Ezekiel 48:16, commentary and pictures

The verse sets the size of the city area at four thousand and five hundred on the north, south, east and west, equal on every side and four-square. It belongs to the sanctuary, city and land shown to captive Israel fourteen years after Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, describing what God would have given restored Israel after the seventy years in Babylon in a new division of the land, a glorious temple and city with its worship, and His presence dwelling among them. The whole prophecy was conditional on Israel being ashamed of iniquities and returning wholeheartedly to God, and because Israel continued in apostasy and refused the offer it was never built as described and never will be. Its Levitical priesthood and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats ceased at the cross when Christ the great Sacrifice superseded them, and its mortal prince with sons and heirs, marriage, disease and death has no place where Jesus alone is King. Though its literal details will never be fulfilled, in substance it points faintly to greater things God will do through Christ at the second coming and afterward in the new heavens and new earth and the fullness of the immortal inheritance. The city here is not identical with the New Jerusalem which God prepares in heaven to descend to earth, while its division of the land points to individual, permanent inheritances for the redeemed where God dwells fully with those who yield themselves as His temple.

Vision Setting and Measurements

The measures given are those of the city area, 4,500 on the north side and 4,500 on the south side and 4,500 on the east side and 4,500 on the west side, equal on all four sides and four-square. They are the dimensions of the city portion in the sanctuary plan and pattern shown to the house of Israel, part of the description in Ezekiel 40 to 48 of a very remarkable sanctuary, city, and land.

That description was shown to captive Israel 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 belongs to the vision of Jerusalem shown during the Babylonian captivity, depicting the city as it could have been built.

It sets forth in detail what God would have given restored Israel after the seventy years in Babylon if the people had met His conditions, with promises and figures that would then have been fulfilled literally and in fullest literal detail. That gift was restoration to their land, a new and different division of the land among the twelve tribes, a glorious temple and city with its worship and sacrifices, and His presence and glory dwelling and resting among them.

Conditional Promise Never Fulfilled

The whole vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48 was offered to the house of Israel on condition that they be ashamed of their iniquities, put them away, turn from wickedness, and return to God wholeheartedly. Because Israel did not meet those conditions but continued in apostasy and refused the gracious offer, the sanctuary and the measured four-square city as described were never erected under the first covenant and never will be built. When the decree of Cyrus went forth, all Israel might have gone up to the land of promised blessing with its division of the land and measured city, but the ten tribes slighted the offer. Only Judah and Benjamin with a portion of Levi and a few others went up, only about forty thousand returning, so the promised blessings were forfeited and only partly realized in their fullness.

What was built at the restoration was only a lesser shadow in the inferior temple of Zerubbabel and Ezra, far short of Ezekiel's pattern. That restoration temple never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ. The glorious temple shown to Ezekiel was not built because the people were unwilling to return wholeheartedly, and its broad promises therefore stand only as pointing faintly to greater things God will do through Christ.

That temple cannot belong to the gospel dispensation nor be built after the Christian dispensation. Its specifications require the Levitical priesthood, literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction of clean and unclean meats, and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats. All these ceased at the cross and were superseded by Christ the great Sacrifice and the everlasting priesthood of Melchisedec after His death and ascension. To resume sacrifices now would annul Christ's offering, by which He perfected forever them that are sanctified and fulfilled the types, making void His sacrifice.

Neither can it be built in a future immortal state or thousand-year reign of Christ and His saints. Its own specifications show it was designed for the past dispensation, for they require a mortal prince offering sin-offerings and other offerings for himself, taking exactions, having sons and servants and heirs, and oppressing the people, with marriage, divorce, disease and death, which have no place where Jesus alone shall be King over Israel. Had Israel met the conditions the verse would have been fulfilled in fullest literal detail with the offered temple and its attendant sacrifices, but because they did not its literal fulfillment will never take place. To build that earthly Jerusalem literally in the future with its first-covenant offerings would put an earthly Jerusalem in place of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, the Jerusalem above which is free and the mother of all, and the city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God, making that reign less glorious than the present dispensation and requiring another Messiah at the end of the thousand years to expiate sin.

Future Hope and Application

Though never to be fulfilled in every literal detail, the prophecy points faintly in substance to greater things God will do for His people through Christ, both at the second coming and afterward. What was offered as a new division of the land, a restored temple, and a rebuilt Jerusalem after Babylon will be realized in the new heavens and the new earth, in the New City prepared for God's true Israel, and in the fullness of the immortal inheritance received in fullest measure. Its broad promises are not carried out by those measurements in detail but according to later revelation, with some former details omitted, when the faithful receive the future glory. God's purpose remains the same toward the true Israel, to redeem them with a more glorious inheritance, even the earth made new, while Gog and Magog representing the northern nations are punished in part in this world and ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years.

The city measured four-square at 4,500 on each side is not identical with the New Jerusalem. That earthly fulfillment was forfeited when the people failed to answer the call to leave Babylon and do their part, so the city was never built. God's purpose did not change, and He will instead prepare the holy city in heaven to descend to earth, in which the vision's purposes will be realized for God's true Israel.

The chapter's division of the promised land among the tribes and families was temporary in its historical setting, but its allotment pointed to God's purpose for the future world. The redeemed will have individual inheritances in the land that endure forever, permanent and unfailing. The restored Jerusalem at the center of which stands the glorious temple, measured equally on its four sides, means that Jehovah is there, and that the only holy and worthy thing is that in which God dwells. The presence of God in that city would heal all barren land, all salt marshes and all impure waters and would give life to all, ultimately to become a house of prayer for all nations, to lead each person to yield himself as God's dwelling-place and temple, His sanctuary.