Ezekiel 48:8, commentary and pictures

The verse sets apart a sacred portion of land alongside Judah's border stretching from east to west with the sanctuary standing at its center. It measures twenty-five thousand reeds across and runs long like the shares given to the tribes, belonging to the closing vision of a new temple, city and divided land shown after the fall to Babylon. This sanctuary and land were offered to captive Israel on condition of shame for sin and wholehearted return to God, which would have brought a full literal fulfillment, but the people remained unrepentant and only a small remnant returned. Therefore the house as described was never erected, what was built afterward was lesser and partial, and it will never be built literally in its local details nor does it predict the immortal state or a restored sacrificial system on earth. No such temple can now be raised because Christ's everlasting priesthood has superseded the Levitical priesthood and His once-for-all offering has ended animal sacrifices, while the unfulfilled promises stand as faint types of the greater restoration through Christ in the new heavens and new earth.

Offering Beside Judah

The offering is a sacred tract of land set beside the border of Judah, running from the east side to the west side, with the sanctuary in the midst of it. It is placed beside the territory assigned to Judah as part of the offered land arrangement in the vision, extending east to west and matching in length one of the other tribal portions. The designated offering borders Judah and holds the sanctuary at its center within the broader division of the land.

Its breadth is twenty-five thousand reeds, and its length is as one of the other parts, from the east side to the west side, the same length as the other allotments. The verse belongs to the closing vision of Ezekiel in chapters 36 to 48, and especially chapters 40 to 48, describing a new temple, city, sanctuary, and division of the land among the twelve tribes after return from Babylon. That concluding section sets forth the promises of what would be done for the people on return, given during the Babylonian captivity to encourage the captive exiles. Some treatments identify the verse as part of that offered sanctuary and greater temple of the closing prophecy without explaining its measurements or the placement of the sanctuary.

Conditional Promise to Israel

The sanctuary, city, and restored land were offered to captive Israel on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities and put them away, turn from wickedness, and return to God wholeheartedly in faith and obedience. The promise belonged to the proposed restoration after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed, not to the immortal state or to the gospel dispensation as such. In its spiritual aspect it stood as a prophecy of greater things God would do for His people through Christ, with faint types of future restoration in the new heavens and new earth.

The pattern was shown to Israel in Babylonian captivity, fourteen years after the destruction of the sanctuary and twenty-five years into the captivity, to encourage the exiles with a promised return to abundant blessing in the land with the twelve tribes restored. It set forth the holy offering of land with the sanctuary in its midst as part of that promised inheritance in Ezekiel 47-48. If Israel had met the conditions of faith and obedience it would have been fulfilled literally in fullest detail, together with the building of the temple and its attendant order.

Israel did not meet the conditions but remained unrepentant and apostate, loving Babylon more than the Jerusalem they professed to love. The ten tribes slighted the gracious offer and the promised blessings of God, slighting the three calls to come out of Babylon. Only a few accepted the offer of Cyrus to go back to Jerusalem, about forty thousand returning, chiefly Judah and Benjamin with a portion of Levi and a few others, so the promises were not realized in their fullness.

Therefore the sanctuary as described was never erected. What was built after the return under Zerubbabel and Ezra was lesser, inferior, and small, only partly realizing the pattern or standing as a shadow of it. That restored Jerusalem never came in the form shown, because God would not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor.

Prophecy and Future Hope

Ezekiel's closing allotment beside Judah, with the sanctuary in the midst of the offering, was a conditional plan for Israel after the sanctuary was destroyed, fourteen years after its destruction, and not a prediction of the immortal state nor of the gospel dispensation. It does not describe the future reign of Christ and His saints, nor does it foretell a literal city to be built on this sin-cursed earth during the thousand-year reign with restored offerings and sacrifices taking the place of the heavenly Jerusalem. Such a rebuilding would make Christ's reign less glorious than the present dispensation by returning to the ordinances of the first covenant that pointed to Christ as the great sin-offering. That first covenant is taken away to establish the second, better covenant with its more excellent ministry, for no such temple with its Levitical priesthood is ever to be built after the Christian dispensation began because that priesthood was superseded by Christ's everlasting priesthood. Christ by one offering of His body once for all has perfected forever the sanctified and now sits at the right hand of God expecting till all His enemies are made His footstool, so renewed sacrifices would require a second Messiah to expiate transgressions, and when He leaves His Father's throne He takes His own throne, David's throne, coming as King of kings and Lord of lords.

The city vision is not to be identified with the New Jerusalem, nor does it teach that the Jewish sacrificial system will be restored. Its promises depended on Israel turning from sin and were forfeited, so it will never be fulfilled literally in its local details, its sanctuary will never be built, and the instruction including the former sanctuary service and its sacrifices cannot continue without making Christ's sacrifice void. It belonged to the prophecy of Ezekiel 36 to the close of the book, conditioned on the faith, obedience, and wholehearted return of ancient Israel, which would have been fulfilled in fullest detail together with the building of the temple and its attendant sacrifices if Israel had met the conditions. Because ancient Israel did not meet those conditions of blessing and refused to turn from iniquities, the temple and larger city and new temple of Ezekiel 40-48 were never built. What was erected by Zerubbabel and Ezra was inferior to the one described, realized only in reduced form, a lesser temple and only partly the shadow of the pattern.

If Israel had yielded to God and returned to the mountains of Israel in obedience, cleansed from sin and ashamed and confounded for their ways, the resurrection of Ezekiel 37 would have taken place. The northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 would have been destroyed by plagues. Israel would have built that marvelous sanctuary with the sanctuary in the midst of the holy offering, and the presence of God would have dwelt among them in overpowering glory and His glory would have rested on the city. Because Israel never complied, the sanctuary with its holy offering was never built, and to set it up literally now with its sacrifices would make of none effect the offering made once for all by Jesus Christ.

In its spiritual aspect the unfulfilled promises stand as faint types of greater things God will do for His people through Christ. The promised new division of the land and temple beside Judah, extending from east to west, required the people to turn from wickedness and put away sins, but they did not, so Ezekiel's temple was not built; yet God will fulfill His promises in Christ in the new heaven and earth, whose capital is the New Jerusalem. The details will not all be fulfilled as described, but the future glory and immortal inheritance will instead come to the faithful in the manner revealed later, the vision's purposes being realized in the New City for God's true Israel. The prophecy will have a greater fulfillment in the events connected with Christ's second coming, but not through the local conditions described in Ezekiel's day, for God's purpose remains the same toward true Israel, who will be redeemed and given a more glorious inheritance, the earth made new.

Gog and Magog, representing the northern nations, will be punished in part in this world before and at the coming of Christ and in full ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years.

Sacrifice, Holiness and Warning

No such temple is ever to be built after the Christian dispensation began, because its Levitical priesthood was superseded by Christ's everlasting priesthood. It does not foretell a literal city to be built on this sin-cursed earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ with restored offerings and sacrifices taking the place of the heavenly Jerusalem. Such a rebuilding would make the reign of Christ 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. That first covenant is taken away to establish the second, better covenant with its more excellent ministry. When Christ leaves His Father's throne He takes His own throne, David's throne, and comes as King of kings and Lord of lords.

The sanctuary-and-land arrangement belongs to the prophecy of a new sanctuary and division of the land, with the sanctuary in the middle of a designated land offering that borders Judah and extends from east to west, twenty-five thousand reeds wide and as long as the other allotted portions. Its literal fulfillment cannot involve renewed animal sacrifices, because that would deny Christ's once-for-all offering. Christ by one offering of His body once for all has perfected forever them that are sanctified and now sits at the right hand of God expecting till all His enemies are made His footstool, so renewed sacrifices would require a second Messiah to expiate transgressions. To offer further sacrifices makes that offering void and of none effect. The instruction includes the former sanctuary service and its sacrifices, but sacrifices cannot continue without making Christ's sacrifice void, and the sacrifices prescribed for it show that it was not a sanctuary God would ordain again.

That sanctuary plan was provisional and conditional on the people becoming ashamed of their sins, ashamed and confounded for their ways, obedient and cleansed from sin. Because they remained apostate, its sanctuary and promises were only partly realized in the inferior, small temple built by Zerubbabel and Ezra, which was only a shadow of the pattern. If they had yielded to God and returned to the mountains of Israel, the resurrection of Ezekiel 37 would have taken place, the northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 would have been destroyed by plagues, Israel would have built that marvelous sanctuary with the sanctuary in the midst of the offering, and the presence of God would have dwelt among them in overpowering glory. Because Israel never complied with the conditions, the sanctuary with its holy offering was never built and will not be built, and what the Jews had if they had repented would have been built shows by its sacrifices that it cannot now be set up literally.

The pattern of a glorious temple at the center of a restored Jerusalem teaches that only what God dwells in is holy and worthy and calls man to yield himself as a dwelling-place, temple and sanctuary of God. God's presence there is summed up as Jehovah is there, a presence that would heal all barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life to all. That restored Jerusalem never came 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. God would not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor, so the temple built after the return from Babylon fell far short of this pattern and knew the glory of Solomon's temple only in the person of Jesus Christ.

The land's allotment beside Judah, with the sanctuary in the middle, was a pattern pointing beyond the temporary inheritance of Israel to the redeemed people's permanent, allotted inheritance in the future world when God brings them into the promised land. Jerusalem will no longer be forsaken or desolate. That grand and magnificent temple Israel might have built at Jerusalem after the return from captivity would ultimately become the house of prayer for all nations.

The vision of the last nine chapters was given when Israel had been in Babylonian captivity only twenty-five years, and it describes the offering of land and the place of the sanctuary in the midst as Jerusalem would have been built if all Israel had responded to the three calls to come out of Babylon. The city was never built, not because God changed His mind, but because Israel loved Babylon more than the Jerusalem they professed to love and failed to do their part. Because Israel failed, God had to prepare a holy city in heaven, and that city is now prepared and will descend upon the earth. The ancient calls to come out of Babylon were an object-lesson of the present last call now sounding through the earth, and utter destruction awaits those who linger in Babylon today.