Ezekiel 44:25
And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves. And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.
The verse forbids priests to defile themselves by contact with any dead person, except for a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister that has had no husband. Priests who attended the burial of such close relatives became defiled and afterward had to undergo purification and offer a sin offering for themselves. The rule proves that death, mourning, funeral duties, family relationships, and marriage still exist in its setting, so it describes provision for mortal life under the first covenant, not the immortal state, not the New Jerusalem, and not the condition after the second advent when people neither marry nor die. It belongs to the vision of a sanctuary, city, offerings, and division of the land in Ezekiel 40 to 48, offered to captive Israel at the restoration from Babylon conditional on repentance and to have been literally fulfilled then if they had complied, but because only about forty thousand returned the sanctuary was never built as promised. It never will be built literally in the future, for renewing animal sacrifices and Levitical service would make Christ's offering once for all of none effect, and wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem it will be grandly realized to the true Israel in the New City and the earth made new.
Priestly Rule and Mortality
Ezekiel 44:25 forbids priests to defile themselves by coming near any dead person, with exception only for a close relative — father or mother, son or daughter, brother, or a sister who has had no husband. The word person means an individual human being, whose corpse causes defilement by contact. The permission is for ceremonial defilement by contact with the body of such a relative at death, but not by contact with any other dead person.
Priests who attended the burial of such close relatives became defiled, and afterward had to undergo purification and offer a sin offering for themselves. Death and ritual defilement therefore occur even in the priests’ own families, with funeral duties falling to them.
The rule belongs to the regulations for Ezekiel’s sanctuary as provisions for mortal life under the first covenant, rather than for the immortal state. It is among the ceremonial regulations that would have applied during the Mosaic dispensation if the sanctuary prophecy had been fulfilled then, for its promise depended on Israel turning from its sins and the people did not meet that condition, so that sanctuary was never built and will never be built. Death still occurs in the setting because priests are given rules for defilement by the dead, are allowed to mourn certain close relatives including an unmarried sister, and are allowed to marry, including second marriages such as marrying the widow of a priest, which means husbands and relatives still die there. That mortal order of death, mourning, family relationships, matrimony, sacrifices and burnt offerings looking forward to a great offering yet to be made proves the city and sanctuary is not the New Jerusalem, not the perfect state when death, sorrow, pain and crying are no more, and not the state after the second advent, when those made immortal cannot die, are equal to the angels, and neither marry nor die anymore.
Conditional Sanctuary Prophecy
Ezekiel 44:25 belongs to the vision of a sanctuary, city, offerings, glory, division of the land, Sabbath and festivals in Ezekiel 40 to 48, in some accounts Ezekiel 36 to 48 or 37 to 48, offered to captive Israel at the restoration from Babylon after seventy years. It was conditional on Israel being ashamed of its sins, putting them away, yielding to God, and truly repenting, and would have been literally fulfilled in all its details at that time if they had complied. Because Israel according to the flesh was unwilling and did not yield, these chapters stand in their spiritual meaning as a prophecy of greater things God would do for his people through Christ, and their literal details will never be fulfilled but will be fulfilled to the true Israel not according to those details but according to later revelation.
The sanctuary was shown in B.C. 574, fourteen years after Jerusalem, the temple, and the sanctuary were destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah in B.C. 588, twenty-five years into the Babylonian captivity. It was shown as what would have been built if all Israel had responded to the calls to leave Babylon and return, with the three calls to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. The restoration began with only about forty thousand returning, and because Israel loved Babylon more than Jerusalem and did not meet the conditions, the sanctuary with all its blessed fullness was never built as promised. If they had been faithful God would have brought them back to the mountains of Israel, cleansed them from sin, made them great, destroyed the enemies coming from the north by plagues, and enabled them to build that marvelous sanctuary where His presence would dwell in overpowering glory.
The plan was therefore never literally fulfilled and never will be built literally. The best Israel had was the inferior temple built by Zerubbabel and Ezra, only weakly realized and as a shadow of it, which fell far short of the pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ. Its specifications show it was designed for the past Mosaic dispensation, not for the present dispensation and not for the future immortal state, and the planned sacrifices show it was not a future temple since offering sacrifices now would annul Christ's offering. If all God's people with all their hearts had returned at that time and had heeded the prophet, their enemies would have been cut off, the dead would have been raised, and the glorious temple with the wonderful glory of God manifest in connection with it would have been built as a new and larger city and temple than Israel had yet known.
It cannot be built literally in the future thousand-year reign or after Christ's death. Renewing thousands of sheep and oxen, sacrifices, burnt offerings, and Levitical priestly service looking forward to a great offering yet to be made would make Christ's offering once for all of none effect, build again what was destroyed, and return from sunlight to shadow. It would return from the more excellent ministry and better covenant to the covenant taken away, require a second Messiah to expiate sin, and put a less glorious earthly Jerusalem in place of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God. This instruction about death, together with its instructions about matrimony including second marriages of priests, proves the vision does not describe the perfect state when death, sorrow, pain, and crying are no more, but belongs to a typical Levitical worship intended for Israel after return from Babylon and could not have been intended for the time after the death of Christ who is the true offering and antitype of all truly offered in the Levitical system.
Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem, it will be grandly realized not according to those literal details but according to later revelation: to the true Israel, at Christ's second coming and the events connected with it, in the New City and the earth made new, with former details eliminated. There will be absolute joy, peace, and harmony among all God's creatures, with lengthened life, the manifest presence of God, and the fullness of the immortal inheritance given to the faithful in fullest and more glorious measure, with no hurt or destroying in all God's holy mountain. The barren land, salt marshes, deserts and impure waters will be healed by the water of life, the wild beasts made mild under righteousness, with safety for the feeblest infant and with the smallest infant safe, and with a people whose character would take hold upon the animals themselves.
The vision from Ezekiel 40 onward covers the same period and purposes toward Jerusalem as Zechariah 2 and should be studied together as counterparts. It teaches that Jehovah is there and that the temple would ultimately become the house of prayer for all nations. The ancient calls to come out of Babylon were an object-lesson of the last call now sounding through the earth, for which God has prepared a holy city in heaven now ready to descend, and utter destruction awaits those who linger in Babylon today.