The Lord Is There

Series on Ezekiel

III. The Fulfilled Promises

C. Fatherland, Text:47:1-48:35

Title: The Lord Is There

Introduction

We have gone through Ezekiel’s prophecies and seen, first, the fall of Jerusalem and God’s words directed against His fallen people, and then we saw a measure of mercy in the judgments pronounced against foreign nations culminating in the final battle. But the book ends with prophecies of a totally restored glorious future in which we saw thus far the temple restored, faithful worship rekindled and now finally we see the fatherland reclaimed. It is a picture of what the Bible calls the new Jerusalem. When we read the description of the eternal city in Revelation 21 and 22 we see the chief thing is that the Lord is there. That is exactly how Ezekiel ends his prophecy and the description of the city in 48:35. The new Jerusalem is not an earthly city or a geographical location. It is spiritual. It is the church, the people of God, the heavenly city which is pictured by John in Revelation coming down from God out of heaven. Paul says, we belong to the Jerusalem which is above which is the mother of us all, and the author of Hebrews says to Christians you have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. We maintain the same principle of interpretation in this section of the prophecy as before, that Ezekiel is not, and cannot be, sent people because otherwise Ezekiel’s description of the future would have cut his audience off speaking of an earthly restoration. The vision is described in concrete terms familiar to these Old Testament believers so they could appreciate what he was getting at. And so the vision of the new promised land is in some ways very different and in in other ways like the old. We observe four descriptions here: the stream of life, the sacred land, the society of the future, and the symmetrical city.

I The Stream of Life

The river of verses 1-12 flows out of the temple in verse 1 towards the Dead Sea, The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. In itself this should help us realize that this is highly symbolic and speaks of the river issuing from Jesus and from His temple the church. This is the river whose streams make glad the city of God according to Psalm 46:4. It is the fountain that flows from the lord’s house in Joel 3:18. It is the living water of Zechariah’s vision in 14:8 flowing out from Jerusalem. Above all it is the river of life as pictured in Revelation 22:1 and 2, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. As the river that watered Eden it is life giving but the main point is that the river flows from the throne of God. It is a river of grace, a river of the Word and Spirit. The fact that it flows from Jerusalem and the temple should remind us that this is not a geographical change but a spiritual one. This is confirmed by three facts: it brings life wherever it flows including the Dead Sea where no marine life can live until the river freshens it, secondly, it brings fruitfulness because like the river in Eden and the river of Revelation 22 fruit trees of all kinds grow on its banks, and thirdly because it overwhelms the man who tries to measure it as it steadily increases in volume. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound. This is the river of God’s love. It is as beyond our control as the rivers of earth. We constantly read of the overflowing of rivers and the consequent floods and multi-million dollar damages that result, but this river overflows and rather than bringing pain and damage and sorrow it brings blessing as we read in verse 12, Because the water from the sanctuary flows to them their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing, exactly as it says in Revelation 22: 2.

II The Sacred Land

What we find in 47:13-23 is first of all a concern for the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. If Israel occupies its full territory then this is a symbol of God extending his kingdom through the whole world. Inheriting the “land” in the Old Testament is a symbol of God’s people, the “meek” inheriting the earth. Please notice that there is no territory east of the Jordan where originally in Numbers 34:1-12 Reuben, Gad and part of Manasseh all had territory. This makes me wonder about people who interpret this literally. I wonder why they don’t emphasize that Israel should withdraw from the east of Jordan river today. Israel never permanently occupied the territory God promised them but now in the vision they do, and within this land there is a place for the Gentiles too. From an Old Testament perspective this is a shocking thing. The whole effect of the law of Moses, which was passionately protected by the Scribes and Pharisees in New Testament times, was to separate the Jews from the Gentiles. Now they are mixed together in the promised land. Apparently the Pharisees did not read Ezekiel. We know that the apostle Paul says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek, or Gentile. The New Testament is clear that Jew and Gentile are one in Christ and therefore, since the Gentiles are converted only by Jesus and the gospel, this passage must be interpreted spiritually and not physically. Furthermore, the Gentile nations far outnumber the Israelites, and if this were talking about the literal physical boundaries of Israel we would not all fit in. This too is a clear indication that our passage is symbolical. In verses 22 and 23, the Gentiles are given equality with the Jews, “You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,” declares the Sovereign LORD. This would have been anathema to the Jews of Jesus time, and that is one of the reasons He was crucified and why the early Apostles were persecuted by the Jews.

III The Society of the Future

The original tribal allotments were quite unsymmetrical. The configuration would be similar to the states in the USA where land, population, and wealth of natural resources is not a factor in the borders of the states. For example, compare Rhode Island to Texas. But in this vision in 48:1-29 everything is fair, even and square. There are seven equal tribe territories delineated north of the Jerusalem compound for the city and the prince, and there are five tribes with equal territory south of the capitol district. What we find in the area of Jerusalem is like an ancient Washington DC, an area that belongs to the Lord. So we have a complete redistribution of the tribes, all in equal areas, and in parallel strips as we proceed south through Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulon and Gad. The point is that everything is totally equal in the new age. It must be equal and that equality is an indication of God’s grace. it overwhelms all the ancient distinctions, all the jealousies, all the failures, all the sins of the past.

IV The Symmetrical City

The city described in 48; 30-35 is foursquare, that is, perfectly symmetrical which symbolizes its spiritual perfection, These will be the exits of the city: Beginning on the north side, which is 4,500 cubits long, the gates of the city will be named after the tribes of Israel. The three gates on the north side will be the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah and the gate of Levi. On the east side, which is 4,500 cubits long, will be three gates: the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin and the gate of Dan. On the south side, which measures 4,500 cubits, will be three gates: the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar and the gate of Zebulun. On the west side, which is 4,500 cubits long, will be three gates: the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher and the gate of Naphtali. The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE. The most dramatic feature is the name, the last words of Ezekiel, because the name is Yahweh Shammah in Hebrew, meaning, “The Lord is there.” This reminds us of the holy city in John’s Revelation where the presence of God is everywhere. And Ezekiel’s city is exactly like John’s. It is foursquare and the names of the 12 tribes are inscribed on its gates. The names are those of the original 12 sons of Jacob. Manasseh and Ephraim are eliminated and their father, Joseph, and Levi are given gates in their place The most significant difference in John’s vision is the addition of the names of the 12 Apostles representing the new Israel, but notice that just like Ezekiel he is carried to a high mountain to view the city and we read in Revelation 21: 10-16, And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. As we saw in Revelation 21: 1 and 2 we have a mighty river in both places bringing healing, and fruitfulness and life. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: 13 and 14, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. We also read in John 7:37 and 38, On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” The promise of Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon is not a mere physical restoration, but a spiritual blessing greater than could have been expected. It is a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.