SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/18/2015
8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Prince’s
Portion
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
45:7-46:18; 44:1-3; 48:21-22
Message of the
verses: “7 “The prince shall have
land on either side of the holy allotment and the property of the city,
adjacent to the holy allotment and the property of the city, on the west side
toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable
to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border. 8 "This shall be his land for a possession
in Israel; so My princes shall no longer oppress My people, but they shall give
the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes."
9 ¶ ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Enough,
you princes of Israel; put away violence and destruction, and practice justice
and righteousness. Stop your expropriations from 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 the same quantity, so that the
bath will contain a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; their
standard shall be according to the homer. 12
"The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five
shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your maneh.
13 ¶
"This is the offering that you shall offer: a sixth of an ephah
from a homer of wheat; a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley; 14 and the prescribed portion of oil (namely,
the bath of oil), a tenth of a bath from each kor (which is ten baths or a
homer, for ten baths are a homer); 15
and one sheep from each flock of two hundred from the watering places of
Israel-for a grain offering, for a burnt offering and for peace offerings, to
make atonement for them," declares the Lord GOD. 16 "All the people of the land shall give
to this offering for the prince in Israel. 17
"It shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, the
grain offerings and the drink offerings, at the feasts, on the new moons and on
the Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he shall
provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering and the peace
offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel." 18 ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "In the first
month, on the first of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish
and cleanse the sanctuary. 19 "The
priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the
door posts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on
the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20
"Thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who
goes astray or is naive; so you shall make atonement for the house. 21 "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. 22
"On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the
people of the land a bull for a sin offering. 23 "During the seven days of the feast he
shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD seven bulls and seven rams
without blemish on every day of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin
offering. 24 “He shall provide as a grain offering an ephah with a bull, an
ephah with a ram and a hin of oil with an ephah. 25 "In the seventh month, on the fifteenth
day of the month, at the feast, he shall provide like this, seven days for the
sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering and the oil."
1 ¶ ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "The gate of
the inner court facing east shall be shut the six working days; but it shall be
opened on the sabbath day and opened on the day of the new moon. 2 "The prince shall enter by way of the
porch of the gate from outside and stand by the post of the gate. Then the
priests shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall
worship at the threshold of the gate and then go out; but the gate shall not be
shut until the evening. 3 "The
people of the land shall also worship at the doorway of that gate before the
LORD on the sabbaths and on the new moons. 4
"The burnt offering which the prince shall offer to the LORD on the
sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish;
5 and the grain offering shall be an
ephah with the ram, and the grain offering with the lambs as much as he is able
to give, and a hin of oil with an ephah. 6
"On the day of the new moon he shall offer a young bull without
blemish, also six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 "And he shall provide a grain offering,
an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as
he is able, and a hin of oil with an ephah. 8
"When the prince enters, he shall go in by way of the porch of the
gate and go out by the same way. 9
"But when the people of the land come before the LORD at the
appointed feasts, he who enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go
out by way of the south gate. And he who enters by way of the south gate shall
go out by way of the north gate. No one shall return by way of the gate by
which he entered but shall go straight out. 10
"When they go in, the prince shall go in among them; and when they
go out, he shall go out. 11 "At the
festivals and the appointed feasts the grain offering shall be an ephah with a
bull and an ephah with a ram, and with the lambs as much as one is able to
give, and a hin of oil with an ephah. 12
"When the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or
peace offerings as a freewill offering to the LORD, the gate facing east shall
be opened for him. And he shall provide his burnt offering and his peace
offerings as he does on the sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and the gate
shall be shut after he goes out. 13
"And you shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a
burnt offering to the LORD daily; morning by morning you shall provide it.
14 "Also you shall provide a grain
offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin
of oil to moisten the fine flour, a grain offering to the LORD continually by a
perpetual ordinance. 15 "Thus they
shall provide the lamb, the grain offering and the oil, morning by morning, for
a continual burnt offering."
16 ¶
’Thus says the Lord GOD, "If the prince gives a gift out of his
inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons; it is their
possession by inheritance. 17 "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. His inheritance
shall be only his sons’; it shall belong to them. 18 "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 will not be
scattered, anyone from his possession."’"
“1 ¶ Then He
brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the
east; and it was shut. 2 The LORD said
to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall
enter by it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall
be shut. 3 "As for the prince, he
shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way
of the porch of the gate and shall go out by the same way."
“21 "The
remainder shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy
allotment and of the property of the city; in front of the 25,000 cubits of the
allotment toward the east border and westward in front of the 25,000 toward the
west border, alongside the portions, it shall be for the prince. And the holy
allotment and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the middle of it. 22 "Exclusive of the property of the
Levites and the property of the city, which are in the middle of that which
belongs to the prince, everything between the border of Judah and the border of
Benjamin shall be for the prince.”
I realize that there are many, many verses in this
section, but we will go forth in trying to understand all of them as they speak
of the prince who is very prominent in these last chapters of the book of
Ezekiel. Ezekiel introduces the prince
in chapter 44 and verses 1-3, but does not identify who he is. This is kind of like the two witnesses that
we are studying in the 11th chapter of the book of Revelation, we
know that they are there, just as we know the prince is going to be there in
the Millennial Kingdom, but we don’t really know who the prince or the
witnesses are. The prince is mentioned
sixteen times in these last chapters of the book of Ezekiel.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “He is not to be confused with ‘David…their
prince’ (34:24; 37:24-25) who some see as the Messiah, the heir of David’s
throne (Luke 1:30-32); nor should he be confused with the Messiah. The prince will be a married man and will
have sons who can inherit his land (Ezek. 46:16-18), which is located on either
side of the central sacred area. Nowhere
is he identified as a member of the royal family, a priest, or a Levite. We aren’t even told what tribe he will come
from. Apparently he will be a civil
ruler, a vice-regent under the authority of the Messiah, and yet most of his
functions will be religious.”
Now I want to quote what John MacArthur has to say about
the prince that is found in his Study Bible from Ezekiel 44:3: “The designation ‘prince’ is used at least 14
times in chapts. 44-47. He is not the
Lord Jesus Christ, but someone distinct from Him (cf. ‘eat bread before the Lord’’);
he sins for which he offers sacrifice (45:22), and fathers sons
(46:16-18). He cannot enter by the E
gate which the Lord used, but he is allowed to come in and go out by the gate’s
vestibule, and eat bread by the gateway.
He cannot perform priestly duties (45:19) as Messiah will (cf. Ps 110:4;
Zec 6:12, 13), and he must worship the Lord (46:2). Most likely ‘the prince’ is one who is
neither a priest nor the king, but rather one who administrates the kingdom,
representing the King (the Lord Jesus Christ) on hand, and also the princes
(14:8, 9) who individually lead the 12 tribes.
Possibly, he will be a descendant of David.”
At this point of life here in the 21th century
I don’t think that it is possible for us to know exactly who this person is,
but I am sure that we will know who he is in the Millennial Kingdom. What we can learn from all of these verses is
some of the functions that he will be doing to serve the Lord during that
time. Perhaps, as John MacArthur suggests
that he will be a descendant of King David.
5/18/2015 8:59 AM
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