Ezekiel 46:14
And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD. And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.
The verse appoints a continual morning grain offering to the Lord by perpetual ordinance, of fine flour mixed with oil in the fixed measure of a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin, as part of the daily sanctuary service. It belongs to the pattern of temple, city, land and offerings shown to Ezekiel in Babylon to encourage the captives with restoration, glory, healing and life. That restoration was offered on condition of shame for sin, repentance and wholehearted return from Babylon, and because Israel did not repent it was never built as described and never will be, only a feeble shadow being erected by the few who returned. The daily grain offering with its animal sacrifices belonged to the first-covenant shadows of Christ and will never be renewed literally, for to restore them after His once-for-all sacrifice would return from sunlight to shadow and make His offering of none effect. What failed for earthly Jerusalem stands as a faint type to be realized far more gloriously for faithful true Israel in the kingdom of Christ and the new heavens and new earth.
Wording and Vision Setting
The verse directs that a grain offering be prepared every morning as a continual offering to the Lord by perpetual ordinance, made of fine flour tempered or mixed with oil in fixed measures of a sixth part of an ephah and a third part of a hin. It prescribes a daily morning grain offering with specified amounts of flour and oil as part of the regular daily offerings of the sanctuary service under the old sanctuary system.
It belongs to the vision of the sanctuary, city, land, offerings, glory, and division of the land in Ezekiel 36 to 48, especially chapters 40 to 48, with its continual Levitical offerings and detailed sanctuary regulations. That pattern was shown to Ezekiel during the Babylonian captivity for the encouragement of the captives as an offer to restore them to their land with a city and temple of wonderful glory that would teach healing and life through God's presence and become a house of prayer for all nations, including allusions to the Sabbath and festivals and to a peaceful kingdom. The vision pictures a man with the appearance of brass holding a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed who measures the temple and the city of God, matching the man with a measuring line measuring the breadth and length of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2, which covers the same period and represents the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem and should be studied together with it as its counterpart.
In the dedication of the altar seven days of offerings purify the altar and afterward the eighth day begins the regular continual daily offerings, which continue every day. That eighth day is the eighth day in that sequence, not an eighth day of the week, and has no connection to the Sabbath.
Conditional Promise Forfeited
The whole vision of the city and sanctuary in Ezekiel 40 to 48, to which the continual morning grain offering belongs, was a conditional and provisional prophecy given to shame Israel into repentance. Its fulfillment was offered only if Israel would be ashamed of iniquities and evil doings, put away sins and wickedness, repent, yield fully to God in faith and obedience, and come up to the full measure of children of God. That condition required returning wholeheartedly from Babylonian captivity and answering the calls to leave Babylon with the twelve tribes returning. Because the promises have been forfeited by failure to meet that condition, the meat offerings and sacrifices do not signify a future restoration of the Levitical system.
Because Israel was unwilling, disregarded the condition, did not repent and remained apostate, the sanctuary as prophesied was never built and never will be built. The continual offering commanded was never established as described, and the restoration did not take place in detail. Only about forty thousand returned, and only a lesser shadow far short of the pattern was erected by Zerubbabel, a feeble and weak realization with only a shadow of its greatness.
What was offered would have brought unsurpassable and inconceivable glory to Palestine and the Jews. It included raising their righteous dead, gathering all the scattered people from throughout all nations to the mountains of Israel, dwelling among them with greater glory than ever seen in the sight of the nations, a new and far greater temple and new division of the land, and the coming of God's life and healing power upon Palestine and the earth as never before. It included subjection of the kings of the North and all enemies far and near, lengthened life, a true-hearted people whose character would take hold upon the animals themselves, and the constant manifest presence of God in His holy mountain where there would be no hurt or destroying.
No Future Literal Fulfillment
The vision of Ezekiel 40-48 does not describe the New Jerusalem of Revelation, the future glorified age, a literal temple to be built in the last days or at any time after the opening of the Christian dispensation, nor every local detail to be fulfilled at the Second Coming. In that glorified age Christ is Prince and Shepherd over Israel and marriage and death are unknown, while this vision presents a frail mortal prince offering a sin offering for himself and laws for marriages, divorces, widows and death. It would have belonged to the Mosaic dispensation if its conditions had been met, when circumcision, divorce, distinction in meats, offerings of beasts including the continual meat offering, the Jubilee, and the Levitical priesthood with Levites serving as priests were in force. The continual grain offering belongs to a temple where sacrifices were to be offered, and it does not describe a future sanctuary, since its burnt and sin offerings of bulls and goats would have been in force during the period it describes and are no longer acceptable after Christ's sacrifice. The promised future glory will come to the faithful true Israel, but not through fulfillment of every detail in Ezekiel's description, including the continual morning offering.
The daily meat offering with its burnt and sin offerings of bulls, sheep, goats, oxen and beasts belonged to the first-covenant ordinances for the time then present, shadowing forth the only effectual offering, that of Jesus Christ. That daily offering will never be fulfilled literally, because renewing the thousands of sheep and oxen sacrifices would make the offering of Christ once for all of none effect, building again the things destroyed and returning from sunlight to shadow. To offer sacrifices now would annul Christ's offering, whose one sacrifice for sins was sufficient, so their renewal would imply another Messiah to atone for sins. Such a revival of types is impossible, because the types were shadows pointing forward to atonement in fact through Christ's heavenly ministration which closes before His coming; a typical atonement in figure cannot come after sin has already been atoned for in fact and remitted, since in the gospel repentance and confession precede remission. When Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed so Levi is no longer priest and Christ became priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Christ continueth ever with an unchangeable priesthood that doth not pass to another, and when His priesthood ends there is no more probation; that priesthood and the everlasting gospel are contemporary, Christ is the great High Priest and the gospel is His gospel, so any return to the Levitical service is another gospel that stands accursed.
In its spiritual aspect the prophecy stands as a faint type of greater things the Lord will do for His people through Christ. What failed for old earthly Jerusalem because the people of that time did not meet the standard will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God, and the promises faintly point to what God will do for His people at the Second Coming. The whole promise is faintly typical of what God will restore by His mighty power in the new heavens and new earth, fulfilled even more gloriously in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It will be fulfilled under far greater conditions with more or less of the former local detail eliminated, leaving for the new earth state absolute joy and peace and harmony among all God's creatures.