And answering to the border of the priests, the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth the whole length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
Ezekiel's vision ends with the land of Israel measured out again and shared among the tribes. Before any tribe is named, God sets aside a block in the middle for Himself, and verse 13 gives the Levites a strip there, equal in size to the priests' — near the sanctuary, but not inside it.
The parts of this offering come in a set order, and that order carries its own message.
Little more needs to be said here, except to notice that the main focus is the Lord's portion. Ezekiel 48 states the tribal portions. The Lord's portion is given first place, and the order in which the parts of this offering are named shows that He comes first. The part for the priests and Levites comes first, because what has to do with the sanctuary matters most.
The Owner of the land hands it out, and the arrangement has no earlier parallel.
So Jehovah claims His right as the acknowledged owner of the land. But He uses these portions for His people's sanctuary, and for those who carry on the worship there, whether priests or Levites. It is a fresh arrangement for the millennial age; nothing like it was known in the past.
The Levites do not get a leftover. Their block matches the priests' block, and the total at the end of the verse — 25,000 by 20,000 — is the two strips added together.
Out of this measured area they were to mark off 25,000 by 10,000 for the priests, and the sanctuary stood inside it… Verse 5 tells us who received the rest of the 25,000 by 20,000: the Levites, who got a portion equal in size to the priests'. Ezekiel 48:10 and 14 call both of these portions holy… The land of the city next to them is not called holy.
Twelve tribal strips run north to south, but one tribe's name is missing from them.
When the land is divided among the twelve tribes, Levi has no part. His inheritance is in the holy portion that belongs to Jehovah. The Levites are a picture of the Church, who are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ… Seven tribes of Israel have their land north of the holy portion, and five tribes have theirs to the south. So the sanctuary stands in the very centre of Immanuel's land.
The Levites live next door to the priests, but they are not priests. One writer traces that line back to what the Levites once did.
Coming back to our chapter, we find that the Levites — except the family of Zadok — are appointed to keep guard and do the service of the house. But they are kept out of the priestly office. In the government of God they are shut out of this higher place because of their past history. They had followed the people into idolatry… The day of loss and reward is certain, and God's grace does not set it aside. The future will bring out results that flow from the past, for as we sow, we reap. If our work is good we will receive reward. If it is bad we will suffer loss, though we ourselves are saved.
These measurements describe real ground and a coming age, not the present one.
Notice that in the days of Joshua the land was divided by lot, and so it will be in the day when One greater than he takes the kingdom. The holy portion is a completely new feature of this fresh division of Israel's land. It appears when He comes to whom the crown belongs by right, and whose first care is the sanctuary of Jehovah. Prince, priests and Levites will all be there, each in his own place in relation to the city and the sanctuary. This is not about heaven, or the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from God. It is about the earth and the land. The temple stands out here as clearly as it is plainly missing in Revelation 21.
Commentators differ over the unit of measure, since the text of the chapter does not name it. Some read cubits, as the ESV does; others argue for reeds.
Taking the measurement as reeds — the reed is six cubits — we have a city more fitting in size to the glory of the millennial kingdom.
- Owner first. The land is divided by lot, yet the Lord owns it, and His portion comes before any tribe's.
- Portion given. Levi has no tribal share at all; his inheritance is the holy portion belonging to the Lord.
- Portion equal. The Levites' strip matches the priests' in size, and Scripture calls both holy. The land next to them, belonging to the city, is not.
- Portion bounded. The Levites serve the house, but past idolatry keeps them out of the priestly office. They lose the reward, though they themselves are safe.
- Portion future. Prince, priests and Levites each stand in their own place around a temple on earth. The heavenly city of Revelation 21 has no temple at all.
And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the first-fruits of the land for it is holy unto Jehovah.
These chapters describe how the tribes will share out the land of Israel in a coming day. One strip goes to the Levites, who serve at the sanctuary, and this verse locks it in place: it belongs to the Lord.
These chapters set aside a holy portion of the land before the tribes get theirs. Kelly reads this as God claiming ownership, then handing that ground over for worship:
Jehovah here claims His right as the acknowledged possessor of the land. But He uses it for His people's sanctuary and for those who carry on the worship there, whether priests or Levites. It is a fresh arrangement for the millennial age; no one knew anything like it in the past.
To alienate land is to sign it over to someone else for good. Here God forbids it, and the reason reaches further than Israel:
So we see that God's principle as to the land is that "the land cannot be alienated." And why? Because it is His, and He is gracious. True of Israel's land, so that they shall certainly return to it; true of our heavenly inheritance. God "has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Ours is "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you." By God's power you "are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5.)
Some translations call this strip "the firstfruits of the land" instead of "this choice portion." Firstfruits were the first part of any harvest, and Israel gave that part back to God:
Enjoying those fruits of the goodness of God, the people gave Him back the firstfruits, as a testimony that all came from Him, that all was His, and that His grace had given it to them. So the firstfruits were not for the people to eat: they offered them to God, and ate all the rest. It was the recognition of God while sharing His blessings. So the people offered the firstfruits to God, and they passed into the hands of the priests as their portion.
So men with no land of their own still had a living. Kelly, on an earlier part of the same vision, notes what they received:
They are to be content with Jehovah as their inheritance, instead of the earthly portion of an Israelite. But He appoints them their share out of His offerings, dedicated things and firstfruits.
The same care shapes every share in this chapter. God means each person to keep what He assigned him:
God's care that each of His people should keep his allotted inheritance teaches us the unchangeable character of His giving, for He disposed every lot. It also teaches that there is an individuality which He intends to keep in the inheritance. So the person and his portion in the land, as allotted by God, are so identified in His mind that no separation is to take place. Individuality, distinctness and abiding character are involved in this. Israel lost her inheritance, and the land reverted to Him who had given it and who claims it as His. But Israel is to be brought back, and the land will be again divided by lot according to this vision of Ezekiel.
Is all this a picture of heaven? Kelly says no. The subject is the earth:
Notice that, as in the days of Joshua, the land was divided by lot. So it will be in the day when a greater than Joshua takes the kingdom. The portion set apart as an offering is a wholly new feature of this redistribution of Israel. It comes when He arrives whose right is the crown, and whose first care is the sanctuary of Jehovah. Prince, priests, and Levites will all be there, each in his proper place in relation to the city and the sanctuary. For it is no question here of heaven or the heavenly city, new Jerusalem, that comes down out of heaven from God, but of the earth and the land. The temple is as marked here as it is emphatically absent in Revelation 21.
- Owner. The rule stands on one fact: the land is the Lord's. He lifts out a portion for Himself before anyone else receives a share.
- Gift. Because the land is His and He is gracious, no one can sign it away for good. The same security guards an inheritance kept in heaven for us.
- Firstfruits. What Israel hands back to God as the first and best feeds those who serve Him. They live on His portion, not on an estate of their own.
- Unchangeable. God's giving does not move from hand to hand. He joins person and portion in His mind, so Israel will return to the very land she lost.
- Earthly. All of this belongs to a real land with a real temple. The heavenly city of Revelation 21 has no temple at all.