Ezekiel 46:4
The burnt offering that the prince presents to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six unblemished male lambs and an unblemished ram.
Sermons
Distinction and Equality in the Kingdom of GodW. Clarkson Ezekiel 46:2, 3, 10
The Optional and the Obligatory in the Kingdom of GodW. Clarkson Ezekiel 46:4-12














1. Here are minute and positive prescriptions, requiring exact conformity and allowing no deviation. The burnt offering was to be six lambs and one ram - no more and no less (ver. 4). In the day of the new moon - at that particular time - the offering was to include a young bullock (ver. 6). They who entered in by the north gate were to go out by the south gate, and vice versa (ver. 9). These (and other) instructions were in full and careful detail, and there was to be no departure from them.

2. On the other hand, the prince might, at certain hours and on occasion, bring an offering that was purely "voluntary;" one that was "voluntarily" presented unto the Lord (ver. 12). Room was left for spontaneity, even in the midst of these very specific requirements. In the kingdom of Jesus Christ we have these two orders of service - the obligatory and the optional, the plainly and positively enjoined, and the voluntary; and that Christian life is not complete which is lacking in either.

I. THE OBLIGATORY. Of those things pertaining to our Christian life which are indispensable there are:

1. At its entrance:

(1) humility (or penitence); and

(2) faith, that living faith in Jesus Christ which includes the acceptance of him as the Savior of the soul and the Lord of the life.

2. Throughout its course:

(1) worship, or the approach of the human spirit to the Divine in prayer, in thanksgiving, in consecration;

(2) obedience, or the conformity of conduct to those precepts which are an essential part of Christian morals;

(3) love, including not only the "love of the brethren," or a special attachment to those who are the friends and followers of Jesus Christ, but also a genuine pity for those who are far from him and need to be brought nigh, and a practical determination to seek and to win these erring souls.

II. THE OPTIONAL. There is room for the voluntary as well as for the necessary in our Christian life.

1. In the particulars of our worship. We have one main principle binding upon all men everywhere (John 4:23, 24), but it is left to our individual choice - to our own judgment and conscience - at what times, in what forms, within what buildings, with what kind of human ministry, we shall draw nigh to God in true and pure devotion.

2. In the minutiae of obedience. What shall be the rules and the regulations we shall lay down for the observance of the great principles of purity, of temperance, of equity, of veracity, of reverential speech, of courtesy., - these are not to be found in any Christian directory; they are to be decided upon m the sanctuary of every consecrated spirit and of every cultivated conscience.

3. In the measure and methods of loving service. What proportion of our income, what amount of our time, what order of personal effort, we shall devote to the cause of Christ and in the interest of our fellow-men, - this rests with every individual Christian man to decide. These must be, in some sense and degree, "voluntary offerings." - C.

Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the Lord.
The old legend that the Grecian host lay weather bound in their port, vainly waiting for a wind to come and carry them to conquest; and that they were obliged to slay a human sacrifice ere the heavens would be propitious and fill their sails, — may be translated into the deepest verity of the Christian life. We may see in it that solemn lesson — no prosperous voyage, and no final conquest until the natural life has been offered up on the altar of hourly self-denial.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

No one, who plunges himself into the affairs of the world without God, can easily escape out of two sad alternatives. Either he is utterly wearied and disgusted with their triviality, and dawdles out a languid life of supercilious superiority to his work, or else he plunges passionately into it, and, like the ancient queen, dissolves in the cup the precious jewel of his own soul.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.).

People
Ephah, Ezekiel
Places
Most Holy Place
Topics
Blemish, Bringeth, Brings, Burned, Burnt, Burnt-offering, Defect, Lambs, Male, Mark, Offer, Offered, Offering, Offers, Ones, Perfect, Present, Prince, Ram, Rest, Ruler, Sabbath, Sabbath-day, Sheep, Six
Outline
1. Ordinances for the prince in his worship
9. and for the people
16. An order for the prince's inheritance
19. The courts for boiling and baking

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 46:4

     4663   lamb
     4681   ram

Ezekiel 46:3-4

     7429   Sabbath, in OT

Ezekiel 46:4-5

     4488   oil

Library
Chel. The Court of the Women.
The Court of the Gentiles compassed the Temple and the courts on every side. The same also did Chel, or the Ante-murale. "That space was ten cubits broad, divided from the Court of the Gentiles by a fence, ten hand-breadths high; in which were thirteen breaches, which the kings of Greece had made: but the Jews had again repaired them, and had appointed thirteen adorations answering to them." Maimonides writes: "Inwards" (from the Court of the Gentiles) "was a fence, that encompassed on every side,
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Things to be Meditated on as Thou Goest to the Church.
1. That thou art going to the court of the Lord, and to speak with the great God by prayer; and to hear his majesty speak unto thee by his word; and to receive his blessing on thy soul, and thy honest labour, in the six days past. 2. Say with thyself by the way--"As the hart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God: When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Questions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath.
AND PROOF, THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IS THE TRUE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'The Son of man is lord also of the Sabbath day.' London: Printed for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1685. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. All our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made personally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold fast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding upon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our observations
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

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

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