Ezekiel 43:22, commentary and pictures

On the second day of the dedication a spotless male goat was to be offered as a sin offering to cleanse the altar in the same way it had been cleansed with the bull on the first day. This was part of a seven-day work to purge, purify and consecrate the altar and the priests, after which the regular burnt offerings and peace offerings would begin and be accepted. The rite belongs to the temple, service, city and land shown to Israel after the destruction of the temple, offered on condition that they be ashamed of sin and return to God with all the heart, but it was never built because they went on in apostasy and only a feeble and inferior house was raised after Babylon. The cleansing by bulls and goats belongs to a mortal and typical system before the death of Christ and cannot be reinstated in the gospel age or in the future immortal state, for those blood offerings were shadows pointing to His once-for-all offering which perfected forever those who are sanctified. That earthly cleansing by the blood of bullock and goat gives the meaning of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary at the end of the 2300 days, when Jesus as High Priest enters the true tabernacle by His own blood to finish mediation and blot out sin before the second advent.

Second-Day Altar Rite

On the second day of the altar's dedication a kid of the goats without blemish, a spotless and flawless male goat, was to be offered for a sin offering, and the altar was to be cleansed as it had been cleansed with the bullock on the first day. This second-day offering belongs to the ordinances of the altar in the day when it is made to offer burnt offerings and sprinkle blood thereon.

This was part of a seven-day ceremony to purge the altar and purify it and to dedicate and consecrate it, and to consecrate the priests, with the same kind of offerings continuing for a whole week until the altar was purged and purified. When these seven days of sanctification expired, upon the eighth day and so forward the priests were to make the usual daily burnt offerings and peace offerings commanded in the law upon the altar, and God would accept, with the regular temple service resuming afterward.

The ceremony concerns the altar, not weekly worship, and after the seven days the eighth day begins the usual daily offerings and is like the days that follow. The eighth day is the day after the seven days of altar consecration, the eighth day of that altar-purging series and not the eighth day of the week or the first day of the week, and it is not a reference to a day of the week. It gives no prophecy or warrant for a change of the Sabbath to the first day and has nothing to do with the Sabbath in any way.

Vision Setting and Condition

Ezekiel 43:22 belongs to the pattern of a sanctuary, temple, service, city and land in Ezekiel 40-48 in which the Levites serve as priests. That pattern was shown fourteen years after the destruction of the temple to show to the house of Israel. It is a detailed description of the sanctuary, the city and the land that God would have given to Israel in Ezekiel's day, with direction for cleansing the altar that would have been literally fulfilled. The glorious temple stood at the center of a restored Jerusalem to teach that Jehovah is there and that His presence would heal all barren land, all salt marshes and all impure waters and give life to all.

The whole gift was offered to Israel on condition that they should be ashamed of their iniquities, recognize sin, put sins away and return to God with all the heart and yield all to God. If they did, God would establish the building and bring back the twelve tribes. He would restore them to their land, rebuild the temple more glorious than ever, manifest His very glory in approval, and give life-giving power to heal.

Apart from identifying this conditional sanctuary setting, some give no further explanation of the kid or the altar cleansing in this verse.

Unfulfilled Promised Restoration

The temple of Ezekiel 40-48 was never built because Israel did not fulfill its conditions, was not ashamed of iniquities but went on in apostasy, refused to yield all to God and failed to leave Babylon as called. Only about forty thousand returned from Babylon and only a feeble shadow, an inferior sanctuary under Ezra and Zerubbabel, was built, falling far short of Ezekiel's pattern. That house never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the keepers rejected. The second-day cleansing of the altar by a flawless male goat as sin offering belonged to that unbuilt vision of a restored Jerusalem and temple, whose promised realization depended on God's people putting away their sins.

That sanctuary described in the closing chapters was promised conditionally to literal Israel for fulfillment during the Mosaic dispensation in the restoration from Babylon. It never will be built literally in any period subsequent to the opening of the Christian dispensation. When Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed, so Levi is no longer priest but Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedec with an unchangeable priesthood which passes not from one to another, and when His priesthood ends there is no more probation. The eighth day that follows the seven-day purging and purifying of the altar is the eighth day of that altar series, not the eighth day of the week, and has nothing to do with the Sabbath.

In its spiritual aspect and in great general promises, not in detail, the chapters stand as prophecy of greater things God would do through Christ and of what He will do for His children at the second coming. The type is never the perfect antitype, so every detail will not be fulfilled as described, and the future promises for true Israel will instead be fulfilled in the way described by later revelations. That greater fulfillment will come without the local conditions of the prophet's day, with no burning of weapons and no cleansing of land and altar by human hands, for the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat.

In that promised restoration Israel would have been restored to the land, Gog and Magog slain, the land cleansed and redivided among the twelve tribes, and Israel sent to convert the nations. Israel would have become a light to the world and the joy of the whole earth, with the water of life and the glory of God, lengthened life, character affecting animals, and constantly manifest presence of God. A glorious temple stood at the center of restored Jerusalem to teach that Jehovah is there to heal barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life to all, ultimately intended as a house of prayer for all nations.

By a differing position, the closing chapters predict the building of Herod's greater temple, a beautified temple erected as a monument of Herod's repentance after murdering the high priest Aristobulus, members of his own family, his wife Mariamne, and nearly the entire Sanhedrin. The verse foretells the fact of that greater building without revealing the process, the circumstances attending the work being secondary to the predicted building itself. Herod later made the house more magnificent and the Desire of all nations honored it with His personal presence before the people rejected and crucified Him.

No Future Earthly System

The cleansing of the altar by a sin offering of a kid of the goats, as on the first day with the bullock, belongs to a mortal, conditional, typical system with burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats, literal circumcision, divorce, distinctions of clean and unclean meats, and the Levitical priesthood. It cannot belong to the future immortal state, where Jesus alone is King over Israel and there is no oppression, no sin offering for a mortal prince, no marriage, divorce, disease or death. It was offered to Israel on condition that they should be ashamed of their iniquities and put them away, and it was never built because Israel did not fulfill the conditions.

The sanctuary service with its animal sacrifices was intended for a time when such offerings were in force, before Christ's death, not afterward. It cannot belong to the gospel dispensation, be reinstated now, or resume in a future age, for those offerings are not acceptable to God and the Levitical priesthood is superseded by the priesthood of Melchisedec. Those beast offerings were types and shadows pointing forward to Christ's atonement and His one complete and effective sacrifice, so they could not be revived as symbolic atonements after that atonement had been accomplished. To offer sacrifices now would annul Christ's offering and make His once-for-all offering ineffective. The directions for consecrating the priests and purifying the altar through a seven-day dedication, with regular daily service to resume afterward, concern the restored temple service following the Babylonian captivity, not a change of the Sabbath or the gospel dispensation.

The verse must be rightly divided from the prophecies and promises to Israel that relate to the final gathering of all God's people into the future immortal kingdom. Those conditional promises to the Jews in Ezekiel 40-44 were never fulfilled, since the Jewish people went away from God's ordinances and did not keep them, calling the proud happy and setting up workers of wickedness.

Type Fulfilled in Christ

The sin offerings of beasts prescribed for the altar, including the kid of the goats without blemish on the second day, were symbols of faith in Christ and shadows pointing forward to His offering as the true antitype. The blood of goats could not take away sin, while Christ by His single offering has perfected forever those who are sanctified, so after Christ came as the sacrifice to which they pointed animal offerings ceased. That sacrificial service belonged to the detailed order of typical Levitical worship and was intended for a time before Christ's death, not afterward. Such beast offerings are against the gospel dispensation which has the glory that excelleth and cannot exist at the same time as it, for God could not approve beasts as sin offerings while Christ as High Priest is pleading His own precious blood.

When Christ was crucified and ascended on high the law of the priesthood was changed: Levi is no longer priest, but Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedec with an unchangeable priesthood which passes not from one to another. The Levitical priesthood with its burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats is therefore superseded, those offerings are not acceptable to God under the gospel, and that temple with its Levitical service was not to be built in any period subsequent to the opening of the Christian dispensation. Christ's death fulfilled the sacrifices the temple plan prescribed, and the instruction for the blameless male goat on the second day to cleanse the altar as with the bull belonged to a conditional prophecy about a temple never built because Israel did not put away its iniquities. His priesthood and the everlasting gospel are contemporary, and when His priesthood ends there is no more probation.

The Old Testament process for cleansing the sanctuary by the blood of a bullock and a kid of the goats without blemish gives the meaning of the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the 2300 days. The sanctuary is the place where the priest offers the blood of the sin offering, containing a holy and a most holy place, and its earthly purification with the blood of bulls and goats reveals the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary with better sacrifices. That cleansing comes when Jesus as High Priest enters the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched by His own blood to perform the last work of His mediation, the antitypical Day of Atonement before the second advent. Its time is the hour of judgment, when sins are blotted out and removed from before God's throne and God's people are acquitted, with the second advent announcing the favorable decision already made.