The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way." – Ezekiel 44:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 29, 2023): Ezekiel 44

In my mind, I can see the day. The sun shines brightly as a man wearing unusual clothes gathers by the river. The man is preaching. A new day has come. It is a day of Revolution. Gone are the legalistic days of the past and the dominance of the priests and kings over the nation of Israel. The man said that he would baptize the people with water, but one was coming soon who would baptize the people with the Spirit of God and with fire.

On this day, as the people listened to this strange-looking man, another man appeared on the horizon. The strangely dressed man couldn't believe his eyes. The very one he was speaking about was walking toward him and the group who had gathered around listening to him. And when he arrived, this second man walked right up to the strange-looking man, embraced him, and told him he wanted to be baptized.

The strange-looking man looks at him. How could this be? How could he, a wandering preacher, baptize the one who is the Messiah? The strange-looking man shakes his head. "No. I can't baptize you. If anything, I need you to baptize me."

But Jesus replies to John. "' Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.' Then John consented" (Matthew 3:15). Did Jesus need to be baptized? I understand John's reticence. Baptism is about repentance and the forgiveness of sin. It is a statement that says to the world that we have turned our back on the lives we used to live and have embraced God's way. But Jesus was without sin. Why would he need to be baptized?

Still speaking of the Temple he had seen in his vision, Ezekiel begins talking of the Temple's Eastern Gate. The Eastern Gate was shut, and God instructed it was to remain closed because that was the gate that God had used to enter the Temple. As a result, no one else could enter through that gate. The one exception seems to be that the prince may sit inside the gateway to eat. So, the question of the passage is the identity of the priest. Most seem to land on David as the prince of the passage. Part of the reasoning is that Ezekiel has already spoken of David as a prince twice in his prophecy (Ezekiel 34:24 and 37:25). So maybe David as the Prince makes sense.

Others have suggested that the prince is the Messiah, Jesus. But what is interesting is the rebuttal of why Jesus can't be Ezekiel's mysterious prince. One of the arguments against identifying Jesus as the prince is that the prince will have to offer a sin offering. ("On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land" [Ezekiel 45:22].) Since Jesus was without sin, why should he offer a sin offering? And maybe the response to this argument is found in Matthew 3. Jesus was without sin, and yet he was baptized by John the Baptist because "it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." (Matthew 3:15). Is it not possible that the same argument would hold for the sin sacrifice that is required of the prince in Ezekiel?

The bottom line is that we don't know the prince's identity. But it would seem that either David or Jesus would be good guesses.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 45