Ezekiel 48
The people of God in the days of Ezekiel were described according to the tribal names which are the names of the sons of Jacob. When we follow the story of these men through the book of Genesis, we see that they could never have merited an eternal inheritance according to their own merit. When Jacob gives his final words of blessing to his sons prior to his death, he is very forthright in discussing their sins and the consequences for the future of their actions.
A good example of this is Jacob’s first-born son Reuben. Genesis 49:3-4 says, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it- he went up to my couch!” Reuben had an immoral liaison with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. When you think of the words of Jacob from Genesis 49 and realize that these two verses were all that a dying father had to say about his oldest son, this is a very sad story. “Reuben, what can I say about you? You are my firstborn. You have that position of dignity by birth. You are a strong man. But you slept with Bilhah. You are an unstable man, and you won’t have the position of a first-born any more.”
Many years later Moses spoke words of blessing about the tribes before his departure. In Deuteronomy 33:6 he said, “Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his men be few.” That was all. Again, this was strikingly discouraging. Yet consider this, Reuben has one portion of the new land described in Ezekiel 48, just as all the other tribes. There may be something to the proximity of a tribe to the sanctuary and the holy city. Judah and Benjamin have the spots closest to the temple, one to the north and the other to the south. Yet all of the tribes are given one portion of the same size.
It is shocking to consider that a tribe that is promised trouble in this age is yet represented in a prominent way with all the other tribes in the age to come. There is something in God’s purposes of election that cannot be stopped here, and that is more powerful by far than our own disobedience and the discipline that we face in this age as a result of our rebellion and sin. There is something wonderful about the reality that grace will really be grace, and Reuben and the tribe that bears his name are included in the day when sin is removed from the people of God.
In chapter 47 the river of life proceeded from the sanctuary of the temple. The same point (the centrality of the place of sacrifice and communion with God for all blessing) is shown in this final chapter through the location of the place of God’s presence in what seems to be the center of the land, perhaps the center of the whole earth. The new creation in the age of resurrection is powered by the presence of God. There at the center are the priests and the people of Levi who serve in worship. There is the holy city and the great Prince over the people of God. Here are God and His people together forever, as we have seen in previous chapters. This is a choice portion of the land, for it is holy to the Lord.
The temple, everyone in it, and everything about it reminds us of the one Messiah who became the Lamb of God for us. He was the atoning sacrifice that has made this resurrection world possible. He is also the Prince forever over the entirety of this new land. Take Jesus Christ out of the new age and You have nothing, for every promise of resurrection blessing is centered in Him, in His righteousness, and in His death.
The gates of the holy city are mentioned, each with the name of one of the tribes. Since Levi is included in the list, Joseph stands in for his sons in order to keep the number at twelve. These twelve gates are mentioned by John in Revelation along with the names of the twelve apostles inscribed on the twelve foundations of the city. If we have already said that the temple was glorious, if we have rejoiced in the wonder of the river that flows from it, if we are able to see the greatness of the gates of the city and the territories for the tribes throughout the land, then we will be able to especially rejoice in the final words of the prophet. He tells us the glory of the place in its Name: “Jehovah Shammah” or “The Lord is there.”
Here is the sacred Name of God, indicating His eternal existence. Through the work of God the Son, the city of
Reuben, despite his sin against his father’s authority, despite his violation of common decency, despite the fact that he was unstable as water, despite his lies to Jacob together with his brothers in the matter of their treatment of Joseph, claiming that Joseph was dead for so many years, despite all of this Reuben has a place in the land to come, in fact his name is on one of the gates of the city! There must be hope for us through our adoption into the household of God through Jesus Christ the Son of God. We are a part of this blessed land. The Lord is surely there, and we are his beloved, and nothing can separate us from His great eternal love.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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