Ezekiel 46

Chap. XLVI. Ver. 1—24. Ordinances for worship.—“‘ We should worship and commune with God every day, in our closets and families, and in public as we have time and opportunity. On six days of the week indeed, men are called to serve God in their temporal employments; and must not neglect those duties, even for the sake of spending all their time in his more immediate worship. But on his own day we all should occupy ourselves wholly in his sacred service; and, laying aside every other employment and all avocations, as much as may be, and shaking off sloth and inactivity, we must learn to delight in the succession of one religious exercise to another, as the proper business of the whole day: and it may be right occasionally to appropriate a day from the other six, to be spent in a similar manner.

It behooves those in authority to use their influence and example, in promoting a general regard to the worship of God, and their wealth in preparing every thing for it; they should frequent his holy ordinances with reverence and attention, and without betraying an air of weariness: for, however they may be distinguished in other matters from their subjects, they are in the sight of God entirely upon a level with them; and every distinction admissible respecting his worship, between them and others, must be confined merely to external circumstances. But whether rulers will or will not join with us, in attending on the lively ordinances, in which ‘ Christ is set forth as evidently crucified among us:’ he, our Prince of Peace, will surely manifest his presence amidst us: and especially when we spend his holy day with his assembled saints, and feed by humble faith on the Sacrifice, which he has prepared and offered for us.

In expectation and assurance of his glorious and gracious presence, we should worship with reverence in his courts; abound in spiritual sacrifices; consecrate our talents and substance to him, according to our ability; and take care that every thing be done decently and in order. We should recollect, that Press forward is the Christian’s motto: we must still depart farther and farther from our sins, and sinful pursuits and connexions; and get farther into the knowledge, practice, and experience of the gospel: and we should dread a hypocritical profession and worship, which generally terminate in a man’s returning into his old course of sin and death.—The Lord has prescribed us many duties, as of indispensable obligation; but he has also graciously left many things to our voluntary choice; especially as to the proportion of our time and substance to be appropriated to his immediate worship and service; that they, who ‘greatly delight in his commandments,’ may abound in them to his glory, the edification of their brethren, and their own benefit; without entangling their own consciences, or prescribing rules that might be inexpedient to others; or inducing them to formal services, for which they have no heart, and in which God could have no pleasure.

But we must never omit our daily worship, nor neglect to apply the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, to our souls, for pardon, peace, and salvation.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XLVI. Ver. 1. Gate of the Seer prophet had before observed, that the east gate of the outer court was shut, and was told, that it must only be opened for the prince; and now he is informed, that the gate of the inner court on the east was also shut and is to be opened only on the sabbath and new moons till the evening. ]—Bagster. Ver. 2. Prepare burnt-offerings.—{Or, ‘‘ Offer,” as the word asah frequently denotes. The whole of this seems to intimate the constant, reverential and exemplary attendance of kings on the pure ordinances of religion, in the approaching flourishing days of the church. }—Bagster. Ver. 4. Six lambs… and a ram.—The Mosaic law appointed only two lambs, without a ram.—{The proportions of the burnt-offerings, and also of the meat and drink-offerings, are very different here from those passed in the Mosaic law.

The meat-offering under the law, was only three tenths of an ephah to a bullock, two tenths for a ram, and one tenth for a lamb, with the fourth part of a hin of oil. }—Bagster. Ver. 9. People of the land.—(This may intimate that every thing should be regulated in divine worship, so as to prevent disorder and interruption, and also that men should go forward and make progress in religion, and not turn their backs upon God.) —Bagster. Ver. 13. Daily prepare.—(It is observable, that there is nothing said about the evening sacrifice, or the additional lamb, morning and evening, on the sabbath, which makes an important difference between this and the old laws; and it is probably an intimation of that change in the external forms of religion which the coming of the Messiah should introduce.

]—Bagster. Ver. 14. Every morning.—Heb. “Morning by morning.” —Here is no mention of an evening sacrifice, which forms another important variation from the Mosaic law. See xxix. 38—40. Ver. 17. Year of liberty.—|That is, to the year of Jubilee, called the year of liberty, because there was then a general release: all servants had liberty; and all alienated estates returned to their former owners. |— Bagster. Ver. 19. Entry.—(This entry was at the west side of the north gate of the inner court: see ch. xliv. 4, 5: —Place.—This place was at the west corners of the inner court, or court of the priests; where they prepared the most holy things, the trespass and sin-offering, which none but the priests might eat; that they might not “bear them out into the outer court, to sanctify the people,”

that is, by touching them incapacitate them from discharging their ordinary occupations. ]—Bagster. Ver. 22. There were courts joined, &c.—[These courts in the corners of the outer court, or court of the people, appear to have been a kind of uncovered apartments, surrounded with little chambers for the cooks, and used for dressing the peace-offerings of the people. On these their families and friends feasted; and portions were sent to the poor, the widow, and orphan; and thus the spirit of devotion preserved the spirit of mercy, charity, and benevolence, in the land.]—Bagster. Newcome, “Small courts, 48 cubits long,” &c. But our margin reads, “made with chimneys.” = Chap. XLVI. Ver. 1. Under the threshold.—See note on (Ezekiel 43:8); also on Rev. xlvi. 2, 3.—[Solomon’s temple and the second temple were doubtless well supplied with water, probably conveyed there by means of pipes; but these waters flowed from the temple, not as a common sewer, but as a fertilizing river. A fountain producing abundance of water was not in the temple, and could not be there on the top of such a hill; and consequently these waters, as well as those spoken of by Joel and Zechariah, must be understood figuratively and typically. ~These waters doubtless were an emblem of the “gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;” and their gradual rise beautifully represents its progress, from small beginnings to an