The Prince and the Feasts

 

Ezekiel 46:1-18

 

February 23, 2024

 

The Prince and the Feasts

“Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.  The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening.  The people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.  The burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish.  And the grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah, and the grain offering with the lambs shall be as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah.  On the day of the new moon, he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish.  As a grain offering, he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah.  When the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way.

“When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead.  When they enter, the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.

“At the feasts and the appointed festivals, the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs as much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah.  When the prince provides a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.

“You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it.  And you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one-sixth of an ephah, and one-third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute.  Thus, the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for a regular burnt offering.

“Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance.  But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons.  The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property.”

Once again, we must remember the timeline, we believe this Temple will be built after Christ's return, and in the 1000-year reign on the Earth.  And once more we go to Scripture to see is for Salvation or for worship, and in agreement with God that they have sinned, by thoughts or deeds.  A great place to start is 1 John 2:2, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”  There was one sin that Jesus did not die for and that was the sin of unbelief.  John 3:18-20, makes that clear, along with the cost to the one that does not put their faith in the only Son of God.  ^“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice