Showing posts with label Seder 131. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seder 131. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2023

Seder 131: Ezekiel 45-48---Vision of a Future Restoration of Israel

 The mysterious vision recorded at the end of the book of Ezekiel has some links with Numbers 34.  For one thing, the boundaries given in Ezekiel 47:13-20 mention some of the same places listed in Numbers 34.

Ezekiel 48 describes a division of the land among the twelve tribes.  Included is a holy district within which a square block of land 25,000 cubits on a side is to be allotted for a sanctuary, a place for priests and Levites to live, and a special city to be set up.  To the east and west of this special square block will be land for the prince, a civil leader, to keep flocks for sacrifices (Eze 45:1-8; 48:8-22).  

The special city will also have  the dimensions of a square.  There will be 3 gates on each of the four sides, one for each of the tribes. The city will be known as "the Lord is there."  It sound like a kind of forerunner of the New Jerusalem pictured at the end of the book of Revelation.   

It's not clear whether Ezekiel's vision is describing things that will happen fairly literally on the ground at some future date.  It is safe to say, though, that the vision communicated some key spiritual messages to Ezekiel and his contemporaries in images that they could understand.  

One of those messages is that Israel would be restored to the Promised Land, and God would be present there among his people.  Civil government would no longer exploit people but would instead serve God and the people (45:8-17).  True worship would occur regularly, with holiness of the land, sanctuary, and city maintained.  

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Seder 131: Numbers 34---Boundaries of Canaan

 Numbers 34 lays out the boundaries of Canaan, the land that God was granting to the Israelites.  Commentators note that Canaan was a recognizable entity at that time.  It is mentioned, for example, in some Egyptian texts.  

The land area described in this chapter includes more than Israel ever managed to claim, even in the time of David and Solomon.  We might call the boundaries listed in Numbers 34 "aspirational boundaries" for Israel.  

Much more expansive is the description of the promised land that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 15:18:  "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates."  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on January 21, 2023, Rob Wilson explained the possibility that Gen 15:18 is intended as a merism, in this case a way of referring to the whole world.  It is God's plan to bring salvation to all nations through the seed of Abraham.  In this reading, Gen 15:18 is a Messianic prophecy.

Seder 117: Ezekiel 20:25---What Do You Mean, "Statutes that were not good..."?

 Ezekiel 20 takes place "in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month."  Commentator Ralph Alexander (EB...