The People at Peace (Chs. 40-48). 

        Reference has already been made to the possibility that these chapters may originally have been published by them­selves. Certainly they form a unique unit within Ezekiel. Though the usual view is that they should be taken literally — this is irrespective of whether a fulfilment is expected — there are serious grounds for questioning it. No one who takes them literally doubts that we are dealing with a Millennial scene (Those who see in these chapters Ezekiel’s blue prints for the restored community hold that Ezekiel saw in the promised restoration the setting up of the kingdom of God.). But the whole concept of a Millennial temple of this type raises serious difficulties. At the present moment there is no spot preferable to another for prayer and worship. To us it seems incredible that the Millennium would mean a spiritually retrograde step. This applies, too, to the confinement of priesthood to a group chosen by birth.

        From the literalist side no satisfactory explanation has ever been given ‘for the reintroduction of sacrifices, and the difficulty becomes particularly acute when we find the sin offering (43:19-25; 45:17, 18-25 — note that the prince has to bring a sin-offering, 45:22). The suggestion that they are mere memorial sacrifices looking back to the Cross is without support in the section itself, and fails to meet the objection that, if bread and wine suffice now, how much less should the sacrifice of animals be necessary then. The prince (44:3; 45:7f, 16f, 22-25; 46:2-12, 1 off) — he is never called king — is little more than a superintender of the services, and bears no resemblance to the Messianic king of prophecy.

        Finally, it seems imperative to regard the river of 47:1-12 as symbolic. Quite apart from the fact that it flows out of the peak of a very high mountain (40:2; 47:1), it deepens mir­aculously. No appeal may be made to tributaries, for the whole point is that this is holy water. Much the same must be said of the division of the land.

        Once we grasp that there is symbolism in these chapters, we should not be daunted by our inability to understand much of it (cf. the opening vision), but should be rather prepared to see the whole as primarily symbolic. A redeemed people, among whom Jehovah dwells (43:2-5; 48:35), cannot be organized haphazardly. In even the smallest details of life and organization the will of God must be done; this is the message of these chapters.

        Naturally, Ezekiel is thinking of a restored Israel, a rebuilt temple, and a perfectly kept law. But in the prophet’s vision the type loses itself in the fulfilment, the shadow in the sub­stance, the earthly in the heavenly. Both the present and the Millennium, the Israel of God and the Church of God, the earthly and the heavenly Jerusalem, the law written on tablets of stone and on men’s hearts, blend together in a unique com­bination of literalism and symbolism. While the future will never see a purely literal fulfilment, the present witnesses, partially, the spiritual fulfilment.