Year 2, Week 22, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 22, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 45-46.

Today’s reading continues the final major section of the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 33-48 can be divided into two segments: Ezekiel 33-39 is composed of prophecies about the judgment upon but also the future restoration of Judah, while Ezekiel 40-48 is composed of Ezekiel’s vision about the new temple and new land. Having specified some of the proper functioning of the priest in the previous chapter, Ezekiel 45 is oriented around the proper functioning of Israel’s “princes” or leaders: “And my princes shall no more oppress my people, but they shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes “Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 45:8b-9). Like chapter 45, Ezekiel 46 also concerns the proper functioning of Israel’s leaders: “The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening” (Ezekiel 46:2). Israel’s leaders were to faithfully model the true worship of the LORD as a foundational part of their leadership.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the dual obligations required of Israel’s leaders. First, Israel’s leaders are to participate, along with the people, in the proper worship of the LORD: "When they enter, the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out” (Ezekiel 46:10). In fact, the “prince” is to be the chief representative for them by ensuring that the necessary sacrifices were secured and offered: “All the people of the land shall be obliged to give this offering to the prince in Israel. It shall be the prince’s duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 45:16-17). The second obligation required of Israel’s leaders was their assignment to seek justice in the land: “You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, the bath containing one tenth of a homer, and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina” (Ezekiel 45:10-12). Israel’s leaders would need to leverage their authority to oversee that the commercial dealings in the land were just. But Israel’s leaders were also to be committed in being just in their own personal dealings: “The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property” (Ezekiel 46:18). Israel’s leaders were not to leverage their authority for their own personal good.

The dual obligations required of Israel’s leaders are, in fact, two aspects of a requirement that is best left melded together. Israel’s “prince” or leader could only administer just oversight of the nation if he only worshipped the LORD properly. Without the proper worship of the LORD, Israel’s leaders would not be inclined to value the matter of justice, nor would he possess the wisdom to discern what justice consists of. This dual obligation of Israel’s leaders comprised their joint failure. As Ezekiel has previously pointed out, Israel’s leaders did not seek justice for the people, but enhancements for themselves: “Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them” (Ezekiel 34:2b-4). The severe idolatry on the part of Israel’s leaders would account for a total failure in administering justice and ruling justly: “Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols” (Ezekiel 14:1-4). The leaders of Israel were self-serving unjust men because they were false worshippers. They would never know what justice consists of, little lone desire to lead justly until they were truly devoted to the LORD. Thus, the bulk of Ezekiel 45-46 concerns the centrality of worship, for such worship would be formative in the kind of leaders they would become. Israel’s leaders were to first of all be leaders in worship: “The burnt offering that the prince offers to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. And the grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah, and the grain offering with the lambs shall be as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. As a grain offering he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. When the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way” (Ezekiel 46:4-8).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe