Ezekiel 45:19, commentary and pictures

The rite directs the priest to mark the doorposts of the temple building, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the gateposts of the inner court with the blood of the sin offering. It belongs to the Levitical order then in force, offered to Israel in Babylonian captivity as a conditional promise of restoration, glory, and God's dwelling among them if they repented and obeyed. Because fleshly Israel did not repent, only a small remnant returned and that temple was never built and never will be built literally. Those animal sacrifices were temporary shadows pointing to Christ's once-for-all offering, so they ceased at the cross and can never be renewed without annulling His sacrifice. Where the prophecy failed for earthly Jerusalem it will meet a greater spiritual fulfillment to true Israel in Christ's second coming, the New City, and the new earth, while its cleansing of the house and altar by blood shows atonement as cleansing from sin.

Ritual Described in Verse

The verse prescribes that the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court. The ordinance belongs to the envisioned order of offerings and sacrifices in the proposed city and temple, showing that this order includes sin offerings with blood applied to the temple doorposts, the altar, and the inner-court gateposts. That sacrificial service cannot be resumed without making Christ's once-for-all sacrifice void and unnecessary, and the conditional prophecy of that sanctuary will never be fulfilled through building it. This rite belongs to the Mosaic dispensation and Levitical system then in force, with animal offerings and Levites serving as priests, and not to the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, or a future age. Those animal offerings were symbols pointing forward to Christ the true sacrifice, and their offering as a means of cleansing sin ceased when He offered Himself.

The vision is that beginning in Ezekiel 40 in which a man with the appearance of brass with a line of flax and a measuring reed measures the temple and the city of God. It covers the same period and represents the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem as the measuring of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2, is its counterpart, and is to be studied together with it. It set forth the future of Jerusalem on condition that God's people put aside their sins and come up to the full measure of children of God. The verse is part of the pattern of another sanctuary given to offer to the house of Israel while in captivity, a building with holy places including a most holy of a stated size, to which the word sanctuary is applied a stated number of times. The pattern was offered on condition that they become ashamed for their iniquities, with promise that what was said would be done if they fulfilled the conditions, and its standing turns on whether Israel became ashamed as exhorted, how many could have gone up if they had chosen when the decree for restoration went forth, and where the decree of Cyrus is found.

Beyond identifying the verse as part of the conditional sanctuary worship that would have been established in a restored Israel if the people had met God's conditions, no further explanation of its ritual details is given. The verse is part of Ezekiel's detailed description of the temple and worship offered to Israel if they returned to God, part of the sanctuary arrangement and not a teaching about the Sabbath.

Conditional Offer to Captives

The sanctuary and city of these chapters were offered to the house of Israel while they were in captivity in Babylonia, with Ezekiel himself a priest and a prophet among those captives. The offer promised restoration from the seventy years in Babylon, the return of the twelve tribes and of all the scattered people from the nations to the mountains of Israel, and the gift again of a city and a temple under circumstances of wonderful glory. God would have dwelt among them with a glory greater than they had ever seen, built among them a new and far greater sanctuary, given them victory over their enemies, and manifested His glory among His people in the sight of the nations. That full restoration was never inherited because the condition was disregarded.

The promise stood on the condition that Israel become ashamed of iniquities, put away sins and wickedness, yield fully to God, truly and fully repent, obey, return wholeheartedly from captivity, and come up to the full measure of children of God. It was governed by the principle of Jeremiah 18:7-10 that God would do what He said if they fulfilled the conditions. The detailed provisions of sanctuary, city, and land, including this rite of applying the blood of the sin offering, would have been literally fulfilled at that time after the return from Babylon if Israel had met those conditions.

The prince of the chapter is required to offer a sin offering for himself, which shows that he cannot be Christ.

Forfeited Literal Fulfillment

Fleshly Israel did not yield to God, did not truly and fully repent, and did not become ashamed of iniquities and put away sins and wickedness as exhorted, so under Jeremiah 18:7-10 God did not then do all that was promised for the restoration from the seventy years in Babylon. Only about forty thousand returned, the promised restoration did not take place then, and the sanctuary and city of Ezekiel 40 to 48 with its offerings, its glory, and the division of the land stands nowhere today. That sanctuary was intended for the Mosaic dispensation when animal offerings and the Levitical priesthood were in force, and because the condition failed its promise was never fulfilled and its literal details never will be fulfilled. The glorious temple at the center of a restored Jerusalem declaring Jehovah is there was therefore never built and never will be built, for God could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor when Israel would not yield all to God so He could come in and dwell among them.

What was erected at the restoration from Babylon by Zerubbabel was only a feeble, diminished, lesser shadow of the pattern, realized only in diminished form and in part because the people persisted in apostasy and failed to forsake sin and return to God wholeheartedly. It fell far short of the greatness and glory of Ezekiel's pattern and never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected. The sacrificial system described in the vision with priests offering sacrifices and applying sacrificial blood to house and altar and gates shows it does not refer to a future sanctuary, since offering sacrifices now would annul Christ's once-for-all offering fulfilled by His death on the cross.

The closing chapters stand in the last nineteen chapters brought forward on the reign of Christ, the inheritance of the saints, and the return of the Jews with a special work for the Jews in the Christian dispensation. The greater-temple prophecy predicting the building of a greater temple is connected with the temple Herod rebuilt. The grand and magnificent temple that Israel might build at Jerusalem after the exile would ultimately be the house of prayer for all nations.

Greater Spiritual Fulfillment

Ezekiel 45:19 belongs to the temple ceremonies and offerings of Ezekiel 41-48 and to the promises of Ezekiel 36-48 for restoration from the seventy years in Babylon, offered on condition that Israel yield to God, return wholeheartedly from captivity, put away sins and wickedness, be ashamed of iniquities, and truly and fully repent. The vision beginning in Ezekiel 40, in which one with the appearance of brass with a line of flax and a measuring reed measures the temple and city of God, covers the same period and represents the same purposes toward Jerusalem as the measuring of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2, as its counterpart to be studied together with it, setting forth the future of Jerusalem if God's people came up to the full measure of children of God. Because Israel according to the flesh did not yield and did not meet that standard, under the principle of Jeremiah 18:7-10 God did not then do all that was promised, so the prophecy failed for old earthly Jerusalem and its literal details never will be fulfilled. Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem it stands as a spiritual prophecy of greater things God would do for His people through Christ, to be fulfilled to the true Israel not according to those literal details but according to later revelations, with future glory and the fullness of the immortal inheritance coming to the faithful in fullest measure.

That greater fulfillment will come in the glory of Christ's second coming, not through a return to the local conditions of Ezekiel's time, but grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God. The temple and sanctuary described in Ezekiel were realized only in diminished form in what Zerubbabel built, and the city shown in the last nine chapters as it could have been built if Israel had answered the calls to leave Babylon was never built because Israel failed to do its part. God's purpose did not change, and He will instead prepare the holy city in heaven to descend to earth.

The promises of the vision are faintly typical of what God will restore in the new heavens and new earth and in the earth made new, fulfilled on a far greater scale with much of the former detail eliminated. The pattern shown to Ezekiel was for a glorious temple at the center of a restored Jerusalem declaring Jehovah is there, whose presence would heal all barren land, salt marshes, deserts, and impure waters and give life to all by the water of life, but that Jerusalem was never thus restored because Israel would not yield all to God so He could dwell among them, and God could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor. That temple therefore was never built and never will be built, and the temple erected at the restoration from Babylon had only a shadow of its greatness and fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern, never seeing the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected. The sacrifices provided for in the chapter, including putting the blood of the sin offering on the house and altar and gates, will never be literally offered because Jesus Christ fulfilled all sacrifices by His death on the cross. What was described as the Messiah's kingdom to be established gradually on this present earth if the Jews had yielded, including the literal building of that sanctuary with its altar service, will have its peaceful order fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new, where the promised restoration in Palestine beyond anything conceivable gives way to absolute joy and peace and harmony among all God's creatures, with lengthened life, godly character affecting even the animals, wild beasts tamed so infants are safe, and the constant manifest presence of God in His holy mountain where nothing hurts or destroys.

Sacrifice and Christ

The thousands of sheep and oxen sin offerings and prescribed sacrifices of the vision belonged to the time then present as Levitical types and shadows pointing forward to the only effective offering, that of Jesus Christ. No such city or sanctuary stands today, and the temple service with Levites serving as priests and blood from a sin offering being used belonged to the period before Christ, when the types met their antitype. The prince of the chapter is required to offer a sin offering for himself, which shows that he cannot be Christ. Israel did not meet the conditions, so that temple-sacrifice prophecy was not fulfilled then and will never be fulfilled literally.

That sacrificial system with its sin offerings and application of sacrificial blood shows the vision does not refer to a future sanctuary. The verse specifies a priest applying the sin offering's blood to parts of the temple and altar, showing that this envisioned order includes sin offerings, and Christ's once-for-all sacrifice makes a return to such sacrificial ordinances unnecessary. It can never be renewed, revived, or resumed without making Christ's once-for-all offering of no effect, building again what was destroyed, turning back from sunlight to shadow, and annulling his offering. The sanctuary was part of conditional promises to literal Israel, and because Israel did not meet the conditions it was never built as described, while the temple built after the Babylonian captivity was only a lesser shadow of it, and its prescribed sacrifices could not be treated as replacing Christ's offering once for all.

Animal offerings as a means of cleansing sin ceased when he offered himself, having been symbols pointing to Christ the true sacrifice. The sacrifices provided for in the chapter, including putting the blood of the sin offering on the house, altar, and gates, will never be literally offered because Jesus Christ fulfilled all sacrifices by His death on the cross and His suffering. God would not ordain that sacrificial system again, and such animal offerings will not be acceptable in the future, even as a type.

Cleansing and Atonement Meaning

Atonement is a cleansing from sin, and reconciling the house means cleansing the sanctuary. That cleansing reaches the holy sanctuary, the tabernacle of the congregation, the altar, the priests, and all the people of the congregation. Sins transferred into the sanctuary by the blood of the sin offering made the sanctuary need to be freed once a year, and this freeing work is called its cleansing. This cleansing was performed with blood put by the priest upon the house and altar and gate, showing the earthly sanctuary was cleansed with blood.

The priest putting the blood of the sin offering on the house, the altar, and the inner-court gate makes atonement for and cleanses the sanctuary and the altar. It is the same work done on the Day of Atonement. The offering's blood represents the propitiating sacrifice, which turns away the offense against God, applied to the temple posts, the altar's four corners, and the inner-court gateposts. The word reconcile in Ezekiel 45:20 is the same word as reconciling in Leviticus 16:20.