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Context No. 1330 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 48:26-35: in context

26“By the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one portion. 27“By the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one portion. 28“By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar to the waters of Meribath Kadesh, to the brook, to the great sea. 29“This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions, says the Lord GOD. 30“These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand five hundred reeds by measure; 31and the gates of the city shall be named after the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one. 32“At the east side four thousand five hundred reeds, and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one. 33“At the south side four thousand five hundred reeds by measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one. 34“At the west side four thousand five hundred reeds, with their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one. 35“It shall be eighteen thousand reeds in circumference; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ‘The LORD is there.’

This is the closing passage of the whole book of Ezekiel. After chapters of vision, the prophet finishes dividing the restored land among the tribes and describing the holy city, its gates named for the twelve tribes, three on each side, so that every tribe has its entrance. He gives the city's measurements, eighteen thousand cubits around. And then, in the very last line of the book, he gives the city its name, the name it shall bear from that day forward: The LORD is there.

Everything in Ezekiel has been moving toward this final line. The book began in exile, by a foreign river, and its early chapters showed the terrible sight of God's glory departing from the temple, lifting up and leaving Jerusalem to its judgment because of its sin. That departure was the true wound of the exile, not merely the loss of the land but the loss of God's presence. And now, at the very end, after all the judgment and all the vision of restoration, the book closes on a single promise summed up in the city's new name: The LORD is there. The glory that departed has returned; the presence that was lost is restored; and that, not the walls or the gates or the land, is the whole point. What makes the city the city is that God dwells in it. This is where all of scripture is heading, to a place and a people where it can be said, the LORD is there, culminating in the new Jerusalem where God will dwell with his people and be their God. The name says everything. The hope of God's people, from Ezekiel's exile to the last page of the Bible, is not finally a place or a prosperity but a presence: the LORD is there.

Is the presence of God the thing I am finally longing for, more than any circumstance or blessing, and can I say of the places God has put me, and of the future he promises, the LORD is there?

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