Ezekiel 44:28, commentary and pictures

God himself was to be the inheritance and possession of the priests, so they were to receive no separate allotment of land in Israel. The promise belonged to a conditional offer of glorious restoration to land, city and temple with God's presence dwelling among them, which fleshly Israel forfeited by refusing to repent and obey. That literal temple with its mortal Levite priests, marriages, deaths, and animal sin-offerings was never built and will never be built, since those first-covenant services were ended forever by Christ's once-for-all offering and eternal Melchizedek priesthood. What was forfeited in old Jerusalem will be more gloriously realized to the true Israel in the New City and earth made new, with the fulness of the immortal inheritance to the faithful.

Vision's Setting and Condition

Ezekiel 44:28 belongs to the sanctuary, city and land vision of Ezekiel 40-48, shown to Ezekiel among the captives in B.C. 574, fourteen years after Jerusalem, the temple and the sanctuary were destroyed in B.C. 588 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. It is the pattern of another sanctuary and city shown to the house of Israel, describing in great detail a new and larger city and temple than Israel had yet known, with the sanctuary to be built, the division of the land, and the wonderful glory of God to be manifest in connection with it. It was offered as a sanctuary into possession of which Israel was to come, promised to Israel if they would return to God.

The whole vision was a conditional offer to Israel in captivity and at the return from Babylon: if they were ashamed of their iniquities and sins, put them away, repented, returned wholeheartedly and obeyed, and attended to the pattern, God would establish the sanctuary, bring back the twelve tribes, restore them to their land and rebuild the sanctuary. Because fleshly Israel was unwilling, refused to be ashamed, and did not comply or do its part, its literal details were never fulfilled as described and will never be literally fulfilled. What was built instead under Ezra and Zerubbabel at the partial return was only an inferior, shadow sanctuary that fell far short of the pattern.

The verse means God Himself would be the priests' inheritance and possession, with no separate landholding or possession allotted to them in Israel. In that restoration God would be Israel's inheritance and possession rather than the people receiving a separate possession in the land. The priests are mortal Levites under the Levitical system, with Levites serving as priests, whose priesthood does not continue after Christ became the eternal priest. Unlike those made immortal at the second advent who neither marry nor die anymore, these priests marry wives including widows of priests and remain subject to death.

What was offered was a glorious restoration to land, city and temple in Palestine, with God's presence continually dwelling among the people in glory. The glorious temple at the center taught that the only holy, worthy thing is that in which God dwells, named Jehovah is there. Its healing water of life would heal barren land, salt marshes, deserts, marshes and salt lands, and all impure waters, and give life to all, with the Spirit of absolute peace presiding, by which Israel would have become a light to the world with enemies cut off and those gone down in death resurrected. If Israel had met the conditions of obedience and yielding all to God and letting the peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom be established, God would have restored the people and dwelt among them in glory; because they did not, the city was never built and the temple of the pattern was never built.

No Literal Future Temple

The sanctuary of Ezekiel 40-48 was designed to be fulfilled in the past Mosaic dispensation, not in the present dispensation and not in the future dispensation which is the immortal state. It was offered as a sanctuary into whose possession Israel was to come if they complied with its conditions of repentance and turning from wickedness, and because they did not meet those conditions that sanctuary was never built. It is not a sanctuary yet to be built and it is not a sanctuary that ever was built, and it will never be built literally in the present age or in the future immortal state. The city belonging to the vision was never built because Israel failed to do its part in answering the calls to leave Babylon and return wholeheartedly, not because the divine purpose changed, and therefore the holy city was prepared in heaven to descend to earth. The promise that God himself would be the priests' inheritance and possession with no separate possession in Israel therefore belongs to that conditional prophecy, not to a sanctuary that will later be built.

What Israel actually obtained was only a shadow and partial realization in the inferior temple built under Zerubbabel, Ezra and others, because the people continued in apostasy and refused to be ashamed of their iniquities. That restoration temple fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, and only a mere shadow was built instead of the wonderful structure shown to Ezekiel with its water of life and glory by which Israel would have become a light to the world. The promises connected with the sanctuary received therefore only a very limited fulfillment, conditional as they were on shame for iniquity and obedience under the old covenant with literal fleshly Israel.

The vision cannot belong to the gospel dispensation or to a literal earthly city and temple to be built on this sin-cursed earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ with the offerings and sacrifices of the first covenant carried on there. It belongs to a time when literal circumcision was in force, divorce was permitted, clean and unclean meats were distinguished, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats were in force, and Levites served as priests under the Levitical priesthood, all of which were abolished or superseded at the first advent and the cross by Christ's more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant and by his eternal priesthood after the order of Melchizedek which does not pass to another. To renew its system of thousands of sheep and oxen and to offer animal sacrifices again would make Christ's once-for-all offering of no effect, build again what was destroyed, return from sunlight to shadow, and annul His offering, since those past offerings belonged to the time then present to foreshadow the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. Such a restored earthly sacrificial system in the reign of Christ would be less glorious than the present dispensation and would put an earthly city in place of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven to the new earth, requiring another sin-offering after Christ by one offering perfected forever them that are sanctified and sat down at the right hand of God.

Nor can the pattern describe the future immortal and glorified state. There is to be but one Prince and King over Israel in the glorified state, Jesus, while the prince in this vision is a poor frail mortal who must offer sin-offerings and all kinds of offerings for himself, take away exactions, have sons and servants to receive inheritance, and be forbidden to oppress the people. Its priests are mortal Levites under the Levitical system who have God for inheritance and no possession in Israel, who marry wives including widows of priests and remain subject to death, unlike those made immortal at the second advent who neither marry nor die anymore. A literal restoration of that sacrificial priesthood after the heavenly ministration closes is impossible, because a type cannot follow its antitype and remission cannot be figured after it has been granted in fact.

Typical Hope for True Israel

Ezekiel 44:28 belongs to the temple and its worship promised to Israel if they returned wholeheartedly from captivity and to what God was prepared to do for them after the return from Babylon in restoring them to their land and rebuilding the sanctuary. Because Israel was unwilling and did not yield, be ashamed of iniquities, and truly and fully repent, the restoration as described was not fulfilled. The chapters therefore stand as a spiritual prophecy of greater things God will do for his people through Christ, typical in broad outline of what he will do for his people at the second coming. Such prophecy being conditional, its old literal details will never be fulfilled to Israel according to the flesh, but the promise will be fulfilled to the true Israel not according to those details but according to later revelation.

Wherein the prophecy failed for old earthly Jerusalem it will be grandly and more gloriously realized in the New City awaiting the true Israel of God. Since the city and temple shown to Ezekiel would have been built if Israel had answered the calls to leave Babylon and had met the conditions of faith and obedience, and since the earthly city was never built because Israel failed to do its part and not because God changed his purpose, God prepared the holy city in heaven to descend to earth. God's people will instead receive a more glorious inheritance in the earth made new, with the future glory and the fulness of the immortal inheritance coming to the faithful in the fullest measure. There the peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom will be established with the water of life healing marshes and deserts and salt lands, and the Spirit of absolute peace presiding over all nature.

The vision from Ezekiel 40 onward showing God's purpose for Jerusalem with its temple and city covers the same period and represents the same purposes toward Jerusalem as the vision of the man with the measuring line in Zechariah 2. It is its counterpart and should be studied together with it.