Ezekiel 45:14, commentary and pictures

The ordinance sets the required amount of oil for the sanctuary services at one tenth of a bath from each cor, with the cor or homer holding ten baths, showing God as a God of order in worship. It belongs to the detailed sanctuary pattern of Ezekiel 40 to 48, given to Israel in Babylonian captivity fourteen years after the destruction of the temple, setting forth its form, holy places, ordinances and laws in connection with restoration under Cyrus. It was part of a conditional promise to restore Israel, build a new and far more glorious sanctuary, and dwell among them in glory and healing, if they would be ashamed of their iniquities, repent and yield wholly to God in faith and obedience. Israel did not meet the conditions and only about forty thousand returned, so the sanctuary as described was never built and its oil offering was never carried out there, with only a feeble and partial realization under Zerubbabel. It will never be fulfilled literally, since the Levitical priesthood was superseded by Christ's everlasting priesthood and animal sacrifices were fulfilled by His once-for-all death on the cross, but wherein it failed for earthly Jerusalem it stands in its spiritual aspect to be more gloriously realized at Christ's second coming and in the new heavens and new earth.

Wording and Sanctuary Context

The ordinance fixes the required measure for the offering of oil in the sanctuary services at a tenth part of a bath out of the cor, where the cor also called the homer contains ten baths. It is a measure for the oil offering within the instructions for the sanctuary and its services and the sanctuary worship envisioned for Israel's restoration, belonging to the old sanctuary service including sacrifices. It belongs to the details of the promised restoration whose fulfillment depended on Israel's response to God and meeting His conditions, offered to literal Israel and to be made by the sons of Levi if Israel had yielded, repented and put away iniquities.

It belongs to the sanctuary pattern and instructions in Ezekiel 40 to 48, also described as extending from Ezekiel 36 onward or 41 to 48. The pattern was given to Israel in Babylonian captivity fourteen years after the destruction of the temple, setting forth its form, holy places, most holy place, ordinances and laws. That setting forth was connected with the opportunity of restoration under the decree of Cyrus, offered on condition that Israel recognize, be ashamed of and put away its iniquities, with promise that if they did God would make known its form, ordinances and laws, establish the sanctuary and bring back the twelve tribes. The closing chapters seem to predict the building of a greater temple, but the prophecy does not reveal the process by which the greater temple work would be done.

It envisions a literal system with a mortal prince who must offer sin offerings and all kinds of offerings for himself, who has sons and servants and must not oppress the people. That system includes Levitical priests, literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction between clean and unclean meats, and burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats and thousands of sheep and oxen. Its chapters contain allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals of the Hebrews, and set forth in detail a grand and magnificent temple with a city at Jerusalem in wonderful glory that would ultimately become the house of prayer for all nations. The exactness of the ordinance for oil belongs to the ordered system He gave for worship and shows God is a God of order.

Conditional Prophecy and Fulfillment

The ordinance belongs to a conditional promise that God would bring Israel out of Babylon back to their own land and to the mountains of Israel, divide the land among them, build a city and a new and far greater sanctuary in wonderful glory with its offerings and services, dwell among them with glory and healing and life, give victory over the kings of the North and all enemies far and near, and manifest His glory among His people in the sight of the nations. That restoration, with its temple and city of God and division of the land and raising of the righteous dead and life and healing power coming upon Palestine and the earth as never before, would have been fulfilled literally and fully if Israel had yielded to God, returned wholeheartedly from captivity, been ashamed of iniquities, repented and put away wickedness and apostasy, put aside sins and yielded wholly to God, and come up to the full measure of faith and obedience as children of God. The vision from Ezekiel 36 onward and more particularly from Ezekiel 40 onward, also described as Ezekiel 40-48 and 41-48, concerning the future of Jerusalem and the temple and city of God with its detailed provisions for sanctuary, city, land, temple ordinances, ceremonies and offerings, was given on that condition, as in the exodus God would have blessed them in the promised land if they had been willing. It is the counterpart of Zechariah 2, covering the same period and representing the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem, and the two should be studied together.

Israel did not meet the conditions, was not ashamed of iniquities and did not put them away, would not yield wholly to God and was not willing, and failed to do its part, not because God changed His purpose. Only about forty thousand returned from captivity, so the sanctuary as described was never built and the oil ordinance for measuring the oil offering was not carried out there, Jerusalem was never restored according to the vision, and the offered glory was never inherited. Only a temple with a shadow of its greatness, feebly and partly realizing the promises, was erected by Zerubbabel, with its central truth that Jehovah was present among His people. The city as it might have been built if Israel had answered the calls to leave Babylon was never built, and the restoration did not take place as described nor was the prophecy fulfilled in detail.

It will never be fulfilled literally as originally described, neither in the gospel dispensation nor in the immortal state nor in a future age, and it was not a prophecy of the future age. The system to which the measure of oil belongs has a mortal prince who must offer sin offerings and all kinds of offerings for himself, who has sons and servants and must not oppress the people, with Levitical priests, literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction between clean and unclean meats, and burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats and thousands of sheep and oxen, with allusions to Sabbath and festivals. That system cannot belong to the immortal state where Jesus alone is King over Israel and there is no oppression, sin offering, marriage, divorce, disease or death, and it cannot belong to the gospel dispensation where circumcision, divorce permission, clean and unclean distinctions, marriage, disease and death have ceased and the Levitical priesthood has been superseded by Christ's everlasting unchanging priesthood which does not pass to another, and where animal sacrifices are now unacceptable to God. Those sacrifices belonged to the Mosaic dispensation and the first covenant and to the time then present when type met antitype, pointed to Christ and shadowed forth the only effectual offering, and were fulfilled by His death on the cross as the one sacrifice for sins and once-for-all offering; to renew them as a continuing system would make His offering of none effect, annul Christ's offering, build again what was destroyed, return from sunlight to shadow, and show it was not a temple God would ordain again.

Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem, the vision stands in its spiritual aspect as prophecy of greater things God will do for His people through Christ. What would have been the peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom established gradually upon this earth in its present condition if the Jews had yielded to God, including the building of the sanctuary and the healing of marshes and deserts and salt lands by the water of life and the taming of wild beasts under righteousness so that an infant would be safe at the hole of the adder, will since the conditions were not met be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new where the Spirit of absolute peace presides over all nature. Wherein it failed it will be grandly and more gloriously realized at Christ's second coming and in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God and in the new heavens and the new earth which God will restore by His mighty power, though not under the local conditions of Ezekiel's day, with its general promises pointing to God's future work for His people.