in the house of the Lord of hosts.” The
prophet’s care to include “all the families
of the earth” in this ordinance is very noticeable.
Whatever nation refuses to observe it shall have no
rain. But, recollecting that for Egypt this can
be no punishment, he appoints for that country the
plague instead of the absence of rain. Is it
so, then, that in the last days all the families of
the earth are to go up year by year to worship at Jerusalem?
If so, they are to sacrifice also; for the
prophecy is a homogeneous whole, of which, if the
beginning is to be understood literally, so is the
end also. The reference is to the peace-offerings
of the people, on which, after certain prescribed
portions had been burned on the altar, the offerer
feasted with his friends; and a special provision is
made for the multitude of these sacrifices. “Every
pot in Judah and Jerusalem,” as well as “the
pots in the Lord’s house,” “shall
be holiness unto the Lord of hosts,” that it
may be used for boiling the flesh of the peace-offerings,
precisely as we find done in the days of Eli. 1 Sam.
2:13-16. But all sacrifices are done away for
ever in Christ. Heb. 10:10-18. This part
of the prophecy must clearly be understood figuratively,
and therefore the whole. The future reception
of the true religion by all nations is foretold under
the symbols of the Mosaic economy, with its ritual,
its yearly feasts, and its central place of worship.
For this principle of interpretation we have the warrant
of the New Testament. Did the law of Moses prescribe
a literal priesthood with literal sacrifices; believers,
under the new dispensation, are a spiritual priesthood,
presenting their bodies as “living sacrifices.”
Rom. 12:1; 1 Pet. 2:5. Did the Mosaic economy
have a central metropolis, a literal Zion, whither
all the tribes went up; believers in Christ have come
to the spiritual “Mount Zion” which this
shadowed forth, where the great Antitype of David
reigns, that all nations may resort to him, and he
may teach them his laws.
Upon the same principle, as well as for other very obvious reasons (see chaps. 42:15-20; 45:1-8; 47:1-12, and the whole of chap. 48), Ezekiel’s minute description of a New Jerusalem, with its territory, its temple, and its Jewish appointments (chaps. 40-48), is to be understood not literally but figuratively. This temple has also its Levitical priesthood, its altar, and its sacrifices (chap. 43:13-27), all which are done away in Christ. There are other passages kindred to the above which it is not necessary to consider separately, as they all come under the same general principle of interpretation.