Ezekiel 44
Summary for Ezek 44:1-31: 44:1-31 a Now that the glory of the Lord had returned to the Temple, questions of access were critical. Who could approach this holy God? Like ch 43 b, this chapter is concerned with the Temple’s entrances and exits, as well as the duties and procedures associated with its use.44:2 c The outer east gate must remain perpetually closed because the Lord had now returned to his Temple and would never again leave it. He had also sanctified this gate by going through it, and no one else was ever to use it.
44:3 d Though the prince had the significant privilege of being the only one allowed to feast in the Lord’s presence inside the east outer gateway, he was restricted to entering and leaving the portico from the outer court. He was not to enter from outside the Temple complex by going through the gate, as the Lord had; the earthly ruler is a man, not God, and he must submit to God. The prince must also never forget that the Temple is God’s palace, not his own private chapel.
Summary for Ezek 44:6-8: 44:6-8 e The people of Israel were called rebels because they had failed to control access to the sanctuary in the past; they had hired uncircumcised foreigners to come into the sanctuary and probably employed them as Temple guards and gatekeepers. This task should not have been delegated to foreigners; it should have been performed by the Levites, whom the Lord had assigned to perform it (cp. 44:10 f).
44:9 g No foreigners: This was not a blanket prohibition against non-Israelite access to the sanctuary. It only affected those who had not been circumcised and have not surrendered themselves to the Lord. Genuine converts could be part of the new Israel (see 47:22-23 h).
44:10 i when Israel strayed away from me to worship idols: The people had a long history of failing to follow God’s plan for worship, including the specific sin of employing foreigners as temple guards (44:8 j).
Summary for Ezek 44:12-14: 44:12-14 k The Levites had encouraged ... Israel to fall into deep sin by abandoning the Lord and worshiping idols. One of the consequences of that sin was that they could no longer enter the inner court of the Temple like the priests. However, by God’s grace, they would still have a significant ministry in serving the people and slaughtering their sacrifices.
• The people as a whole were placed at a greater distance from God because of their idolatry. Prior to the Exile they would have slaughtered their own sacrifices (see Lev 1:5 l, 11 m); now they must hand them over to the Levites to be slaughtered on their behalf.
Summary for Ezek 44:15-16: 44:15-16 n In contrast to the Levites and the people who abandoned the Lord for idols, the Levitical priests of the family of Zadok remained faithful to the Lord. Zadok was the high priest of Solomon’s day. His family’s reward was renewed access to the inner courtyard, where they were to perform the crucial sacrificial rituals nearer to the presence of God. A repeated theme in these chapters is that those who were faithful in the past would be rewarded with closer access to God and greater privilege in his presence, while those who were unfaithful would be kept at a greater distance.
Summary for Ezek 44:17-19: 44:17-19 o The privileged access of the priests carried heightened responsibilities for holiness. Their behavior was far more restricted than that of the people in general. They had to wear linen rather than wool so that their bodies would not be defiled by sweat (see study note on 36:17), and they were to maintain a separate wardrobe of sacred garments.
• endanger ... by transmitting holiness to them: Holiness was a contagious quality that could be conveyed to anything with which it came into contact. The problem with this is that if a sacred object transmitted holiness to a profane object or person, there could be fatal consequences (cp. Lev 10:1-3 p; 1 Sam 6:19 q; 2 Sam 6:6-7 r).
Summary for Ezek 44:20-27: 44:20-27 s The priests were to avoid contact with death, either by being in the presence of a dead person or through the ritual mourning practices in which they would shave their heads or let their hair grow completely free. They must not drink wine before entering the inner courtyard to avoid the risk of potentially fatal alcohol-induced errors (see Lev 10:9 t). The priests were restricted in marriage to virgins of Israel or to widows of the priests to ensure the continuing purity of the priestly line. In all of these ways, the priests were to model the radical distinction between holy and common and between the ceremonially clean and unclean for the people.
Summary for Ezek 44:28-30: 44:28-30 u Because the priests belonged to the Lord and were provided for through a share of the sacrificial offerings of the Temple, they would not have any property or possession of land. The Lord was their inheritance, and their temporal needs were to be supplied by the firstfruits of the people’s harvests and the various offerings made at the Temple.
44:31 v In their radical separation from the realm of death, they could not eat any bird or animal that died a natural death or was attacked by another animal.
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