Ezekiel 48:28, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 48:28 marks the southern edge of Gad's allotment as running southward from Tamar to the waters of strife in Kadesh and on to the river toward the great sea, as part of the division of the land among the twelve tribes. It belongs to the closing vision of Ezekiel 36 to 48, and especially Ezekiel 40 to 48, setting forth the temple, sanctuary, city, and tribal allotment as a conditional offer to Israel depending on shame for iniquity, full repentance, and wholehearted return to God in faith and obedience. Israel did not meet the condition but continued in apostasy, so only about forty thousand returned from Babylon and the sanctuary, city, and division as described were never established or built in literal detail. What was experienced was only a partial fulfillment and shadow in the inferior temple of Zerubbabel, while the substance will be more than made good in Christ Jesus to the true Israel in the fullness of the immortal inheritance in the new heaven and new earth whose capital is the New Jerusalem of Revelation 22. That greater fulfillment will not include a future sanctuary with renewed animal sacrifices, since the typical sacrifices pointed to Christ and to continue them after His sacrifice would annul His offering.

Border and Vision Context

The southern border of Gad runs southward from Tamar to the waters of strife in Kadesh and to the river toward the great sea, as one allotment in the division of the land among the twelve tribes.

The verse belongs to the closing vision of Ezekiel 36 to 48. More particularly it belongs to Ezekiel 40 to 48, describing the temple and its arrangements, the sanctuary, the city, the arrangement of the land, and the tribal allotment.

The vision 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, while Ezekiel was among the captives of Israel. It presents the pattern of another sanctuary, like the tabernacle and Solomon's temple, having two holy places with the most holy place the same size as Solomon's, and called the sanctuary. Its glorious temple stands at the center of a restored Jerusalem whose meaning is Jehovah is there, ultimately intended as a house of prayer for all nations.

No specific explanation of the details of this boundary is given, and how the greater temple was to be carried out is not revealed, the circumstances of its construction being secondary.

Conditional Promise Unfulfilled

The division of the land among the twelve tribes with its city, sanctuary and restoration was a conditional offer to Israel, depending on being ashamed of iniquities and putting them away, turning from wickedness, returning to God wholeheartedly, and yielding in faith, obedience and full repentance. The final chapter with its promises to God's children was offered on that condition of return, and the temple vision with its arrangement belonged to what would be given if Israel had returned wholeheartedly from the Babylonian captivity. Had Israel complied, God would have caused the building to be established and brought the twelve tribes back to the mountains of Israel from Babylon after seventy years. The land would have been divided exactly as described, with its borders and features literally fulfilled, and the city and greater sanctuary built where the people would worship under His manifest presence and overpowering glory. Lengthened life and unsurpassable and inconceivable glory would have been given, the northern enemies destroyed with plagues sent upon them, and every border and feature fulfilled in the fullest literal detail, including the burning of weapons in Ezekiel 39:9-15 and the temple with its sacrifices. The offer included restoration of the Hebrews from captivity to their own land with a city and temple under great glory, conditioned on faith and obedience, and the detailed southern border from Tamar to Kadesh would have been given then in full.

Israel was not ashamed, did not put away sin, disregarded the condition, continued in apostasy, and failed to do its part, thereby forfeiting the privileges. Only a few accepted the opportunity to return, about forty thousand returning from Babylon, so the promises were not fulfilled in their fullness. Because Israel was not ashamed and sins were not put away, the promise of the city, the restoration of the land, and the rebuilding of the temple in the glorious form shown could not be fulfilled then. Therefore the sanctuary, city, tribal division and promised restoration as described were never established or built, and the land division was not carried out. That sanctuary has never been built, raising whether it was not built because the conditions were not complied with or because its fulfillment still belongs to the future. The restoration was never literally fulfilled as described because Israel did not turn from its iniquities.

What was experienced was only a small part of the promised glory, a partial fulfillment and shadow in the inferior temple built by Zerubbabel, Ezra and others. That Jerusalem was never thus restored, and the temple built after the return fell far short of the pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ when He came to it. If all God's people had returned with all their hearts at that time the temple described would have been built, but the condition was not met so the sanctuary described was never built. The literal details of the border from Tamar to Kadesh will never be literally fulfilled. The designed sanctuary does not belong to the period after the Christian dispensation began, the present gospel dispensation, the future reign of Christ and His saints, or the future immortal state, and was unbuilt and never to be built.

Greater Fulfillment in Christ

In its spiritual aspect the chapter stands as a prophecy of greater things God would do for His people through Christ. Its tribal divisions and promised restoration belong to the offer made to Israel after the Babylonian exile, and because Israel did not turn from iniquity they serve only as a general and imperfect type of what God will do for His people at the Second Coming. They would have been fulfilled after the return from Babylon if the people had turned back to God wholeheartedly, but since only a small part of the promised glory was then realized they will have a greater fulfillment in events connected with Christ's second coming, without the local conditions of the prophet's time. They were part of the sanctuary and land arrangement that would have accompanied the Messiah's kingdom on earth if the conditions had been met, and though that kingdom was not established in that way its peace will be fulfilled more gloriously in the new earth.

All those precious promises will be more than made good to Israel in Christ Jesus in the new heaven and the new earth whose capital city is the New Jerusalem recorded in Revelation 22. The literal details of the border from Tamar to Kadesh will never be fulfilled, but the substance will be fulfilled to the true Israel, the faithful, according to later revelation, as the fullness of the immortal inheritance in the fullest measure. Its promised realization belongs instead to the New City awaiting God's true Israel, since the vision of the future Jerusalem and its land was forfeited for earthly Jerusalem by failure to put away sin and live as faithful children. It will be fulfilled under far greater conditions with more or less of the former detail eliminated, leaving absolute joy and peace and harmony among all God's creatures in the new earth state. God's plan did not change when that city was never built, and He prepared a holy city in heaven that will descend to earth.

The temporary allotment of the promised land to Israel's families was designed to show God's purpose for the future world, where each person's inheritance will be permanent. It serves as a picture that the redeemed will each receive an enduring inheritance in the land God gives them. God's purpose remains the same though times and surroundings vary: the true Israel will be redeemed and given a more glorious inheritance, even the earth made new, while Gog and Magog, representing the northern nations, will be punished in part in this world and in full at the coming of Christ and ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years.

The promised blessings will not be fulfilled through a renewed system of animal sacrifices. The vision does not describe a future sanctuary in which sacrifices would be offered, since offering sacrifices after Christ's sacrifice would annul His offering. Those sacrifices cannot continue without making Christ's sacrifice void. That sanctuary was never built and will not be built, since its prescribed sacrifices show that God would not again ordain it. Its typical sacrifices pointed to Christ, who suffered and fulfilled them.

The vision was given as an object lesson that the only holy, worthy thing is that in which God dwells, to lead man to yield himself as a dwelling-place, temple and sanctuary of God. God's presence in that restored order would heal all barren land, all salt marshes and all impure waters and would 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 the temple built after the return therefore fell far short of the pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ when He came to it. The verse must be read through the clearer revelation that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and partakers of God's promise in Christ by the gospel, and it cannot be used to support any theory that excludes God's great gospel work to the world for all alike, in which there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian.