Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19940821.htm

EZEKIEL: BLOSSOMING DURING LIFE'S MOST SEVERE CRISES
Part XXIV: God's Work In The Millennium To Overcome Sins Abuses
(Ezekiel 45:1-48:35)
  1. Introduction
    1. Abuse caused by sin is always costly. People who have been financially, physically, sexually, spiritually and mentally abused sometimes almost never seem to recover well.
    2. Though this life is a disaster in terms of abuses, there is an age coming when God will reverse this tragedy and demonstrate His great power to renew and to turn tragedy around. Ez. 45:1-48:35 pictures this:
  2. God's Work In The Millennium To Overcome Sins Abuses, Ez. 45:1-48:35:
    1. God will check the abuses of spiritual apathy in the Levitical priesthood, Ez. 44:28; 45:1-8.
      1. The priests as a whole became spiritually lethargic during Israel's history, failing to teach the people as they increased in material self-sufficiency and apostate ignorance of the Lord, cf. Ez. 7-8 et al.
      2. In the Millennial Kingdom, the priests would all inherit no land throughout the land of Palestine, but be given homes right around the temple complex itself and look to the LORD for food provisions, cf. Ez. 44 :28 with 45:1-7, esp. v. 4-5. This will keep the priests on their toes in looking to the Lord for their provisions, and keep them close to the Lord to make that easier than being scattered throughout Israel.
    2. God will check the abuses in the economy:
      1. God will establish a single weights and measures table, cutting out abuses amongst traders, 45:9-12.
      2. He will eliminate any taxation abuses by Israel's kings, requiring that 1/60 of wheat productions and 1/200 of the sheep of every householder go to the Prince for his provisions, Ez. 45:13-17.
    3. God will check abuses in the worship at the temple that led to apostasy:
      1. To make people avoid the raucous present in Christ's day with the money changers and all, God will demand that those entering the temple from the north must exit to the north, and those entering from the north to exist through the south gate(s), Ez. 46:1-10. Thus, there will be traffic control to maximize worship at the site.
      2. The East gate will be shut except for rare occasions of the worship by the Prince, probably David, Ezekiel 46:11-15. This will observe the honor of Messiah who will have entered the Eastern Gate to begin His Messianic Kingdom, cf. Ez. 43:1-4. God will be constantly honored unlike in Ezekiel's day.
    4. God will keep the family name going strong over abusive legal practices that had weakened family life in Israel. Heirs will receive their fathers' lands though they had been given to slaves as an inheritance, and that after the 50th Year of Jubilee, Ez. 46:16-18
    5. God will eliminate the tragic divine curse upon the area around Sodom and Gomorrah for its hideous immorality judgments:
      1. The Dead Sea became infested with salt due to the judgment of God on Sodom and Gomorrah for its gross homosexuality, cf. Jude 7 with Gen. 19:24-28.
      2. In the Millennium, pure water will flow out from the Temple towards the Dead Sea, making it purified of salt so that fishermen might do a good business there, Ez. 47:6-10.
      3. However, God was concerned that Israel maintain its reserves of salt, so He will sustain the salt of the marshes and swamps surrounding the Dead Sea, Ez. 47:11!
      4. The trees surrounding this purified Sea would be good both for food as well as for medicines, 47:12.
    6. God will settle boundary disputes by re-districting the tribal boundaries and national boundaries of the nation, Ez. 47:13-23; 48:1-34. But unlike the Old Testament times, God will allow resident Gentiles to own property, thus wiping out any attitudes of racial or ethnic discrimination, Ez. 48:1-34.
    7. God will provide a new name for Jerusalem: it will be called, "The Lord is There." Unlike the pain of having the glory of the Lord depart from the city in judgment, God will finally dwell peacefully among His chosen people of Israel.
Lesson: God will deal not only with the pain, but with the age-old defeats of man's sinful abuses that we almost forget exist (i.e., the salty Dead Sea due to the judgment on ancient Sodom and Gomorrah!). To deal with the tragic effects of sin and its abuse now, God expects us to live for the day when Christ comes back and establishes His Kingdom!