Ezekiel 45:18
This is what the Lord GOD says: 'On the first day of the first month you are to take a young bull without blemish and purify the sanctuary.
Sermons
Sanctity of Time and PlaceJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 45:18-20
Sacred FestivalsJ.R. Thomson Ezekiel 45:18-25














The prophet here refers to some of those great "feasts of the Jews" which formed so interesting a feature of the social and religious life of the chosen people. These references are suggestive of the spiritual privileges and religious exercises of the vaster Israel of God, which he has redeemed to himself by the death of his Son and consecrated to himself by the grace of his Spirit. Among the lessons which these festivals may thus convey may be mentioned -

I. THE UNITY OF THE CONSECRATED PEOPLE. Never could Israel have more impressively realized and displayed their oneness in political and religious life than when they together celebrated such festivals as those of the Passover and of Tabernacles, both referred to by the prophet in this passage. A grander unity distinguishes the spiritual Israel, which is one because under the care of the one Father, because redeemed by the one Mediator, because informed, hallowed, and guided by the one Spirit. It was the prayer and the purpose of the Divine High Priest that all his people might be one - as one nation, cherishing the same memories, obeying the same laws, speaking the same language, and honoring the same King.

II. THE INDWELLING OF GOD AMONG THE CONSECRATED PEOPLE. It was not to celebrate a merely human community that the children of Israel kept their solemn feasts; it was in order to realize, in a striking and helpful manner, the perpetual interest and care of their glorious Lord and King. They were a chosen nation, a peculiar people, and this they both recognized and testified when they assembled to observe their festive solemnities, instituted by Divine wisdom to retain among the nation the sentiment of nearness to the unseen but mighty Head.

III. THE MORAL HARMONY EXISTING BETWEEN GOD AND THE CONSECRATED, PEOPLE. The sacrifices and offerings presented were the symbolic means of preserving this harmony between Jehovah and the seed of Abraham. Offences were confessed with penitence, submission was made, prescribed observances were complied with, and the favor of God was manifested and the conscience was purged from guilt. Such harmony, only deeper and more spiritual, obtains between God and his Church on earth. The estrangement and enmity are abolished; reconciliation is effected; communion is enjoyed.

IV. THE PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE OF INSTANCES OF DIVINE MERCY, FORBEARANCE, AND DELIVERANCE. The Hebrew people were accustomed, upon occasion of their sacred festivals, to remind one another of the blessings bestowed upon their forefathers. The Passover reminded them of their deliverance from the cruel bondage of Egypt; the Feast of Tabernacles brought to their memory the wanderings in the wilderness. On such occasions they would turn their thoughts to their marvelous national history, and especially to its more instructive and memorable incidents. Similarly in. the Church of Christ, the wonderful interpositions effected by Divine power and clemency can never be forgotten; they must be held in everlasting remembrance; the mighty works which God did in old time must never lose their freshness and their wonder. The "sacred year" of the Church is filled with reminders of God's mercy, and especially of those supremely glorious and blessed events in which the Church on earth wok its rise-events connected with the advent, the sacrifice, and the glory of Immanuel, and those connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit of God.

V. THE PRIVILEGE OF UNITED AND JOYFUL PRAISE. The Hebrew festivals were occasions of social and sacred joy. With them were associated the thanksgivings and the adorations of a nation. The people gave thanks to the God of gods, the Lord of lords, to him who remembered them in their low estate, who led his people through the wilderness; for his mercy endureth forever. There is no exercise more congenial or delightful to the Church of Christ than the exercise of grateful praise. The songs of the redeemed and the righteous ever ascend to him from whom all mercies flow, to whom all praise is due. The moral nation of the saved ever lifts to heaven the tribute and offering of filial gratitude and spiritual worship. - T.

Ye shall have Just balances.
That our consciences may be enlightened and set right, we want a standard, like the standard weights and measures that are kept in the Tower of London, to which all the people in the little country villages may send up their yard measures, and their pint pots, and their pound weights, and find out if they are just and true.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

People
Ephah, Ezekiel, Levites
Places
Holy Place, Most Holy Place
Topics
Blemish, Bull, Bullock, Clean, Cleanse, Cleansed, Defect, Hast, Herd, Holy, Mark, Month, Ox, Perfect, Purge, Purify, Sanctuary, Says, Sovereign, Thus
Outline
1. The portion of land for the sanctuary
6. for the city
7. and for the prince
9. Ordinances for the prince

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 45:18-19

     7400   New Year, the

Ezekiel 45:18-20

     7416   purification

Ezekiel 45:18-24

     4615   bull

Library
Of the Third Seal.
The third animated being is the index of the third seal, in a human form, his station being towards the south, and consequently shows that this seal begins with an emperor proceeding from that cardinal point of the compass; probably with Septimius Severus, the African, an emperor from the south, of whom Eutropius writes in the following manner: "Deriving his origin from Africa, from the province of Tripolis, from the town of Leptis, the only emperor from Africa within all remembrance, before or since."
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse

The Section Chap. I. -iii.
The question which here above all engages our attention, and requires to be answered, is this: Whether that which is reported in these chapters did, or did not, actually and outwardly take place. The history of the inquiries connected with this question is found most fully in Marckius's "Diatribe de uxore fornicationum," Leyden, 1696, reprinted in the Commentary on the Minor Prophets by the same author. The various views may be divided into three classes. 1. It is maintained by very many interpreters,
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Ezekiel 45:18 NIV
Ezekiel 45:18 NLT
Ezekiel 45:18 ESV
Ezekiel 45:18 NASB
Ezekiel 45:18 KJV

Ezekiel 45:18 Bible Apps
Ezekiel 45:18 Parallel
Ezekiel 45:18 Biblia Paralela
Ezekiel 45:18 Chinese Bible
Ezekiel 45:18 French Bible
Ezekiel 45:18 German Bible

Ezekiel 45:18 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Ezekiel 45:17
Top of Page
Top of Page