Ezekiel 45:9-189Thus saith the Lord God; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God. 10Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. 12And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. 13This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley: 14Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer: 15And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord God. 16All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel. 17And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel. 18Thus saith the Lord God; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary: (Ezekiel 45:9‑18).
God’s word is meant for the conscience of the reader, though in this Book of Ezekiel it looks far onward from the time it was written to a time not yet come. So verses 9 to 12 were meant for Ezekiel’s day, but they will come freshly before the Israelites who enter the Millennium, and they have a message for us who now are privileged to read God’s Word.
The natural heart was the same when Ezekiel gave his prophecies as it is today—deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)) if this were not so, God would not have said it, and such as verses 9 to12 would not have been written.
The ephah was the Hebrew dry measure and the bath their liquid measure, each holding nearly six and a half gallons. The homer was equal to ten ephahs or ten baths; as a liquid measure it was also called a cor (as in verse 14). The maneh weighed two pounds and equaled 60 shekels (20 plus 25 plus 15).
In verse 13 we pass front the consideration of measures and weights in honest dealings with men to what is due to God. All the people are to bring an offering of wheat, barley and oil, and a lamb or young goat to make atonement for themselves. The sixth part is not without spiritual meaning, and as seven is a number used symbolically in the Scriptures for spiritual completeness, six appears to stand for incompleteness, imperfection; the blessedness of the Millennium will not be perfection. That belongs to eternity, the eternal state. In the institution of the offerings, in Leviticus 1 to 7 there is no mention of a sixth part; it would be out of place, for there they point directly to Christ in His death and in. His matchless life.
It will be the prince’s part (he who will rule Israel for the Lord Jesus) to supply the burnt offerings, the meat offerings and drink offerings at the feasts, at the new moons and on the sabbaths in all the solemnities of the house of Israel. He also is to prepare the four offerings to make reconciliation (atonement) for the house of Israel (verse 17).
ML 04/12/1936