THE STATUTE OF HOLINESS, JUSTICE, AND REJOICING After God presented to His people a new temple, set in it priests who walk in His righteousness, and Levites who keep watch over its gates, He started to proclaim the statute of this new temple, that is set mainly on three important principles: Holiness, Justice, and rejoicing. 1- Holiness and dividing the holy city 1-8. 2- Justice and truth in the new city 9-17. 3- Rejoicing in the new city 18-25. 1- HOLINESS AND DIVIDING THE HOLY CITY a- The Lord says: “when You divide the land by lot into inheritance, you shall set apart a district for the Lord, a holy portion of the land... It shall be holy throughout its territory all around” (Ez 45:1). How amazing is God’s love; who promises to grant His children a new land, after their return from captivity; then asks man to give Him a lot of land out of what he has given him, as an offering from man to God; that would be the source of making the whole land holy. He asks for a little of what He gave us, as though it is our own, to sanctify all what we have, because of this offering. God accepts that land from us; although all the land is His; makes of it a personal possession; a holy sanctuary, where He dwells in the midst of His people to sanctify them. This carries a symbolic portrait of what took place in the New Testament. The Sanctuary is the Lord Christ, God’s Only-Begotten Son; He took our body and nature in Him, for God the Father to receive from us, a sacrifice of love, that He will accept and be pleased with; to receive all of us in Him. He receives that Holy One on behalf of humanity; so that humanity that believes in Him, through its unity with and in Him, would be sanctified. That is why St. Cyril the Great says: [We were all in Christ; and the human personality in its wholeness was renewed in Him1.] [He carried us in His body; as we all were in Him, having been proclaimed a Man2.] And St. Athanasius says: [The Logos Himself, was not in need for the opening of the gates of heaven... But we were the ones needing that; we who were carried in His body3.] The Lord Christ was, and still is the source of our holiness, as He mystically carried us in Him. The new temple also carries a symbolic portrait of what takes place in the human soul, or in man. If the Holy of the Holies represents the heart in which our Lord Jesus Christ dwells; the temple symbolizes the body that is sanctified, through the dwelling of our Lord in the soul; the same way the whole temple is sanctified through the Holy of the Holies. The dimensions of the temple, were 500 yards on every side, in memory of the 5 wise virgins (Mat 25) ; or of the sanctification of the 5 senses of the body, as virgins to the Lord our God. The priests who dwell around the temple, refer to the holy worship, offered by man in Christ Jesus; While the Levites refer to the necessity of strict 1 PG 73:161. 2 PG 74:432. 3 PG 25:140. 5 watchfulness on the gates of both the soul and body, so that no foreign thing, that is not fitting for the sanctuaries of God, would enter. The prince, refers to the holy mind that controls everything according to the will of God. While the congregation refer to the energies and apparent works of the body, as everything in us would become holy, to work on the account of the kingdom of God. b-The Lord assigned the portions of the priests, the Levites, the people, and the king; so that no one will take what belong to others; and no one will abuse his authority on the expense of his brother. No holiness without justice and consideration of the rights of others. 2- JUSTICE AND TRUTH IN THE NEW CITY The ordinance of the holy land is justice, no oppression or violence. This is the feature of the soul that receives God in it as the source of its sanctification; that is why the Lord commands those of authority as such: “‘Remove violence and plundering; execute justice and righteousness; and stop dispossessing my people,’ says the Lord God.’ You shall have just balances, a just ephah and a just bath’” (Ez 45:9, 10) Nothing would grieve the heart of God like oppression and cheat; and nothing would please Him like mercy and justice. This is the law of the Church, that finds in her Christ, the divine justice realized; the balances of God are all just. He carried our trespasses, and paid our debts; and as the apostle says: “And you being dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it”(Col 2:13-15). In the balances we were found wanting; so He paid our dues; not just with words or emotions, but He paid for them with His life for our salvation; to have the divine justice realized in Him. By destroying violence and oppression, which are the law of the devil, Satan together with all his principalities and powers were disarmed, and were made a public spectacle. For this reason, He talked about the law of justice and not cheating in the offerings, sacrifices, and burnt offerings (Ez 45:15); as being a symbol of the sacrifice of the Lord Christ, in which the divine justice is realized. 3- REJOICING IN THE NEW CITY If the foundation of the Church is the holiness that came to be ours in the holy Christ, and its law is the justice that was realized in His sacrifice, its sign is: “rejoice” in the Lord. That is why God talks to them about their continuous feasts. The life of the Church is a continuous “feast,” and a heavenly joy, that no world events can take them away. Christianity is not depression nor boredom or bitterness; but in its essence, it is an inner joy realized as a fruit of the Holy Sprit (Gal 5); through her permanent leaning on the bosom of the Lord Christ, her conquering Head, who will always conquer (Rev 6:2). In Him, the Church sees heaven open, and herself sitting on the right hand of God the Father, through her unity in His Only-Begotten Son. That is the source of her permanent joy: The permanent conquest, and the opening of heaven before her, by her unity with God in Christ Jesus. 6 He started the feasts here by that celebrating the New Year (Ez 45:18), in the first day of the first month; then the “Passover” (Ez 45:21). In the following chapter, He talked about the Sabbaths, and the permanent feast (the daily offerings, day and night). All these in Christ Jesus are our permanent feast. He is the beginning of our new life (the New Year); our Passover, who was sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7); our true Sabbath, namely the mystery of our rest; and our daily feast, the source of our joy, every day and every night. We have previously dealt with the Jewish feasts, as a symbol of the Christian feast, in our interpretation of the book of Numbers. 7 AN INSPIRATION FROM THE BOOK OF E ZEKIEL 45 PROCLAIM YOUR LAW IN ME I witness to Your law within me, Your temple: Holiness, Justice and joy! What is Your law, O You Holy One, But holiness?! In You My body - the new land - is sanctified! And in You my soul - the new heaven - is sanctified! By You, my talents - the new Levites - are sanctified! And by You, my mind - the new prince - is sanctified! You are the One who sanctifies the soul, the body, and the Spirit! You are the Truth with no vanity! You are the justice without oppression! Grant me the law of Truth and justice inside me! Uproot from me every vanity and oppression! Your dwelling in my depths uproots grief; Your presence is a joyful kingdom! Your presence transforms my life into nonstop praise! Into a permanent feast!
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