Ezekiel 43:18, commentary and pictures

These are the ordinances given for the altar in the day when it should be made, to offer burnt offerings upon it and to sprinkle blood upon it, opening seven days of purging and consecrating the altar and the priests, after which from the eighth day forward the regular daily burnt offerings and peace offerings are made and accepted. They were offered to Israel in Babylonian captivity as a conditional promise, that if they were ashamed of their sins and returned wholeheartedly God would establish His sanctuary and restore them, to be fulfilled literally in every detail with His glory resting upon them. Israel did not meet the conditions but went on in apostasy, so that sanctuary was never erected as described and will never be built as described, because its altar service cannot be fulfilled after Christ. Its animal sacrifices and sprinkled blood belonged to the past Mosaic dispensation of types and shadows, which did not themselves remit sin but pointed forward to Christ's once-for-all offering, so to renew them now would return from fulfillment to shadow and annul His work as everlasting High Priest. In its spiritual aspect and great general promises, though not in every detail, the vision faintly typifies what God will do for the true Israel through Christ at the second coming, the full immortal inheritance and the new heavens and new earth, when the holy city prepared in heaven descends to earth.

Altar Ordinances Stated

The verse sets forth the ordinances of the altar for the day when it is made, that burnt offerings are to be offered upon it and blood is to be sprinkled upon it. Those ordinances include sin offerings and the other offerings prescribed in the vision for that sanctuary and altar.

The verse opens the ceremony for dedicating, purging and purifying the altar and for consecrating the priests through seven days. The offering for the first day is then specified, and the offering for the second day, and the offering for the whole week. When those seven days are expired, upon the eighth day and forward the priests make the regular daily burnt offerings and peace offerings and God accepts the people.

That eighth day is the eighth day of that purging series counted from the start of the dedication, not the eighth day of the week and not any weekday. It marks the altar's readiness for the usual daily service, like the days that follow it. It has nothing to do with the Sabbath in any way. It does not prophesy a change of the Sabbath to the first day or a Christian Sabbath, and taken literally it would require literal priests making literal burnt offerings upon a literal altar on that eighth day.

The Hebrew word for sprinkling blood on the altar means to scatter and hence to sprinkle, rendered in Greek by a form of procheo. It carries no sense of dipping or immersing in any of its uses, but keeps the same idea of scattering or sprinkling throughout. Sprinkle and immerse are distinct and cannot be interchanged, and baptize cannot mean sprinkle.

Conditional Offer Unfulfilled

The sanctuary, city, land and altar service shown in Ezekiel 36-48 and 40-48 were offered to Israel in Babylonian captivity as a conditional promise tied to the return from Babylon and the restoration of temple service. The condition was that they be ashamed of their sins and iniquities, put them away, turn from them, return wholeheartedly and keep God's ordinances. If they did so God would establish the sanctuary, bring back the twelve tribes, restore them to their land, rebuild the temple more glorious than ever with its altar ordinances for burnt offerings and sprinkling of blood with sin offerings and other offerings, destroy Gog and Magog, cleanse the land, redivide it among the twelve tribes so Israel would convert the nations, and manifest His glory. Their promised blessings depended on repentance and reform, and the whole gift stood or fell on that repentance.

If the conditions had been met the ordinances and promises would have been fulfilled literally and in detail. God's glory would have rested on the city, and the people would have offered the worship described in Ezekiel 40-48. The sanctuary ordinances with the temple and its sacrifices would have been established exactly as shown, filling the place God designed for them.

Israel did not fulfill the conditions but was not ashamed, did not turn, was unwilling to yield fully to God, refused to return wholeheartedly, and went on in apostasy. Therefore the sanctuary described was never erected, that temple was never rebuilt, the promised glory did not rest on God's children, and the resurrection did not take place. The restoration and victory were realized only partially and faintly, and the prophecy was not fulfilled as a literal national restoration.

That sanctuary as described was never built and will never be built as described. Its altar service with burnt offerings and sprinkling of blood belongs to the Mosaic dispensation when animal offerings and the Levitical priesthood were in force, and it cannot be fulfilled after Christ without making void the sacrifice Christ the Lord offered once for all. There can be no more sacrifice as sin-offering alongside His offering, and its prescribed sacrifices show it was not a sanctuary God would ordain again. It does not describe worship in the age to come.

What was actually built after the return by Zerubbabel under Ezra, later enlarged by Herod, was only a lesser substitute, feeble shadow and faint meeting of the wonderful promises. It fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern, was far less grand than the proposed temple, dwindled to a smaller temple with only the faintest shadow of the promised glory and prosperity, and never had the glory of Solomon's temple nor the wonderful glory to be manifest in Ezekiel's temple except in the person of Jesus, whom its keepers rejected. If all God's people had wholeheartedly returned at that time Ezekiel's temple would have been built, but because Israel failed the prophecy was fulfilled only in a very small part.

Past System Pointing Forward

The ordinances belong to the past Mosaic dispensation and to the time before the Messiah came, when animal offerings and the Levitical priesthood were in force, with literal circumcision and the distinctions between clean and unclean foods. The vision was given in the Babylonian captivity concerning the return to Jerusalem and the restoration of temple service, with burnt offerings to be offered and blood sprinkled as part of preparing the altar for service. The temple's sacrifices and ordinances belonged to a future for Jerusalem that depended on the people putting away their sins, and because they failed that future was forfeited, which shows the envisioned temple applied to the time before the Messiah came.

Its animal sacrifices and sprinkled blood belonged to the system of types and shadows pointing forward to Christ. Their blood did not itself remit sin but foreshadowed Christ's atonement, whose offering alone is effective. Those animal sin-offerings cannot operate while Christ serves as High Priest pleading His own precious blood, because they are against the gospel and God has blessed this dispensation with the glory that excelleth, so God could not approve beasts as sin-offerings at the same time.

Renewing those sacrifices now would return from fulfillment to shadow and undermine Christ's once-for-all offering. To offer sacrifices now would annul the offering of Christ, and there can be no more sacrifice without making void the sacrifice Christ the Lord offered. That priesthood assigned to the Levites does not continue after Christ's death and ascension, for Christ becomes the everlasting High Priest in the order of Melchisedek, with a priesthood that does not pass to another. The verse is cited as part of a vision that some expect to be fulfilled in a future age with renewed sacrifices, and it argues against that expectation because the first-covenant offerings pointed to Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, so such a revival would use a figure after the reality had already been accomplished.

The rites therefore do not describe the immortal state or the gospel dispensation after Christ's sacrifice. They do not describe worship in the age to come, and they do not refer to a future sanctuary to be built for sacrifice or point to a future sanctuary where sacrifices would be offered. They belonged to the typical Levitical worship as shadows pointing forward to Christ's offering, the true antitype, and therefore could not apply to a time after Christ's death, to the present time, or to the age to come.

Prophecy and Future Hope

Ezekiel 43:18 belongs to the promise of Ezekiel 36–48 of what would have been done for Israel after the return from Babylonian captivity, including restoration to the land, a temple rebuilt more glorious than ever with its altar ordinances for burnt offerings and sprinkling of blood, destruction of Gog and Magog, cleansing of the land, and redivision among the twelve tribes so that Israel would convert the nations. That gift centered on God’s presence as Jehovah is there dwelling among the people, which would heal barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life. If the conditions had been met the new and greater sanctuary would have been realized in far greater measure, the temple built by Zerubbabel would have been far greater and grander, Israel would have become the joy of the whole earth and a house of prayer for all nations, and marvelous things would have been wrought in the Holy Land. The whole offer was conditional on Israel being ashamed of iniquities, forsaking sins, yielding fully to God and returning to the Lord with all the heart, but they did not repent and only about forty thousand returned from captivity, so the sanctuary was never rebuilt as described, the glory did not rest on God’s children, the resurrection did not take place, and the prophecy was fulfilled only in a very small part as the faintest shadow of the promised glory and prosperity. Palestine and the people would then have been restored to great glory, but that restoration was not fulfilled then and will be fulfilled under greater conditions.

In its spiritual aspect and great general promises, though not in every detail, the vision faintly typifies what God will do for His children at the second coming and for the true Israel through Christ, for the type is never the perfect antitype. Because Israel did not truly repent, the faithful will receive the future glory and the full immortal inheritance rather than a literal national restoration. The promises connected with the temple faintly point to God’s restoration of the new heavens and new earth, when the kingdom’s peace will be realized more gloriously. God will prepare the holy city in heaven as it could have been built if Israel had answered the calls to leave Babylon, and it will descend to earth. The general antitype of the punishment of those who would destroy His people is found in Revelation 20 and 21.

Under that greater fulfillment much of the former local detail is omitted. There will be no burning of weapons and cleansing of the land by human hands as in the prophet’s day, because the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat.

The altar rites with sprinkling of sacrificial blood, together with Leviticus 16, show how the earthly sanctuary was cleansed on the Day of Atonement after the figurative transfer of sins to it, providing the pattern for Christ’s cleansing work as High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. When the altar was made, ordinances were prescribed for offering burnt offerings and sprinkling blood on it, and those rites are linked to the need for cleansing that followed that transfer.

By a differing reading, the verse predicts the building of the greater temple later erected by Herod as a monument of his repentance for his murders, foretelling the work itself without revealing the process by which it would be done.

Errors Refuted by Verse

Ezekiel 43:18 belongs to the vision of Ezekiel's city and sets forth ordinances of the altar involving burnt offerings and the sprinkling of blood. Though it is cited as part of a vision expected by some to be fulfilled in a future age with renewed sacrifices, it argues against that age-to-come expectation. The first-covenant offerings it describes pointed forward to Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, and therefore cannot be renewed afterward.

The verse belongs to the last nineteen chapters of Ezekiel that are claimed to teach the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ on earth, and an earthly inheritance of the saints. That claim is false, for it does not teach any such return, earthly reign, or earthly inheritance and special future work among the Jews. The saints are taken to heaven at the second coming of Christ, at which time the earth is desolated. That desolation overthrows any future special work among the Jews or earthly Jewish restoration built on this verse.