And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.
Those who labor for the city are drawn from every tribe of Israel as part of the worship, service and city order set forth in Ezekiel 40-48. It belongs to the pattern of city, sanctuary and land shown to Ezekiel in captivity to show to the house of Israel, given 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. That city, sanctuary, land division and restoration were a conditional offer to be fulfilled literally in fullest detail with temple and sacrifices if Israel repented and yielded to God, but Israel remained unwilling and apostate and the promised glory was never built or realized in fullness. In its spiritual aspect the prophecy will instead be fulfilled in broad outline at the second coming, when its privileges are realized for true Israel in the New City and the earth made new, with each receiving a lasting inheritance that will not be lost.
Vision Context and Meaning
The pattern of city and sanctuary was shown to Ezekiel in captivity to be shown to the house of Israel. It was given 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. The description occupies Ezekiel 40 to 48.
The verse means that people drawn from all the tribes of Israel would serve the city. This service belonged to the city, worship, and service envisioned in Ezekiel 40-48. In that envisioned restoration the land is apportioned among the families of Israel and the city is served by people drawn from all the tribes.
The vision as a whole includes mortal life under the first covenant. It includes a mortal prince who offers sin offerings and other offerings for himself, takes away exactions, has sons and servants to whom he gives inheritance, and is forbidden to oppress the people. It is accompanied by marriages, divorces, disease and death, literal circumcision, distinction between clean and unclean meats, burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats, and the Levitical priesthood. Its prescribed services and arrangements belong to a system that did not continue after the Christian dispensation began. The specifications show it was designed for the past dispensation, not for the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, or the future reign of Christ.
Beyond its place in that larger sanctuary, city, and land prophecy, the verse itself receives no separate explanation of its detail. It belongs to the prophetic section of Ezekiel 48 describing what God would do for His people. It does not reveal the process by which the work would be done.
Conditional Offer Never Built
The city, sanctuary, land division, and restoration of Ezekiel 36-48 were a conditional offer under Jeremiah 18:7-10, to be fulfilled literally in fullest detail with temple, ceremonies, rites, offerings, and arrangements if Israel was ashamed of iniquities, put them away, repented wholeheartedly, and yielded to God. The provision that those serving the city would serve it out of all the tribes was part of that offer made in captivity for fulfillment in the restoration after the seventy years, with God prepared to establish the sanctuary and bring back the twelve tribes and to fulfill the promises as He had intended to bless Israel after the exodus. In its spiritual aspect the chapters stand as prophecy of greater things God will do for His people through Christ, to be fulfilled to true Israel not according to those literal details but according to later revelation.
Israel did not meet the conditions but remained unwilling and apostate, disregarding the condition and refusing to heed the call to put away sins and live up to its calling. The ten tribes did not return when the opportunity was offered, and only some of Judah, Benjamin, Levi and others went up, about forty thousand returning, loving Babylon more than Jerusalem and failing the three calls to come out. The promised glory, city, sanctuary, and restoration were therefore never built or realized in fullness, and because fleshly Israel did not yield, the literal details of Ezekiel 37 to 48 will never be fulfilled in a built sanctuary. God did not change His mind, but Israel failed to do its part, and Jerusalem was destroyed; in order to have a holy city God had to prepare it in heaven to descend upon the earth, and its promised privileges will instead be realized in the New City for God's true Israel.
Had Israel yielded and been faithful, God would have gathered the scattered people, brought them back to the mountains of Israel, done better for them than at their beginnings, and raised them as in the resurrection of Ezekiel 37. He would have destroyed the northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 with plagues, dwelt among them in overpowering glory under the name Jehovah Is There, given victory and a new sanctuary, and enabled them to build the marvelous sanctuary and city where His presence would dwell. The restored kingdom would have been marked by God's presence and the glory of a faithful people, worshiping in blessed order with His glory resting on the city, a house of prayer for all nations from which Israel would go out to convert the nations as the Messiah's kingdom gradually came, with the peaceful kingdom to be fulfilled more gloriously in the new earth.
The temple built after the return by Zerubbabel, Ezra and others was only a shadow falling far short of Ezekiel's pattern, weakly realizing the promises and only weakly realizing the glorious temple shown in the prophecy. That Jerusalem was never thus restored and that temple was never built and never will be built because Israel would not yield all to God, so God could not come in and dwell among them and could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor. The restoration temple never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected.
The sanctuary part cannot now be set up literally to fulfill the purpose designed for it, because sacrifices including burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats were to be offered in it with its associated service. To continue that sacrificial service would make of none effect the offering made once for all by Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice fulfilled those types that pointed to Jesus and ended that system at the cross. The sanctuary that would have been built if the people had been ashamed and repented was never built and will never be built.
The vision is not a literal city to be built on this sin-cursed earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ with the offerings and sacrifices of the first covenant carried on again to give an undeveloped class a chance, taking the place of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. Such a state during the reign of Christ would be less glorious than the present dispensation, because it returns to the ordinances of the first covenant after Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant. Since those sacrifices pointed to Christ the great sin-offering and can never make the comers perfect, doing the work again would require a second Messiah at the end of the thousand years to expiate transgressions.
Greater Fulfillment for Redeemed
In its spiritual aspect the prophecy points faintly to greater things God will do for His people through Christ. It belongs to a conditional prophecy of a new division of the land and a temple with its ceremonies, rites, offerings and arrangements for Israel if they returned from captivity wholeheartedly and put away iniquities. Because the people were unwilling and did not repent, the promised temple was not built as described, and the later temple built by Zerubbabel was only a shadow of it. The city and its service, in which people from all the tribes would serve the city and from which Israel would go out to convert the nations as the Messiah's kingdom gradually came, was part of what God was prepared to do but was not then fulfilled. That unfulfilled promise will be fulfilled in broad outline at the second coming rather than in every detail, when the peaceful kingdom will be fulfilled more gloriously in the new heavens and the new earth.
God's purpose remains the same though times and environment vary. The promised privileges of Jerusalem's future city, given on condition that God's people put away sins, live up to their calling, and yield to God in shame and full repentance under Jeremiah 18:7-10, did not take place for earthly Jerusalem because fleshly Israel did not yield. Its literal details will therefore never be fulfilled literally in fullest detail with temple and sacrifices, but will instead be realized in the New City for God's true Israel. To the true Israel the promises will be fulfilled not according to those details but according to later revelation, bringing future glory and the fullness of the immortal inheritance to the faithful in fullest measure, with true Israel redeemed and given a more glorious inheritance in the earth made new. The allotment of the promised land among the tribes and families of Israel, including a city served by people drawn from all the tribes, was temporary in its original setting but was designed to teach that the redeemed will each receive a lasting inheritance in the restored land that will not be lost or taken away.
The pattern was an object lesson that the only holy, worthy thing is that in which God dwells, so that man will yield himself as God's dwelling-place, temple and sanctuary. It showed a glorious temple at the center of a restored Jerusalem declaring Jehovah is there, whose presence would heal all barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life to all. That Jerusalem was never thus restored and that temple was never built and never will be built, because Israel would not yield all to God so He could come in and dwell among them, and He could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor. The temple built at the restoration from Babylon fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected. God wanted to make Jerusalem a wonder in the earth with Himself as a wall of fire round about and the glory in her midst as shown in the last nine chapters, which would have been built if all Israel had responded to the three calls to come out of Babylon and returned to their own land, but Israel loved Babylon more than Jerusalem and failed to do their part, and Jerusalem was destroyed, not because God's mind changed. In order to have a holy city God had to prepare it in heaven, and that city is prepared and will descend upon the earth, while the ancient calls to come out of Babylon were an object lesson of the present time when the last call to come out of Babylon is now sounding through the earth.
Gog and Magog, representing the northern nations, are punished in part in this world and in full before and when Christ comes and ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years.
Those who labor for the city are drawn from every tribe of Israel as part of the worship, service and city order set forth in Ezekiel 40-48. It belongs to the pattern of city, sanctuary and land shown to Ezekiel in captivity to show to the house of Israel, given 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. That city, sanctuary, land division and restoration were a conditional offer to be fulfilled literally in fullest detail with temple and sacrifices if Israel repented and yielded to God, but Israel remained unwilling and apostate and the promised glory was never built or realized in fullness. In its spiritual aspect the prophecy will instead be fulfilled in broad outline at the second coming, when its privileges are realized for true Israel in the New City and the earth made new, with each receiving a lasting inheritance that will not be lost.
Vision Context and Meaning
The pattern of city and sanctuary was shown to Ezekiel in captivity to be shown to the house of Israel. It was given 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. The description occupies Ezekiel 40 to 48.
The verse means that people drawn from all the tribes of Israel would serve the city. This service belonged to the city, worship, and service envisioned in Ezekiel 40-48. In that envisioned restoration the land is apportioned among the families of Israel and the city is served by people drawn from all the tribes.
The vision as a whole includes mortal life under the first covenant. It includes a mortal prince who offers sin offerings and other offerings for himself, takes away exactions, has sons and servants to whom he gives inheritance, and is forbidden to oppress the people. It is accompanied by marriages, divorces, disease and death, literal circumcision, distinction between clean and unclean meats, burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats, and the Levitical priesthood. Its prescribed services and arrangements belong to a system that did not continue after the Christian dispensation began. The specifications show it was designed for the past dispensation, not for the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, or the future reign of Christ.
Beyond its place in that larger sanctuary, city, and land prophecy, the verse itself receives no separate explanation of its detail. It belongs to the prophetic section of Ezekiel 48 describing what God would do for His people. It does not reveal the process by which the work would be done.
Conditional Offer Never Built
The city, sanctuary, land division, and restoration of Ezekiel 36-48 were a conditional offer under Jeremiah 18:7-10, to be fulfilled literally in fullest detail with temple, ceremonies, rites, offerings, and arrangements if Israel was ashamed of iniquities, put them away, repented wholeheartedly, and yielded to God. The provision that those serving the city would serve it out of all the tribes was part of that offer made in captivity for fulfillment in the restoration after the seventy years, with God prepared to establish the sanctuary and bring back the twelve tribes and to fulfill the promises as He had intended to bless Israel after the exodus. In its spiritual aspect the chapters stand as prophecy of greater things God will do for His people through Christ, to be fulfilled to true Israel not according to those literal details but according to later revelation.
Israel did not meet the conditions but remained unwilling and apostate, disregarding the condition and refusing to heed the call to put away sins and live up to its calling. The ten tribes did not return when the opportunity was offered, and only some of Judah, Benjamin, Levi and others went up, about forty thousand returning, loving Babylon more than Jerusalem and failing the three calls to come out. The promised glory, city, sanctuary, and restoration were therefore never built or realized in fullness, and because fleshly Israel did not yield, the literal details of Ezekiel 37 to 48 will never be fulfilled in a built sanctuary. God did not change His mind, but Israel failed to do its part, and Jerusalem was destroyed; in order to have a holy city God had to prepare it in heaven to descend upon the earth, and its promised privileges will instead be realized in the New City for God's true Israel.
Had Israel yielded and been faithful, God would have gathered the scattered people, brought them back to the mountains of Israel, done better for them than at their beginnings, and raised them as in the resurrection of Ezekiel 37. He would have destroyed the northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 with plagues, dwelt among them in overpowering glory under the name Jehovah Is There, given victory and a new sanctuary, and enabled them to build the marvelous sanctuary and city where His presence would dwell. The restored kingdom would have been marked by God's presence and the glory of a faithful people, worshiping in blessed order with His glory resting on the city, a house of prayer for all nations from which Israel would go out to convert the nations as the Messiah's kingdom gradually came, with the peaceful kingdom to be fulfilled more gloriously in the new earth.
The temple built after the return by Zerubbabel, Ezra and others was only a shadow falling far short of Ezekiel's pattern, weakly realizing the promises and only weakly realizing the glorious temple shown in the prophecy. That Jerusalem was never thus restored and that temple was never built and never will be built because Israel would not yield all to God, so God could not come in and dwell among them and could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor. The restoration temple never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected.
The sanctuary part cannot now be set up literally to fulfill the purpose designed for it, because sacrifices including burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats were to be offered in it with its associated service. To continue that sacrificial service would make of none effect the offering made once for all by Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice fulfilled those types that pointed to Jesus and ended that system at the cross. The sanctuary that would have been built if the people had been ashamed and repented was never built and will never be built.
The vision is not a literal city to be built on this sin-cursed earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ with the offerings and sacrifices of the first covenant carried on again to give an undeveloped class a chance, taking the place of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. Such a state during the reign of Christ would be less glorious than the present dispensation, because it returns to the ordinances of the first covenant after Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant. Since those sacrifices pointed to Christ the great sin-offering and can never make the comers perfect, doing the work again would require a second Messiah at the end of the thousand years to expiate transgressions.
Greater Fulfillment for Redeemed
In its spiritual aspect the prophecy points faintly to greater things God will do for His people through Christ. It belongs to a conditional prophecy of a new division of the land and a temple with its ceremonies, rites, offerings and arrangements for Israel if they returned from captivity wholeheartedly and put away iniquities. Because the people were unwilling and did not repent, the promised temple was not built as described, and the later temple built by Zerubbabel was only a shadow of it. The city and its service, in which people from all the tribes would serve the city and from which Israel would go out to convert the nations as the Messiah's kingdom gradually came, was part of what God was prepared to do but was not then fulfilled. That unfulfilled promise will be fulfilled in broad outline at the second coming rather than in every detail, when the peaceful kingdom will be fulfilled more gloriously in the new heavens and the new earth.
God's purpose remains the same though times and environment vary. The promised privileges of Jerusalem's future city, given on condition that God's people put away sins, live up to their calling, and yield to God in shame and full repentance under Jeremiah 18:7-10, did not take place for earthly Jerusalem because fleshly Israel did not yield. Its literal details will therefore never be fulfilled literally in fullest detail with temple and sacrifices, but will instead be realized in the New City for God's true Israel. To the true Israel the promises will be fulfilled not according to those details but according to later revelation, bringing future glory and the fullness of the immortal inheritance to the faithful in fullest measure, with true Israel redeemed and given a more glorious inheritance in the earth made new. The allotment of the promised land among the tribes and families of Israel, including a city served by people drawn from all the tribes, was temporary in its original setting but was designed to teach that the redeemed will each receive a lasting inheritance in the restored land that will not be lost or taken away.
The pattern was an object lesson that the only holy, worthy thing is that in which God dwells, so that man will yield himself as God's dwelling-place, temple and sanctuary. It showed a glorious temple at the center of a restored Jerusalem declaring Jehovah is there, whose presence would heal all barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life to all. That Jerusalem was never thus restored and that temple was never built and never will be built, because Israel would not yield all to God so He could come in and dwell among them, and He could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor. The temple built at the restoration from Babylon fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected. God wanted to make Jerusalem a wonder in the earth with Himself as a wall of fire round about and the glory in her midst as shown in the last nine chapters, which would have been built if all Israel had responded to the three calls to come out of Babylon and returned to their own land, but Israel loved Babylon more than Jerusalem and failed to do their part, and Jerusalem was destroyed, not because God's mind changed. In order to have a holy city God had to prepare it in heaven, and that city is prepared and will descend upon the earth, while the ancient calls to come out of Babylon were an object lesson of the present time when the last call to come out of Babylon is now sounding through the earth.
Gog and Magog, representing the northern nations, are punished in part in this world and in full before and when Christ comes and ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years.