Ezekiel 46:18, commentary and pictures

The prince must not seize the people's inherited land by oppression nor drive them from their possession, but must provide for his sons only from his own holding, so that no one is scattered from his own inheritance. He is a mortal ruler with sons, servants and land of his own, whose gifts revert in the year of Jubilee and who must offer a sin offering for himself, and he is not Jesus reigning in the immortal state when marriage and death are unknown. The rule belongs to the sanctuary vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48, God's conditional offer in the captivity to restore Israel to their land with a glorious temple, city and divine presence if they were ashamed of their iniquities and returned wholeheartedly, which would then have been literally fulfilled. Because Israel did not repent, with only about forty thousand returning, the sanctuary was never built to Ezekiel's pattern and the offered glory was never inherited. It will never be built literally in the future, for to renew thousands of animal sacrifices would make Christ's once-for-all offering of none effect and return from sunlight to shadow, while in its spiritual aspect it points to greater things through Christ's second coming, the immortal inheritance and the New City descending to earth in still greater glory without the former local conditions.

Prince and Inheritance Rule

The rule lays down that the ruler must not seize inherited land by oppressive power nor drive holders off what belongs to them. When he provides for his own sons he is to endow them solely from his own estate, not from what belongs to others. The stated purpose is that no one among the people be uprooted and dispersed from his own holding.

He is a frail mortal man with a household, having sons to inherit after him and servants to receive gifts, together with a personal landholding of his own. Grants he makes from that holding do not pass permanently away from the family order but come back in the year of Jubilee.

The whole arrangement belongs to the Mosaic economy still standing, with its circumcision and its laws of divorce, its widows and marriages and deaths, its distinctions in foods, its slaughtered beasts offered by the sons of Levi, its Jubilee, its Levitical priesthood, and its references to Sabbath and appointed feasts. It is an order in which the ruler himself must present a sin offering on his own behalf.

That mortal, sin-offering prince cannot be Jesus in the immortal kingdom. In the glorified age Christ Himself is Prince and Shepherd over Israel, where marriage and death are no more. Nor could such a curb on taking land to enrich sons apply to Him to whom the uttermost parts of the earth shall belong.

Conditional Sanctuary Vision

Ezekiel 46:18 belongs to the sanctuary vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48, also described as chapters 36 to 48 or 37 to 48, concerning the new sanctuary and its offerings and services, its glory, the city, the division of the land among the twelve tribes, and the restoration of Israel from Babylonian captivity. It has not been fulfilled, for no such city or sanctuary stands today. The vision pictures the same period and purpose for Jerusalem as the measuring of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2, and the two prophecies are to be studied together as counterparts covering the same period.

The vision was God's conditional offer while Israel was in captivity, to restore them to their land with a city and temple of wonderful glory, healing and life with the divine presence, victory over enemies, and lengthened life. The condition was that they be ashamed of their iniquities, put them away, forsake sins and return wholeheartedly and yield fully to God, coming up to the full measure of children of God. If they had complied it would have been literally fulfilled, including bringing back all scattered people from the nations to the mountains of Israel, dwelling among them with glory never seen before, building a new and far greater sanctuary, and manifesting glory among the people in sight of the nations. In its spiritual aspect the unfulfilled prophecy points to greater things God will do for His people through Christ.

Because Israel did not repent and yield fully to God, with only about forty thousand returning, the sanctuary was never built to Ezekiel's pattern and the offered glory was never inherited. The people were unwilling to return wholeheartedly and failed to do their part, so they forfeited its privileges for earthly Jerusalem then and the promises in their fullness were not realized but were fulfilled only in small part or in shadow. The post-exilic temple built by Zerubbabel was only a shadow, lesser fulfillment, falling far short of the pattern, and Jerusalem was never restored according to the vision.

The temple vision will never be built or fulfilled literally in the future. Renewing the thousands of sheep and oxen sacrifices and the attendant temple service would make Christ's once-for-all offering of none effect, building again what was destroyed and returning from sunlight to shadow. Those offerings were for the time then present shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ, and the blood of bulls and goats is no longer acceptable even as a type, so offering sacrifices now would deny the sufficiency of Christ's offering and make void His sacrifice. Had Israel met the conditions of faith and obedience the described temple with its attendant sacrifices would have been built then, but that temple prophecy will not now be fulfilled.

Its general promises faintly point to what God will do for His people at Christ's second coming. The future glory and immortal inheritance will come to the faithful in the form revealed later, even more gloriously in Christ's kingdom but without the local conditions and with much of the former detail eliminated. What failed for old Jerusalem will be grandly realized in the New City prepared in heaven descending to earth that awaits the true Israel of God, and in the new-earth state of absolute joy, peace and harmony with no injury or destroying.