And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.
The verse lays down that a priest defiled by touching the dead must be cleansed and then have seven days counted to him to complete his purification under the old sanctuary service. It speaks of mortal Levites who could die, be defiled, offer for themselves, and marry, even the widows of priests. It belongs to the great temple, city, and land vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48, with its Levitical priesthood and first-covenant burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats pointing to Christ, whose seven days are the week of offerings to purge the altar before the eighth day of acceptance onward. That vision was a conditional offer to Israel in captivity promising restoration, a rebuilt temple, and glory if they would be ashamed of iniquity, repent, and return wholeheartedly, but because they remained unwilling and apostate it was never built in its blessed fulness, and what Zerubbabel and Ezra built was only a weak and inferior shadow. It was meant for the past Mosaic dispensation and will never be fulfilled literally by rebuilding a physical sanctuary with animal sacrifices, for that would return from sunlight to shadow and make Christ's once-for-all offering of none effect, while wherein it failed for earthly Jerusalem it stands as a spiritual type to be grandly realized for the true Israel of God in the New City descending from heaven and the earth made new.
Words and Temple Setting
After cleansing from corpse-defilement seven days were to be reckoned to the priest as the period of his purification within the old sanctuary service. The rule concerned a priest made ceremonially unclean through contact with the dead, who was counted as purified after seven days. The surrounding order shows priests experiencing deaths in their families, remaining subject to death and ritual defilement, and having to offer a sin offering for themselves.
Its context shows mortal Levites subject to death, defilement, cleansing, sin-offering for themselves, and marriage. They might touch the dead, need cleansing afterward with purification time reckoned to them, and marry, even widows of priests. That priestly law of defilement, cleansing, and reckoning seven days proves disease and death still present, together with marriages, divorces, literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction of clean and unclean meats, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats, and a Levitical priesthood. Because those made immortal can die no more and neither marry nor are given in marriage, and because the priests there are Levites only and not a people taken from all nations, the order belongs to the mortal conditions of the Mosaic dispensation and not to the future state or the New Jerusalem.
The verse belongs to the detailed sanctuary, city, and land vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48, elsewhere described as Ezekiel 36 to 48, with its Levitical priesthood and first-covenant burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats that pointed to Christ the great sin offering. It was part of a sanctuary prophecy concerning the time when the Levitical priesthood and its ordinances were in force, a system that does not apply after Christ's priesthood began and His heavenly ministration made the real atonement. It is not to be fulfilled by building that city on this earth and carrying on those sacrifices during Christ's thousand-year reign, for that would make His reign less glorious than the present dispensation, supersede the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, revive ancient Jerusalem from its ruins, and return to the ordinances of the first covenant after Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant and by one offering for sins forever has perfected them that are sanctified. The prophecy does not disclose how the greater temple work would be carried out, its manner of construction being secondary.
Its seven days are the week of offerings to purge and purify the altar, after which upon the eighth day and forward on every day the priests make the regular burnt offerings and peace offerings described in the law and God accepts the people. That eighth day is the eighth day of that purging series, not the eighth day of the week, and has nothing to do with the Sabbath in any way. The detailed sanctuary of wonderful manifest glory with a new and larger city and temple was promised if Israel would return to God with all their hearts, but Israel refused by not being ashamed of iniquities, so the temple described was never built and is not still to be built, an inferior sanctuary being built instead under Ezra and Zerubbabel. No further sacrifice can be offered there without making Christ's sacrifice void and annulling His offering.
Conditional Prophecy and Fulfillment
The vision belongs to the captivity, given twenty-five years into the Babylonian captivity in B.C. 574, fourteen years after Jerusalem with its temple and sanctuary was destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah in B.C. 588. It was a conditional offer to Israel among the captives of restoration to the land, rebuilding of the temple, and blessing and glory for land, city and sanctuary, with counterpart purposes as shown in Zechariah 2. The gift was on condition they be ashamed of iniquities and put them away, repent and reform, return wholeheartedly, yield to God, and come up to the full measure of children of God. Its cleansing and seven-day reckoning were part of promises dependent on that repentance and reform, not obligatory if Israel failed to meet the stated conditions.
Because Israel was unwilling and apostate, departed from ordinances and did not meet the conditions, the sanctuary in its blessed fulness was never built and the prophecy was never fulfilled in detail. What was built under Zerubbabel and Ezra at the restoration from Babylon was only a weak, partial, inferior shadow falling far short of the pattern. The temple built at the restoration fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern because the people remained apostate and would not yield all to God.
The vision cannot describe the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, Christ's thousand-year reign, the New Jerusalem, or a return-of-the-Jews restoration. Disease and death are still present there, shown by the priestly law of defilement, cleansing and reckoning seven days for mortal priests subject to corpse-defilement and purification time. Those priests are mortal Levites only and not a people taken from all nations, who may touch the dead, need cleansing afterward, and marry, even widows of priests, while those made immortal at the second advent cannot die any more and neither marry nor are given in marriage. Literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction of clean and unclean meats, with burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats of the first covenant pointing to Christ the great sin offering, and the Levitical priesthood ended at the cross and were superseded by the priesthood of Melchizedek, so the sanctuary cannot belong to the gospel dispensation or to a future immortal state where there is no death and only Jesus is Prince and King with peace and righteousness and no oppression. It must be explained in harmony with the whole Bible, especially that the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming when the earth is desolated, which overthrows the return-of-the-Jews use of the verse.
It was designed for the past Mosaic dispensation, not the present dispensation and not the future dispensation which is the immortal state. No such city or sanctuary stands today, so the prophecy has not been fulfilled, and it will never be fulfilled literally or built as a physical sanctuary in Israel. To rebuild it now and resume its thousands of sheep and oxen and sacrifices would build again what was destroyed, return from sunlight to shadow, and make Christ's mediatorship of a better covenant and His offering once for all of none effect, since the past offerings were for the time then present shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. No further sacrifice can be offered without making Christ's sacrifice void, and such sacrifices would annul Christ's offering.
Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem it stands as a spiritual prophecy and faint type of greater things God would do through Christ for His people. It will be grandly realized under greater conditions with some local details left aside for the true Israel of God in the New City prepared in heaven that will descend upon earth, the earth made new, the immortal inheritance, and events connected with Christ's second coming, ultimately becoming the house of prayer for all nations. The future glory and immortal inheritance will come to the faithful through the later revelations, though the details will not all be fulfilled as described.
In that unrealized restoration God would have built the sanctuary described in Ezekiel 40-48 where Israel would have offered the prescribed worship as the gradual establishment of the Messiah's peaceful kingdom with Jehovah there. Its presence would heal all barren land, salt marshes, deserts and impure waters by the water of life and give life to all, with wild beasts made mild under righteousness so the smallest infant is safe. Because the people did not yield, God could not dwell among a half-hearted people and could not build a temple for His name for them to dishonor. It will be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new where absolute peace rules over all nature and no harm comes to the feeblest.
Had Israel obeyed, the prophecy would have been fulfilled in fullest literal detail at that time, including the building of the temple offered in Ezekiel with its attendant sacrifices. Israel would have been faithful, cleansed from sin, brought back to the mountains of Israel and made great, with northern enemies destroyed by plagues, the resurrection of chapter 37 taking place, and the marvelous sanctuary built where God's presence would dwell as Jehovah Is There. Gog and Magog, representing the northern nations, are punished in part in this world before and when Christ comes and ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years of Revelation 20. Because Babylon was dearer than Jerusalem and Israel did not respond to the three calls to come out of Babylon, the city was never built, not because God's mind changed but because Israel failed to do their part, so in order to have a holy city God had to prepare it in heaven, and those ancient calls were an object-lesson of the last call now sounding through the earth.
The verse lays down that a priest defiled by touching the dead must be cleansed and then have seven days counted to him to complete his purification under the old sanctuary service. It speaks of mortal Levites who could die, be defiled, offer for themselves, and marry, even the widows of priests. It belongs to the great temple, city, and land vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48, with its Levitical priesthood and first-covenant burnt offerings and sin offerings of bulls and goats pointing to Christ, whose seven days are the week of offerings to purge the altar before the eighth day of acceptance onward. That vision was a conditional offer to Israel in captivity promising restoration, a rebuilt temple, and glory if they would be ashamed of iniquity, repent, and return wholeheartedly, but because they remained unwilling and apostate it was never built in its blessed fulness, and what Zerubbabel and Ezra built was only a weak and inferior shadow. It was meant for the past Mosaic dispensation and will never be fulfilled literally by rebuilding a physical sanctuary with animal sacrifices, for that would return from sunlight to shadow and make Christ's once-for-all offering of none effect, while wherein it failed for earthly Jerusalem it stands as a spiritual type to be grandly realized for the true Israel of God in the New City descending from heaven and the earth made new.
Words and Temple Setting
After cleansing from corpse-defilement seven days were to be reckoned to the priest as the period of his purification within the old sanctuary service. The rule concerned a priest made ceremonially unclean through contact with the dead, who was counted as purified after seven days. The surrounding order shows priests experiencing deaths in their families, remaining subject to death and ritual defilement, and having to offer a sin offering for themselves.
Its context shows mortal Levites subject to death, defilement, cleansing, sin-offering for themselves, and marriage. They might touch the dead, need cleansing afterward with purification time reckoned to them, and marry, even widows of priests. That priestly law of defilement, cleansing, and reckoning seven days proves disease and death still present, together with marriages, divorces, literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction of clean and unclean meats, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats, and a Levitical priesthood. Because those made immortal can die no more and neither marry nor are given in marriage, and because the priests there are Levites only and not a people taken from all nations, the order belongs to the mortal conditions of the Mosaic dispensation and not to the future state or the New Jerusalem.
The verse belongs to the detailed sanctuary, city, and land vision of Ezekiel 40 to 48, elsewhere described as Ezekiel 36 to 48, with its Levitical priesthood and first-covenant burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats that pointed to Christ the great sin offering. It was part of a sanctuary prophecy concerning the time when the Levitical priesthood and its ordinances were in force, a system that does not apply after Christ's priesthood began and His heavenly ministration made the real atonement. It is not to be fulfilled by building that city on this earth and carrying on those sacrifices during Christ's thousand-year reign, for that would make His reign less glorious than the present dispensation, supersede the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, revive ancient Jerusalem from its ruins, and return to the ordinances of the first covenant after Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry as Mediator of a better covenant and by one offering for sins forever has perfected them that are sanctified. The prophecy does not disclose how the greater temple work would be carried out, its manner of construction being secondary.
Its seven days are the week of offerings to purge and purify the altar, after which upon the eighth day and forward on every day the priests make the regular burnt offerings and peace offerings described in the law and God accepts the people. That eighth day is the eighth day of that purging series, not the eighth day of the week, and has nothing to do with the Sabbath in any way. The detailed sanctuary of wonderful manifest glory with a new and larger city and temple was promised if Israel would return to God with all their hearts, but Israel refused by not being ashamed of iniquities, so the temple described was never built and is not still to be built, an inferior sanctuary being built instead under Ezra and Zerubbabel. No further sacrifice can be offered there without making Christ's sacrifice void and annulling His offering.
Conditional Prophecy and Fulfillment
The vision belongs to the captivity, given twenty-five years into the Babylonian captivity in B.C. 574, fourteen years after Jerusalem with its temple and sanctuary was destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah in B.C. 588. It was a conditional offer to Israel among the captives of restoration to the land, rebuilding of the temple, and blessing and glory for land, city and sanctuary, with counterpart purposes as shown in Zechariah 2. The gift was on condition they be ashamed of iniquities and put them away, repent and reform, return wholeheartedly, yield to God, and come up to the full measure of children of God. Its cleansing and seven-day reckoning were part of promises dependent on that repentance and reform, not obligatory if Israel failed to meet the stated conditions.
Because Israel was unwilling and apostate, departed from ordinances and did not meet the conditions, the sanctuary in its blessed fulness was never built and the prophecy was never fulfilled in detail. What was built under Zerubbabel and Ezra at the restoration from Babylon was only a weak, partial, inferior shadow falling far short of the pattern. The temple built at the restoration fell far short of Ezekiel's pattern because the people remained apostate and would not yield all to God.
The vision cannot describe the immortal state, the gospel dispensation, Christ's thousand-year reign, the New Jerusalem, or a return-of-the-Jews restoration. Disease and death are still present there, shown by the priestly law of defilement, cleansing and reckoning seven days for mortal priests subject to corpse-defilement and purification time. Those priests are mortal Levites only and not a people taken from all nations, who may touch the dead, need cleansing afterward, and marry, even widows of priests, while those made immortal at the second advent cannot die any more and neither marry nor are given in marriage. Literal circumcision, permission of divorce, distinction of clean and unclean meats, with burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats of the first covenant pointing to Christ the great sin offering, and the Levitical priesthood ended at the cross and were superseded by the priesthood of Melchizedek, so the sanctuary cannot belong to the gospel dispensation or to a future immortal state where there is no death and only Jesus is Prince and King with peace and righteousness and no oppression. It must be explained in harmony with the whole Bible, especially that the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming when the earth is desolated, which overthrows the return-of-the-Jews use of the verse.
It was designed for the past Mosaic dispensation, not the present dispensation and not the future dispensation which is the immortal state. No such city or sanctuary stands today, so the prophecy has not been fulfilled, and it will never be fulfilled literally or built as a physical sanctuary in Israel. To rebuild it now and resume its thousands of sheep and oxen and sacrifices would build again what was destroyed, return from sunlight to shadow, and make Christ's mediatorship of a better covenant and His offering once for all of none effect, since the past offerings were for the time then present shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. No further sacrifice can be offered without making Christ's sacrifice void, and such sacrifices would annul Christ's offering.
Wherein it failed for old earthly Jerusalem it stands as a spiritual prophecy and faint type of greater things God would do through Christ for His people. It will be grandly realized under greater conditions with some local details left aside for the true Israel of God in the New City prepared in heaven that will descend upon earth, the earth made new, the immortal inheritance, and events connected with Christ's second coming, ultimately becoming the house of prayer for all nations. The future glory and immortal inheritance will come to the faithful through the later revelations, though the details will not all be fulfilled as described.
In that unrealized restoration God would have built the sanctuary described in Ezekiel 40-48 where Israel would have offered the prescribed worship as the gradual establishment of the Messiah's peaceful kingdom with Jehovah there. Its presence would heal all barren land, salt marshes, deserts and impure waters by the water of life and give life to all, with wild beasts made mild under righteousness so the smallest infant is safe. Because the people did not yield, God could not dwell among a half-hearted people and could not build a temple for His name for them to dishonor. It will be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new where absolute peace rules over all nature and no harm comes to the feeblest.
Had Israel obeyed, the prophecy would have been fulfilled in fullest literal detail at that time, including the building of the temple offered in Ezekiel with its attendant sacrifices. Israel would have been faithful, cleansed from sin, brought back to the mountains of Israel and made great, with northern enemies destroyed by plagues, the resurrection of chapter 37 taking place, and the marvelous sanctuary built where God's presence would dwell as Jehovah Is There. Gog and Magog, representing the northern nations, are punished in part in this world before and when Christ comes and ultimately at the end of the 1,000 years of Revelation 20. Because Babylon was dearer than Jerusalem and Israel did not respond to the three calls to come out of Babylon, the city was never built, not because God's mind changed but because Israel failed to do their part, so in order to have a holy city God had to prepare it in heaven, and those ancient calls were an object-lesson of the last call now sounding through the earth.