The Mystery of Ephraim

During the Millennium there would be an elaborate system of animal sacrifices and other burnt and sin offerings, along with the observance of New Moons and Sabbaths; to be conducted by one of the sons of Zadok, a seed from the original high priest during the reign of Kings David and Solomon; to enter and perform Temple services again: according to the revised Levitical laws of sacrifices.

And if the Churches teach that these ordinances were for ritual purposes only, then why are these sacrifices brought back during the Millenniun? Surely false teachers abound in the land of Israel today, their shepherd and watchmen are not only misguided but blind, deaf, dumb and liars!

 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: ‘These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God:”

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth.

“Because thou sayest, “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,” and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked,’” Revelation 3:14-17

Ezekiel 43

¹ Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east. — the gate; this was the eastern gate from the precincts to the outer court.

² And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and His voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with His glory. — the glory of God, the Father, enters the Temple by the East gate; the sound of his chariot is as the sound of many waters, and his glory lightens the earth; the sound of multitude of peoples rejoicing; something new in contrast to the Solomon Temple;

— as the Shekinah glory was the peculiar distinction of the old Temple; and the word ‘behold’ is an expression of joy and admiration; as if the prophet Ezekiel had said, Behold, a wonderful and joyful sight!

— the Targum says, “and the voice of them that bless his name is as the voice of many waters;” as it was being described in Daniel 10:6; “and his voice like the sound of a multitude.”

³ And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision that I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell upon my face.

— even according to the vision that Ezekiel saw when he came to destroy the city; that is, to pronounce God’s word for its destruction; not that Ezekiel destroyed the city of Jerusalem; but was destroyed by the Chaldeans;

— so the Targum says, “when I prophesied to destroy the city.”

⁴ And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. — the Shekinah, the glory of the Lord came into the Temple by the way of the gate facing east.

⁵ So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. — having seen the Shekinah enter by the eastern gate, Ezekiel himself a priest, is brought into the into inner court, and there sees the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle when that was set up in the Temple of Solomon.

⁶ And I heard Him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. — there can be no question that God, the Father himself, who dwelled in the holy of holies, spoke directly to Ezekiel the prophet; of such a significant event, “the man” could well be the Son.

⁷ And He said unto me, “Son of man, the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and My holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings, by their whoredom nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. — neither they; their kings, their priests, their false prophets, their false temples;

— and my name Yehovah shall the house of Israel no more defile or “profane” or cause to be blasphemed by immoralities or false doctrines; denoting the holiness of life, purity of God’s words and worship.

⁸ In their setting of their threshold by My thresholds, and their post by My posts, and the wall between Me and them, they have even defiled My holy name by their abominations that they have committed. Therefore I have consumed them in Mine anger. — a bit of a flashback; for God’s holy name have been defiled by “the two houses of Israel” abominations; altars for their idols; therefore God have consumed them in his anger;

— wherefore God have consumed them; for which sins God brought destruction upon them; starting with the Chaldeans, then the Romans, as they were the rod of God’s anger; and the endtime by six plagues: Ezekiel 38:22; namely, pestilence, blood (by the sword certainly), torrential rain, hailstones, fire and brimstone; “and I will be known in the eyes of many nations (v23).”

⁹ Now let them put away their whoredom and the carcasses of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever. — carcasses of their kings; it is supposed that some of their idolatrous kings were buried within the bounds of Solomon’s Temple;

— the carcasses of their kings in their high places; or and “their high places” that is, by both; by the carcasses of their kings being buried in or near the house of God; so the Targum adds, at their death; or by human carcasses being sacrificed to Molech or Milcom, which signifies their kin;

— it was believed that Manasseh and his son, Amon (II Kings 21:18, II Kings 21:26), were buried in their palace garden, the garden of Uzza near the Temple and there had erected monuments to their idols.

¹⁰ “Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. — that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; when they shall blush to see what glory their iniquities had ruined, how great losers they were by their sins;

— and let the children of Israel know what a Temple God would erect if only they had obeyed, that the whole Scriptures should be opened and applied that so they may be ashamed of their iniquities, which provoked God to cast them off until the Millennium.

¹¹ And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof; and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.

— the ordinances; rites and orders, rules of governing priests and their services. These are again repeated in the next verse, which is usual in Scriptures for emphasis, and especially with this prophet Ezekiel;

— write it in their sight: that it may be remembered, they shall have a draught of it from thy hand “and all the laws thereof” and drawn in their sight that they may inquire of any particular wherein doubt ariseth.

— that they may keep the whole form thereof: as Moses and Solomon had done so must the builders of this Temple, frame the whole to the pattern or exemplar set before them;

— again, if the Churches teach that these ordinances are for ritual or ‘sacrificial’ laws only, then why are these brought back during the Millenniun? Surely false teachers abound in the land of Israel today, their shepherd and watchmen are blind and misguided!

“Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see” Isaiah 42:18

“His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” Isaiah 56:10

¹² This is the law of the house: Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. — this is the law of the Temple; “the house” must not be restricted to the Temple proper, consisting of the holy place and the holy of holies, but encompassing the outer court, the quadrangular area of three thousand cubits square;

— upon the top of the mountain, perhaps it is meant first the nations of Israel; then the whole limit including the outer court encompassing all the nations thereof shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house applying to all mankind.

¹³ “And these are the mesurements of the altar in cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth): even the bottom shall be a cubit and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span; and this shall be the higher place of the altar.

— the altar in Solomon’s Temple was of brass, 20 cubits square, and 10 cubits high (II Chronicles 4:1), while that in the Tabernacle (of shittim-wood overlaid with brass) had been 5 cubits square, and 3 cubits high (Exodus 27:1);

— that in Herod’s Temple is said to have been 32 cubits square, and 10 cubits high, and was of hewn stone. The dimensions of Ezekiel’s altar seem to have been selected for the symmetry of the numbers in the several parts. In height, although the dimention not given, it exceeded any of the others.

¹⁴ And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower ledge shall be two cubits and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ledge even to the greater ledge shall be four cubits and the breadth one cubit.

¹⁵ So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns. — now from hence and upwards were four horns at the four corners of the altar; which denote the strength of God; and that he is accessible to persons that come from all four corners of the earth.

¹⁶ And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof. — and the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad; the length of it, from east to west, was twelve cubits; and the breadth, from north to south, was the same; so that it was a proper foursquare.

¹⁷ And the ledge shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit, and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.”

— and his stairs shall look towards the east; steps to the altar were forbidden by the law of Moses, Exodus 20:26 wherefore, as the height of the altar of Solomon, and so of the second temple, required some steps of ascent to the top;

— here steps or stairs are expressly mentioned, which show that this refers to times when the Mosaic laws should be re-established. These stairs were placed eastward, so that those that went up them looked toward the west, toward the Temple; and turned their backs to the east, or rising sun, in direct opposition to the worshippers of the sun, whose faces would be toward the east.

¹⁸ And He said unto me, “Son of man, thus saith the Lord God: These are the ordinances of the altar on the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon and to sprinkle blood thereon. — to sprinkle blood “upon the altar” thereon, according to the law of a burnt sacrifice, Leviticus 1:5.

¹⁹ And thou shalt give to the priests, the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister unto Me, saith the Lord God, a young bullock for a sin offering. — the original Zadok was the high priest of Israel during the reigns of David and Solomon (II Samuel 8:16–18);

— a priest of the seed of Zadok, himself the priest, II Samuel 15:24, for a sin offering; the sprinkling of his blood on the horns of the altar is still needed to make an atonement for sins, and to reconcile the person that brought the sacrifice;

— under Christianity such concept would directly oppose the doctrine taught in Hebrew 10:1-18, namely, that Christ has by one offering for ever atoned for sin. “By this will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (v10).”

— “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” Hebrew 10:18? Has Professor Walter Veith found any tempering of such verses or chapters by the Roman church to eliminate the need for any sacrifice at the Temple? Perhaps one day the library of the Vatican would be opened and we could be better informed?

²⁰ And thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it and on the four corners of the ledge and upon the border round about; thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it.

— and here from MSG:

“‘For a sin offering, give a bull to the priests, the Levitical priests who are from the family of Zadok who come into my presence to serve me. Take some of its blood and smear it on the four horns of the altar that project from the four corners of the top ledge and all around the lip.

That’s to purify the altar and make it fit for the sacrifice. Then take the bull for the sin offerings and burn it in the place set aside for this in the courtyard outside the Sanctuary.” The Message Bible

²¹ Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary. — and he, the priest of Zadok’s line; this sin offering was done outside the gate where the Temple stood, outside the camp.

²² And on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bullock. — and on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish “for a sin offering” this time it is “a kid of the goats without blemish” as commanded;

— the sin offering for the following days was a “without blemish” he-goat; or “kid of the goats; the ceremonies with the blood and the burning outside were no doubt the same as those on the first day, but why this again on the second day?

²³ When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish and a ram out of the flock without blemish. — there was on each of the seven days (from the third to the seventh), a burnt offering of a bullock and a ram, preceded by a “sin offereng of a bullock” on the first day, and of a “kid of the goats” on the second day.

²⁴ And thou shalt offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the Lord. — when thou hast made an end of cleansing it; the altar, by the sacrifices of the bullock and the kid on the first and second days;

— then, on the third day to the seventh, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish; all these sacrifices was to be pure and perfect.

— and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the Lord; throughout the whole seven days of the consecration and cleansing of the altar.

²⁵ Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering; they shall also prepare a young bullock and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. — seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering; by this it appears that the altar was seven days a consecrating and cleansing; and that on each day a goat “for a sin offering” was prepared and offered as before observed;

— but one Question remains: is this first day, second day to the seventh day counted from the start of the month or from the start of the year? if so these days would not coincide with the days of the week;

— or it this the start of the week, every week? Or, if this a one-off, at the start of the Millennium to cleanse the priesthood, the altar and all its utensils; once and for all? This last possibility would be like the anointing of the altar and all its utensils, by the sprinkling of it seven times by Moses with the holy anointing oil, for the purpose of sanctifying them (Leviticus 8:11).

²⁶ Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it, and they shall consecrate themselves. — and they shall consecrate themselves: the priests shall consecrate themselves or devote themselves to the service of the Temple.

²⁷ And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord God.”

— upon the eighth day, which begins a new week and it is probable the first of these seven days for sacrifice might be the Sabbath, and end on our Friday; however, the first week is spent in solemn consecration of altar and priests; all weeks after are to have, day by day, the usual appointed sacrifices;

— “and I will accept you” doesn’t sound like it would be merely a memorial; but a commandment as in Ezekiel 20:40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me. There will God accept them, and there will God require their offerings and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all their holy things.

— I will accept you with your sweet savor when I bring you out from the people and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and God will be sanctified in you before the Gentiles, Ezekiel 20:41;

— actually the offerings and sacrifices in the two verses above are flashforwards, after “For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,” beginning of Ezekiel 20:40;

— thus unless proven to the contrary, this read like sacrifices and offerings will go on throughout each and every week, that is, it will be statutary and a required commandment throughout the Millennium. But the first day to seventh day (from verse 19 to 26) could be a one-off cleansing just before the oneset of the Millennium to consecrate the priests and to cleanse the altar and utensils to start the Temple service and the Millennium.

Ezekiel 44

¹ Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary which looketh toward the east, and it was shut. — the gate of the outward sanctuary; this is better rendered, the outer gate of the Temple;

— the prophet Ezekiel had been in the inner court, or court of the priests, where the altar stood, and is now brought back to the eastern gate of the outer court. He finds it shut, but when he was there before, it was open; for he saw the glory of the Lord enter into the house by the way of it; but now why was it shut?

² Then said the Lord unto me, “This gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut. — shall not be opened, that is, shall not ordinarily stand open, but be shut till occasion requires it should sometimes be opened.

— no man; none of the common ordinary sort of people or none but the prince. Contrast this with the Temple of old (whether Temple or tabernacle), in which the east gate stood always open; perhaps to express the idea that the glory of God should no more depart from the Temple, but abide in it forever.

³ It is for the Prince; the Prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate and shall go out by the way of the same.” — the Prince (nā·śî); some Christians and Rabbis understood this to refer to the Messiah, and the Prince shall sit to eat bread before the Father.

— if he is the Messiah, as “to eat bread before the Lord” is a very honoured expression for the personage; if so a parallel scene is found in Psalm 110:1 The Lord said unto my Lord (the Son, the Messiah), “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”

— Or is this Prince another being? If so, who would he be? Could he be a seed of the original Zadok, who was the high priest of Israel during the reigns of David and Solomon (II Samuel 8:16–18)?

⁴ Then he brought me the way of the north gate before the house. And I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; and I fell upon my face. — and Ezekiel looked and behold the glory of the Lord, the Shekinah, filled the Temple; as he had seen at the eastern gate, Ezekiel 43:2.

⁵ And the Lord said unto me, “Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary. — this is still the voice of the Lord speaking out of the house to the prophet, Ezekiel 43:6.

— mark well; or “set thine heart” be attentive, Ezekiel, to what is about to be said, as being of great concern and importance concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the laws thereof.

⁶ And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, — thus saith the Lord God, O ye house of Israel, let it suite you of all your abominations; that is, relinquish those things which are so abominable in my sight.

⁷ in that ye have brought into My sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to pollute it, even My house, when ye offer My bread, the fat and the blood; and they have broken My covenant because of all your abominations. — strangers; foreigners and heathens, who had their idols in the very courts of the Temple, and there worshipped their idols;

— uncircumcised in heart; the worst of them, profane and impious; uncircumcised in flesh: no uncircumcised one should come into the court of the Temple, but you have brought them into the very sanctuary at the times of worship;

— Tobiah, an Ammonite official (possibly a governor of Ammon, was allowed by the High Priest Eliashib to lease the storerooms of the Temple to him, so that a stranger could conduct business in the newly constructed Temple; (more on Tobiah colluding with Eliashib the high priest in the Temple at the end).

8 And ye have not kept charge of Mine holy things; but ye have set keepers of My charge in My sanctuary for yourselves.

⁹ “‘Thus saith the Lord God: No stranger, uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, or any stranger that is among the children of Israel. — these were great sins before the Lord, as Tobiah was a stranger, an Ammonite, “uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh,” being allowed to live in one of the storemrooms in the Temple;

— and as storerooms were intended for the Israelites’ grain offerings, incense, temple articles and the tithes of grain, new wine and oil meant for the work of the Temple and the Temple workers themselves.

¹⁰ And the Levites that have gone away far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray away from Me after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquity. — the influence of Tobiah corrupted the Levites and the priesthood, where they went astray and later emerged as the Sadducees gained authority in administering the Temple service;

— “they shall even bear their iniquity” they were to face their judgement; they died away during the AD 70 inferno in Jerusalem.

¹¹ Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house and ministering to the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. — despite their sins, yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary; yet they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people; and charge at the gates;

¹² Because they ministered unto them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore have I lifted up Mine hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity. — “and they shall bear their iniquity” repeated for emphasis, which were executed in AD 70 during the Jerusalem inferno; so which sects went into their judgement of death!

— these sects of the Jews faced their days of vengeance and disappeared in the AD 70 inferno: All Sadducees, Herodians, Boethusians, Essenes, together with the House of Shammai Pharisees and those of its military arm, the Zealots. They all ministered before their idols and faced their days of vengeance and disappeared from history. Were they receiving their judgement?

— and history recorded only two sects that escaped the inferno of AD 70:

(1) The Christians, known as Nazarenes in Acts 24:5. They escaped to a northern town called Pella, west of the Jordan River;

(2) some Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel. They were headed by a Pharisaic rabbi, Johanan ben Zakkai, the head of the Sanhedrin, who escaped to Yavne and, later, his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about AD 359 concerning the rules of the calendar.

¹³ And they shall not come near unto Me to do the office of a priest unto Me, nor to come near to any of My holy things in the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. — they shall be dealt with according to their abominations, that is, their apostacy and idolatry, hence all the Sadducees, Herodians, Boethusians and Essenes faced their judgement and disappeared from history.

¹⁴ But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house for all the service thereof and for all that shall be done therein. — but God will make them keepers of the charge of the house; to be watchmen, Levites and priests; to administer the Temple, to open and shut its doors; to sweep off filths and keep it clean;

— to administer the Feasts, the Passover; to all these, he must first of all be circumcised, (Exodus 12:43-44).

¹⁵ But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God. — the original Zadok was a faithful high priest of Israel during the reigns of David and Solomon (II Samuel 8:16–18);

— the sons, a posterity of Zadok the priest, II Samuel 15:24, the Levites as carriers of the ark; some Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel;

— they escaped to Yavne and, later, his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about AD 359 concerning the rules of the calendar.

¹⁶ They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge. — these are the Rabbinic Jews, of the tribe of Levi; and for priests, of the sons of Aaron; the sons of Zadok, would be chief among them;

¹⁷ And it shall come to pass that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and within. — these are from the priests who were of the tribe of Levi, of the sons of Aaron, a posterity of Zadok the faithful priest, whom the Lord chose and separated to minister unto him.

¹⁸ They shall have linen headdresses upon their heads and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat. — these regulations as to the priests’ services; their garments are defined and various rules prescribed in the Law are repeated with some additions in order to denote additional care to avoid uncleanness.

¹⁹ And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.

— they (the sons of Zadok the priest) shall put off their garments; this requirement that the priests shall wear their official dress only when engaged in official duty, putting it on when they entered the inner court, and putting it off when they went out, which is only implied in Exodus and Leviticus, but is here expressly enjoined.

²⁰ Neither shall they shave their heads nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. — their locks to grow long; the law forbade the shaving of the head (Leviticus 21:5), but only condemned letting the hair grow long by implication, providing for it in the exceptional case of the Nazarite vow.

²¹ Neither shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the inner court. — neither shall any priest drink wine, that is, as in Leviticus 10:9, “lest ye die. It shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations.”

²² Neither shall they take for their wives a widow nor her that is put away; but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who had a priest before. — in regard both to marriage the Levitical law made a broad distinction between the ordinary priest and the high priest. The former was only forbidden to marry a divorced woman (Leviticus 21:7), but was allowed to marry a widow; the latter could marry only a virgin of Israel.

²³ And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. — and cause them (the sons of Zadok the priest) to discern between the unclean and the clean; impure thoughts, doctrines and manners, and those which are agreeable to the word of God; the sense is that they shall take pains to instruct people in the knowledge of God and shall do it truthfully, faithfully and sincerely.

²⁴ And in controversy they shall stand in judgement, and they shall judge it according to My judgements; and they shall keep My laws and My statutes in all Mine assemblies, and they shall hallow My Sabbaths. — and in controversy they (the sons of Zadok the priest) shall stand in judgement; when any controversy arises among them concerning the law, this shall be carried into a court, and there heard, tried, judged and determined;

— and they shall hallow My Sabbaths, not a pagan Sunday; such times as are appointed for divine worship; these they shall be kept holy. And those who profame the true Sabbaths will be put to death; “for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people,” Exodus 31:14.

²⁵ And they shall come near no dead person to defile themselves; but for father or for mother, or for son or for daughter, for brother or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves. — they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves; whosoever touched a dead body became legally unclean (Numbers 19:11), and thereby was disqualified for attending upon God’s worship in the Temple, Leviticus 22:3.

²⁶ And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days. — seven days; that is, another seven days shall be reckoned from the time of his cleansing, before he (a posterity of Zadok the original high priest) enters on Temple service again: according to the old law, seven days were reckoned from the defilement to the purification;

— here seven more days are numbered after the purification is made; and therefore, this is a new law or rule, is to be observed during the Millennium.

²⁷ And on the day that he goeth into the sanctuary unto the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord God. — and in the day that the high priest of Zadok goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord GOD;

— yes, Ezekiel 44:27 says the high priest still offers his sin offering.

²⁸ “‘And it shall be unto them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance, and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. — the Levitical priesthood were to be supported by the tithes given to God, and by their portion of the offerings made to God.

²⁹ They shall eat the meat offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering, and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.

³⁰ And the first of all the firstfruits of all things and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest’s. Ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.

— that he (one of the sons of Zadok the high priest) may cause the blessing to rest in thine house; that is, that he, the priest and minister of the word, that partakes of the above things, and is comfortably provided for and supported, may pray to the Lord for such who liberally contribute to him;

— that a blessing may come and abide upon them and their families, and prosperity and success may attend them in their worldly business and employments of life;

³¹ The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself or torn, whether it be fowl or beast. — same as in Leviticus 22:8; the same law was binding upon all the Israelites, Leviticus 17:15.

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More on Tobiah colluding with Eliashib the high priest in the Temple – Nehemiah 13:4-9

⁴ And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah.

⁵ And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where previously they laid the meat offerings, the frankincense and the vessels and the tithes of the corn, the new wine and the oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers, and the offerings of the priests.

⁶ But in all this time I was not at Jerusalem; for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I came unto the king, and after certain days I obtained leave from the king.

⁷ And I came to Jerusalem and learned of the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

⁸ And it grieved me sore; therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber.

⁹ Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers; and thither I brought back the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense. Nehemiah 13:4-9

~ by Joel Huan on November 24, 2022.

Posted in Ezekiel