Ezekiel 44:17, commentary and pictures

When priests entered through the gates of the inner court to minister there and within, they were to be clothed with linen garments with no wool upon them. The regulation itself gives no reason for linen rather than wool. It governed mortal Levitical priests who marry and can die under the old literal Mosaic system when its priesthood and services were in force, not immortalized saints who neither marry nor die, nor the gospel dispensation, the future age, or the New Jerusalem of Revelation. The whole vision of sanctuary, city, land, offerings and glory in Ezekiel 36 to 48, including this provision, was a conditional offer that would have been fulfilled literally at the restoration if Israel had repented and yielded fully to God, but because Israel continued in apostasy it was never built and never fulfilled as described. It will not be fulfilled literally in the future, since to renew its animal sacrifices and Levitical order now would make Christ's offering once for all of none effect, and the priesthood has changed to His everlasting priesthood which does not pass to another. In its spiritual aspect and broad outline it remains a type of greater things God will do through Christ for the true Israel, grandly realized at the second coming in the New City and the earth made new.

Words and Historical Setting

When the priests enter through the gates of the inner court to minister there and within, they are to be clothed with linen garments and no wool is to come upon them. The dress belongs to the temple-city order of Ezekiel 40-48, where linen-clothed priests minister in the gates of the inner court with offerings and sacrifices. The regulation itself gives no specific explanation for linen rather than wool.

The rule governs mortal Levitical priests who marry and can die, unlike immortalized saints who neither marry nor die. It belongs to a sanctuary with two holy places under the old literal Mosaic system when the Levitical priesthood and its services were in force, not to the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, the future age, the New Jerusalem of Revelation, or a future restoration of the Jewish sacrificial system. The whole typical order to which it belongs cannot be revived after Christ's heavenly ministration has made the real atonement, because a typical atonement cannot follow remission already granted in fact.

The vision was shown fourteen years after Jerusalem's sanctuary was destroyed, in 574 B.C., offering Israel in captivity restoration from the seventy years in Babylon. It offered establishment of the building, return of the twelve tribes, and a city and temple of great glory on condition that Israel be ashamed of and put away iniquities, with calls to leave Babylon. Only about forty thousand returned from Babylon.

The promised temple-city is to be studied together with Zechariah 2 as its counterpart, covering the same period and representing the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem. The temple is presented as the center of a restored Jerusalem declaring that Jehovah is there, with division of the land, offerings, and glory for the land, city and sanctuary. God promised therein great blessings in the salvation of Israel His people, lengthened life, healing of barren land, salt marshes, deserts and impure waters giving life to all, mild character even among animals, no hurt or destroying in the holy mountain, safety even for the smallest infant at the hole of the serpent, and a grand house of prayer for all nations.

Conditional Prophecy and Fulfillment

The sanctuary, city, land, offerings and glory described in Ezekiel 36 to 48, including the linen garments for ministry in the gates of the inner court, were a conditional promise and offer to Israel in captivity. It would have been fulfilled literally at the restoration from Babylon if Israel had been ashamed of iniquities, put them away, repented, reformed, returned wholeheartedly and yielded fully to God up to the measure of children of God. The vision was given to shame the people over sin and show them the form of the sanctuary, with its two holy places and its priestly ordinances under the old literal Mosaic system when the Levitical priesthood was in force, not as a description of the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, or the future age.

Because Israel did not meet the condition but continued in apostasy and departed from God's ordinances, the sanctuary as described was never built and its promises were never fulfilled as described. The promised restoration was therefore not obligatory, and no such city or sanctuary is standing today. The prophecy was given in 574 B.C. concerning blessings after the return from Babylon, yet Israel did not become ashamed of iniquities and did not repent, so the city and sanctuary were not fulfilled to them as described.

What was built at the restoration by Zerubbabel fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern in glory and was only a weak and lesser realization, a small part and shadow of what had been offered. It never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, because a temple for His name could not be built for a half-hearted people to dishonor when they would not yield all to God for Him to come in and dwell among them. After Israel refused to heed the prophecy and continued in apostasy, only this shadow of the promised temple and its worship was built.

It will not be fulfilled literally in the future, for its thousands of sheep and oxen sacrifices, sanctuary worship, old sanctuary service and Levitical order show it was not a temple to be ordained again. To renew those typical sacrifices and that typical atonement now, after Christ's heavenly ministration has made the real atonement and granted remission in fact, would make His offering once for all of none effect, annul and make void His sacrifice, build again things destroyed, and return from sunlight to shadow. The offerings of the past were for the time then present, shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ, and the whole typical order to which the inner-court ministry belongs cannot be revived.

To fulfill it as a literal earthly city and temple service during Christ's thousand-year reign would rebuild ancient Jerusalem and carry on animal offerings and sacrifices under the ordinances of the first covenant that pointed to Christ the great sin-offering. That state would be less glorious than the present dispensation under Christ's more excellent ministry and better covenant, and would supersede and displace the heavenly Jerusalem with foundations whose builder and maker is God coming down upon the new earth. It would require a second Messiah afterward to expiate sins, because the law's yearly sacrifices can never make the comers perfect, while Christ by one offering has perfected forever the sanctified and sits at God's right hand expecting until His enemies are made His footstool before taking His throne as King of kings.

In its spiritual aspect and broad outline rather than every local detail, the prophecy remains a type of greater things to be done through Christ for His people and the true Israel. What failed for old earthly Jerusalem because Israel according to the flesh did not yield in true repentance and shame will be grandly and more gloriously realized at the second coming in the future glory and fulness of the immortal inheritance, the New City and the earth made new. The temple-city vision, to be studied together with Zechariah 2 as its counterpart covering the same period and the same purposes toward Jerusalem, promised unsurpassable glory with lengthened life, healing of the land, character affecting even animals, and no hurt or destroying in the holy mountain; it will be fulfilled under far greater conditions with much former detail eliminated, leaving absolute joy, peace and harmony among all creatures.

Doctrine and Related Scripture

The temple service in which Levites serve as priests in linen garments was not to be restored after Christ's ascension, because the priesthood was changed to Christ's everlasting priesthood which does not pass to another.

The linen-garment regulation belongs to God's offer to restore Israel from Babylonian captivity to its land with a city and temple of great glory, which the people never inherited because they disregarded the stated condition. It is one of that offer's references to the Sabbath and the Hebrew festivals, and one of the scriptures that record the provision made for Sabbath offerings under the ceremonial law. The Sabbath itself was made before the fall of man, while burnt offerings and sanctuary rites were introduced because of the fall and formed no part of the original Sabbatic institution. While those rites were in force they connected the Sabbath to some extent with the Jewish festivals in which like offerings were made. When the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross all the Jewish festivals ceased, and only those rites which it had appended to the Sabbath were taken away, leaving the original Sabbath institution just as it came at first from its Author.