Ezekiel Bible Study: April 23, 2025

Okay, so tonight we're gonna finish up Ezekiel 46 and get into one of the books or one of the chapters of the Bible. I always enjoy Ezekiel 47, where we talk about the temple and the waters that flow out from us. It's just me very encouraging and a very inspiring chapter that will show so much about God physically in the millennium, but the spiritual effects he has in our lives as well. But we didn't finish up chapter 46 last week, so we're going to begin there, where we were talking about the prince and all of his responsibilities in overseeing the temple district, the temple itself, all the responsibilities he had for the sacrifices and making sure those were done, and overseeing the land, the temple, and the prince's land that surrounded those areas that were designated for the temple as well. You'll remember that we have been talking about some Old Testament principles in this, because as the millennial temple is in operation, it will be using the Old Testament statutes, laws, ordinances, cleansing rituals that God had ordained for the people back then. There's a lot of lessons to be learned from those, as we've talked about. Last week, we talked some about the sacrifices. This week, as we finish up chapter 46, we'll talk about the Jubilee year, or the year of liberty, it's called here in verse 17 of chapter 46, because that law, as well as all the agricultural laws that we read in the Old Testament, will be in force during that millennial time, and people will be living exactly the way that God had designed that they lived. So let's pick it up in verse 16 of chapter 46. And there it says, Thus says the Lord God, if the prince gives a gift of some of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons. It's their possession by inheritance. So before we had read about the prince and that he was never going to be able to appropriate any land from anyone else. Everyone was going to own their own land, and he would have his own inheritance of land that we've passed on to his sons, as we see here in verse 16 and verse 17. It says, But if he gives a gift of some of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty, after which it shall return to the prince. But his inheritance shall belong to his sons, it shall become theirs. So we have this principle that God had given Israel back in Old Testament times, that if you fall into debt and you need to give a portion of your land away or sell yourself into debt, there is this year of release that would come about where everything retreats to its original owners. So let's just take a second and go back to there and look at that. In Leviticus 25, we know it is the Jubilee year, the year of liberty, but just because this is what will be used in the millennium as well, Leviticus 25, so I can get to Leviticus here, 25.

And let's pick it up in verse 10. Leviticus 25, 10. You shall consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It'll be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. The 50th year will be a Jubilee to you, in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is the Jubilee, it shall be holy to you, you shall eat as produce from the field. And so again it repeats in verse 13, you shall return, you shall return to his possession. So give your land away, lend it out to someone for some reason, but in the 50th year it reverts to the owners. In verse 20... got verse 28 here, but I think it's verse 25. Let me look here for a minute. 23. Let's look at verse 23. You know what, let's read verse 20 as well, because it just said here that you shouldn't, you won't have any props in that Jubilee or anything like that. And verse 20, you know, people will say, well then what are we going to eat, right? Verse 20 says, and if you say, what shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce, then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce, you know, for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year and eat old produce until the ninth year, until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest. So you can see what God is saying here. The land is going to have its Sabbath. In the seventh year, you're not going to plant anything, but just like he told Israel when they went out to gather the manna, right? On the sixth day, on the sixth day, gather a double portion and eat it, eat the second half of it on the Sabbath. And I will provide for you. He's doing the same thing here in this jubilee year. In the sixth year, you'll have double the crops. You don't have to worry about what you're going to eat in the seventh year. And then you're going to sow again in the eighth year. Verse 23, then, the land shall not be sold permanently. Today we can do that, right? Today I can sell my house here tomorrow if someone wanted to buy it and move on to something else. But here God says, no, the land is a gift from him. The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine, God says, for you are strangers and sown jurors with me. And in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land. So, you know, it's God who owns the land. He created the earth. And what he's saying, I can give it to who I will. I am the rightful. I am the rightful owner of the land. And so he intended people to have a part of the earth. He gave it to us to tend. He gave it to us to learn from. He gave it to us to till and to learn all the things about God that we can learn from the physical creation around us. And he always intended people would have land. You know, we won't take the time to go to Micah 4 verse 4, but it says, everyone will sit under his own vine, have his own vineyard, and sit under his own fig tree. That will be life in the millennium. Everyone will have land. And once the land is given to them, it stays theirs. And if they do give it away for some reason or have to lease it out or whatever goes on during that time, it's going to revert to them. It'll revert to them in the 50th year. We drop down now to verse 28.

Yeah, verse 28 then tells, if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee, and the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return it to his possession.

So that's kind of the Jubilee here. That's what we're talking about here in Ezekiel 46 as well. So let's go back there.

Let's go back there. And again, we can see, and the prince is responsible for all this. He is overseeing all this, so he needs to know the entire Bible, all the laws of God. It reminds you of Deuteronomy 17, where when a king would come into power in Israel or Judah, he told them, take the law and write it all down. Write it all down and commit it to your mind, because this is what you're going to judge by. It's your job to administer the law that God has, and the prince there will be responsible for that. He will know the principles of the Bible, and he will administer them justly. So in Ezekiel 46 then, in verse 18, God again repeats, the prince, he might want to see himself as a king, but Jesus Christ is the king, right? He's not going to practice the way the kings of the earth today do, or over the prince shall not take any of the people's inheritance by evicting them from their property. He shall provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of my people may be scattered from his property. So God makes his intent pretty clear. People will have their land. It belongs to them. Neither the prince or anyone in that kingdom can permanently take the land or the inheritance away from the people. It is God's will that people have a piece of the land that they call theirs, and that they work with. In verse 19, then he goes on and he continues to talk about the administration of the temple. And he's going back to these offerings, because you'll remember with the offerings, the burnt offering itself was one that was completely burned. Neither the priests nor the offerr partook in eating any part of that offering. But of the trespass offerings and the sin offerings and the grain offerings, the priest ate a portion of it. A portion of it was burned to give to God, but the other portion was for the Levites to eat. And then of the peace offerings, the actual offerr partook of some of that as well. They ate with the priests. Some was offered to God. Some was reserved for the priests to eat, and the Levites, and some for the offerr. And this is what he's going to be talking about here in the rest of the chapter. In verse 19, then it says, He brought me, this one who's showing Ezekiel the temple, now He brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate into the holy chambers of the priests who faced toward the north. And there was a place, and there a place was situated at their extreme western end. I'm going to pull up a map here that will show you that.

If I can find the right map here.

Yeah. So you can see this map again, and I don't know if you can see my cursor here, but you'll see, here's the northern gate where I'm circling, and then you have these chambers that we talked about, where the priests of the sons of Zadok would live. And then here you have the kitchen area at the extreme western end of the temple. Right in here, there's one, a similar one for the other, that priests that aren't of the sons of Zadok over here. So that's the area that God is talking about, this kitchen area type thing that is going to be at the extreme western end. So He brought me into the holy chambers of the priests, which faced toward the north, and there was a place, and there a place was situated at their extreme western end. And He said to me, this is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the grain offering. So that's those are the ones that they were able to eat themselves. Right? Portion was sacrificed to God, but portion of it was reserved for the priests to eat. So that's where they were going to bake those things and eat those that that was meant for them, where they shall bake the grain offering, so that they do not bring them out into the outer court to sanctify the people. So this is all the inner court here, and then the people were in the outer court here. So the priests did their duties on the inside here, including eating the sacrifices that were brought to them, the portions that were meant for them to eat. Then it says in verse 21, He brought me out into the outer court down here. It says, outer court, He brought me to the outer court and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court. Here you have these four corners. People's kitchen is what they're labeled, right? One, two, three, four, and each of the four corners of the court. And in fact, in every corner of the court, there was another court. In the four corners of the court were enclosed courts, 40 cubits long and 30 wide. All four corners were the same size. There was a row of building stones all around in them, all around the floor of them, and cooking hearths were made under the rows of stones all around. And He said to me, these are the kitchens where the ministers of the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people. So when they would bring their peace offerings, as I said, part was offered to God, part was reserved for the priests to eat, and a part for the people to eat. And those were brought into the outer court, into those four kitchens, where the people would eat. Would eat their portion with the priests. With the priests is what the commentaries generally say. It was an opportunity for them to mix with the priests at that time. So that concludes chapter 46. Before we move into chapter 47, are there any questions, comments, or anything that anyone would want to talk about? Okay, well then let's move in. I should have left the picture up here. We'll move into chapter 47. I'm going to have a series here in the first few verses, three different pictures I'm going to show you, because these are quite jam-packed verses here. Of course, oh I'm sorry, I see uh, Ms. Readers, if you have a question.

You'll have to turn your mic on.

Did you ever find a gate at that western end? Oh, no, there isn't a gate. Remember that is there at the western end. There's that large, what they think is a supply building.

In the very back here, the temple, there's this west building, and if there is a gate, it just enters into that what what that best will be, that west building is. But it's only the north, south, and east gates that are talked of, spoken of. Oh, so that could possibly have a supply gate. It could be a supply gate, yes, to bring the supplies into that whole district there. So, thank you. Bill Bratt.

Mentioned about boiling the sacrifices. Is there a reason why it'd be boiling? Maybe not like frying it up like a steak or something like that, or grilling it? Um, you know, those are just, there are some, some that God says burn, some that He says boil. So, I didn't go back and see if the boil in the Old Testament was there for those sacrifices or not, but that that's what the words are for there. So, let's just do it the way God says. So, thank you.

Barry.

Well, I had looked up the word boil before in, in strongs, and it could mean boil, it could be, it could mean broil, and it could mean baked or roasted also. It doesn't necessarily have to mean boiled. Okay, very good, very good. I wonder if the King James, if it says boil, did you look that up to see if the King James does that, or if it says something else?

No, I got the new King James. Yeah, me too. So, yeah, let me just see if the King James has a different word than that as well. So, okay, very good.

Okay, let's move on to chapter 47, then. I'm going to leave that picture up because down at the very bottom is where the east gate is, right? And you see the water coming out from under the temple area there in the, in that eastern gate, and that's what it's talking about here in chapter 47. It says, then he, again, as Ezekiel has the vision, he brought Ezekiel back to the door of the temple, okay, and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple, toward the east, where the front of the temple faced east. The water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. So, you can see, you can see that in this picture. Yeah, the water that's apparently running underneath here, then it comes out on the right side of the altar, and then becomes a little trickle, if you will, as you come out from the temple, and then it knows where it comes. It runs underneath. Deeper and deeper. It runs more than the other side.

I'm sorry. Yeah, okay.

Let me say, Bill, did you have a comment? Yes, sir. In the old King James, the word was boil, B-O-I-L, just to confirm that. Okay, very good. And Tracy.

I just looked that up, and the Strong's Concordance on my phone, it's a primitive root, this is for King James Version, primitive root, properly to boil up, hence to be done in cooking, figuratively to ripen, bake, boil, bring forth, is right, rose, seed, sod, be sodded. Okay, okay, very good. It says all of that. Okay. So, now we have the temple water. Now, as we go into this, I mean, there's all sorts of, there are all sorts of spiritual implications as well. We could spend probably the next half hour talking about the water representing the Holy Spirit. We could talk about the water providing the healing of people, certainly as God gave us His Holy Spirit. He spiritually healed us of the thinking, the sick thinking that we used to have, the sick way that we used to behave.

And we became people and continue to become people like Him with the right attitudes and the right outlook on life and the right love for one another and Him that we have by adhering to His principles and having them in our hearts and minds. So, these, it comes from the temple, and it's a very figurative thing that the water begins from the temple, that the threshold of the temple, the healing living waters come from God. That's what this is showing here. And in the physical temple, they come from that very holy place, the inner court, the temple, the most holy place, the throne shoulder of the temple. That's where life begins. That's where healing begins. It comes from God, and then it flows out to the whole world. It has an effect on the people and all the world. So, you have a beautiful picture that is emerging here as we look at this picture of the temple. Before we go any further, you know, let's look at a few other places here. In Joel, if we go forward, just a few books. In the book of Joel, it also talks about this fountain that comes out from the temple in that day from God's temple. Joel 3 and verse 18, it says, it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine.

Let's, you know, again, you can look in Amos 8 and 9, the minor prophets where it talks about the millennium coming and how crops will just be multiplied. Just as we read in the 60-year, the harvester will be, or the person planting will have to overtake the harvester, there'll be so much. Anyway, it'll come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will be flooded with water, a fountain, a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Acacias.

So you have this significant part of the temple that we're just talking about after we talked about everything else. We go back to Revelation 21.

We see that this temple, that this temple, this physical temple we were talking about, is represented here at the end of the book of Revelation as well. And we're going to see, it's almost like a type of the temple that God is going to bring down from heaven when he has the new heavens and the new earth and the temple that he will dwell in with man after the purpose for physical man is complete, after the purpose for physical earth is complete, and that is done. So we go to Revelation 21 and pick it up in verse 22. Let me get my notes here.

21-22. This is talking about the time when, later, but it says, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it.

You know, the temple we've been talking about, the Eastern Gate, was shut because Jesus Christ, no one would enter into that. Here it says in verse 25, that gate, those gates, shall not be shut at all by days. There shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall be by no means enter into it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. You'll recall, even in the physical millennial temple we talked about, there were those guards, so you would need it to be ritually clean before you could enter the temple. Nothing that was defiled was to enter into it. And then in verse chapter 22 and verse 1, you have this temple, this temple that comes down from heaven that God dwells in. It says, He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. And I'm going to go ahead and read verse 2, because later on we're going to see these trees, these trees that are going to line this river that emanates from the temple in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. If someone has your mic on, you might want to turn it off. Hello, someone want to turn your mic off?

Stop sharing and find this.

Okay, so we have in chapter 22, then, we have this picture of the temple. It's a very significant thing in God's mind, the millennial temple, and then the temple as God brings down from earth.

You know, we have this temple. I pulled the picture down again. I'll put it back up in a minute.

A different one, this, I think. So in verse 2, then, of chapter 47, you can imagine Ezekiel. He's seen all this temple. Remember, God said, Ezekiel, write down everything, write down the tale. Put your full attention to what I am showing you. And Ezekiel does an incredible job, of course, inspired by God in recording all of this. In verse 2, he says, He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east, and there was water running out on the right side. So let me pull up this picture, then. You can see this temple here, a slightly different picture. You can see the water coming out from the altar area, out through the right, as you're facing east, right on the right side, the water coming out. And then he says, He took me out by way of this north gate, right? So when you go out the north gate, remember, this is a very large area of the temple area. This isn't the whole district. This is just the temple area. If you go out by way of the north gate, you're walking around the temple. It's a ways to go around here. And he says, He brings me around by the east gate, and then he sees this river, this river that's here. He led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east, and there was water running on the right side. And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits. You can see it's the water. It's shallow as you go here, so people can pass through. But then as the water flows further and further from the temple, it becomes deeper and deeper, wider and wider. And so this is what he's saying, as you go away from the temple, go out a thousand cubits, and he was able to go through the waters, and the water came up to his ankles. But then he went another thousand cubits, and the water came up to my knees. Again, another thousand cubits, so the water came to my waist. And then verse 5, another thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. So you can see, as the water flows into the world, it becomes deeper and deeper. It becomes more and more of a refreshing, life-giving element to the world around it. It's there. Around the temple, you can wade through it. The water is there. It's present. You know it. And as it goes out to the masses, it becomes a veritable river. And wherever it goes, it provides life. Now, another picture here that I thought was pretty interesting, the way they depicted it.

Yeah, this one you can see. And I looked it up. I mean, no one knows exactly how long these cubits were back in the time that this book was written, but they say it's about 1.6 miles, 4,000 cubits would probably be. So you can see how from the temple, you know, you go to a thousand, and you can still cross easily the river. Two thousand is knee-deep, and then you come to four thousand, and then you have a veritable river that can't be crossed. You have to swim it, but it can't be crossed. The water has become very, very strong at that point. And so, verse 6, then, he says, he said to me, Son of Man, have you seen me? Have you seen this? Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. So as I'm out in the river, and Ezekiel is trying to swim across the river, it's like this is really deep. This is really wide. Brought back to the banks of the river. And it says, when I returned there, along the bank of the river were very many trees on one side or the other. Now, you can see all the green kind of depictions of trees there. And as with any river that we would cross today, you usually see forests. You see a lot of trees around the river. It's just rich soil around the riverbed. The trees grow tremendously. Vegetation grows there. Of course, we have the example of Egypt, where the Nile runs. It's very fertile ground. It feeds that entire country there. So you have this river, and you have all these trees around it, and these trees, this forest that emanates from there. And as you just remember, at the time that this is built, there has been a devastating attack on the world at that time.

You have the world that has been under decimation by the armies that were there. Jerusalem has been rebuilt. But the landscape has been decimated. It has been a desolate place. So you have this water, and now you have all these trees that are growing there. Now, where there are trees, there is life. It's notable, as I learned in just some things I was studying not too long ago. The Bible talks about trees a lot. The only living thing that it talks about more than trees besides God and Jesus Christ is mankind. Trees are meant to be. They are life-giving. They are symbols of life that are there. So it's notable that there were very many trees on one side and the other. In 1 Corinthians he said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. Now, I was going to mention that we read in Revelation 22 that on either side of the river was the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life, the same Tree of Life that was there when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. If they had just taken the Tree of Life and followed God's way, how much different the world would be. But of course, we have all learned lessons in our lives by what evil is, the face of evil, how we have to reject evil, and how much more joyous, happy, peaceful, and every other good synonym or good adjective you can come up with that living God's way is.

So you have in Revelation 22 the Tree of Life on either side of the river producing leaves for the healing of the nations. And these trees produce that as well. We will see here in verse 12. But as he talks about this river flowing out toward the east, he then goes into this section where the water flows to the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea is literally what it is. It is dead. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Scientists say that it's six times saltier than the ocean. So there's nothing in it. It literally is a Dead Sea. So here you have this depiction that someone did. You have the water flowing from the temple, and they become wider and wider, and they reach toward the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has nothing in it. But when those healing waters from the temple reach that Dead Sea, they become alive again. It's such a symbol of when we receive God's Holy Spirit, and His Holy Spirit is in us, and we have Christ living in us. That life comes back into us. Jesus Christ said that He is life. When we have Him in us, His Holy Spirit in us, He is life. And this picture of what happens with the temple and the waters going to the Dead Sea and bringing life to it is dramatic and inspiring. So in verse 8 it says, He said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. Kind of a miracle. No, not kind of a miracle, a definite miracle. The healing waters of God. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there, for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.

Ah, the river, the river of life? God's Holy Spirit. Wherever His Spirit is, wherever that living water is, there is life. It shall be that fishermen will stand by it. You can see where Anguete and Anglium are on that map there. It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from Anguete to Anglium. They will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many.

So, if you lived in the little nation of Israel now, or if you're an ancient Israelite, you would know you're not going fishing by the Dead Sea. There's nothing there. And yet, in that day, fishermen will be on those banks fishing from that Dead Sea, because the living waters from the temple have brought life back to it. And there are as many fish in that sea now as there are in the Great Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, over to the north and west on that map.

So, it's a beautiful picture of what God does, and wherever he goes, there is life. So, you know, as I look at this map, I want to, you'll notice that as we look at this map, and we're talking about the waters from the temple flowing out toward the east, they go to the Dead Sea and they heal it. But you notice in this depiction here, there's also waters coming around from the east gate of the temple that go around to the south and then head toward the Western Sea or the Mediterranean Sea.

And you may wonder, because we don't read about that in Ezekiel 47, but if we go to the book of Zechariah, we see where that is spoken about as well, and where these waters divide. So, let's go to Zechariah 14 and verse 8, and we'll see that. Again, whenever it says, in that day, usually it is talking about in that day, in the millennium, in the end times, in that day, verse 8 of Zechariah 14, in that day it will be that living waters shall float from Jerusalem, half of them toward the Eastern Sea, that's the Dead Sea, and half of them toward the Mediterranean Sea or the Western Sea.

In both summer and winter it shall occur, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day it shall be, the Lord is one, and his name one. Now, it's interesting, you know, that it says that those waters will flow in both summer and winter it shall occur. Again, there are some times in the dead of winter the waters freeze and flowing stops, I guess, in some rivers, but God's Spirit is always there.

It always flows year-round when we have it live when he have his Spirit living in us. There is no dead season. It is always there. It always provides life. There's always fruit that are being produced. So those trees that are surrounding those deep waters as they flow from the temple out toward the east and toward the Dead Sea will start to be there year-round continually growing. No off-season, no time where things are just lying dormant, always growing and always becoming more and more like God. It's the picture that he's showing here of what our lives are supposed to be when we have those living waters flowing through us.

And that will be the millennium. You know, I hope that, you know, as we talk about the temple and we talk about all these things going on, we think about those rivers that we can put ourselves there and think, how magnificent was it for Ezekiel to be able to see these things and feel what God was showing him and to see the presence of God and all that, and how wonderful it will be when we're there and we see these things. And we experience the very same things and see the life and the joy and the productivity of life and the purpose of life when Christ is on earth and everyone is living that way.

And that all these things come to life. We go back to chapter 47, then in Ezekiel. We have this picture of life, the Dead Sea coming to life, fishermen lining its banks and fishing from it just as they do from the Great Sea. But you have in chapter, in verse 11, this little word, but, this little three-letter word, but, that tells us there's something that isn't 100% perfect there yet.

It will become that way, just like we are to become perfect and become blameless as we will go through our life with God. And evermore, as the Spirit is in us, we become more and more like Him. In verse 11, it says, but, but it swamps and marshes will not be healed. And you can see down there in this map that's on there, down to the southern part of it, you have this marsh area that's there. God says, it swamps and its marshes will not be healed. They will be given over to salt, just like the Dead Sea today is given over to salt and nothing will live in it.

Those marshes and salt in that time will not be healed.

Now, you can look at commentaries. I don't know if our UCG commentary says this or not. They have various explanations of what that means. But we know that as people live over into the Millennium, there are going to be people, not everyone is going to immediately accept Jesus Christ. There are people who are coming into there with their various backgrounds, with the various things that have developed in their minds as they've lived in this life. Many of them have not even understood who God is. They still reject God. We, just in chapter 38 of Ezekiel, read of Gog and Magog, who even in the face of Jesus Christ being king over the earth and watching over Jerusalem and the city of unwalled villages, they still determine that they're going to come down and they're going to plunder the land there out of God. And of course, God takes care of that. And it says, His name will be known among them when He exacts His punishment or the recompense for what they're doing on them. But there will be people who still will not accept Christ fully. And that's what I think this is what this is talking about. There will still be those that are not healed.

Back a long time ago, I think it was in the book of Isaiah, we did read about the lake of fire, the Gehenna fire, that burns outside of Jerusalem during that time. And it's almost like it's a living reminder that there is death if you don't obey God. That's where that's the lake of fire. But anyway, that's what verse 11 appears to be talking about, because there will be some who still will not yield to God. And they will be salt. I guess we can even look at someone like Lot's wife. I mean, when God took them out of Sodom and Gomorrah and said, don't look back, and she looked back to so, thank God, she turned into a pillar of salt. She was dead. So here in this area, there will still be that little element. It won't be there when the whole earth is burned up and replaced with the new heaven and new earth that we read about in Revelation 20.22.

But in verse 12 then, at 47, we go back to these trees that are there, these trees that provide the healing, showing that there are things that God gives on earth that can help our bodies in the various ways that they need. In verse 12, he says, along the bank on the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month. Here we go again. We always are bearing fruit. God's people are always bearing fruit. Galatians 5.22, we look, we behave, we think. We, in our hearts, become more of the love, joy, peace, goodness, self-control. All those nine elements are up nine fruits of the Spirit. Their leaves will not wither, their fruit will not fail. Remember John 15, Jesus Christ speaks very eloquently about the fruit that we should bear and how God is produced when we produce much fruit. These trees, these trees, and remember in Psalm 1, people are compared to trees, compared to trees as well. So these are literal trees, but like trees, God is looking for us to produce fruit just like these trees will be producing fruit. They will bear fruit every month because their water flows from the sanctuary. Those fat fruit, fat fruit grows because of God's Holy Spirit. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine. Just like today, there are things that we use in nature that can help digestive issues and other issues that we might have. God built that into their understanding that our bodies were from time to time going to get sick. Now we can find some of those things, certainly looking to Him for healing, but also what we can do. We hearken back to Isaiah. I think it's chapter 35, 36, 37, to there where Hezekiah was very sick with boils, and God said he was going to die. When he pleaded for God for his life, God said, I'll give you another 15 years. But then Isaiah was given a poultice of figs to put on that on his leg. And it was God who healed, but he did use that poultice of figs. Now whatever was in his leg that healed, that helped the healing. Of course, it was God always who heals. Verse 13, thus says the Lord God. Okay, now we're moving into how God is going to divide the land.

Before we move into that, are there any comments, any observations, anything anyone wants to talk about this temple and the river? Well, you're doing that. I want to look at some pictures here and see if I've forgotten to put up anything. No, I think I think we've seen the pictures here that we need to see that help illustrate these verses. Mr. Shaby, I do have a question. Sure, go ahead. If I missed it already, I'm sorry. I'm wondering how this river and these trees compare to the river and the tree in Revelation 21. Yeah. I know we've been there a little bit, but it's not they're not the same river and trees, right? They're not the same river and trees. No, that's because this will be 21. Yeah, that's later on, right? This is at the beginning of the millennium, and Revelation 21 and 22 are of the temple at the end there as we showed. Yeah, the city, not the temple. Yeah. Okay, but there's so many similarities, is why I asked that. Yeah. The healing, the river of life. So it's like almost like a second river and trees. Yeah, it is, and you can see the pattern, though. The millennial temple, what it does, and then the temple that comes down from heaven, very similar with the same elements. Okay, thank you. Well, then let's move into the land divisions here for a little bit, because as we read about the prince in chapter 46, it's very, very important to God that everyone has land. And he designates the various areas that the tribes of Israel will have, that he assigns to them, that this will be where their land is. And we begin reading that in verse 13 of chapter 47. And there's a lot of tedious stuff in here. Well, more when we get into chapter 48, lesson 47. But let's just read through some of that. I guess I will go ahead and put up a map right now so you can kind of see what he is talking about here. This is pretty much the land area around the Mediterranean Sea and modern-day Israel, but extending out beyond that of what God is going to designate for the tribes of Israel. You can see in this map, you can see it's pretty well divided. You've got the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph is divided into Manasseh and Ephraim, of course, but then you have the Levites down there in the white section, where the temple is located, where the princes land off to the east and west of the temple district is. You can see it down there in the southern third of that map there. And you can see how it's all divided there.

And it talks about the divisions of where these are here in chapter 47. So this map is done by that. There's also one in our UCG commentary I'll put up in a little bit. This one just illustrates it, I think, a little bit clearer than that does. But let's begin reading in verse 13. Thus says the Lord God, these are the borders by which you shall divide the land as an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions, Manasseh and Ephraim, of course. You shall inherit it equally with one another, for I raised my hand in an oath to give it to your fathers, and the land shall fall to you as your inheritance. This is the land that God promised Abraham way back in Genesis, where he said, look around you, this is the land that I will give you, this is the promised land. Commentaries will say that Israel never inherited because of their disobedience to God and their lack of faith in him. They never inherited all of the land that God promised to Abraham back in those chapters. But this, they say, is what he promised, and this is where Israel, Israel and the millennium, will dwell, but where their lands will be allocated.

So that's that's that, right? Okay, verse 15 says, this shall be the border of your land of the north from the great sea. That's the Mediterranean Sea by the road to Heflon.

To Heflon, as one goes to Zedad, Hamath, and all these cities, you see Hamath up there, which is the between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath, and those borders, you know, the people, the map makers have done these, whether they're absolutely perfect. I don't know, I didn't get out of map of Israel and ancient Israel to see exactly where these things are, but and so it says, thus the boundary shall be from the sea to um, Hazar. Well, this is where it gets a little a little detailed here. I don't need to read all of that. This is the north side, and then he says on the east side there how you're going to market between these places of Haran and Damascus, etc. In verse 19 he talks about the south side, where that is going to be, and then also the southern boundary where the west side is. So, verse 21 then, thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel. They shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. So, God does make provision that those who aren't native Israelites or natural-born Israelites, that they would have the opportunity to dwell in here. He says, welcome them in, but when they come there, they live as Israel. We'll go back to the book of Exodus in a second here. That will show that. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, I was looking at my notes here and I was going to mention something back about the Prince, but we'll just we'll save that for another time. Okay, I see a hand. Bob McCurray, do you want you got a comment? Yes, sir. I've got a question back on the beginning of 47. I apologize. I know you've moved on, but there's a couple things in there that either I've misunderstood or perhaps it's some kind of anomaly or maybe a miracle. But when he starts talking about the water that's flowing out from the temple area, he mentions that it's first ankle deep, and then he goes out quite a ways, and it's now waist deep. And then another goodly distance, and it's now too deep to walk through, maybe up to his chest or further. So when I look at that map, then of course I know that we don't know exactly how it's going to be, but the water that's flowing out of the temple is coming from a rather narrow stream, so to speak, underneath perhaps the walls of the temple.

And as it gets further and further, it's getting deeper and deeper. And of course, we don't know that perhaps that map is accurate. It could be getting wider as well. So it would seem that with a small flow of water coming from under the temple that's only ankle deep, how could it get to where it's now up to your waist or even higher, and perhaps even much wider as it flows out? It seems like the water is multiplying to a great degree the further away it gets. And that leads me to think that something miraculous is going by. You couldn't really have a very shallow stream going to a very deep stream unless it was a lake, and that's not what this is. It's a flowing body of water. So it would seem to be that some perhaps miraculous thing is going on here as this water flows out. That's a very good point, Bob. And that's when we go back and in verse 6 it says, it says to Ezekiel, Son of Man, have you seen this? Have you seen this? Probably referring to just what you said. Look, from just a little trickle of water that you can walk across, you can't even swim across what's going on out here. The water just keeps multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. Yeah, it is miraculous. And probably another one of those indications of the more we use God's Holy Spirit, the more Spirit He gives us, and we become more and more like Him. The further and further we get in our lives where we've yielded to Him. Yeah, that's a very, very good observation.

But, yeah, very good. I see a couple of other hands. Probably Bill and let me see. Is there another? Bill Wilson. Yes, okay. Thank you. I was wondering, it reminded me of when Jesus made the fish and the bread and those circumstances where they didn't have enough food for all the disciples and everybody. And when He reached into the bag to pull out a fish, He just kept pulling out fish after fish after fish after fish. How did they get all the fish in there? Because He was, was He just making them out in the spot? And so, was He, in this case, to make the water, like Paul was saying, somehow miraculously, water is being made, apparently, I guess. See?

God, He's got complete control over the universe. He can do whatever He wants, and we just didn't marvel at it. So, yep, very good. Zajir. evening, brochib. Hi, everybody. Going back to the what was it? The verse in earlier verse in regards to boil. Boil, okay. In Exodus 12 verse 8, in regards to the Passover line, the word they're used exactly for roast is different, and it's used only twice in the Bible. So that word for boil is iterative, boil or seed.

So, 12-8 is only used twice in the Bible where it says roasted? Okay, so that's different than boil, then? Yes. Very good. Okay, makes sense that that would be a special thing, so, okay.

Mr. Shavey. Yes, Frank. Hi. I have a question on the tribe of Dan. Yeah. You know, when you're doing that, when they're counting the 144,000, they're not included. And I would assume they're going to be Catholic and go with the beast or something for some reason, but now they're back in the tribes. So they didn't lose their position forever. Was that what that? That's apparently what it means. We don't know exactly why Dan's not mentioned in there, but he does have a place there, and this is the map from the UCG commentary that's similar to the other one I had up there, so.

Yeah, I don't know why. But, you know, God does make the promise. God does make the promise that there will not be any of the tribes of Israel that are completely wiped out during the tribulation or what comes at the end of the world. So that probably indicates why Dan has a place up there at the north. Okay, since we are in Exodus, why don't we look at whatever we are talking about here. And yeah, Exodus 12. In fact, yeah, Xavier just took us to Exodus 12 about the Passover, and at the end of chapter 12 and verse 48, as God is talking about Israel leaving Egypt and gathering up everything and leaving there on the 15th, and verse 48, he says, it'll be when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover, let all his males become circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native born and for the stranger who dwells among you. And then it says, thus all the children of Israel did, just as God commanded Moses. So, you know, he made provisions then as well. If it's 400 wants to dwell with you, it's the same law for them as it is for Israel. You know, sometimes when people get into the New Testament and they talk about verses and Galatians and Colossians and try to say the gentiles didn't need to do this and the gentiles that, no, it's the same law for the Jews and the gentiles, the same same law for everyone. In the millennium, it'll be the same law no matter what your background was, whether it was Christianity of this world or Buddhism or whatever the religion was, everyone will be taught the very same law. And that's what's here in chapter 47. If they want to dwell among you, let them. They become one as you, and they keep the law just as you do. And then in chapter 47 in verse 23, it wraps up there with it says, it shall be that in whatever tribe this danger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance, says the Lord God. So God, again, even for the stranger among you, provides the inheritance. The land is for everyone. You know, we're talking about Israel right now in those, but this is the law that's going to be over all the earth and all the other gentile tribes. Israel is going to know it, but they're going to be the model nation, but it's going to be taught by everyone all over the world. It'll take some time for people to absorb what the law of God is, just like when we came into the church and God began calling us, and our minds were open to the truth. But it takes time to weed out the old thoughts and the old ways and replace them with the new, just as we learned in the lessons during the days of Unleavened Bread. So it will be then. But as a thousand years of the millennium progress, you will see, we will all see, that people become more and more like God, and peace will be on the earth, and these things that live over into that millennium from this world at the beginning will eventually be weeded out. So let's, let me see, where are we? We're at 804. I think, well, we got kind of a late start. Let's see if we can at least look at chapter 48 here a little bit.

Do you ask that question before we go too much further? You may. Okay. It's the water. It's got me mixed up. First of all, in response to what Mr. Bratt was saying, it's supposed to be living waters. Living things usually multiply. Maybe that's why it gets whiter as it goes. But the confusing thing to me is, it says, all the fishes are unseen, and so are the zooporns.

But that's salt water. So where does the clean water come from? Well, the clean water, the healing water comes from the temple. The dead sea, remember, is six times more salty than the ocean, so nothing lives in it. There's still things that live in the ocean, fish that live in the ocean, and fish that live in fresh water. So the Bible says here that in the dead sea that's dead today, it'll be the same type of fish that are in the Mediterranean Sea. So yeah. What is the salt water going to be? Salt water will still be in the oceans as it is today. Oh, I have oceans and all that stuff. Okay, I get it. Yep. Thank you. Mr. Shavey. Yes, go ahead. Quick question. In verse 12, why would you need leaves for medicine? I think that God is just showing that what He puts on earth is good for us for food as well as for any kind of topical thing that we might need.

God is our healer. There will be, I mean, there probably will be some kind of, obviously, some sickness or something that the medicines will do. You know, the original medicines that we use, penicillin comes from a plant, and then they've taken it and put all these other chemicals in it and everything like that. I used to, when we lived up in the Midwest, get poison ivy every year. And I was always told whenever you see poison ivy, there's always a plant. I don't remember the name of it close by, that if you took those leaves and rubbed those on you, the poison ivy would be negated. Never could find it, never wanted, never really took the time to do it, but I believe, I believe it that if God, there's something there that hurts, there is a remedy that's right there available to you. So I think that's just what that is for. So. Mr. Shaby. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead.

Is there a possibility that, you mentioned earlier, that not everyone would accept Jesus Christ, that perhaps those people who don't believe in Jesus, that they might need the medicine for healing?

I hadn't thought of that. It might be. That might, yeah, I don't know, but might be, might be.

But even then, I mean, all the medicines in the world and all the leaves in the world aren't going to heal you if it's not God's will. You need to have, you need to look to God and know that He's the one who heals. So. True. Thank you. Okay. Hey, did I see Sandy, Sandy Warren's hand up?

Hey, Sandy. Yes, you did. I have a question, but the weed you're trying to think about with the poison ivy is called jewelweed. Really? Okay. I'll have to keep that in mind here, so, and look it up, right? And get one of those little cameras. It's like, next time we get a seed poison ivy, there's got to be a plant close to it. They both, they both grow along our creek line.

Really? Okay. Yeah, they do. But my question is going back to Revelation 21. Okay.

In verse 27, this is when the throne of God comes from heaven down to the earth. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So, why would, in verse 27, why would the phrase, anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works, abomination, or makes a lie, would enter there? Is, at that point, isn't most of the evil put down? I think that's there as a warning to us, is what I was looking at that as, is that, you know what, that, there won't be any of that evil that's there. That's all put away. So, unless you put that out of your life now, you're not going to be at that. That's how I always looked at that verse. I may be wrong in that interpretation, but, because there won't be, there won't be any defiling, or abomination, or liars, or whatever that are going to be, that survive through that, until that time. Okay, thank you. And someone else has a different understanding of that. Please speak up. But that, I always looked at that verse as, just to me, it was like another warning to us. Overcome, overcome, and be ready for that, for that time. Bob McCurdy?

Or Becky Bingman?

I just was going to tell you about the jewelweed, too. It has a yellow flower, or like an orangey red, and the leaves, if you hold them under the water, like in the sun, you can actually see them shimmer. So it helps you identify it that way. Interesting. I think, I think that's how it got its name, but I'm not certain. Okay, okay, very good. Randy and Elaine.

How you doing, Mr. Cavi? Good, how are you?

Doing great. Somebody was talking earlier about the tribe of Dan. The reason Dan is excluded in the 144,000 in Revelation 7 was due to their history of adultery and apostasy, but in the millennium, they're restored after they repent of their ways, then they're restored and given their portion of land that they lost because of their adultery and apostasy. Okay, very good. Excellent. Bill, how you doing tonight, Bill Hill-Abranter? Oh, fine, thank you. I had heard years ago in Worldwide that the prophecy in Genesis about Dan, it says, I await your salvation, meaning it's not going to be in the 144,000. That's just the answer to that. One of the questions I have, it seems to me, a different subject, that the trees on either side of the river, the tree of life, it appears that that would be Jesus and the Father, the both of them having the Holy Spirit, living water flowing out from them. While there's just talking about the tree of life in Genesis, it seemed like that there's the two trees there, but anyway, I'm done. Okay.

Very good. Very good. Tell you what, because Ezekiel is such a fascinating book, let's finish it up next week. There are a few verses in chapter 48, and I don't want to rush through them.

Very last verse in chapter 48 bears a little bit of discussion as well. It's a very fitting verse to end the book with. So let's finish Ezekiel up next week. The following week is the GCE, and we won't have a Bible study that week anyway, so it'll be a good time then to have a break and begin a new book. Let me see the time we have remaining. If I can figure out how to pull up...

I tried this last week and I wasn't able to do it.

I don't know. I thought I had this and I don't. On how to pull up the poll where we could actually have you take your phones or your computer and vote on these books. I put it in here.

Maybe if someone knows Zoom really well, they can tell me how to get to... I've got the tools here. Or the surveys.

I'll tell you what. I will list again. Well, I did list. I listed the emails you all received, the books that have been recommended.

I think I'm messing things up here pretty well. Let me see. I will figure that out for next week. I will take a class on how to pull up a poll that I put together so that we can just have all of you put together what it is. I know you know the books. Go back to the email I sent out yesterday. It's got 10 books listed. It runs all through the money of the minor prophets. Acts, Romans, Revelation, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and everything. Then next week. If I can't figure out how to pull the thing up, we will figure out a way so that you can all just tell me what your opinions are. Then we'll pick a book that we'll start on. Not next week. Next week we'll finish up Ezekiel. I think I'll probably have some review questions. Not review questions, but I think just to go back through the book since there's been so much. We'll talk about that a little bit as well and finish that up then. Is that okay with everyone?

Okay, very good. Anything else before we end then tonight?

I have a quick question. During the millennium, a thousand years, we as Christians right now, we'll be in the first resurrection. But how long do you think there might be when people might be resurrected? In other words, do you think there'll be resurrections during the millennium? For instance, like every hundred years, people who are living their lives, new human beings, whatever, they live a hundred years. They could be resurrected at a factor of a hundred years. But what do you think? No, there's two resurrections. The first resurrection is when Jesus Christ returns during that Feast of Trumpets period. And the second resurrection is at the end of the thousand-year millennium when the rest of humanity is resurrected. So just two resurrections at that time, not during the millennium. Okay, let me ask this then. That person being born, say, at the first millennium, then he'd be a thousand years old then by the time the second resurrection happens. Is that correct? You know what? Some things we just have to reserve to God how he's going to work all that out. I think people will die during the millennium. How God is going to deal with that, I don't know. We're just going to have to learn that when the millennium comes, because the Bible doesn't specifically say what happens during the millennium when life ends. We do know there's an inheritance, because we just talked about the prince, right? He says, for his sons, the land given to him will be the inheritance to his sons. So we know there's a passing on of things, so if there's an inheritance, there's a death somewhere in there. When those people are resurrected to eternal life, God knows. Maybe it's immediately, but I don't know. I don't even want to speculate. We'll just leave that to God to answer. Okay, good point. Thank you.

Okay, I had a quick... Sure, go ahead. Yeah, Mr. Shaby, you turned to the book of Hebrews a little bit last week, and it's just, you know, when I read the last eight chapters of Ezekiel, it's, you know, it talks about the millennium. It seems that's how it's going to be, you know, the Bible says so, but you read the book of Hebrews, and it's like a dichotomy. It's like, well, we're under the Melchizedek priesthood now. The Levites have no right to the altar that we come to. It's like, um, what has changed? You know, we're under the Melchizedek priesthood now, I think, with the the ministry. It's where, you know, you're not a Levite. Most of the ministers are not Levites, and we know that. We understand that Christ is in control. Why is it going to change when He returns? He's going to be there in His sanctuary, on His throne, and why are we going to be teaching, going back to the sacrifices? You know, it's just, it just, you know, and I know both books are true, but how do you, how do you gel them together? How do you bring it together?

Yeah, I don't know. I, we're going to see the beauty of it, though, during that time, right? When those sacrifices are occurring as it's as chosen as Ezekiel, I think it'll all come together for us as well, because we haven't experienced it at that end. The meaning behind those sacrifices and how the whole temple operates and every, all that meaning, and as we're teaching it, it'll probably, you know, we're going to learn even more. You know, yeah, yeah, I'm always, you know, in Hebrews 5, I guess it's verses 9 there, it talks about how Christ learned obedience by the things that He suffered. So here He was perfect, and He knew everything. He created the world, and yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered and going through that. So there are things that, you know, we go through this life, but then we'll experience that as well. We will have the whole gamut of what God had created, because if that Old Testament was part of this plan, just like Jesus Christ's sacrifice and us living in these New Testament times, then we'll experience the whole, you know, the whole part of it. And I think we'll be amazed, amazed at what we learned about everything at that time.