And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
God sets exact standards for weight, fixing the shekel at twenty gerahs and defining the maneh by twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, and fifteen shekels. It belongs to the closing vision from Ezekiel 40 to 48 giving the detailed pattern for a sanctuary with its ordinances and offerings, the city, the division of the land, and the promised glory for Israel. It was shown while Israel was captive in Babylon fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed, as God's offer to restore them with wonderful glory if they repented, put away evil, and returned to Him in full obedience. Because the people failed to meet that condition, the glory was never inherited and the sanctuary as described was never built, with only a lesser restoration erected by those who returned. Its provisions for sacrifices will never be restored literally, for they were fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross, yet wherein it failed for earthly Jerusalem it stands as faintly typical of the grander realization for the true Israel in the New City at the second coming and in the new heavens and new earth.
Temple Vision and History
Ezekiel 45:12 belongs to the closing vision in Ezekiel 40-48, also described as extending from Ezekiel 36 or 37 to the end of the book, giving the detailed pattern for a sanctuary or temple, its ordinances and offerings, with the city, the division of the land, and the promised glory and blessings for Israel in the salvation of his people. That sanctuary was offered for the people to build in the past, not in the present or immortal future, and it was never built because the people did not meet the conditions for receiving it. It is not a description of the immortal state or the gospel dispensation, nor a temple to be built after the Christian dispensation, since Christ's unchangeable priesthood replaced the Levitical priesthood and its Mosaic time of animal offerings when type met antitype. Its promise was conditional on Israel being ashamed of its iniquities and putting them away, and being forfeited it stands as a prophecy of a temple that was never built and will never be built, whose sanctuary and sacrificial system are not to be restored as a future Jewish order.
The vision was given to Ezekiel while Israel was in captivity in Babylon, fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed, as God's offer to restore them to their land with a city and temple of wonderful glory if they chose to return when the decree for restoration went forth. It was a conditional offer to Israel, with the pattern of another sanctuary with its holy places, the size of its most holy, and what God would do if they fulfilled the conditions, tested when all who chose could have gone up. That offer contained several allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals, and the city in that vision would have been built if Israel had responded to the calls to leave Babylon.
The offer was conditional and provisional, depending on the people becoming ashamed of their iniquities, putting away wickedness and evil, repenting and returning wholeheartedly to God in faith and obedience and coming up to the full measure of children of God. It describes a provisional sanctuary with its ceremonies, rites, and offerings promised to Israel if they returned wholeheartedly from captivity, concerning what God was prepared to do for Israel after the return from Babylon from Ezekiel 36-48 onward. Because Israel did not turn from its sins and was unwilling, the promised restoration was not fulfilled.
Because the people disregarded the condition and failed to repent and do their part, the promised glory was never inherited and the sanctuary as described was never built, not because God changed his purpose. Only about forty thousand returned from captivity, so the promises in their fullness were not realized and the prophecies were fulfilled only in small part or weakly realized. Only a lesser restoration and a shadow of its greatness was erected in the temple built by Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity.
The measuring of the temple and city by the man with the appearance of brass with a line of flax and a measuring reed covers the same period and represents the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem as the measuring of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2, one being the counterpart of the other to be studied together.
Future Fulfillment and Meaning
Ezekiel 45:12 belongs to the specifications for the sanctuary described in Ezekiel 40-48, and that sanctuary was offered for the people to build in the past, not in the present or in the immortal future, but it was never built because the people did not meet the conditions for receiving it. The vision was given fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed as a conditional offer to Israel, not as a description of the immortal state or the gospel dispensation, and Israel did not fulfill its conditions so the promised sanctuary was not realized under the first covenant. It is not a temple to be built after the Christian dispensation, for Christ's unchangeable priesthood replaced the Levitical priesthood. It concerned the Mosaic dispensation when animal offerings and the Levitical priesthood were in force, when type met antitype, and it does not describe the future age.
No such city or sanctuary stands today, so the vision has not been fulfilled, and it will not be fulfilled by literal renewal of the thousands of sheep and oxen sacrifices. Those provisions for sacrifices in chapters 45 and 46 were fulfilled when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, for the offerings of the past were for the time then present, shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. To offer them again would make the once-for-all offering of Christ of none effect, building again the things destroyed and returning from sunlight to shadow, denying the sufficiency of his offering. The sanctuary and its sacrificial system are therefore not to be restored as a future Jewish order, since the promise was conditional and forfeited, only weakly realized in the temple built by Zerubbabel, and the literal details of the prophecy concerning Israel after the flesh will never be fulfilled.
Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem, the temple vision stands as a prophecy of greater spiritual things God would do for his people through Christ. These prophecies of what God was prepared to do for Israel after the return from Babylon serve as a general, incomplete type of what God will do for his people at the second coming, not a detailed prediction of its fulfillment. Wherein it failed then it will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God, fulfilled to the true Israel not in those literal details but according to later revelation, in future glory and the fullest measure of the immortal inheritance to the faithful. All those promises are faintly typical of what God will restore by his mighty power in the new heavens and the new earth, and what was to be built on this present earth if the Jews had yielded to God as the gradual establishment of the peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom will be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new under the Spirit of absolute peace.
The central truth of the vision of a restored Jerusalem was that the Lord was present. The conditional prophecy running from Ezekiel 36 onward promised Israel raising of their righteous dead, subjection of enemies far and near, a new temple, a new division of the land, and unprecedented life and healing power upon Palestine and the earth. It envisioned a glorious temple with the water of life and God's glory, with healing of marshes and deserts and salt lands by the water of life and taming of wild beasts under righteousness. The offer contains several allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals of the Hebrews, and its last nineteen chapters are appealed to concerning the reign of Christ, the inheritance of the saints, and the return of the Jews in the Christian dispensation.
The verse fixes exact standards for weights, showing God is a God of order, with the shekel at twenty gerahs and the maneh defined by twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, and fifteen shekels. Beyond that ordering of weights, the statement about weights and measures is left without further explanation.
God sets exact standards for weight, fixing the shekel at twenty gerahs and defining the maneh by twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, and fifteen shekels. It belongs to the closing vision from Ezekiel 40 to 48 giving the detailed pattern for a sanctuary with its ordinances and offerings, the city, the division of the land, and the promised glory for Israel. It was shown while Israel was captive in Babylon fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed, as God's offer to restore them with wonderful glory if they repented, put away evil, and returned to Him in full obedience. Because the people failed to meet that condition, the glory was never inherited and the sanctuary as described was never built, with only a lesser restoration erected by those who returned. Its provisions for sacrifices will never be restored literally, for they were fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross, yet wherein it failed for earthly Jerusalem it stands as faintly typical of the grander realization for the true Israel in the New City at the second coming and in the new heavens and new earth.
Temple Vision and History
Ezekiel 45:12 belongs to the closing vision in Ezekiel 40-48, also described as extending from Ezekiel 36 or 37 to the end of the book, giving the detailed pattern for a sanctuary or temple, its ordinances and offerings, with the city, the division of the land, and the promised glory and blessings for Israel in the salvation of his people. That sanctuary was offered for the people to build in the past, not in the present or immortal future, and it was never built because the people did not meet the conditions for receiving it. It is not a description of the immortal state or the gospel dispensation, nor a temple to be built after the Christian dispensation, since Christ's unchangeable priesthood replaced the Levitical priesthood and its Mosaic time of animal offerings when type met antitype. Its promise was conditional on Israel being ashamed of its iniquities and putting them away, and being forfeited it stands as a prophecy of a temple that was never built and will never be built, whose sanctuary and sacrificial system are not to be restored as a future Jewish order.
The vision was given to Ezekiel while Israel was in captivity in Babylon, fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed, as God's offer to restore them to their land with a city and temple of wonderful glory if they chose to return when the decree for restoration went forth. It was a conditional offer to Israel, with the pattern of another sanctuary with its holy places, the size of its most holy, and what God would do if they fulfilled the conditions, tested when all who chose could have gone up. That offer contained several allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals, and the city in that vision would have been built if Israel had responded to the calls to leave Babylon.
The offer was conditional and provisional, depending on the people becoming ashamed of their iniquities, putting away wickedness and evil, repenting and returning wholeheartedly to God in faith and obedience and coming up to the full measure of children of God. It describes a provisional sanctuary with its ceremonies, rites, and offerings promised to Israel if they returned wholeheartedly from captivity, concerning what God was prepared to do for Israel after the return from Babylon from Ezekiel 36-48 onward. Because Israel did not turn from its sins and was unwilling, the promised restoration was not fulfilled.
Because the people disregarded the condition and failed to repent and do their part, the promised glory was never inherited and the sanctuary as described was never built, not because God changed his purpose. Only about forty thousand returned from captivity, so the promises in their fullness were not realized and the prophecies were fulfilled only in small part or weakly realized. Only a lesser restoration and a shadow of its greatness was erected in the temple built by Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity.
The measuring of the temple and city by the man with the appearance of brass with a line of flax and a measuring reed covers the same period and represents the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem as the measuring of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2, one being the counterpart of the other to be studied together.
Future Fulfillment and Meaning
Ezekiel 45:12 belongs to the specifications for the sanctuary described in Ezekiel 40-48, and that sanctuary was offered for the people to build in the past, not in the present or in the immortal future, but it was never built because the people did not meet the conditions for receiving it. The vision was given fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed as a conditional offer to Israel, not as a description of the immortal state or the gospel dispensation, and Israel did not fulfill its conditions so the promised sanctuary was not realized under the first covenant. It is not a temple to be built after the Christian dispensation, for Christ's unchangeable priesthood replaced the Levitical priesthood. It concerned the Mosaic dispensation when animal offerings and the Levitical priesthood were in force, when type met antitype, and it does not describe the future age.
No such city or sanctuary stands today, so the vision has not been fulfilled, and it will not be fulfilled by literal renewal of the thousands of sheep and oxen sacrifices. Those provisions for sacrifices in chapters 45 and 46 were fulfilled when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, for the offerings of the past were for the time then present, shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. To offer them again would make the once-for-all offering of Christ of none effect, building again the things destroyed and returning from sunlight to shadow, denying the sufficiency of his offering. The sanctuary and its sacrificial system are therefore not to be restored as a future Jewish order, since the promise was conditional and forfeited, only weakly realized in the temple built by Zerubbabel, and the literal details of the prophecy concerning Israel after the flesh will never be fulfilled.
Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem, the temple vision stands as a prophecy of greater spiritual things God would do for his people through Christ. These prophecies of what God was prepared to do for Israel after the return from Babylon serve as a general, incomplete type of what God will do for his people at the second coming, not a detailed prediction of its fulfillment. Wherein it failed then it will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God, fulfilled to the true Israel not in those literal details but according to later revelation, in future glory and the fullest measure of the immortal inheritance to the faithful. All those promises are faintly typical of what God will restore by his mighty power in the new heavens and the new earth, and what was to be built on this present earth if the Jews had yielded to God as the gradual establishment of the peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom will be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new under the Spirit of absolute peace.
The central truth of the vision of a restored Jerusalem was that the Lord was present. The conditional prophecy running from Ezekiel 36 onward promised Israel raising of their righteous dead, subjection of enemies far and near, a new temple, a new division of the land, and unprecedented life and healing power upon Palestine and the earth. It envisioned a glorious temple with the water of life and God's glory, with healing of marshes and deserts and salt lands by the water of life and taming of wild beasts under righteousness. The offer contains several allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals of the Hebrews, and its last nineteen chapters are appealed to concerning the reign of Christ, the inheritance of the saints, and the return of the Jews in the Christian dispensation.
The verse fixes exact standards for weights, showing God is a God of order, with the shekel at twenty gerahs and the maneh defined by twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, and fifteen shekels. Beyond that ordering of weights, the statement about weights and measures is left without further explanation.