of rubbish. Then God gave the vision.
I am always amazed at God’s timing. He does everything at just the right time. This is true also of the Kingdom message. It is coming now in order that we will be so filled with the joy of that which is set before us that we will endure the work of the cross, despising the shame that we experience as God brings the end of all flesh (at least the end of our flesh). We gird ourselves for the sacrifice of discipleship willingly and joyfully because we anticipate the great day that is coming.
Fourteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem, while the people were weeping and almost without hope, God gave Ezekiel the vision of the New Jerusalem, the city of David, that was to be built. He spoke of the new boundary lines of the Kingdom that were to be in Palestine. I suppose that the people interpreted it all quite literally.
When we read certain Fundamental commentaries on Ezekiel’s prophecy, it is apparent that the authors accept it on a natural plane, believing that the temple will be rebuilt and the animal sacrifices restored. I do not believe that to be an accurate interpretation.
Looking to the New Testament, we find that the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, “Do not worry about the temple.” She replied, “You say that we should worship in Jerusalem and we say that we should worship in this mountain.” Jesus answered, “The time is coming and now is when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship, but you will worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–23).
Jesus abrogated all temple worship for all time. The New Testament speaks of temples; however, they are not temples of stone and mortar. It says that we are being built up into a holy temple, to be the habitation of God, by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:21–22). Our bodies are likened unto the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The book of Hebrews was probably released only a few years before the destruction of Herod’s temple by Titus—the temple of which Jesus said that not one stone would be left standing upon another (Matthew 24:2).
In 70 A.D. that literally happened, showing the Lord’s faithfulness to fulfill what is prophesied. The Hebrew believers loved God, but they still bad a strong place in their hearts for the old temple and the old sanctuary.
The epistle to the Hebrews brought the beautiful message that we now have better sacrifices and a better sanctuary in the heavens. We have better hope. We have better promises. It is a new and a living way (Hebrews 9 and 10). What a marvelous way into the holy presence of God is described.
When the book of Hebrews was first circulated, many a Hebrew Christian would sit and weep while reading it, because he knew what God had done. The earthly temple had been removed, but the heavenly places were being established in his mind and in his spirit.
God was doing that same thing for Ezekiel. God was giving him a vision saying, “Do not cry over the city that has been destroyed.” I do not think He was talking about a millennial kingdom being rebuilt when He described the boundaries—measuring approximately 400 miles north and south and about 100 miles east and west—for that would he smaller than David’s kingdom had been (Ezekiel 47 and 48). He was speaking about something else.
We will read only a few verses at random from the book of Ezekiel, those which present beautiful spiritual truths, especially pertinent to the Passover.
In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was taken (after the fall of Jerusalem), on that same day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there. Ezekiel 40:1. The tenth of the first month was within four days of the time that the Passover lamb was to be killed, which places Ezekiel’s vision at the time of the Passover.
The Passover was always meant to be a time of fresh vision and fresh anointing. When we leave the Passover we say good-bye to Egypt, and the next day we breathe new air. We experience a new circumstance, a new environment, a new word, a new leading, and a new food—manna.
We rejoice in the Lord and walk in a way that we never dreamed we could. It is the spiritual springtime for us, and that is the way it was for the Jews. It was the turning from winter season to springtime.
It was the time when the winter wheat was already growing. When they had finished the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they took one sheaf of grain and waved it before God.
This typified Christ, the first fruit, the first one to come forth. Fifty days after that, at Pentecost, two loaves made of fine flour were waved before the Lord. This symbolized the first fruits of those who were coming forth out of Christ.
That was a beautiful symbol and it resulted in 3,000 people accepting the Lord in one day. When the two precious loaves were waved to the Lord, those who waved them were saying, in effect, “The rest is yet to come.” Today we represent a part of that which was yet to come for the praise and glory of God.
At Passover it seems as though God puts something new within our hearts: a new vision, a new hope, a new expectancy. The Feast of Passover is always needed because we become so weary of the vicious satanic battle. Then with Passover comes the vision of new hope and new life springing up, and we come into it by the grace of God.
The instructions to Ezekiel concerning the ways they were to worship during the feast did not conform at all to the original requirements of the various sacrifices as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Numbers. Instead, the people did as they felt led in their sacrifices. The prophecy was not speaking of a revival of the Mosaic Law and the requirements of sacrifices; it was symbolic.
The instructions for the sacrifices begin in Ezekiel 45:18: “In the first month, on the first of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish.…” Verse 19 describes the way the bull was to be sacrificed for the priesthood and for their cleansing.
Verses 20–22: “And thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for every one who goes astray or is naive; so you shall make atonement for the house.” The people were to be purified and made ready. “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And on that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.”
This refers to the Lord Himself, and most likely it is speaking about the Kingdom. It does not say that the high priest or the priest will provide the sin offering; it says that the Prince will do it.
References to restoration mention Joshua and Zerubbabel—the priest and the ruler—but in the end-time ministry they blend together. God is uniting the priesthood with the ruling party; therefore we are kings and priests. When we come into the Kingdom, we will execute judgment upon all the nations, binding their kings with fetters of brass. This heritage have all of His saints (Psalm 149:8). The Kingdom will be full of kings; there will be no commoners. Everyone will be in the ruling class.
When the Kingdom comes, all of God’s people, His heritage, will be placed into the ruling class. When God speaks of the Kingdom, He promises that the one who is faithful will be made ruler over ten cities (Luke 19:17). Which city would you like to be ruler of? We are kings incognito. We are sons who have not yet been glorified.
Ezekiel 45:25 explains the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, referring again to the Prince (the ruler, the king) as the one who makes the sacrifices valid.
When you keep the Feast of Passover, it does not mean you believe that Jesus has to die again. The same applies when you come to the Communion Table; you partake of a finished sacrifice. You are bringing it right into the present moment in its expression, in its meaning and efficacy in your own life. When you partake of the body and the blood, and you humbly say, “Lord, I have failed You; forgive me,” it does not mean that He dies again. It means that His sacrifice is as fresh and as real to you as if you were kneeling at the foot of His cross with His precious blood pouring down upon your penitent heart. The sacrifice is as real and valid as it was the moment He died. The Prince will keep the Passover for God’s people and make a provision for them in the Kingdom.
I do not anticipate that the perfect sacrifice of the Lord will ever be without its power to change us and to give us standing before God; neither do I believe that it will always necessarily come for sin. In the days of the Kingdom, the sacrifice and the provision that Christ made for us will cause us to grow in our perfection; it will not necessarily be to eliminate the carnal. God grant that we get that done right now, that we come out of the sin nature and move into perfection. What does it mean to grow in our perfection? I believe that we should expect to continue expanding for a thousand years. I do not think there will be any limitation upon it. Expect to grow! Expect to expand!
The fact that the Lord makes provision for you means that He wants to share Himself with you. He does not merely want to dole out blessings; He wants to convey Himself. He wants to transmit to you His own attributes and His own nature, because He wants fellowship with you. Study the loneliness of God and learn the reality of what He is trying to do. It is fine that the stars can all sing, that the wind blowing through the trees can glorify God, that everything on the earth can come forth praising the Lord—but He wants something more. He wants someone who understands His heart, someone who loves Him. Human love does not exist on that plane. Therefore He has to re-create His people, giving them His nature, putting love in them, putting His attribute of eternity in them, giving them eternal life. Therefore, when the Prince blesses the remnant and ministers to them during the days of the Kingdom on earth, it will not be for the purpose of removing sin from them; it will be to help them advance and progress in the perfection He is working within them.
God grant that we experience this now. When you partake of Him, it must not be only to be forgiven of sin—that is the negative side. Reach into the positive—believe to be like Him! Believe for Him to work His very will and His very being within you, causing you right now to will and to do of His good pleasure.
This wonderful truth about the Prince and His ministry to us continues as we read Ezekiel 46:16–18. Thus says the Lord God, “If the prince” (the Lord, the King Himself) “gives a gift out of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince.” (Notice that fact.) “His inheritance shall be only his sons’; it shall belong to them. And the prince shall not take from the people’s inheritance, thrusting them out of their possession; he shall give his sons inheritance from his own possession so that My people shall not be scattered, anyone from his possession.”
Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:18 that we would know our inheritance in God as the sons of light. God intends to have an inheritance in us—we are His inheritance. However, we are also heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. This is speaking of sonship.
Galatians 4:1–3 explains what is happening to us. Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. Paul continued, making an application to the Mosaic Law and the Christian dispensation, but the same principle is operating with us today.
We are children and heirs, but we do not differ from a bondslave. God still disciplines and chastens us as if we were ordinary slaves who are displeasing Him. We know we are children, but right now we do not differ at all from slaves. Nevertheless, the appointed day is coming when He will say, “That is enough; now you receive your inheritance, and I will not treat you as a bond-servant anymore. The time has come to move into your position as a son. You have survived on a small ration, a meager allowance; but now, as you become a son, you are no longer limited. Think about this: You are not limited! Begin to claim more. You are My heir! You are to inherit everything of Mine. Reach in just a little more every time.” That is what the Lord is trying to tell us now.
As we near the manifestation of the sons, He is provoking us, trying to make us realize that we have to appropriate even that manifestation. He is telling us, “It is all yours! Why not claim it? It is your inheritance!”
In the days of the Kingdom, this one factor will be the difference between slaves and sons. When God gives a gift of His inheritance to His sons, it is theirs forever. When He gives a gift to His servants, it is theirs until the year of Jubilee; then it returns to Him.
Do you believe in that kind of a “yo-yo” principle? I do. It is illustrated in Luke 10. The Lord blessed the seventy, and He said, “Now, go out two by two before My face and preach the gospel of the Kingdom. I give you authority over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you. You are going to heal the sick and raise the dead. You will do mighty things in My name.” When they came back, they said, “Even the devils were subject to us.” Then what happened? We do not read of those seventy moving again. The anointing that He had given them came back. It was a principle of return. They had gone out as servants; therefore, the anointing was not to be their permanent inheritance.
Sonship comes after you have taken your beatings, after you have been treated like a bond-servant and obedience has been completely worked within your spirit. Then God commits to you that which will be your inheritance forever.