Ezekiel 45:13 - Meaning and Application

Now that the rules for justice toward other people have been laid down, which are really part of true religion, the prophet turns to duties toward God. This is another part of complete righteousness. God’s people were to bring an offering to him from what they owned (Ezekiel 45:13). All the people of the land had to give such an offering (Ezekiel 45:16). As God’s tenants, they had to pay a kind of rent to their great landlord.

They had already been told to offer a portion from their land itself (Ezekiel 45:1), a holy share set apart for God. Now they are also told to give from their personal property, their goods and livestock. This was a way of admitting that everything they had came from him, depended on him, and was owed back to him in gratitude. Whatever we possess, we should honor God with it by giving him what is due from it. This is not because God needs anything from us or can be helped by it (Psalm 50:9). It is only an offering we bring to him. The real benefit comes back to us, or to his poor, who are our neighbors, and to his ministers, who serve for our good.

The amount of this offering is set here, something the law of Moses had not done. No mention is made of the title or formal claim to the land, only of this offering. From their grain they were to give a sixtieth part. For each homer of wheat or barley, which held ten ephahs, they were to give a sixth of an ephah, which was one-sixtieth of the whole (Ezekiel 45:13). From their oil, and likely their wine too, they were to give a hundredth part. For each cor, or homer, which held ten baths, they were to give a tenth of a bath (Ezekiel 45:14). This was given for the altar, since every grain offering included flour mixed with oil.

From their flocks they were to give one lamb out of every 200 (Ezekiel 45:15). This was the smallest share of all. But it had to come from the best of Israel’s pastures. They were not to give God something taken from the common stock, but the fattest and best they had. These were for burnt offerings and peace offerings. Burnt offerings were meant to give glory to God. Peace offerings were meant to seek mercy, grace, and peace from God. In our spiritual sacrifices, these are still our two great aims when we come to God’s throne of grace. But for either kind of sacrifice to be accepted, there had to be atonement, that is, payment for sin and reconciliation with God. Christ is our sacrifice of atonement, the one through whom reconciliation is made, and we must keep him in view in all our offerings of praise and thanks.

This offering was to be given for the prince in Israel (Ezekiel 45:16). Some read this as, “to the prince,” and understand it of Christ, who truly is the prince in Israel. We must bring our offerings to him and place them in his hands to present to the Father. Or it may mean that the people were to give their offering along with the prince. Each private person was to bring his share, and it would be offered together with the prince’s gift, because the next verse says it was the prince’s duty to provide all the offerings and make reconciliation for the house of Israel (Ezekiel 45:17). The people were to bring their offerings to him according to the rules already given, and he was to carry them to the sanctuary and make up anything that was lacking from his own resources.

This shows that rulers should take care of religion and see that its duties are carried out properly by those under them. Nothing needed for worship should be left undone. The magistrate is responsible for both tables of the law, duty to God and duty to neighbor. It is a blessed thing when those with power and honor lead the way in serving God.

Some special holy times are also set here. One of them is at the beginning of the year, and it seems to be entirely new, not a part of Moses’ law. It is an annual ceremony for cleansing the sanctuary. On the first day of the first month, new year’s day, they were to offer a sacrifice to cleanse the sanctuary (Ezekiel 45:18). That means making atonement for the sins attached to the holy things of the past year, so those sins would not carry over into the new year’s service. It also means asking for grace to prevent such sins and to carry out the sanctuary’s service better in the year ahead. As a sign of this, the blood of the sin offering was to be placed on the posts of the gate of the inner court (Ezekiel 45:19). This showed that atonement was being made for the sins of all who served in that house, priests, Levites, and people, including the sins found in all their worship.

Even earthly sanctuaries need cleansing, and they need it often. The sanctuary above needs none. Those who worship God together should often join in confessing their many faults again, applying the blood of Christ for pardon, and renewing their promise to be more careful in the future. It is very fitting to begin the year with this work, as Hezekiah did when it had been neglected for a long time (2 Chronicles 29:17). They were told to cleanse the sanctuary on the first day of the month because on the fourteenth day they were to eat the Passover, an ordinance that, among all Old Testament commands, pointed most clearly to Christ and the grace of the gospel. So it was fitting that they should begin preparing for it two weeks ahead by cleansing the sanctuary.

This sacrifice was to be repeated on the seventh day of the first month (Ezekiel 45:20). Then it was meant to make atonement for everyone who errs and for anyone who is simple. Anyone who sins goes astray and shows himself foolish and lacking wisdom. Here the focus is on sins done through ignorance, mistake, or carelessness, whether by priests, Levites, or the people. Sacrifices were appointed for sins people committed by surprise, before they realized it, things they would not have done if they had understood rightly, or sins they were later sorry for. But there was no sacrifice for sins done boldly and deliberately, with a high hand (Numbers 15:30). By these repeated sacrifices, the house would be reconciled, that is, God would continue to be at peace with it, keep showing his presence there, and spare it for another year.

The Passover was also to be kept carefully at the appointed time (Ezekiel 45:21). Christ is our Passover, sacrificed for us. We remember that sacrifice and feed on it in faith, rejoicing that we have been rescued from the slavery of sin in Egypt and saved from the sword of the destroying angel, the sword of divine justice, in the Lord’s Supper. That supper is our Passover feast, and the whole Christian life is, and must be, a feast of unleavened bread.

The prince is appointed to provide a sin offering, to be offered for himself and for the people, a bull on the first day (Ezekiel 45:22) and a male goat on the other days (Ezekiel 45:23). This teaches us that, whenever we come before God for fellowship with him, we should keep our eyes on the great sin offering, by which sin was put away and everlasting righteousness was brought in.

Each day of the feast there was also to be a burnt offering, given only for God’s honor. It was to include no fewer than seven bulls and seven rams, with their grain offering, all burned on the altar, yet nothing was truly wasted (Ezekiel 45:23-24).

Then comes the feast of tabernacles, or booths (Ezekiel 45:25). There is no mention here of Pentecost, which came between Passover and Tabernacles. The same sacrifices were to be offered for the seven days of Passover, and these orders go beyond what was given in the law of Moses.

This shows the weakness of the law’s sacrifices for sin. They had to be repeated often, not only every year, but at every feast and every day of the feast, because they could not make the worshiper fully complete (Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 10:3). It also reminds us of the need to repeat our religious duties regularly.

Even though the sacrifice of atonement, that is, the sacrifice that covers sin, has been offered once for all, the sacrifices of praise and gratitude still need to be offered every day. We should keep to a steady pattern of holy duties, as this passage shows.