Ezekiel 43:19, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 43:19 directs that a young bullock be given for a sin offering to the priests of the line of Zadok who draw near to minister, as part of the seven days appointed to purge, purify and consecrate the altar before the regular offerings begin on the eighth day and forward. The pattern was shown when the temple lay in ruins to console Israel in captivity with directions for rebuilding and restored worship, but it was offered conditionally upon their shame for iniquity, repentance and wholehearted obedience, which they did not render, so the sanctuary as described was never built. The bullock, the beast offerings and the Zadokite priesthood belong to the typical worship of the first covenant, whose cleansing by sacrificial blood pointed forward to Christ the great sin offering and his priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary. That whole order ceased at the cross, when the priesthood changed from Levi to Christ priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. It therefore cannot be renewed as a literal system in the gospel age or in any future reign, for to offer bulls and goats for sin now would annul the once-for-all offering by which Christ perfected the sanctified forever (Hebrews 10:10-14). Those who held a literal fulfillment teach it was fulfilled in the temple rebuilt by Zerubbabel after the captivity or in the greater temple built under Herod, while the eighth day itself is simply the day after the seven dedicatory days and does not change the Sabbath to Sunday.

Verse Wording and Context

The verse assigns a young bull, a young bullock, as a sin offering to the priests, the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach God to minister before Him. Those ministering priests are not people gathered from all nations but members of a particular Levitical line descended from Levi and Zadok. In Ezekiel's temple the Levites of the seed of Zadok thus approach God to minister as priests with animal offering and Levitical priesthood belonging to the Mosaic worship and Levitical worship offered to Israel in captivity.

The instruction stands within the altar's dedication and purification ceremony and the ordinances of the altar for offering burnt offerings and sprinkling blood. Definite offerings were appointed for each day for seven days to purge and purify the altar, to consecrate it and make it ready for service, including the prescribed sin offering of the young bullock by the Zadokite priests on the first day. Upon the eighth day and so forward, the day after those seven days of sanctification and dedicatory feast or service were expired, the regular daily service was to begin with the usual daily burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar from that day forward, and God would accept. That eighth day is simply the eighth day from the beginning of those seven dedication services and the eighth day of that dedicatory series, not any day of the week and not a special weekly day afterward to be observed.

The verse belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary and city and to the detailed description of sanctuary, temple, city, and land in Ezekiel 40-48, also described as Ezekiel 36-48 and Ezekiel 41-48, concerning offerings, ceremonies, and rites. Like the tabernacle and the temple of Solomon, this building consisted of two holy places, its most holy place being the same size as that in Solomon's temple, and the word sanctuary is applied to this building. It stands together with burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats, divorce, distinction of clean and unclean meats, literal circumcision, and a Levitical priesthood with Zadokite Levites ministering as priests.

Historical Setting and Condition

The pattern was given fourteen years after the destruction of the temple, in 574 B.C. in the twenty-fifth year of the Babylonian captivity when the Jerusalem temple lay in ruins. It was given to show to the house of Israel in captivity, to console them with explicit directions for rebuilding, return, and restoration of temple service. Verses 18-26 give directions for consecration of the priests and purification of the altar after it should be restored, before beginning the regular daily service, with seven days to purge the altar and purify it and consecrate themselves.

The sanctuary, restoration, renewed worship, rebuilt temple, cleansed and redivided land, and all its figures and promises were offered conditionally. Israel must be ashamed of iniquities, be confounded for their ways, put sins away, be cleansed, repent, reform, obey, keep God's ordinances, and return wholeheartedly with all the heart. If they did, God would establish the building, bring back the twelve tribes, restore them more fully, and literally fulfill all that was promised. The instructions about the offering were not an unconditional promise that had to be fulfilled if Israel failed to meet those conditions. The service described would have accompanied the sanctuary if Israel had been faithful.

Israel did not meet the condition: they were not ashamed but went on in apostasy, departed from ordinances, and corrupted the covenant. Only a few, about forty thousand, returned. Therefore the condition was not fulfilled and the sanctuary as described was never built, not because God changed his purpose but because Israel failed its part.

Prophecy and Fulfillment

The sanctuary in all its blessed fullness was never built and never will be built literally as a future-age sanctuary. It belonged with its building and its old sanctuary service of animal offerings and Levitical priesthood to the Mosaic dispensation, and would have been fulfilled then if Israel had met its conditions, but the people did not, so it was never erected to fill the place God designed for it. That glorious temple pattern of Ezekiel 40 to 48, and of Ezekiel 36 to 48 and 37 to 48, with its water of life and glory of God, would have made Israel a light to the world if heeded, but because they refused to be ashamed only a mere shadow was built instead of the wonderful structure shown. There can be no more such building now without making void the sacrifice Christ offered, for to offer sacrifices now annuls His once-for-all offering.

The best Israel received was only a feeble, faint, limited shadow in the inferior, smaller temple actually erected by Zerubbabel, Ezra and others, which fell far short of the pattern. Because Israel went on in apostasy and failed to forsake sins and return with all the heart, the prophecy was fulfilled only in a very small part, dwindling to that diminished likeness with only the faintest shadow of the promised glory and prosperity. That post-return house never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom its keepers rejected, and its command for animal sin offerings proves the vision does not refer to a future sanctuary. The altar dedication itself appointed a young bullock for a sin offering by the Zadokite priests for the first of seven days to purge and purify the altar, after which upon the eighth day and forward the regular burnt offerings and peace offerings of the law were to be made daily.

One position holds that the prophecy was fulfilled when the temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel after the captivity with a seven-day dedicatory feast. In that reckoning the seven days purge the altar and purify and consecrate it before the regular daily service resumes, and the eighth day afterward is simply the eighth from the beginning of those dedication services with no intimation of a special day to be afterward observed. Another position holds that the closing chapters predict the greater temple built under Herod, foretelling the building itself but not revealing the process by which the work was to be done.

In its spiritual aspect the chapters stand as prophecy of greater things God will do for His people through Christ. They are only faintly typical, not in detail but in great general promises, of what God will do at the second coming, for the type is never the perfect antitype, and the future glory and immortal inheritance will come to the faithful but not through fulfillment of every detail as described, and without the local conditions of the prophet's day. If Israel had been faithful and yielded wholeheartedly upon coming up out of Babylon, God would have rebuilt the temple more glorious than ever, restored, cleansed and redivided the land among the twelve tribes, brought them back to the mountains of Israel, done better to them than at their beginnings, raised them as in Ezekiel 37, destroyed the northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 with plagues, and enabled them to build the marvelous sanctuary where His presence would dwell in overpowering glory in the city called Jehovah Is There. Because they were unwilling and did not fully repent, that restoration was not carried out in all its details, and victory and restoration were partial and far less glorious, yet it will yet be fulfilled in the greater glory of the second coming of Jesus Christ and events connected therewith. In that promised kingdom life would have been lengthened, character would have affected even the animals, and God's presence would have been continually manifest, which Israel's failure to accept the conditions prevented then.

The temple vision centers on a restored Jerusalem teaching that Jehovah is there and that the only holy, worthy thing is that in which God dwells, leading man to yield himself as a dwelling-place, temple and sanctuary of God. The presence of God in that temple would heal all barren land, all salt marshes and all impure waters and would give life to all, because God could not come in and dwell among a half-hearted people to build a temple for His name for them to dishonor. The city is presented as a house of prayer for all nations, while the ministering priests themselves are not people gathered from all nations but members of the particular Levitical line of Zadok, to whom the young bull for a sin offering is given.

Priesthood and Sacrifice Doctrine

The young bullock for a sin offering given to the priests the Levites of the seed of Zadok belongs to the order and manner of Levitical sacrifices and burnt offerings under the ordinances of the first covenant. Those beast sin offerings were typical worship, a shadow of good things to come pointing forward to Christ's offering as the true antitype and great sin offering. The prescribed dedication service for the altar, in which sins were figuratively transferred to the earthly sanctuary and so made its cleansing necessary, was cleansed through the priest's work with the blood of a sacrifice. That ritual served as a type of Christ's priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary.

That whole order ceased at the cross, where the great Sacrifice caused all others to cease. When Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed, Levi was no longer priest, and the priesthood of Melchizedek superseded Levi. Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchizedek with an unchangeable priesthood that does not pass from one to another.

The animal offering and Levitical priesthood are features of the Mosaic dispensation that cannot be renewed as a literal future system, because Christ's offering was once for all and the earlier offerings were shadows pointing to his effective sacrifice. Animal blood cannot take away sin, whereas Christ by one offering of his body once for all perfected forever them that are sanctified and sat down on the right hand of God. To offer bulls, goats, and rams for sin now would annul the offering of Christ and make it of none effect, and treating bull and goat sacrifices as effective for cleansing sin denies Christ as Savior. To return to the Levitical priesthood is another gospel under a curse. To build that city and temple during the thousand-year reign and resume its sacrifices would return to the first covenant after it was taken away to establish the second, bring in a state less glorious than the present dispensation of the more excellent ministry and better covenant, set an earthly city in place of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven to the new earth, and require a second Messiah to expiate sin. For that reason the vision does not refer to a future sanctuary to be built after the opening of the Christian dispensation, and it cannot belong to the gospel dispensation, the present age, the thousand-year reign, or the future immortal reign.

That sanctuary cannot exist at the same time as Christ's ministry as great High Priest pleading his own precious blood, because offering beasts for sin is against the gospel of Christ and against the dispensation blessed with the glory that excelleth. That priesthood is contemporary with the everlasting gospel, for Christ is the great High Priest and the gospel is his gospel. When Christ's priesthood ends there is no more probation. In the future immortal reign Jesus alone is King with no sin offering, oppression, or exaction.

Sabbath and Present Application

The instruction belongs to the dedication and purification of the altar, in which the priests descended from Zadok were to receive a young bull for a sin offering, with a definite offering appointed for each day for seven days to purge and purify the altar and consecrate it and make it ready for service. The eighth day and so forward is simply the day after those seven days of dedicatory feast or service are expired, when the altar is ready for the usual daily service and the regular burnt offerings and peace offerings described in the law are to be made daily upon the altar from that day forward and God accepts. It is not any day of the week, neither the seventh-day Sabbath nor the first day of the week, and with all common days following to be like that eighth day it does not prophesy or establish a change of the Sabbath to the eighth day or to Sunday. The directions were given for consecration of the priests and purification of the altar after it should be restored, before beginning the regular daily service, and one position holds that this prophecy was fulfilled when the temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel after the captivity with a seven-day dedicatory feast.

There is no intimation what day of the week that eighth day was, nor that it was some particular and important day to be afterward observed, but only the day the regular daily burnt offerings and peace offerings were to be resumed and so forward every day. If offerings on that eighth day made it the Sabbath, then every day after would be the Sabbath, since the offerings continue forward alike. The eighth day does not mean the first day of the week and does not predict or establish first-day observance or a Christian Sabbath, and even if the seven days of purification could be shown to have begun on the first day, the eighth day still would not thereby be made a Sabbath. To take the eighth day as Sunday would require literal priests making literal burnt offerings upon a literal altar with Levitical slaying of burnt offerings and sacrifices and barring the uncircumcised in heart and flesh from the sanctuary, which does not belong to the gospel dispensation. The verse therefore cannot establish a command to keep Sunday without also implying a return to that system of literal priests and sacrifices with its bullocks and rams and young bull as sin offering.

The altar service with its seven days of purging and its offerings on the eighth day means the same as the types and shadows of the ceremonial law in Exodus, Genesis, and Numbers, setting forth the same evangelical truths.