Bird's-eye view
In this portion of Ezekiel's temple vision, the Lord moves from the grand architectural details of restored worship to the nuts and bolts of a restored society. The prophet is given instructions that are intensely practical, dealing with weights, measures, and currency. This is not a jarring shift from the spiritual to the secular, but rather a profound statement that in God's economy, there is no such division. True worship of a holy God must necessarily result in a holy, just, and righteous society. The integrity of the marketplace is a direct reflection of the integrity of the sanctuary. God is not just the God of our prayers and hymns; He is the God of our balance sheets and business transactions. These verses are a divine mandate for economic righteousness, grounding all commerce in the objective, unchanging standard of God's own character. He is the one who defines what is just, and for a society to be rightly ordered, its economic life must conform to His standards, not the shifting, self-serving standards of fallen men.
The Lord here establishes a unified, coherent, and just system of measures. The ephah for dry goods and the bath for liquids are to be the same. The shekel is defined with precision. This is God bringing order out of the chaos of dishonest gain. He is laying the foundation for a commonwealth where trust can flourish because it is built on a shared commitment to an external, divine standard. This is the application of theology to the street level. It is a reminder that the covenant touches everything, from the highest heavens to the humblest bag of grain. A people redeemed by a just God are called to live justly in every sphere of life.
Outline
- 1. The Foundation of a Just Society (Ezek 45:10-12)
- a. The Divine Mandate for Honesty (Ezek 45:10)
- b. The Divine Standard for Measures (Ezek 45:11)
- c. The Divine Regulation of Currency (Ezek 45:12)
Context In Ezekiel
These verses are situated within the final, grand vision of the book of Ezekiel (chapters 40-48), which describes a new, idealized temple and a restored land. After the devastating judgment on Jerusalem and the old temple, this vision provides a blueprint for the future glory of God's people. It is a picture of a renewed covenant community living in the presence of God. The preceding chapters have laid out the dimensions of the new temple, the duties of the priests, and the return of the glory of the Lord. Now, in chapter 45, the vision turns to the practical organization of the land and the conduct of the people and their leaders. The instructions on just weights and measures immediately follow the allocation of land for the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites, the city, and the prince. This placement is significant. The economic life of the people is not an afterthought; it is an integral part of what it means for the land to be holy to the Lord. The vision is holistic: a restored temple requires a restored economy, and a holy prince must rule over a people who conduct their business with holiness.
Key Issues
- The Lordship of Christ over Economics
- The Connection between Worship and Commerce
- The Sin of Dishonest Gain
- The Necessity of Objective Standards
- God as the Foundation of Justice
- The Practical Application of Holiness
Just Weights and True Worship
It is a common temptation to bifurcate our lives. We have our "spiritual" life, which consists of church attendance, prayer, and Bible reading, and then we have our "real" life, which is where we make a living, buy and sell, and engage in commerce. God does not recognize this distinction. The book of Proverbs tells us plainly, "A just weight and balance are the LORD's; all the weights of the bag are His work" (Prov 16:11). God owns the scales. He owns the weights. He owns the bag they are carried in. Therefore, every transaction in the marketplace is conducted before His face and is subject to His standards.
Ezekiel's vision of the new temple is a vision of restored fellowship with God. But what does that restored fellowship look like when it walks out of the temple gates and into the city? It looks like this: honest scales. It looks like an ephah that is actually an ephah and a shekel that is actually a shekel. Crooked dealing, shaving the measurements, and tampering with the currency are not just sharp business practices; they are acts of idolatry. They are a declaration that we will be the standard of our own affairs, that we will define right and wrong for ourselves. It is a rejection of God as the ultimate standard of all things. When a nation's commerce becomes corrupt, it is a sure sign that its worship has become corrupt. And so, in this vision of restoration, God starts with the basics. Before the sacrifices can be rightly offered, the scales must be made right. True revival always brings reformation, and that reformation must extend to the cash register.
Verse by Verse Commentary
10 “You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.
The command is direct and comprehensive. It covers the three basic instruments of commerce. A balance is for weighing solids, like silver or grain. An ephah is a standard for measuring dry volume, like flour. A bath is for measuring liquid volume, like oil or wine. For all three, the requirement is the same: they must be just. The Hebrew word here is for righteousness or justice. This is not simply a call for accuracy, but for moral uprightness. The balances are not to be tipped, the ephah is not to have a false bottom, the bath is not to be undersized. This is a command for fundamental, structural integrity in all economic dealings. God is a God of justice, and His people are to reflect His character in the marketplace. There is no room for the thumb on the scale, which God calls an abomination (Prov 11:1).
11 The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; their standard shall be according to the homer.
Here the Lord provides the principle for ensuring justice: a common, objective standard. The measures for dry goods (ephah) and liquids (bath) are to be standardized against a larger measure, the homer. A homer was a large quantity, roughly equivalent to the amount a donkey could carry. By making both the ephah and the bath a tenth of this known standard, God establishes a coherent and transparent system. There is to be no confusion or opportunity for deception by having multiple, fluctuating standards. This is economic order, divinely instituted. It tells us that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace and order. His righteousness is not a vague sentiment; it is precise, calculable, and applicable to the details of everyday life. All just standards, whether for morality or for commerce, must ultimately be grounded in a higher, unchanging reality, which is God Himself.
12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your maneh.
The instruction now turns from measures of volume to measures of weight, which functioned as currency. The shekel is the basic unit, and it is defined with precision as being equal to twenty gerahs. This prevents the debasing of the currency through clipping coins or using underweight shekels. The Lord then defines the larger unit, the maneh. The text here, "twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your maneh," has been a puzzle for commentators. However, the most straightforward reading is that these three amounts add up to sixty shekels (20 + 25 + 15 = 60), which other passages indicate was the standard for a maneh. This may have been a way of defining the maneh by referencing three common weights or coins that would sum to it, making the standard easy to verify. Whatever the precise mechanism, the point is the same as with the ephah and the bath. God demands a fixed, reliable, and honest standard for money. Unstable currency and inflation are forms of theft, and they are an offense to the God of justice who commands His people to be honest in all their dealings.
Application
We live in an age of staggering economic dishonesty. We have governments that create money out of thin air, devaluing the savings of the diligent through inflation, which is a hidden and pernicious tax. We have complex financial instruments that few understand, which serve to enrich the clever at the expense of the unwary. We have marketing that promises the moon and delivers dust. In such a world, this passage from Ezekiel is not some dusty artifact; it is a prophetic trumpet blast.
The application for us is twofold. First, on a personal level, Christians are called to be scrupulously honest in all their financial and business dealings. Your word must be your bond. The product you sell must be what you claim it is. The service you render must be worth the wage you are paid. You are to have just balances. This is a fundamental aspect of our witness. An honest Christian businessman is a powerful sermon. Second, on a societal level, we must advocate for and work toward a just economic order. This means opposing the systemic theft of inflation. It means demanding transparency and accountability. It means recognizing that there can be no true and lasting prosperity that is not built on the foundation of righteousness. God has not called us to retreat from the world of commerce, but to invade it with the principles of His kingdom. And the first principle of that kingdom's economy is that the scales, the measures, and the money must be just, because they all belong to the Lord.