Morning Light – September 11th, 2017 – Ezekiel 44: You are a Priest of His Privilege

Morning Light – Ezekiel 44
Today: [Ezekiel 44] You are a Priest of His Privilege. In this chapter Ezekiel returns from the vision of the glory by way of the North Gate. There the glory fills the house and Ezekiel is given many instructions relating to the priesthood that they might be God’s peculiar possession, privileged to serve in His house – which speaks of who we are and who you are as a king and a priest before God in Christ.
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[Eze 44:1-31 KJV] 1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it [was] shut. 2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. 3 [It is] for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of [that] gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. 4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face. 5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary. 6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, [even] to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, 7 In that ye have brought [into my sanctuary] strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, [even] my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. 8 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. 9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that [is] among the children of Israel. 10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. 11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, [having] charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. 12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity. 13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy [place]: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. 14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.
In Ezekiel 44 the Lord brings Ezekiel back through the east gate after revisiting the glory he had originally seen in the plain at Chebar. After coming through the east gate, Ezekiel looks back and it is shut. The Father then informs Ezekiel that the east gate will be shut at a future time and no one shall enter it because “the Lord, the God of Israel” has shut it. Now this is interesting because first of all there is no east gate at the time Ezekiel sees this. The city has been destroyed, the temple leveled and the walls torn down. The implied statement that would not have escaped Ezekiel is that one day the ruined city will be rebuilt, which in fact the rebuilding begins 58 years later from the date of this vision. Another observation to be made is that after the city is rebuilt, it will be centuries later when the east gate is walled up in 1577 by Suleiman the Great, a Muslim warlord who occupied Jerusalem at that time. Doesn’t the verse (v. 2) say that God shuts the gate? How do we reconcile this with the fact that God says it is His hand that does this?
Proverbs 21:21 tells us that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and He turns that king’s heart toward what He wants it to do. An example of this is when the Lord tells Moses in Ex. 7:13 that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart. This is an example of the sovereignty of God at work even in situations where all of the people of God in Jerusalem in 1577 would have interpreted Suleiman’s actions as that of an anti-Christ because they expected the Messiah to come through that gate to rescue them. This is an admonition for us to look beyond current events and consider things going on around us from the perspective of what the scriptures teach and what the Holy Spirit is saying at the time. V. 3 tells us that the gate is shut – not to give a Muslim warlord the upper hand, but to keep it secure for “the prince” or Messiah who will enter by what of the porch of that gate and eat bread before the Lord. The eating of bread speaks of covenant such as the covenant that Abram and Melchisedek executed when they shared bread and wine after the defeat of the armies that had captured Abram’s nephew Lot.
In verse 4 the Lord brings Ezekiel from the east gate to the north gate. The easterly direction speaks to us of eternity and the timelessness of God. The northern gate represents judgment. Numbers 2:25 tells us that the tribe of Dan camped on the northern side of the tabernacle of Moses and Gen. 30:6 and Gen. 49:16 prophetically connect Dan with the judgment seat of God. Going by way of the north gate Ezekiel sees the glory of God from the plain enter the house of God as it did in Ez. 43 and fill it with his glory. Because the vision now turns to the matters of judgment the next discussion and instruction for the prophet concerns itself with various ordinances and commands pertaining to the conduct of the priests in the restoration temple.
Because the people had brought uncircumcised strangers into Solomon’s temple, the Father calls them out on this Sacrilege and reiterates that these abominations shall not be repeated in the Restoration temple. Remember in reading this that you are the temple of God. In 2 Cor. 6:16 Paul asks the question – what does the temple of God (which you are) have with idols. This speaks to the issue of living a separated life. Today the idea of separation is seen as prejudice as though the believer thinks he is better than everyone else. The point is not that you are superior to anyone but that as 1 Cor. 6:20 tells us we are bought with a price and our lives and our persons are not our own. You cannot be unequally yoked, or in common society with those who do not walk with a yielded heart before God. You are called to be separate as 2 Cor. 6:17 tells us we must come out from among “them” and be separate. This is a teaching and a theme that is missing altogether in Christian culture today but you must ask yourself the question and hold yourself accountable regarding how this gets implemented in your walk with God. There are things you cannot do. There are people you cannot associate with. There may be relationships that must be terminated is we are to take this edict to heart lest we contaminate the temple that we are and grieve the Holy Ghost who resides in our heart.
15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD: 16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. 17 And it shall come to pass, [that] when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird [themselves] with any thing that causeth sweat. 19 And when they go forth into the utter court, [even] into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments. 20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads. 21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court. 22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before. 23 And they shall teach my people [the difference] between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; [and] they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths. 25 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves. 26 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days. 27 And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord GOD. 28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I [am] their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I [am] their possession. 29 They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the first of all the firstfruits of all [things], and every oblation of all, of every [sort] of your oblations, shall be the priest’s: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. 31 The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.
The Father goes on to instruct Ezekiel that the priests who had formerly participated in offering sacrifices to various idols that were set up in Solomon’s temple would not be allowed to serve in the inner court or the Holy of Holies. However, there was a family of Levites of the line of Zadok that did not pollute themselves with the abominations of king Zedekiah and others before him who brought Chemosh, Ashteroth, Baal and other idols into the holy place. They would be allowed to stand before the altar and minister in the sanctuary and keep the charge of the Lord related to the Inner court and the Holy of Holies where the ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah glory appeared.
When the priests entered into the inner court they were instructed to come with linen garments only and no woolen clothing at all. The reason for this is they were not allowed to perspire or sweat when they served at the holy things. Linen speaks to us of the righteousness of God. We are righteous and serve at the table of the Lord and walk in the kingdom not according to our own sweat or good works but by the blood bought righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ afforded to us in our behalf as Rev. 7:14 tells us we are to wash our garments, our lives in the blood of the Lamb for we cannot be rendered fit before God through good works or religious performance.
Verse 19 says that when the priests would exit the inner court to the outer court that they were to take off their garments of linen that they not “sanctify” the people in the outer court with their garments. What does this mean? We are not to portray ourselves as being something more than we are. When we go before God we go clad in the righteousness of Christ and all His glory – but when we walk among men we do so in our humanity not presuming upon ourselves to expect deference to be shown to our persons that only belongs to God Himself.
The priests were also commanded not to drink wine, when they entered the outer court. What is wine symbolically? It speaks of influence. There is to be no respect of persons in the inner court or the Holy of Holies. We are not to be in pursuit of any advocacy other than the pure unadulterated worship of the one true God. Neither were the priests to enter into questionable marriages. The New Testament speaks to us of the hidden MAN of the heart as being our spirit man and in that perspective our SOUL (mind, will and emotions) are feminine in aspect in relationship to God. We are not to have soulish connections that cloud our fidelity to God. How many times have we seen the testimony of God in spiritual leadership contaminated by nepotism, or favoritism in leadership choices and initiatives? We cannot have soulish relationship taking precedent or setting our priorities in spiritual things.
The priests were also to follow and implement the judgments of God and to hallow the Sabbaths. There is a difference between making a personal judgment and following the established judgments of God. For instance, if we call an atheist a fool – that is not a personal judgment but rather following the judgments of God who says in Psa. 41:1 that the fool says in his heart there is no God. Let the word be the discerner in judgment while you refrain from your own clouded judgments in all matters. The priests were also not to touch a dead body. If God is our life then anything outside of His presence is death. We must be cautious not to draw too close to things that are not imbued with the life and the anointing of God. That is not a license to be aloof in our persons but as Eph. 5:15 tells us to walk circumspectly, or “barefoot” in all things.
Verse 28 gives the promise then if we as priests unto God follow Him in all these things that He will be an inheritance to us and He will be our possession in life. What a promise and what a privilege to serve as Rev. 1:5 describes us “as kings and priests unto God” being His peculiar possessions and He likewise being our possession in life as well!