Ezekiel 48:13, commentary and pictures

The verse assigns the Levites a tract of land lying beside the border of the priests, twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth. It belongs to the sanctuary, city, and division of the land shown to Ezekiel among the captives, offered to Israel on condition that they turn from iniquity and return to God wholeheartedly. If they had complied God would have established the arrangement literally in the past dispensation and dwelt among them in glory. Israel did not meet the conditions and only about forty thousand returned, so the glorious temple, city, and land arrangement were never built as described and will never be built as described. Its system of Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices cannot now be set up literally, for that would deny Christ's once-for-all offering and His eternal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. The unfulfilled purpose remains as a prophecy of greater spiritual things through Christ, to be realized more gloriously at the Second Coming in the redemption of the true Israel and the new heaven and new earth whose capital is the New Jerusalem.

Setting and Land Allotment

Ezekiel 48:13 assigns the Levites a tract of land lying over against and beside the border of the priests, measuring twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth, all the length being twenty-five thousand and the breadth ten thousand. This allotment borders the portion set apart for the priests and belongs to the promised division of the land among the tribes with its sanctuary, city and temple. It is part of the sanctuary plan and tribal arrangement described in Ezekiel 40 to 48, a vision of a new sanctuary and division of the land.

The vision was shown to Ezekiel among the captives of Israel fourteen years after Jerusalem, the temple and the sanctuary were destroyed. That destruction was in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in B.C. 588, and the vision was given in B.C. 574. It set forth a very remarkable sanctuary with its temple arrangements and a system of Levitical priesthood which Israel was to possess.

The sanctuary, city, tribal arrangement and land division, including the Levites' portion, were offered to captive Israel on condition that they turn from their iniquities, be ashamed of their sins, put away their sins, forsake their sins and return to God wholeheartedly and live up to their calling. If they had complied God would have established the arrangement, gathered the scattered tribes, brought back the twelve tribes, restored them to their land and dwelt among them in glory in a city and temple under great glory. The measured vision of Jerusalem and its divisions concerned a future city and greater temple with that restoration following Israel's return from Babylon.

Had Israel met the conditions, the promised arrangements would have been fulfilled literally in the past dispensation, not in the present dispensation and not in the future immortal state. The land division to priests and Levites in fullest detail, with its length of five and twenty thousand and breadth of ten thousand, together with Ezekiel 39:9-15 and the building of the temple with its attendant sacrifices, would have been fulfilled literally together with the detailed description of sanctuary, city and land.

Conditional Failure and Future Hope

Israel did not meet the conditions on which the temple, city, and division of the land were offered, most of the tribes did not return, and only about forty thousand came back from Babylon, so the glorious arrangement including the Levites' tract beside the priests was never built or fulfilled as described and never will be built as described. The vision was a conditional prophecy whose promises were forfeited through unfaithfulness, and it is not identical with the New Jerusalem nor does it establish a future restoration of the Jewish people or of the Levitical sacrificial system. What was offered would have gathered the scattered tribes, restored them, and set God's presence in overpowering glory among them with sacrifices offered, but because Israel never complied with the call to leave Babylon, to be ashamed of their ways, and to return wholeheartedly, that sanctuary in all its blessed fullness was never built.

What was built at the restoration fell far short of the pattern and was only a partial realization or mere shadow of it in the temple built by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and others. That house never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, because the people would not yield all to God and He could not come in and dwell among a half-hearted people to be dishonored, so Jerusalem was never thus restored. The sanctuary built under Ezra and Zerubbabel was inferior to the one described, and the glorious temple presented through Ezekiel was not built. In that promised temple God's presence, signified by Jehovah being there, would have healed all barren land, salt marshes, and impure waters and would have given life to all.

The vision cannot now be set up literally and its sacrifices cannot be resumed, for to offer its animal sacrifices would make of none effect the offering made once for all by Jesus Christ and would make void the sacrifice Christ offered. Its system of Levitical priesthood was not to be restored after the Christian dispensation began, because Christ became the eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. That application is rejected which makes these chapters describe a literal city to be built on this sin-cursed earth during Christ's thousand-year reign, with the old sacrifices restored for an undeveloped class and taking the place of the heavenly Jerusalem. Such a rebuilding would make the millennial reign less glorious than the present dispensation and would return to the ordinances of the first covenant that pointed to Christ as the great sin-offering, whereas Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant, offered one sacrifice for sins forever, and perfected forever them that are sanctified, so no renewed sacrifices and no second Messiah to expiate transgression at the end of the thousand years are needed or possible.

The closing chapters predict a greater temple without explaining how its construction would take place, a grand and magnificent temple that Israel might have built at Jerusalem after return from captivity and that would ultimately become a house of prayer for all nations. The unfulfilled details, including the fullest detail of the land division to priests and Levites with its length of five and twenty thousand and breadth of ten thousand, will never be fulfilled literally together with the building of the temple with its attendant sacrifices and with Ezekiel 39:9-15, though God's purpose remains the same. The temple vision stands as a prophecy of greater spiritual things God would do for His people through Christ, to be realized more gloriously at the Second Coming in the redemption of the true Israel. He will fulfill His promises to His people in Christ in the new heaven and new earth whose capital is the New Jerusalem, in the New City prepared for the true Israel of God, with an enduring, permanent individual inheritance in which the redeemed enjoy the land and the work of their hands forever according to later revelations and the future glory and fullness of the immortal inheritance.