Worship on God's Terms: The Prince, the People, and the Pattern Text: Ezekiel 46:11-12
Introduction: The Grammar of True Worship
We live in an age that treats worship like a consumer preference. Men approach God as though they were walking into a restaurant, looking over a menu of options, deciding what suits their tastes for the day. Shall we have the four fast songs and a slow one? Shall we go with the traditional hymns or the contemporary choruses? Shall the sermon be a TED talk with a Bible verse garnish, or a deep dive into the Greek? This entire approach is rotten from the foundation up. It begins with man, his feelings, his preferences, and his felt needs. But true worship begins and ends with God. It is conducted on His terms, according to His pattern, for His glory.
The book of Ezekiel, particularly these latter chapters, can seem bewildering to the modern Christian. We read of ephahs and hins, of bulls and rams, of east gates and freewill offerings, and our eyes tend to glaze over. We are tempted to think this is just archaic detail from a bygone era, with no more relevance to us than the tax code of ancient Babylon. But to think this way is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of God's Word. The New Testament is latent in the Old, and the Old Testament is patent in the New. These shadows are cast by a coming reality, and that reality is Jesus Christ. If we do not understand the shadow, we will have a flattened, two-dimensional understanding of the substance.
Ezekiel's vision of a new temple is not a blueprint for a stone-and-mortar building to be constructed in modern-day Jerusalem. That would be to read the end of the story and then demand to go back to the kindergarten picture book. This temple is a prophetic vision of the Church of Jesus Christ, the true temple, and the glorious, orderly, God-centered worship that defines her life. These chapters are a detailed schematic of the grammar of true worship. And in our text today, we see two crucial elements of this grammar: the prescribed worship for all of God's people at set times, and the special role of the civil magistrate, here called the prince, in leading in a particular kind of worship.
This passage gives us a framework for understanding the relationship between corporate, required worship and individual, voluntary devotion. It also provides a stunningly relevant picture of the duty of the Christian ruler. He is not the priest, he does not offer the sacrifice himself, but he is to be a principal worshiper, publicly and willingly honoring the God who established his throne. This is a truth our secular age has not just forgotten but actively declared war upon. But the Word of God stands.
The Text
"Now at the feasts and the appointed times the grain offering shall be an ephah with a bull and an ephah with a ram, and with the lambs shall be a gift from his hand, as well as a hin of oil with an ephah. And when the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings as a freewill offering to Yahweh, the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he does on the sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he goes out."
(Ezekiel 46:11-12 LSB)
Regulated Feasts and Ransomed Hands (v. 11)
We begin with the established pattern for corporate worship.
"Now at the feasts and the appointed times the grain offering shall be an ephah with a bull and an ephah with a ram, and with the lambs shall be a gift from his hand, as well as a hin of oil with an ephah." (Ezekiel 46:11)
The first thing that ought to strike us is the specificity. God cares about the details. Worship is not a free-for-all. It happens at "feasts and appointed times." This is the rhythm of the covenant community, the calendar of redemption. God sets the times, because He is the Lord of time. Our modern individualism chafes at this. We want our religion to be private, spontaneous, and unstructured. But biblical faith is corporate, structured, and liturgical. We are called out of our individualistic chaos into a covenant family that moves to the rhythm of God's drumbeat.
Then we see the specific amounts. An ephah with a bull, an ephah with a ram. An ephah was a substantial amount, roughly twenty-two liters. A hin of oil was about a gallon. These are not arbitrary figures. They represent a worship that is generous, costly, and wholehearted. But notice the crucial phrase concerning the lambs: "with the lambs shall be a gift from his hand." While the offerings for the larger sacrifices are fixed, there is a measure of freedom and liberality with the lambs. The Hebrew here literally says "the gift of his hand." This beautifully marries divine prescription with human volition. God sets the standard, but within that standard, there is room for the worshiper's heart to overflow in generosity. Our giving, our worship, is not to be the bare minimum required. It is to be a joyful, open-handed response to God's goodness.
Of course, we must immediately ask what this means for us. We do not bring bulls or grain to the front of the church on Sunday morning. To do so would be an act of blasphemous unbelief. Why? Because all these sacrifices were promissory notes pointing to the one, final, all-sufficient sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ is our bull, our ram, our lamb. He is the grain offering, the bread of life, crushed for our iniquities. He is the oil, the Anointed One, by whose Spirit we are consecrated to God. Every bit of this ceremonial law has been fulfilled, completed, and consummated in Him (Heb. 10:10-14).
But the fulfillment does not mean erasure. The principle remains. Our worship is still to be offered at appointed times, chief of which is the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection. And our worship is to be costly and generous. The "gift of his hand" for us is the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name (Heb. 13:15). It is the offering of our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). It is the cheerful and generous giving of our financial resources to support the work of the kingdom. The pattern of God-regulated, heart-engaged worship remains, even though the specific elements have been transfigured in the glory of Christ.
The Prince's Freewill Offering (v. 12)
The focus now shifts from the general pattern for all to the specific actions of the ruler.
"And when the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings as a freewill offering to Yahweh, the gate facing east shall be opened for him." (Ezekiel 46:12a)
Here we see the civil magistrate, the prince, acting not just as a citizen, but in his official capacity as a worshiper. This is not a private devotion. This is a public act. He is not coerced; it is a "freewill offering." This is something he provides willingly, from a heart of devotion to Yahweh. This demolishes the sacred/secular divide that has poisoned the modern mind. The idea that a ruler's faith is a private matter that must not influence his public duties is a lie from the pit of hell. Here, the prince's public duty includes public worship.
Notice the offerings he brings: a burnt offering, signifying total consecration and atonement, and peace offerings, signifying fellowship and communion with God. The Christian magistrate, above all people, ought to understand his need for atonement and his duty of consecrating his rule to God. He ought to desire fellowship with the King of kings, from whom he derives his authority. His rule is not autonomous. He is a deacon of God (Rom. 13:4), and he must conduct his office as an act of worship.
When he does this, a special honor is granted. "The gate facing east shall be opened for him." This gate was normally shut (Ezek. 44:1-2). It was the gate of glory, through which the glory of Yahweh had entered the temple (Ezek. 43:4). For it to be opened for the prince is a sign of high honor and direct access. This teaches us that when a ruler honors God, God honors him. When a nation's leaders publicly and willingly submit to the lordship of Christ, God opens a gate of blessing and access for that nation.
Public Worship, Private Role (v. 12b)
The conclusion of the verse gives us the proper boundaries and order for this princely worship.
"And he shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he does on the sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he goes out." (Ezekiel 46:12b)
He provides the offerings, but he does not offer them himself. The priests do that. This is a crucial distinction. The prince has authority circa sacra (around the sacred things) but not in sacris (in the sacred things). He is to ensure that true worship is supported, protected, and honored in the land. He is to be a leading worshiper. But he is not the pastor. He does not administer the Word and sacrament. King Uzziah tried to cross this line, entering the temple to burn incense himself, and God struck him with leprosy for his presumption (2 Chron. 26:16-21). The roles of prince and priest, of magistrate and minister, are distinct.
His offering is to be made "as he does on the sabbath day." This connects his voluntary, freewill worship to the established, regular pattern of covenantal worship. His personal piety is not to be eccentric or detached from the life of the covenant community. It aligns with, and flows out of, the steady rhythm of sabbath observance. This is a lesson for all of us. Our spontaneous acts of devotion should not be a substitute for the weekly, ordinary means of grace, but rather an overflow from them.
Finally, there is a solemn finality to the act. "Then he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he goes out." His access is real, but it is temporary and mediated. He enters for worship, and then he departs. The gate is shut. Why? Because there is only one who has permanent access through that gate. There is only one Prince who is also our Great High Priest. Jesus Christ, our Prince of Peace, has opened the way into the true holy place, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood. He has entered once for all, and the gate He has opened for us, the new and living way, is never shut (Heb. 10:19-20).
Our Prince and Our Pattern
So what do we do with this? We must see, first and foremost, that this prince in Ezekiel is a type, a pointer to the Lord Jesus. Christ is the true Prince who offered the ultimate freewill offering. "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18). His was the perfect burnt offering, wholly consuming Himself for the glory of the Father, and the perfect peace offering, making peace by the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20).
Because of His offering, the eastern gate to the very throne room of God has been thrown open for all who are in Him. We have a boldness and access that Ezekiel's prince could only dream of. We are invited to come right in, to the throne of grace, to find mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).
But this passage also remains as a pattern for earthly rulers. It is the duty of every king, president, prime minister, and mayor to confess the name of Christ and to govern as His servant. They are commanded to "kiss the Son, lest he be angry" (Psalm 2:12). Their public life is not to be religiously neutral. They are to be "nursing fathers" to the Church (Isaiah 49:23), protecting her, honoring her, and publicly participating in her worship. They are to provide for the worship of God, not by usurping the church's role, but by creating a civil order where the church can flourish and by setting a public example of freewill devotion.
And for every believer, the pattern holds. Our lives are to be structured by the "appointed times" of corporate worship. But out of that regular, faithful gathering, there should flow "freewill offerings." Our devotion should not be confined to one hour on a Sunday. It should spill out into every day, into every decision, into every sphere of life. We are to provide our whole lives as a burnt offering, consecrated fully to Him, and as a peace offering, enjoying sweet fellowship with the Father, through the one great Prince who has gone in before us, and for us.