June 13, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 2 Kings 20:1-22:20; John 11:17-44

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

I received a call from Ralph Porter yesterday, there was a little mix-up on the Promise Keepers tickets.  We ordered 11 more tickets this morning bringing the grand total at 29 Palms to 25, and 30 at Camp Pendleton.  There is still a need for sponsorships, if you are interested, reply back to this study.  I praise God for several of you who have stepped forward to meet this need already.  Thank you.

Ezekiel 48 (NASB95)
¹ “Now these are the names of the tribes: from the northern extremity, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, toward the north beside Hamath, running from east to west, Dan, one portion. ² “Beside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one portion. ³ “Beside the border of Asher, from the east side to the west side, Naphtali, one portion. ⁴ “Beside the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one portion. ⁵ “Beside the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one portion. ⁶ “Beside the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side, Reuben, one portion. ⁷ “Beside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one portion. ⁸ “And beside the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the allotment which you shall set apart, 25,000 cubits in width, and in length like one of the portions, from the east side to the west side; and the sanctuary shall be in the middle of it. ⁹ “The allotment that you shall set apart to the Lord shall be 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width. ¹⁰ “The holy allotment shall be for these, namely for the priests, toward the north 25,000 cubits in length, toward the west 10,000 in width, toward the east 10,000 in width, and toward the south 25,000 in length; and the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in its midst. ¹¹ “It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept My charge, who did not go astray when the sons of Israel went astray as the Levites went astray. ¹² “It shall be an allotment to them from the allotment of the land, a most holy place, by the border of the Levites. ¹³ “Alongside the border of the priests the Levites shall have 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width. The whole length shall be 25,000 cubits and the width 10,000. ¹⁴ “Moreover, they shall not sell or exchange any of it, or alienate this choice portion of land; for it is holy to the Lord. ¹⁵ “The remainder, 5,000 cubits in width and 25,000 in length, shall be for common use for the city, for dwellings and for open spaces; and the city shall be in its midst. ¹⁶ “These shall be its measurements: the north side 4,500 cubits, the south side 4,500 cubits, the east side 4,500 cubits, and the west side 4,500 cubits. ¹⁷ “The city shall have open spaces: on the north 250 cubits, on the south 250 cubits, on the east 250 cubits, and on the west 250 cubits. ¹⁸ “The remainder of the length alongside the holy allotment shall be 10,000 cubits toward the east and 10,000 toward the west; and it shall be alongside the holy allotment. And its produce shall be food for the workers of the city. ¹⁹ “The workers of the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it. ²⁰ “The whole allotment shall be 25,000 by 25,000 cubits; you shall set apart the holy allotment, a square, with the property of the city. 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. ²³ “As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one portion. ²⁴ “Beside the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one portion. ²⁵ “Beside the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one portion. ²⁶ “Beside the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one portion. ²⁷ “Beside the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one portion. ²⁸ “And beside the border of Gad, at the south side toward the south, the border shall be from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, to the Great Sea. ²⁹ “This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for an inheritance, and these are their several portions,” declares the Lord God. ³⁰ “These are the exits of the city: on the north side, 4,500 cubits by measurement, ³¹ shall be the gates of the city, named for the tribes of Israel, three gates toward the north: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one. ³² “On the east side, 4,500 cubits, shall be three gates: the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one. ³³ “On the south side, 4,500 cubits by measurement, shall be three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one. ³⁴ “On the west side, 4,500 cubits, shall be three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one. ³⁵ “The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ‘The Lord is there.’ ”^[1]

The most important thing that I see in this chapter is that of precision.  God precisely gave us a picture of what the Millennial temple will be along with a very good picture of what the Promised Land will be like when it is re-populated with the Jewish people. 

One thing that stood out to me is the name of the city, "The Lord is There", literally, "Jehovah-Shammah".  God will be God of the city, and of the land of Israel.  According to the previous chapter, the land will experience great wealth and prosperity, along with bearing trees that bear medicinal leaves which will cure all sicknesses.  It will be as close as heaven on earth as is possible. 

There is a view called "amillennialism" as I understand it, it holds to the idea that we are already in the thousand year reign of Christ.  I would challenge anyone holding that view to show me the peace and tranquility that has been described in the previous few chapters.  If we take Ezekiel as prophecy regarding the Millennium, then the idea of the world becoming a better and better place to where Christ rules over it, is simply not valid.  God promises according to this book that He is coming, and that part of that coming will be the resurrection of the righteous Jewish people, along with King David and re-establishing them in their land. 

I wish that we could say that the influence of the church was going to drive the people of the world to become better and better people.  Unfortunately that simply is not true.  As a matter of fact, speaking from the American perspective, there is a lot less people actually attending church services on Sunday than ever before.  There is a concern in the Christian circles that if the trend continues, soon there won't be very many churches at all.  As the old-timers die off, church attendance is dying with them.  The idea that the church will become a more powerful spiritual force is proving to be false as the world goes deeper and deeper into depravity.

Our job, spread the word, spend time reading the Bible and learn about what it says to us.  Be ready always to give an answer.  We can't change the trend of society to follow after evil, but we can be a light in the dark places.  We can speak out to those around us and encourage them to follow the Lord.  Perhaps if enough of us get serious about following Jesus, we can spark revivals in America that will compare to the great revivals years ago in Europe.  We start by becoming serious about our message and putting our message into shoe leather.

I apologize for not addressing the chapter more than I did, without the aid of a map, it is very difficult to address this chapter.  As a note of advertisement, tomorrow we will be starting the study on the Song of Solomon.  The first week of July will take my wife and I to a marriage conference, and I am moving to this book to prepare for that conference.  I hope that the insights that we draw from it will encourage all of you in your marriages and strengthen them.

All comments are welcomed.

Father, as we close out the book of Ezekiel and look forward to the time that Jesus will reign on the earth, continue to encourage each of us to live out Your word in our lives, completely, all the time.

In Him,

Joe Turner.