Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves.
Ezekiel 43:26 describes a seven-day dedication in which the altar is purged and purified and those serving it consecrate themselves before regular service begins. When the seven days expire, from the eighth day and forward the priests make burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar continually, and the altar is ready for regular service and God accepts the people. The seven days are ceremony instructions for dedicating the altar, not directions for weekly worship or days of the week, and the verse makes no allusion to the Sabbath or to the first day of the week and proves nothing for a change to Sunday. It belongs to the conditional old covenant order of literal Israel, which would have been fulfilled literally if Israel had repented and returned wholeheartedly, but because they went on in apostasy the glorious temple was never built. That Levitical sacrificial system cannot be revived or set up literally after Christ's atonement, for its offerings were shadows pointing forward to His once-for-all offering, and to renew animal sacrifices now would make that offering of none effect.
Altar Dedication Described
Seven days were appointed to purge the altar and purify it, seven days of sanctification in which those serving it consecrated themselves before regular service began. That seven-day rite was part of the ordinances of the altar for the day when it is made to offer burnt offerings and sprinkle blood thereon, with offerings made through the dedication while Levites served as priests. After this seven-day dedicatory service the altar was ready for regular service, as part of the sanctuary's provision for Israel's return to God.
The dedication followed an order with the first day in verse 20 and the second day in verse 22. For a whole week certain offerings were to be made until the altar was purged and purified. When those seven days expired, from the eighth day and forward the priests were to make burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar every day continually, and God would accept the people. The following eighth day marked the resumption of regular offerings and daily service, with the altar ready for offerings on the eighth day and every day after that.
The words upon the eighth day, and so forward do not mean every eighth day but continual offerings from that day onward. These seven days are ceremony instructions for dedicating the altar, not directions for weekly worship. They are not days of the week, not weekly Sabbaths, but seven days of special ceremonies before the altar was ready for regular offerings beginning on the eighth day.
The day on which the seven days begin is not given, so the eighth day cannot be fixed as Sunday or identified as the first day of the week. The verse does not name any day of the week, and those seven days do not establish that the count begins on the first day of the week. The next eighth day would not fall on Sunday either.
Vision Setting and Condition
Ezekiel 43:26 belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary set out in Ezekiel 40-48, given fourteen years after the sanctuary had been destroyed, to show to the house of Israel in captivity. That building has two holy places like the tabernacle and the temple, with a most holy place of the same size as that in Solomon's temple, and it is called the sanctuary. It was offered to Israel then in captivity with the promise that if they complied God would cause this building to be established and would cause the twelve tribes to return.
The vision of sanctuary, city, and land was shown to make Israel ashamed of iniquity and was offered only on condition that they be ashamed, acknowledge and put away wickedness and iniquities, reform, return wholeheartedly to God, and yield to Him. It is stated in Ezekiel 43:10-11 that all God asked was that they be ashamed of their iniquities. The vision from Ezekiel 40 onward covers the same period and purposes toward Jerusalem as Zechariah 2, and the two should be studied together.
The verse belongs to the Mosaic dispensation and old covenant order of literal fleshly Israel, with its Levitical service, priesthood, altar rites, and animal sacrifices. Every figure and promise in those chapters, including this verse, would have been fulfilled literally if Israel had complied, been ashamed and confounded for their ways, and yielded to God. This belongs to the period when Israel's promised sanctuary service, priesthood, offerings, and accompanying ordinances would have continued if Israel had accepted the offered blessing, and it is not a description of the present order.
If Israel had complied, God was prepared to bring them back to the mountains of Israel, restore them to their land, cleanse them from sin, make them great, and raise them as described in Ezekiel 37. He would rebuild the temple more glorious than ever before at the center of a restored Jerusalem, with His overpowering presence dwelling in glory in the city called Jehovah Is There. He would destroy the northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 by plagues, slay Gog and Magog, cleanse the land, redivide it among the twelve tribes, heal barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life to all, and send Israel out from that glorious city with the water of life to convert the nations as a light to the world.
Because Israel was unwilling, did not repent and return to God faithfully, and went on in apostasy, the conditions were disregarded and the glorious temple was never built and will not be built. The glory of God did not rest upon His children and the resurrection of Ezekiel 37 did not take place. Its seven days of altar purification and consecration belong to that old service whose sanctuary and sacrificial service were never to be rebuilt to take the place God intended. What was built at the restoration from Babylon by Zerubbabel and Ezra was only a lesser, inferior shadow falling far short of Ezekiel's pattern, meeting the promises only feebly and in small part. Only about forty thousand returned, and it never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom its keepers rejected, for God would not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor.
What failed for old earthly Jerusalem will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God. The chapters remain only faintly typical, not in detail but in great general promises, of what God will do for His children through Christ at the second coming and the future glory and fullness of the immortal inheritance, since the type is never the perfect antitype. Because the people of that time failed to meet the standard and forfeited its privileges, the temple promise stands as a prophecy in its spiritual aspect of greater things God will do for His people through Christ, fulfilled in greater glory at Christ's second coming and related events though not under the local conditions of Ezekiel's day. The closing chapters must be explained in harmony with the whole Bible, including the taking of the saints to heaven at the second coming when the earth is desolated, and they do not prove a special work of God among the Jews in the Christian dispensation. By a different reckoning held by some, the closing chapters predict the building of a greater temple, the temple rebuilt by Herod as a monument of his repentance, also foretold by some of the minor prophets, foretelling the fact of the building without revealing the process by which the work was to be done, with the circumstances attending the work secondary to the predicted fact itself.
No Sabbath Change Taught
Seven days are appointed to purge and purify the altar while the priests consecrate themselves, and when those seven days expire the priests make burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar from the eighth day and forward, with God then accepting the people. The time when the seven days should begin is not given, so the eighth day cannot be identified as the first day of the week or fixed as Sunday, and the next eighth day would not fall on Sunday either. The words upon the eighth day, and so forward do not mean every eighth day but continual offerings from that day onward, every day thereafter once the altar is ready. The ordinance names no day of the week, makes not the slightest allusion to the Sabbath nor to the first day of the week, contains no rest-day of any kind and no command for the first day, and all it teaches is that when purification was completed the priests would offer sacrifices.
It belongs to a Jewish sacrificial ordinance for the day when the altar is made to offer burnt offerings and sprinkle blood thereon, and it contains no prophecy that Sunday should be kept. It has no reference to a change of the Sabbath to Sunday, does not make the following eighth day a Christian Sabbath or weekly Sabbath, and therefore proves nothing for first-day sacredness as a divine institution. It gives no support to the first-day Sabbath as a divine institution and proves nothing about superseding the rest-day of the Lord by Sunday. The seven days do not establish that the count begins on the first day of the week, and the purification does not make the following eighth day a Christian Sabbath.
To use the seven days and the eighth day onward as proof for keeping Sunday would also require going back to the priests, the Levites of the seed of Zadok, and offering literal sacrifices as the Jews did. Keeping the seventh day by keeping all of God's commandments is not going back to Judaism, and keeping the ten commandments including conformity to the fourth in practice is only doing what the churches themselves publish in the decalogue.
By a contrary reading held by others, the seven days purging the altar of the Christian temple with offerings to be made on the eighth day and forward show the eighth day and the first day are the same. On that reading all Old Testament seven-part rites that end on the number eight typify an important day in Messiah's reign, and this seven days ending on the eighth proves the first day is the new Sabbath, since if the seventh day were to continue these rites would end on the seventh day.
Christ Ended Sacrificial System
The seven-day purging and consecrating of the altar belongs to a conditional prophecy concerning Israel's sanctuary, not to a future restoration of the Levitical sacrificial system, and that system cannot be revived or set up literally after Christ's atonement has been made in fact. It was given to literal fleshly Israel under the old covenant on condition of being ashamed and confounded for their ways and yielding to God, and because Israel never complied it was never built in its blessed fullness but was only feebly met in the inferior temple built by Zerubbabel and Ezra. Its instructions for a sanctuary and sacrificial service were never to be rebuilt to take the place God intended.
The offerings of Ezekiel 40-48 were shadows pointing forward to Christ's once-for-all offering, with the true antitype in Christ's offering, and they were not for a time after Christ's death. To renew animal sacrifices now would undermine that offering, make it of none effect, make void Christ's sacrifice, and annul the offering of Christ. Such renewal would imply that further expiation is needed after Christ's once-for-all offering. Those offerings belonged to the first covenant and pointed forward to Christ's sacrifice.
That temple is not to be built in any period after the opening of the Christian dispensation, because when Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed, Levi was no longer priest, and Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedek with an unchangeable priesthood that does not pass from one to another. Its beast sin-offerings would now be against the gospel while Christ as high priest pleads His own precious blood. Faithful performance of that altar service would have brought God's blessing, with His glory manifested as approval and His life-giving power present to heal, but God has blessed the Christian dispensation with the glory that excels.
When the priesthood of Christ ends there is no more probation, and that priesthood and the everlasting gospel are contemporary, for Christ is the great High Priest and the gospel is His gospel, and though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel let him be accursed. The cleansing of the sanctuary is the priest's work of mediation with sacrificial blood in the two apartments, holy and most holy, and together with Leviticus 16 it gives the Old Testament process for the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14. Its fulfillment is Jesus as High Priest entering the heavenly sanctuary and true tabernacle with His own blood to perform the last mediation, the antitypical Day of Atonement before the second advent. The 2300 days therefore reach not to the coming of the Lord but to the beginning of that final atoning work, when sins are blotted out and God's people acquitted, with the coming to give immortality announcing the decision already made at the throne of judgment.
Ezekiel 43:26 describes a seven-day dedication in which the altar is purged and purified and those serving it consecrate themselves before regular service begins. When the seven days expire, from the eighth day and forward the priests make burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar continually, and the altar is ready for regular service and God accepts the people. The seven days are ceremony instructions for dedicating the altar, not directions for weekly worship or days of the week, and the verse makes no allusion to the Sabbath or to the first day of the week and proves nothing for a change to Sunday. It belongs to the conditional old covenant order of literal Israel, which would have been fulfilled literally if Israel had repented and returned wholeheartedly, but because they went on in apostasy the glorious temple was never built. That Levitical sacrificial system cannot be revived or set up literally after Christ's atonement, for its offerings were shadows pointing forward to His once-for-all offering, and to renew animal sacrifices now would make that offering of none effect.
Altar Dedication Described
Seven days were appointed to purge the altar and purify it, seven days of sanctification in which those serving it consecrated themselves before regular service began. That seven-day rite was part of the ordinances of the altar for the day when it is made to offer burnt offerings and sprinkle blood thereon, with offerings made through the dedication while Levites served as priests. After this seven-day dedicatory service the altar was ready for regular service, as part of the sanctuary's provision for Israel's return to God.
The dedication followed an order with the first day in verse 20 and the second day in verse 22. For a whole week certain offerings were to be made until the altar was purged and purified. When those seven days expired, from the eighth day and forward the priests were to make burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar every day continually, and God would accept the people. The following eighth day marked the resumption of regular offerings and daily service, with the altar ready for offerings on the eighth day and every day after that.
The words upon the eighth day, and so forward do not mean every eighth day but continual offerings from that day onward. These seven days are ceremony instructions for dedicating the altar, not directions for weekly worship. They are not days of the week, not weekly Sabbaths, but seven days of special ceremonies before the altar was ready for regular offerings beginning on the eighth day.
The day on which the seven days begin is not given, so the eighth day cannot be fixed as Sunday or identified as the first day of the week. The verse does not name any day of the week, and those seven days do not establish that the count begins on the first day of the week. The next eighth day would not fall on Sunday either.
Vision Setting and Condition
Ezekiel 43:26 belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary set out in Ezekiel 40-48, given fourteen years after the sanctuary had been destroyed, to show to the house of Israel in captivity. That building has two holy places like the tabernacle and the temple, with a most holy place of the same size as that in Solomon's temple, and it is called the sanctuary. It was offered to Israel then in captivity with the promise that if they complied God would cause this building to be established and would cause the twelve tribes to return.
The vision of sanctuary, city, and land was shown to make Israel ashamed of iniquity and was offered only on condition that they be ashamed, acknowledge and put away wickedness and iniquities, reform, return wholeheartedly to God, and yield to Him. It is stated in Ezekiel 43:10-11 that all God asked was that they be ashamed of their iniquities. The vision from Ezekiel 40 onward covers the same period and purposes toward Jerusalem as Zechariah 2, and the two should be studied together.
The verse belongs to the Mosaic dispensation and old covenant order of literal fleshly Israel, with its Levitical service, priesthood, altar rites, and animal sacrifices. Every figure and promise in those chapters, including this verse, would have been fulfilled literally if Israel had complied, been ashamed and confounded for their ways, and yielded to God. This belongs to the period when Israel's promised sanctuary service, priesthood, offerings, and accompanying ordinances would have continued if Israel had accepted the offered blessing, and it is not a description of the present order.
If Israel had complied, God was prepared to bring them back to the mountains of Israel, restore them to their land, cleanse them from sin, make them great, and raise them as described in Ezekiel 37. He would rebuild the temple more glorious than ever before at the center of a restored Jerusalem, with His overpowering presence dwelling in glory in the city called Jehovah Is There. He would destroy the northern enemies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 by plagues, slay Gog and Magog, cleanse the land, redivide it among the twelve tribes, heal barren land, salt marshes and impure waters and give life to all, and send Israel out from that glorious city with the water of life to convert the nations as a light to the world.
Because Israel was unwilling, did not repent and return to God faithfully, and went on in apostasy, the conditions were disregarded and the glorious temple was never built and will not be built. The glory of God did not rest upon His children and the resurrection of Ezekiel 37 did not take place. Its seven days of altar purification and consecration belong to that old service whose sanctuary and sacrificial service were never to be rebuilt to take the place God intended. What was built at the restoration from Babylon by Zerubbabel and Ezra was only a lesser, inferior shadow falling far short of Ezekiel's pattern, meeting the promises only feebly and in small part. Only about forty thousand returned, and it never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom its keepers rejected, for God would not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor.
What failed for old earthly Jerusalem will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God. The chapters remain only faintly typical, not in detail but in great general promises, of what God will do for His children through Christ at the second coming and the future glory and fullness of the immortal inheritance, since the type is never the perfect antitype. Because the people of that time failed to meet the standard and forfeited its privileges, the temple promise stands as a prophecy in its spiritual aspect of greater things God will do for His people through Christ, fulfilled in greater glory at Christ's second coming and related events though not under the local conditions of Ezekiel's day. The closing chapters must be explained in harmony with the whole Bible, including the taking of the saints to heaven at the second coming when the earth is desolated, and they do not prove a special work of God among the Jews in the Christian dispensation. By a different reckoning held by some, the closing chapters predict the building of a greater temple, the temple rebuilt by Herod as a monument of his repentance, also foretold by some of the minor prophets, foretelling the fact of the building without revealing the process by which the work was to be done, with the circumstances attending the work secondary to the predicted fact itself.
No Sabbath Change Taught
Seven days are appointed to purge and purify the altar while the priests consecrate themselves, and when those seven days expire the priests make burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar from the eighth day and forward, with God then accepting the people. The time when the seven days should begin is not given, so the eighth day cannot be identified as the first day of the week or fixed as Sunday, and the next eighth day would not fall on Sunday either. The words upon the eighth day, and so forward do not mean every eighth day but continual offerings from that day onward, every day thereafter once the altar is ready. The ordinance names no day of the week, makes not the slightest allusion to the Sabbath nor to the first day of the week, contains no rest-day of any kind and no command for the first day, and all it teaches is that when purification was completed the priests would offer sacrifices.
It belongs to a Jewish sacrificial ordinance for the day when the altar is made to offer burnt offerings and sprinkle blood thereon, and it contains no prophecy that Sunday should be kept. It has no reference to a change of the Sabbath to Sunday, does not make the following eighth day a Christian Sabbath or weekly Sabbath, and therefore proves nothing for first-day sacredness as a divine institution. It gives no support to the first-day Sabbath as a divine institution and proves nothing about superseding the rest-day of the Lord by Sunday. The seven days do not establish that the count begins on the first day of the week, and the purification does not make the following eighth day a Christian Sabbath.
To use the seven days and the eighth day onward as proof for keeping Sunday would also require going back to the priests, the Levites of the seed of Zadok, and offering literal sacrifices as the Jews did. Keeping the seventh day by keeping all of God's commandments is not going back to Judaism, and keeping the ten commandments including conformity to the fourth in practice is only doing what the churches themselves publish in the decalogue.
By a contrary reading held by others, the seven days purging the altar of the Christian temple with offerings to be made on the eighth day and forward show the eighth day and the first day are the same. On that reading all Old Testament seven-part rites that end on the number eight typify an important day in Messiah's reign, and this seven days ending on the eighth proves the first day is the new Sabbath, since if the seventh day were to continue these rites would end on the seventh day.
Christ Ended Sacrificial System
The seven-day purging and consecrating of the altar belongs to a conditional prophecy concerning Israel's sanctuary, not to a future restoration of the Levitical sacrificial system, and that system cannot be revived or set up literally after Christ's atonement has been made in fact. It was given to literal fleshly Israel under the old covenant on condition of being ashamed and confounded for their ways and yielding to God, and because Israel never complied it was never built in its blessed fullness but was only feebly met in the inferior temple built by Zerubbabel and Ezra. Its instructions for a sanctuary and sacrificial service were never to be rebuilt to take the place God intended.
The offerings of Ezekiel 40-48 were shadows pointing forward to Christ's once-for-all offering, with the true antitype in Christ's offering, and they were not for a time after Christ's death. To renew animal sacrifices now would undermine that offering, make it of none effect, make void Christ's sacrifice, and annul the offering of Christ. Such renewal would imply that further expiation is needed after Christ's once-for-all offering. Those offerings belonged to the first covenant and pointed forward to Christ's sacrifice.
That temple is not to be built in any period after the opening of the Christian dispensation, because when Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed, Levi was no longer priest, and Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedek with an unchangeable priesthood that does not pass from one to another. Its beast sin-offerings would now be against the gospel while Christ as high priest pleads His own precious blood. Faithful performance of that altar service would have brought God's blessing, with His glory manifested as approval and His life-giving power present to heal, but God has blessed the Christian dispensation with the glory that excels.
When the priesthood of Christ ends there is no more probation, and that priesthood and the everlasting gospel are contemporary, for Christ is the great High Priest and the gospel is His gospel, and though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel let him be accursed. The cleansing of the sanctuary is the priest's work of mediation with sacrificial blood in the two apartments, holy and most holy, and together with Leviticus 16 it gives the Old Testament process for the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14. Its fulfillment is Jesus as High Priest entering the heavenly sanctuary and true tabernacle with His own blood to perform the last mediation, the antitypical Day of Atonement before the second advent. The 2300 days therefore reach not to the coming of the Lord but to the beginning of that final atoning work, when sins are blotted out and God's people acquitted, with the coming to give immortality announcing the decision already made at the throne of judgment.