Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.
Ezekiel 46:15 appoints a lamb with its grain offering and oil to be prepared every morning for a continual burnt offering, to begin after the altar's seven-day purification and continue from the eighth day onward. It belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary and its services in Ezekiel 40-48, with holy and most holy places to stand at the center of a restored Jerusalem where God's presence brings healing and life. The city, sanctuary, land division, and offerings were offered on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities, repent, and return to God wholeheartedly. Israel did not meet the conditions but continued in apostasy, so the offered glory was never inherited and the sanctuary as described was never built and never will be built literally. What was realized was only a feeble lesser fulfillment in Zerubbabel's temple, while the unfulfilled prophecy stands to be grandly realized in spiritual things through Christ at His second coming and in the new heavens and new earth, but not in every local detail. The morning lamb and its offerings belong to the Levitical system that were shadows pointing forward to Christ as the great sin offering, so they cannot be literally renewed in a future age without denying the finality of His once-for-all sacrifice, and the vision cannot describe the glorified age since it shows a mortal prince offering for himself with marrying, death, and Levitical priests.
Offering and Its Vision
The lamb with its grain offering and oil was to be prepared every morning for a continual burnt offering, showing that the sanctuary service included regular daily sacrifices and offerings. The daily preparation belonged to the temple sacrifices and the old sanctuary service set forth in chapters 40–48. That service was provisional, belonging to the Levitical sacrificial system in force before Christ's death.
The regular daily burnt offering was to be made every morning after the altar's seven-day purification, continuing from the eighth day onward. It has no connection with an eighth day of the week or with the Sabbath.
The verse belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary and its services given in Ezekiel 36–48, especially chapters 40–48, a building with holy places including a most holy and called sanctuary. The temple was to stand at the center of a restored Jerusalem, where God's presence would bring healing and life, teaching that the holy place is where God dwells. The offer contains allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals of the Hebrews. The vision was given fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed, to the Hebrews while captives in Babylon concerning the future of Jerusalem. It stands connected with restoration under the decree of Cyrus when those who chose could go up. It covers the same period and represents the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem as Zechariah 2, so the two prophecies are counterparts to be studied together.
Conditional Promise Unfulfilled
The city, sanctuary, division of the land, and offerings set forth in Ezekiel 36–48, including the daily lamb with its grain offering and oil for a continual burnt offering, were offered only on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities, put away wickedness and sins, repent, yield fully to God, and return wholeheartedly. That condition required answering the calls to leave Babylon and coming up to the full measure of children of God. If Israel had met what God required, the detailed sanctuary and its services in chapters 40–48 would have been literally fulfilled. The vision therefore stands as provisional, promised only if they returned to God from captivity.
Israel did not meet the conditions but continued in apostasy and disregarded the offer, unwilling to be ashamed and to put away iniquity. With only about forty thousand returning from captivity, the offered glory was never inherited. The city was never built, and the sanctuary as described was never built and never will be built literally. What God was prepared to accomplish after the return from Babylon, including establishing the sanctuary and bringing back the twelve tribes, was forfeited for lack of repentance.
What was realized was only a feeble, limited, lesser fulfillment, a faint shadow of the promised greatness and prosperity in the temple built by Zerubbabel and the restoration from Babylon. The glorious temple described would then have been realized in far greater glory than Zerubbabel erected, but Israel’s failure meant only a temple with a shadow of its greatness was erected. Its provision for morning sacrifices was fulfilled when Jesus Christ died on the cross, fulfilling all sacrifices.
The unfulfilled temple vision stands as a prophecy of greater spiritual things the Lord would do for His people through Christ. What failed for old earthly Jerusalem will be grandly realized in the new city that awaits the true Israel of God, in connection with Christ’s second coming, the kingdom of Christ, and the new heavens and new earth. That future glory and immortal inheritance will come in the manner described in later revelations, but not in every local detail, with much of the former detail eliminated and its promises remaining only as faint types of what God will restore by His mighty power.
No Literal Future Sacrifices
The morning lamb with its grain offering and oil for a continual burnt offering belongs to the Levitical sacrificial system of the Mosaic dispensation and first covenant. That system was in force before Christ's death, when circumcision, divorce, distinction in meats, offerings of beasts, the Jubilee, and the Levitical priesthood were in force. Such sacrifices are no longer acceptable to God after the cross, and that old sanctuary service cannot continue.
Those sacrifices were shadows pointing forward to Christ as the great sin offering, whose offering alone is effective. The Levitical blood remitted no sin but only pointed forward as shadow to the future fact, realized when the righteous stand in their lot in the person of their Advocate making atonement. In the gospel repentance and confession must precede remission, and a type cannot atone in figure after the sin was already atoned for in fact and remitted, so figure cannot follow fact nor sign follow thing signified.
The offerings cannot be literally renewed in a future age, for that would deny the finality of Christ's once-for-all offering. To restore the Levitical offering system would make void Christ's sacrifice and annul His offering, and is another gospel that stands accursed. When Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed, Levi ceased as priest and Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedek with an unchangeable priesthood that does not pass from one to another. That priesthood lasts until probation ends and is contemporary with the everlasting gospel, of which Christ the great High Priest is owner, and Christ ministers in heaven and closes His ministry before His coming. The sanctuary of chapters 40-48 was provisional, promised on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities and return to God, and because they continued in apostasy its promises were only feebly realized in the temple built by Zerubbabel and the sanctuary was never built.
The vision cannot describe the future glorified age or the New Jerusalem despite points of similarity. It shows a poor frail mortal prince offering a sin offering for himself, forbidden to oppress the people or take their possessions but to give his sons from his own possession. Its priests were all Levites, its priests married including widows of priests, and it shows marriages, divorces, widows and death. There Christ is the Prince and Shepherd over Israel and marriage and death are unknown, whereas immortalized saints from all nations neither marry nor die and Christ gives them the uttermost parts of the earth, which forbids applying prince and priesthood to Christ and immortalized saints.
The description of offerings to be carried on refutes the age-to-come theory of a future age of sacrifices. These offerings belong to the first covenant and point to Christ as the great sin offering, and Christ's one sacrifice offered once for all means those sacrifices do not need to be performed again.
Ezekiel 46:15 appoints a lamb with its grain offering and oil to be prepared every morning for a continual burnt offering, to begin after the altar's seven-day purification and continue from the eighth day onward. It belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary and its services in Ezekiel 40-48, with holy and most holy places to stand at the center of a restored Jerusalem where God's presence brings healing and life. The city, sanctuary, land division, and offerings were offered on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities, repent, and return to God wholeheartedly. Israel did not meet the conditions but continued in apostasy, so the offered glory was never inherited and the sanctuary as described was never built and never will be built literally. What was realized was only a feeble lesser fulfillment in Zerubbabel's temple, while the unfulfilled prophecy stands to be grandly realized in spiritual things through Christ at His second coming and in the new heavens and new earth, but not in every local detail. The morning lamb and its offerings belong to the Levitical system that were shadows pointing forward to Christ as the great sin offering, so they cannot be literally renewed in a future age without denying the finality of His once-for-all sacrifice, and the vision cannot describe the glorified age since it shows a mortal prince offering for himself with marrying, death, and Levitical priests.
Offering and Its Vision
The lamb with its grain offering and oil was to be prepared every morning for a continual burnt offering, showing that the sanctuary service included regular daily sacrifices and offerings. The daily preparation belonged to the temple sacrifices and the old sanctuary service set forth in chapters 40–48. That service was provisional, belonging to the Levitical sacrificial system in force before Christ's death.
The regular daily burnt offering was to be made every morning after the altar's seven-day purification, continuing from the eighth day onward. It has no connection with an eighth day of the week or with the Sabbath.
The verse belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary and its services given in Ezekiel 36–48, especially chapters 40–48, a building with holy places including a most holy and called sanctuary. The temple was to stand at the center of a restored Jerusalem, where God's presence would bring healing and life, teaching that the holy place is where God dwells. The offer contains allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals of the Hebrews. The vision was given fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed, to the Hebrews while captives in Babylon concerning the future of Jerusalem. It stands connected with restoration under the decree of Cyrus when those who chose could go up. It covers the same period and represents the same purposes of God toward Jerusalem as Zechariah 2, so the two prophecies are counterparts to be studied together.
Conditional Promise Unfulfilled
The city, sanctuary, division of the land, and offerings set forth in Ezekiel 36–48, including the daily lamb with its grain offering and oil for a continual burnt offering, were offered only on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities, put away wickedness and sins, repent, yield fully to God, and return wholeheartedly. That condition required answering the calls to leave Babylon and coming up to the full measure of children of God. If Israel had met what God required, the detailed sanctuary and its services in chapters 40–48 would have been literally fulfilled. The vision therefore stands as provisional, promised only if they returned to God from captivity.
Israel did not meet the conditions but continued in apostasy and disregarded the offer, unwilling to be ashamed and to put away iniquity. With only about forty thousand returning from captivity, the offered glory was never inherited. The city was never built, and the sanctuary as described was never built and never will be built literally. What God was prepared to accomplish after the return from Babylon, including establishing the sanctuary and bringing back the twelve tribes, was forfeited for lack of repentance.
What was realized was only a feeble, limited, lesser fulfillment, a faint shadow of the promised greatness and prosperity in the temple built by Zerubbabel and the restoration from Babylon. The glorious temple described would then have been realized in far greater glory than Zerubbabel erected, but Israel’s failure meant only a temple with a shadow of its greatness was erected. Its provision for morning sacrifices was fulfilled when Jesus Christ died on the cross, fulfilling all sacrifices.
The unfulfilled temple vision stands as a prophecy of greater spiritual things the Lord would do for His people through Christ. What failed for old earthly Jerusalem will be grandly realized in the new city that awaits the true Israel of God, in connection with Christ’s second coming, the kingdom of Christ, and the new heavens and new earth. That future glory and immortal inheritance will come in the manner described in later revelations, but not in every local detail, with much of the former detail eliminated and its promises remaining only as faint types of what God will restore by His mighty power.
No Literal Future Sacrifices
The morning lamb with its grain offering and oil for a continual burnt offering belongs to the Levitical sacrificial system of the Mosaic dispensation and first covenant. That system was in force before Christ's death, when circumcision, divorce, distinction in meats, offerings of beasts, the Jubilee, and the Levitical priesthood were in force. Such sacrifices are no longer acceptable to God after the cross, and that old sanctuary service cannot continue.
Those sacrifices were shadows pointing forward to Christ as the great sin offering, whose offering alone is effective. The Levitical blood remitted no sin but only pointed forward as shadow to the future fact, realized when the righteous stand in their lot in the person of their Advocate making atonement. In the gospel repentance and confession must precede remission, and a type cannot atone in figure after the sin was already atoned for in fact and remitted, so figure cannot follow fact nor sign follow thing signified.
The offerings cannot be literally renewed in a future age, for that would deny the finality of Christ's once-for-all offering. To restore the Levitical offering system would make void Christ's sacrifice and annul His offering, and is another gospel that stands accursed. When Christ was crucified and ascended the law of the priesthood changed, Levi ceased as priest and Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedek with an unchangeable priesthood that does not pass from one to another. That priesthood lasts until probation ends and is contemporary with the everlasting gospel, of which Christ the great High Priest is owner, and Christ ministers in heaven and closes His ministry before His coming. The sanctuary of chapters 40-48 was provisional, promised on condition that the people be ashamed of their iniquities and return to God, and because they continued in apostasy its promises were only feebly realized in the temple built by Zerubbabel and the sanctuary was never built.
The vision cannot describe the future glorified age or the New Jerusalem despite points of similarity. It shows a poor frail mortal prince offering a sin offering for himself, forbidden to oppress the people or take their possessions but to give his sons from his own possession. Its priests were all Levites, its priests married including widows of priests, and it shows marriages, divorces, widows and death. There Christ is the Prince and Shepherd over Israel and marriage and death are unknown, whereas immortalized saints from all nations neither marry nor die and Christ gives them the uttermost parts of the earth, which forbids applying prince and priesthood to Christ and immortalized saints.
The description of offerings to be carried on refutes the age-to-come theory of a future age of sacrifices. These offerings belong to the first covenant and point to Christ as the great sin offering, and Christ's one sacrifice offered once for all means those sacrifices do not need to be performed again.