Ezekiel 48
Expositor's Dictionary of Texts
Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west; a portion for Dan.
The Ideal City

Ezekiel 48:8

I. And the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. This need not startle us unduly; we come here somewhat suddenly upon a great philosophy: this is how all things are moulded and ruled and blessed. It is so in the case of the individual heart It is a poor life that has not the sanctuary in the midst of it; it may be invisible: God is a Spirit, and not to be seen; to see Him is to annihilate Him. How poor a life it would be without the unseen, the invisible, the throbbing, trembling life just inside a palpitating veil. What is our life? Is the altar its main ornament and its principal force? Is the altar the centre of our life, a centre without which there would be no life? Do we take all our laws from God, now on stone, now on flowers, now on drops of April rain? Do we live and move and have our being in God? You have no life if you have not the altar or sanctuary in the midst of your very heart; without that your life is a kind of haphazard game; you will try this and plunge into that and adventure the other.

II. Think of a house without a sanctuary in the midst! Do not accept my definition of sanctuary, you are not bound to accept any man's definition of that holy word, but you are bound as a man standing upright, with some touch of majesty about you, to have a secret sanctuary, a place of holy communion, from which you must for the moment banish your very dearest one that you may see One dearer still, and see that dearer One with the vision of the heart; then you are master of the day.

III. And so it is in life's daily business; the sanctuary must be in the midst of it We mistake the values and proportions of things. And a man is in such great haste to get away to his business, which only means, unless there be a high spiritual tone about the man's very soul, that the business will one day go away from him. A curious life, a singular life, a ghostly life! Oh that men were wise! And so the altar must be in the City. The sanctuary must be in the midst of it.

IV. Did Jesus Christ ever say anything about this matter? Yes; He spoke upon every subject under heaven and above heaven. He gives you exactly this idea of the sanctuary of God being in the midst of the heart, the home, the business, and the City. He said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you'. What would He do? He would put the sanctuary in the midst, He would make the sanctuary and all that the word sanctuary implies the main thing in life. And I tell you that unless Christianity be the main thing it ought not to be in the life at all; it is the supreme truth, or is it an empty pretence and disappointing mockery. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God.'

—Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. v. p. 146.

Ezekiel 48:35

Ezekiel, taught to feel the Divine nearness on a foreign soil, applied the words with a new meaning, and found in them a new measure of what was implied by the Divine nearness. The betrothed who delight themselves with planning the house they are to share together would settle every detail with a less loving elaboration than the exile who thus in spirit revisited his native city, and trod the courts of a new temple. To measure its walls and plan out even the outhouses that surrounded it was the pastime of weary hours which the ebb of inspiration left empty and chill, and no civil duty or hope intervened to cheer and occupy.

—Miss Wedgwood.

It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset. Time present works for time to come. Work then, and hope! Such is Ezekiel's cry.... As for the city built by him, he mutters above it this mysterious Name, Jehovah Shammah, which signifies 'The Eternal is there'. Then, standing silent in the darkness, he shows men, on the far horizon, an ever-widening space of azure sky.

—Victor Hugo.

References.—XLVIII. 35.—Silvester Whitehead, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvi. 1904, p. 56. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No. 2182.

And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Asher.
And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.
And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.
And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.
And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben.
And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.
And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.
The oblation that ye shall offer unto the LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth.
And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.
It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites.
And over against the border of the priests the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.
And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.
And these shall be the measures thereof; the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.
And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.
And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city.
And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.
All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city.
And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.
Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.
As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion.
And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.
And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a portion.
And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side, Zebulun a portion.
And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion.
And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea.
This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions, saith the Lord GOD.
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.
Nicoll - Expositor's Dictionary of Texts

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