Ezekiel 46:20, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 46:20 marks out the inner place where the priests were to boil the trespass offering and the sin offering and bake the grain offering, so that they would not carry those holy things out into the outer court to make the people holy. It belongs to the temple, city and land pattern of Ezekiel 40 to 48, shown to Israel in Babylonian captivity fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed in connection with the restoration opened by the decree of Cyrus. The whole sanctuary and its worship were offered on condition that Israel be ashamed of iniquities, put away sin and return wholeheartedly to God, with the promise that God would then establish the building, bring back the twelve tribes and dwell among them in surpassing glory. Israel did not meet the conditions but continued in apostasy with only about forty thousand returning, so the temple as described was never built and its offerings never resumed, and it will never be built or fulfilled as literally written. The cooking and baking service belonged to the Mosaic, Levitical, first-covenant system and does not belong to the gospel dispensation, for when Christ was crucified and ascended the priesthood changed to Christ forever after the order of Melchisedec, and the former animal sacrifices are no longer acceptable and cannot be renewed without making His once-for-all offering void; what failed for old earthly Jerusalem will be grandly realized in a greater, spiritual way for the true Israel in Christ in the new heaven and new earth and the New Jerusalem, though those who held the other reading take the closing chapters as seeming to predict the greater temple later built under Herod.

Wording and Vision Setting

This is the place appointed for the priests to boil the trespass offering and the sin offering and to bake the meat offering, which is the grain offering. It belongs to a sanctuary service in which Levites serve as priests and offer bulls and goats. It is part of the sacrificial rites and priestly service of Ezekiel's proposed sanctuary, belonging to the Levitical and first-covenant sacrificial system.

Its stated purpose is that the priests shall not bear the sacred offerings out into the outer or utter court. By keeping the cooking and baking in the designated place the offerings are not carried among the people in the outer court. In that way the people are not thereby made holy or sanctified by them.

The verse belongs to the sanctuary, temple, city, and land pattern of Ezekiel 40 to 48, also described as chapters 36 to 48. It is a building with two holy places including a most holy place called sanctuary, with its ceremonies, offerings, rites, and division of the land. Beyond its conditional setting the verse receives no separate explanation.

The pattern was given to Ezekiel to show to Israel while in Babylonian captivity, fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed. It was connected with the restoration opened by the decree of Cyrus for Israel to go up. It measures Jerusalem, its temple and city as the counterpart to Zechariah 2, and the two must be studied together. It stands among allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the Hebrew festivals in Ezekiel 44:24, Ezekiel 45:17, and Ezekiel 46:1, 3, 4, 12.

Conditional Promise and History

The cooking places for boiling the trespass offering and the sin offering and baking the grain offering belonged to a sanctuary pattern offered on condition that Israel be ashamed of iniquities and evil doings, put away wickedness and sins, return wholeheartedly to God and obey. If they did so God would establish the building, bring back the twelve tribes and give the blessings of restoration. The vision was meant to lead the people to recognize sin and return to God, and its ceremonies, offerings and rites were promised to Israel if they returned wholeheartedly from captivity. The detailed description of sanctuary, city and land in Ezekiel 40 to 48, also counted as chapters 36 to 48, would then have been fulfilled literally.

What was offered was the Messiah's kingdom to be established on earth in its then-present state, bringing all scattered Israel back to the mountains of Israel and Palestine to unsurpassable glory. It would have had a true-hearted people, God's manifest presence constantly dwelling among them with glory greater than ever seen, a new and far greater sanctuary with its priestly service of trespass offerings, sin offerings and grain offerings, victory over enemies and glory manifested among His people in sight of the nations. To that belonged lengthened life, character taking hold upon the very animals, and no hurting or destroying in all God's holy mountain.

Israel did not meet the conditions, did not repent or return wholeheartedly but continued in apostasy, disregarded the offer and forfeited its privileges. Only about forty thousand returned from captivity, so the offered glory and the promises in their fullness were never inherited then. Because they did not become ashamed of iniquities and put them away, the promised restoration and rebuilding were not fulfilled for them.

The sanctuary, temple and city were therefore never built and the offerings never resumed, and they never will be built or fulfilled as literally described. The glorious new temple from Ezekiel 36 onward, with its places for boiling trespass offerings and sin offerings and baking grain offerings, was not erected because Israel was not ashamed and did not put away iniquities. That city that would have been built if Israel had answered the calls to leave Babylon was never built because Israel failed to do its part.

What was built by Zerubbabel after the exile was only a partial, diminished, limited or shadow fulfillment that fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern. Israel did not yield fully to God, so He could not dwell among them as promised, and only a temple with a shadow of its greatness was erected. The temple and the promised glory were realized only in a diminished way, and that promised restoration and sanctuary worship received only a limited fulfillment.

Gospel Meaning and Fulfillment

The boiling of the trespass offering and sin offering and the baking of the grain offering belong to the Mosaic, Levitical, first-covenant sacrificial system, with its Levites serving as priests, its offerings of beasts, its circumcision and divorce and distinction in meats and jubilee, which would have been in force in that dispensation had Israel accepted the blessings. That priestly cooking service in its appointed place, kept from being borne out into the outer court to make the people holy, describes the rites of the proposed sanctuary and points to Christ the great sin offering. It does not belong to the gospel dispensation and was not to be built in any period subsequent to the opening of the Christian dispensation.

When Christ was crucified and ascended on high the law of the priesthood changed, so Levi is no longer priest but Christ became priest forever after the order of Melchisedec with an unchangeable priesthood that does not pass from one to another. Christ is the great High Priest, and his priesthood is contemporary with the everlasting gospel which is his gospel, and when his priesthood ends there is no more probation, so to set up another priesthood with another gospel brings a curse. The prescribed sacrifices therefore belonged to the past and are not now acceptable to God even as a type, and offering sacrifices now would deny the sufficiency of Christ's offering. They cannot be renewed as literal sacrifices without making Christ's once-for-all offering ineffective and void and insufficient, implying that his sacrifice had not fully dealt with sin. Levitical blood never remitted sin but only pointed forward to Christ's real atonement ministered in heaven and closed before his coming, and a figure cannot come after the fact it signified, nor can typical atonement be made for sin already atoned for in fact and remitted upon repentance and confession.

The vision is not the New Jerusalem nor a future restoration after the second advent in the glorified age to come. There the Prince is Christ as Prince and Shepherd, while here the prince is a poor frail mortal who offers a sin offering for himself, and there marriage and death are unknown while here are marriages and divorces and widows and death with local conditions. What failed for old earthly Jerusalem will be grandly realized for the true Israel in a greater, spiritual way through Christ and in his kingdom. God's promises are fulfilled to his people in Christ, in the new heaven and new earth and the New Jerusalem, the city prepared in heaven coming down to earth, connected with Christ's second coming. That restoration teaches that God's presence among his people brings holiness and life, with absolute joy and peace and harmony among all God's creatures, though not in every former local detail, with more or less of the former detail eliminated. The sanctuary vision also faintly points to God's future promises for his people, though not in every detail, and stands in its spiritual aspect as a prophecy of greater things God will do for his people through Christ.

One reading takes the closing chapters as seeming to predict the greater temple later built under Herod, focusing on the historical facts of that building rather than the prophecy's details.