Ezekiel 47:13, commentary and pictures

This shall be the border for inheriting and dividing the land among the twelve tribes of Israel, with Joseph receiving two portions in Ephraim and Manasseh by the birthright transferred from Reuben. It belongs to the closing vision of another sanctuary with its city, land and offerings in Ezekiel 40-48, given as part of the restoration promise from Ezekiel 36 onward. That division was a conditional promise that would have been fulfilled literally if Israel had been ashamed of its ways, put away sin and returned to God with the whole heart, as required in Ezekiel 43:10-11 and Jeremiah 18:8-10. Israel did not meet the conditions and returned only in small part, so the sanctuary and city were never built as described and never will be built literally in the Christian dispensation or the immortal state, since its animal sacrifices could not follow Christ's offering and priesthood. In its spiritual aspect it is a faint type to be more than made good in Christ in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem, where Gentiles by faith as fellow heirs with the true Israel of God receive the inheritance in fullest immortal measure. Those who held the differing position teach that the closing chapters predict the greater temple fulfilled in Herod's rebuilding.

Vision's Setting and Terms

Ezekiel 47:13 belongs to the closing vision of another sanctuary with its city, land, ceremonies, rites and offerings in Ezekiel 40-48. That vision is part of the restoration promise running from Ezekiel 36 onward and including chapters 37-48. It describes the sanctuary, the city, and the land God would have given to Israel in Ezekiel's day, with direction about the border for inheriting the land according to the twelve tribes to be fulfilled literally. It was offered to Israel conditionally, calling Israel to return wholly to God, and its border for inheriting the land is part of the promised restoration of the land with the city and sanctuary described from Ezekiel 40 onward.

The vision was shown to Ezekiel among the Israelite captives in Babylon by the river Chebar, carried away with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C.. It was given in B.C. 574, fourteen years after Jerusalem, the temple and sanctuary were destroyed in B.C. 588 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. It came in the twenty-fifth year of captivity when Ezekiel was taken to the land of Israel, set on a very high mountain, and shown the frame of a city to the south, a description beginning in Ezekiel 40 and continuing to the end of the book.

The verse sets the border by which the land was to be inherited and apportioned among the twelve tribes of Israel, with Joseph receiving two portions. This division was part of God's offer to the captive Israelites through Ezekiel for possession after return from Babylon. It belongs to God's promise to restore Palestine to Israel, including the division of the land among the tribes, with the land assigned as an inheritance to the twelve tribes. Its promise of an inheritance concerned blessings offered to captive Israel after the exile for them to come into upon compliance with conditions.

Joseph's two portions are Ephraim and Manasseh, counted from the first as tribes of Israel as Joseph's sons. The double portion belongs to Joseph by the birthright of the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as eldest son of Jacob's beloved wife Rachel. The birthright was first counted as Reuben's as Jacob's actual firstborn, but Reuben's sinful course deprived him of it and it was transferred to the sons of Joseph.

Conditional Promise Unfulfilled

The apportionment of the land by tribal border in Ezekiel 47:13 belonged to a conditional prophecy that would have been fulfilled literally upon Israel's return from Babylon. The condition, stated in Ezekiel 43:10-11 and governed by the universal principle in Jeremiah 18:8-10, was that Israel be ashamed and confounded for its ways, put away wickedness and sin, yield wholly to God, return with all the heart, obey and be cleansed. If Israel had been faithful and willing, God would have established the sanctuary, city and land described in Ezekiel 40-48, done better to them than at their beginnings, made them great and fruitful, and dwelt among them in overpowering glory. As He would have made their days like the days of heaven upon the earth when they came out of Egypt into the promised land, so He would have wrought for them when they came up from Babylon.

Israel did not meet those conditions, was not ashamed, was not willing, and continued in apostasy. The ten tribes did not return when the restoration decree was issued, only about forty thousand went up, and the response was only partial. The promised glory, restoration and fullness for that dispensation were therefore forfeited and never inherited.

Because of that failure the sanctuary, city and restoration described were never built and never fulfilled as described. The best Israel had was only a very small part, a shadow in the smaller temple built by Zerubbabel with Ezra and others and faint prosperity after Babylon. That provisional sanctuary and its arrangements were only partly realized, since the people would not yield themselves wholly to God.

That sanctuary never will and never can be built literally, not in any period after the opening of the Christian dispensation, not in a future age-to-come, and not in the future immortal state. Its city is not identical with the New Jerusalem. Its prescribed animal sacrifices and sin-offerings show God would not ordain such a temple again, since they would conflict with Christ's offering and His work as high priest pleading His own precious blood in the glory that excels. The ideas of a future probation or the river of life come only from hurried reading without studying all nine chapters together. By the teaching of those who held a differing position, the closing chapters predict the building of a greater temple fulfilled in Herod's rebuilding of the temple as a monument of his repentance, giving the fact of that building without revealing the process and circumstances by which the work was to be done.

Typology and Future Inheritance

In its spiritual aspect the apportionment of the land among the tribes stands as a great prophecy of greater things the Lord will do for His people through Christ. It is a faint type of God's restoration of the new heavens and the new earth, a general and imperfect type of what He will do for His people at the second coming and not a prediction to be fulfilled in every detail. All those promises to His Israel will be more than made good in Christ Jesus in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as its capital city as shown in Revelation 22.

That fulfillment will come in the greater glory of the second coming of Jesus Christ and events connected therewith, under greater conditions though much of the former detail will not remain. It will be without the local conditions of the prophet's day, with no literal burning of weapons and no cleansing of the land by human hands, since the fires of the last day will consume sin from the world and melt the earth with fervent heat. What would have been established gradually on this present earth if Israel had yielded to God, with the sanctuary built and peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom, will instead be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new where the Spirit of absolute peace presides over all nature. There God's life-giving power will heal barren land, marshes, deserts, salt lands and impure waters by the water of life.

God's people are Israel by faith, and the gospel makes Gentiles fellow heirs with them, so the vision's purposes will instead be realized in the New City for the true Israel of God. Because ancient Israel did not meet the conditions of faith and obedience, this land inheritance and the related temple arrangements will not be fulfilled as described, and God's purpose for true Israel is instead a more glorious inheritance in the earth made new. The future inheritance will instead be given to the faithful in its fullest, immortal measure.