This is the final Ezekiel lesson, after weeks and weeks of study.
I had no idea it would take this long, originally thinking one Lesson per chapter would suffice!
The Book ends with a great sentence, too!
“And these are the goings out of the city on the NORTH side, four thousand and five hundred measures. And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi. And at the EAST side four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan. And at the SOUTH side four thousand and five hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun. At the WEST side four thousand and five hundred, with their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali. It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.” Ezekiel 48:30-35, King James Version
We again name the four points of the compass, encircling the whole City! In the process learning the City has twelve gates! (“Whosoever will may come!) Each named for one of the Sons of Jacob! (But not in their natural birth order, not as we first learned them in Genesis!)
Also, instead of Ephraim and Manasseh being listed separately (as usual) … their Grandfather Joseph is listed, keeping the numbers neat and whole, exactly at twelve. Also notice that Levi is given a gate, named in his honor. The Levites, the priestly tribe! (Not always included.)
The city will be over a mile and a half in each direction, room for multitudes. This is not counting the vast tribal areas earlier granted to these Jewish Families! Plenty of room, in an expanded Holy Land, at least in some ways.
Clearly looks to me like the city is (using an old word) “foursquare,” Ezekiel calling it “round about eighteen thousand measures.” Everywhere God lives the architecture seems to match that foursquare description! The Holy of Holies was ten cubits wide and long and high! (So will New Jerusalem, our eternal home, be foursquare, so says John in Revelation 21:16. “And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.” Yes!)
Thus … Ezekiel 48 certainly ends appropriately! “And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.” Ezekiel 48:35b
“THE LORD IS THERE,” in Hebrew Jehovah Shammah! For a thousand glorious years! The entire Millennium, which is merely a sweet “foretaste” of all eternity!
Wow!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
But Oh, I am so glad that I can say as I type these words at our kitchen table … speaking of myself, within my own heart … “THE LORD IS HERE, TOO!!!”
Hallelujah!