Ezekiel 46:21
Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court. Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.
The verse shows being led past the four corners of the outer court to find a smaller court set in each corner. It belongs to the sanctuary, city and land promised in Ezekiel 36 to 48, offered while Israel was captive in Babylon to restore them with wonderful glory if they repented and returned wholeheartedly. Because Israel did not meet the conditions of shame, repentance and obedience, that temple with its courts was never built and what the verse pictures never took place. Its Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices cannot be revived after the cross, for Christ's death fulfilled them and to offer them now would annul His offering. Wherein it failed for earthly Jerusalem it stands as a faint type to be grandly realized for the true Israel of God in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as capital.
Vision's Wording and Setting
The verse describes being led around the four corners of the outer court and seeing a court in each corner. What is seen is a smaller court in each of its four corners, belonging to the outer court of the sanctuary shown to Ezekiel. This detail belongs to Ezekiel's temple and its service, which cannot be a temple built after the Christian dispensation because its priesthood and sacrifices are no longer in force. The Hebrew word translated pass through carries the sense of passing by or before.
The verse belongs to the description of Ezekiel's sanctuary with its prescribed sacrifices and offerings. Those ordinances, including those of bulls and goats, place the sanctuary in the past Mosaic dispensation when the sacrificial system was in force and such sacrifices were acceptable. The regulations of the chapter would have applied during that dispensation, for its sacrifices and offerings are no longer acceptable to God. The sanctuary was not built because the people did not meet the conditions offered to them. The chapters containing that offer, made while captive in Babylon to restore to land with city and temple in wonderful glory on condition since disregarded, hold several allusions to the Sabbath of the Lord and to the festivals, with a distinct separation between the six working days and the seventh day as the Sabbath.
The vision beginning in Ezekiel 40 onward is of a man with the appearance of brass with a line of flax and a measuring reed measuring the temple and the city of God. It covers the same period and represents the same purposes toward Jerusalem as the man with the measuring line measuring the breadth and length of Jerusalem in Zechariah 2:1-2, and the two are counterparts to be studied together. The chapter is cited among prophecies that seem to predict the building of a greater temple, but the prophecy does not reveal the process by which the work would be done, and the circumstances of construction are secondary to the prophecy itself. The passage dealing with the verse does not explain its description of the court.
Conditional Offer Forfeited
Ezekiel 46:21 belongs to the sanctuary, city, land, and division of the land prophecy in Ezekiel 36 to the end of the book, described more narrowly as chapters 37-48, 40-48, 40-46, and 41-48 and as the last nine chapters. That prophecy was a conditional promise that would have been literally fulfilled and built if Israel had met God's conditions. The offer was made while the Hebrews were captive in Babylon to restore them to their own land with a city and temple in wonderful glory. God was prepared to restore them after the Babylonian exile in answer to the calls to leave Babylon and return wholeheartedly from captivity, establishing the sanctuary, worship, and Messiah's kingdom on earth in its present condition.
Fulfillment depended on Israel being ashamed of iniquities and evil doings and putting them away, yielding to God, repenting, returning to God, and meeting the standard of faith, obedience, and full measure as children of God. The vision was given to show the people their iniquity and call them to shame and repentance, setting forth God's purpose for Jerusalem. It taught that Jehovah is there, whose presence would bring healing and life.
What was conditionally promised was restoration of all His people scattered among the nations to the mountains of Israel, dwelling among them with glory never seen, a new and far greater sanctuary, victory over enemies, and subjection of the kings of the North and all enemies. It included raising of the righteous dead, a new division of the land, lengthened life, and God's life, healing, and manifest presence so that no injury, hurt, or destroying would be in His holy mountain. Because Israel did not repent, yield fully to God, or meet the conditions, disregarding the offer and persisting in apostasy, the offered glory was never inherited. Only about forty thousand returned from captivity.
The sanctuary and temple with its courts as described was never built, and what the verse describes never took place, not because God changed His purpose. The sanctuary and its promises were only partly, feebly, and faintly realized as a mere shadow in the smaller temple built by Zerubbabel, which lacked the promised greatness and glory. Had Israel heeded the prophecy, the temple described in this vision would have been rebuilt in its promised glory; because they refused, only a mere shadow of it was built.
No Literal Future Temple
The courts in the corners belong to a temple with its Levitical priesthood and sacrifices, including the priesthood and sacrifices and the offerings of the sons of Levi in Ezekiel 45 and 46 and the old sanctuary service, which cannot belong to any temple built after the Christian dispensation. Those ordinances are no longer in force and the blood of bulls and goats is no longer acceptable to God even as a type, so that service cannot be revived or continued now. To offer animal sacrifices now would annul and set aside Christ's offering and make His sacrifice void. God would not ordain that temple again, as its own prescribed sacrifices show.
A typical atonement cannot be revived after Christ's heavenly ministration closes and the real atonement has been made. The death of Jesus Christ upon the cross fulfilled all sacrifices, and figure cannot follow fact nor remission follow type.
The vision does not describe the future glorified age when Christ is Prince and Shepherd and marriage and death are unknown. It presents a frail mortal prince offering a sin offering for himself, with laws for marriages, divorces, widows, and death. Circumcision, divorce, distinction in meats, offerings of beasts, the Jubilee, and the Levitical priesthood would have belonged to the Mosaic dispensation if the conditions had been met.
It does not describe the New Jerusalem of Revelation, and does not prove a future restoration of the Jewish people or a revival of the Levitical sacrificial system.
The sanctuary as described can never be built to fulfill the purpose God intended, and will never be built literally in the future in every detail, including its courts. The temple of that prophecy, with its courts and with the building of the sanctuary and the offerings to be made, depended on conditions Israel did not meet and therefore will never be fulfilled in every detail.
Because the people failed, the prophecy failed for old earthly Jerusalem, but wherein it failed it stands as a prophecy in its spiritual aspect of greater things God will do for His people through Christ. It remains a faint type of God's greater promises at the second coming and in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, to come without the local conditions of the prophet's day. It is not a detailed account of their fulfillment.
God will fulfill His promises to His people in Christ in the new heaven and new earth, with the New Jerusalem as capital. Wherein the promise failed for old earthly Jerusalem it will be grandly realized in the New City that awaits the true Israel of God. The future glory and immortal inheritance promised to the faithful will come in forms described in later revelations, with former detail eliminated. Under far greater conditions there will be lengthened life and the manifest presence of God constantly seen, leaving absolute joy and peace and harmony among all creatures with no injury, hurt, or destroying in His holy mountain in the new earth state.