And they shall not draw near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to draw near to any of my holy things, [even] to the most holy; but they shall bear their confusion, and their abominations which they have committed.
Ezekiel's closing vision gives every worker a place in the coming temple. Here one group learns where it may not stand. The Levites who once served Israel's idols will keep the house, but they will never again serve as priests. Two hard questions follow. Why does God still count a sin that is long past? And what does a man lose when God keeps him at a distance but still gives him work?
When does this vision apply? Kelly answers from the closing verses of the chapter:
Do you want evidence for the right application of this final vision (Ezekiel 40–48)? Nothing could be plainer or more decisive than the closing verses of our chapter. It is not at all a ministry to preach the good news of God in grace that makes no distinctions, or to establish the children of God in His truth and their privileges. The church state is gone before this prophecy begins to be fulfilled. That is as certain as the fact that the church state began long after the prophecy was written.
These men are not dismissed. They are restricted. Hardt, quoting an older translation, sets the two sides together:
These Levites will be allowed to kill the sacrificial animals and serve the people who brought them (v. 11). But they will be expressly forbidden to "draw near" to God or to "do the office of a priest" (v. 13).
The loss shows up in what separates a priest from a Levite:
Here is the difference between the Levites and the priests. The Levites stand before the people and minister to them. The priests minister to Jehovah, stand before Him, and enter the Sanctuary. The holy privilege of entering God's presence and of fellowship with Him at His table belongs to the priestly place.
One writer ties this exclusion to God's government. He also separates the place they lose from the safety they keep:
In the government of God they are shut out from this higher place because of their previous history. They had followed the people into idolatry. They became a stumbling block of sin, instead of resisting the evil that was coming in and teaching the people the laws of the covenant that bound them to Jehovah. God takes account of what is past. In His ways of holy government He must remember such a departure from His revealed and known will when He judges, though those under it are personally safe. The day of loss and reward is certain, and God's grace does not set this aside.
Bearing shame is something felt, not just recorded. Kelly reads it as a lasting sense of a lowered place, which a past reputation will not undo:
So the Levites who had turned aside will feel their shame in the days of the kingdom. They drop from their proper work — at least from its higher parts — and may do only menial service for the sanctuary. A sad contrast with the Levites in the days of Moses, when even Aaron revolted! But it is the days of the kingdom, and righteousness governs. Past reputation will not be enough. If their sons have walked unfaithfully before Jehovah appears in glory, they must bear the consequences.
Two verses later the same rule brings the opposite result:
The same principle of righteous government appears in the priests of Zadok's line. They had remained faithful when Israel departed from Jehovah, and now in the day of Messiah's kingdom they fill the nearest place. Past faithfulness meets its reward.
These Levites had followed the people into idolatry. One writer says that danger did not end when carved images did:
The idol feasts, with their open immorality, are not around us today; but there are still idols to keep away from, and fleshly desires to turn away from. We have light and knowledge. So if we follow anything that displaces God, or that presents Him as different from what He is known to be as revealed in Christ, or that changes His truth, some form of moral failure will follow. Where truth is refused, twisted, or neglected, moral laxity and spiritual weakness come with it to some degree.
- Cause — These Levites served the people's idols instead of resisting the evil and teaching God's law. That history sets their future place.
- Cost — They keep the work but lose the nearness: no standing before God, no entering the sanctuary, no place at His table.
- Kept — They are not cast out. Those under God's governing hand are safe. They lose reward, not salvation.
- Contrast — The same rule lifts Zadok's line to the nearest place. Past faithfulness meets its reward.
- Carry-over — Anything that displaces God or changes His truth is still an idol. Truth neglected leaves weakness behind.
And I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.
Ezekiel's vision of a future temple measures walls and gates. It also assigns people to places. This verse closes a judgment on one group of Levites. Its first word — "yet" — turns that judgment into an appointment.
Before the chapter gives any rules, God tells the prophet to pay close attention. One writer makes that command the dividing line between two ways of reading these chapters:
"Son of man, mark well. See with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD and all its laws." (v. 5) This is where people have failed to set their heart. They have not understood the difference. The ordinances and laws of the house noted here are not the past circumstances of the temple. They have failed to mark well, and have confused it all with what has already been.
These Levites are not paying for someone else's failure. They went along with the nation instead of standing against it. That history follows them into the coming kingdom:
In our chapter the Levites, except the family of Zadok (v. 15), are appointed to keep guard and do the service of the house. But they may not hold the priestly office. In the government of God they lose this higher place because of their previous history. reason: two very-hard sentences split; adds loss-and-reward depth from same source
The appointment in this verse is real work and real demotion at once. The reason lies in the character of the age when it happens:
So the Levites who had turned aside will feel their shame in the days of the kingdom. They are brought down from their proper work — at least from its higher parts. They may only do humble service for the sanctuary. What a sad contrast with the Levites in the days of Moses, when even Aaron revolted! But these are the days of the kingdom, and righteousness governs. Past reputation will not be enough. If their sons prove unfaithful before the LORD appears in glory, they must bear the consequences.
"All its service" sounds total, yet a line still runs through it. The difference is not the amount of work. It is the direction the worker faces:
The Levites and the priests differ in this. The Levites stand before the people and minister to them. The priests minister to the LORD, stand before Him, and enter the sanctuary. The holy privilege of entering God's presence and of fellowship with Him at His table marks out the priestly place.
The wording of the next verse sets the two groups side by side:
"But … the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me" (44:15). Note also the contrast with the preceding verses, beginning with verse 10: "And the Levites who went far from me…"
Why record an old failure in a plan for a future temple? Because the same danger outlives the carved images:
Things changed. The world became friendly and sought association with the Church. Like Israel, the Church was snared into evil practices. The doctrine of mixture prevailed. It destroyed the true character and testimony of the Church in the world… The idol feasts, with their open immorality, are not around us today. But there are still idols to keep away from, and sinful desires to turn away from. We have light and knowledge. So if anything displaces God, presents Him as different from what He is known to be as revealed in Christ, or changes His truth, following it always brings some form of moral failure.
- Mark well. These laws belong to a house still to come, not to the temple that has already been. Confusing the two is the great mistake with these chapters.
- Charge lost. The Levites followed the people into idolatry instead of resisting it. God's government calls the past to account.
- Charge kept. The word "yet" keeps them in: not dismissed but reassigned, guarding the house and doing all its service.
- Charge withheld. They stand before the people; the priests stand before God. The lost privilege is nearness, not employment.
- Charge today. Those who suffer this loss are still saved, yet mixing with the world costs them. The idols change; the principle does not.
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 approach unto me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to present unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Ezekiel's last vision describes the temple and worship of a future day. Here the prophet names the one family allowed to come near to God: the sons of Zadok. Their qualification is not talent or rank. They kept God's charge while everyone else drifted.
The chapter sits inside a block of prophecy about Israel's restoration, and one commentator reads its details as things that will actually happen rather than pictures only.
All of these will take place literally. Literal Israel will be brought into its literal land, a literal temple will be built and literal sacrifices offered to God. These sacrifices which the sons of Zadok will present are commemorative. In the past, Levitical sacrifices pointed forward to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross; the sacrifices brought in the millennium will commemorate the same work of Christ.
The name points back to the priest who served in David's reign. His family line and his name both carry weight.
There are eight or nine men called Zadok in the Old Testament. But there can be little doubt that the Zadok referred to by Ezekiel is the priest who lived at the time of David. He was a descendant of Aaron, Eleazar and Phinehas (1 Chr. 6:50–53). His name comes from the verb 'to justify' and his father was called Ahitub, which means 'brother of goodness'.
Zadok made his choice at a moment when the mood of the nation ran the other way.
It was a time of decision. The current of the day was in Absalom's favour — but Zadok was one of those who swam against the current.
One writer finds two reasons behind the choice of this family. The verse gives only one of them.
We can see the reason for this. They were faithful. But there is another reason too, which does not appear in the prophecy. They were the proper descendants. They were the direct descendants of Phinehas, and God had sworn in the wilderness — it goes back that far, long before David — that there should be an everlasting covenant with the priesthood and the family of Phinehas. If God remembers His promises, He also does not forget His covenant with man. So it is not only the promise to the fathers. The Lord also never forgets what comes in because of the faithfulness of His people in any great time of trouble.
The word "but" looks back to the other Levites earlier in this chapter. They had followed the people into idolatry. They keep their service, but they lose the priestly place.
In His government God shuts them out of this higher place because of their past. They had followed the people into idolatry, and they became a stumbling block leading others into sin instead of resisting the evil coming in... The day of loss and reward is certain, and God's grace does not set that aside. The future will bring out results which flow from the past, for as we sow we reap. If our work is good, we will receive a reward. If it is bad, we will suffer loss, though we ourselves are saved.
The same test reaches the next generation.
Past reputation will not be enough. If their sons have walked unfaithfully before Jehovah appears in glory, they must bear the consequences. Jehovah will be exalted in that day, and those who have humbled themselves He will exalt in due time.
"Come near," "minister," "the fat and the blood" — each phrase is a privilege, and each is refused to the demoted Levites.
First, the sons of Zadok will be near to God, able to approach Him. This is in contrast with the Levites who had fallen into idolatry... In commemoration of the work of Christ on the cross, they will offer blood and the fat of the sacrifices. The blood speaks of the immense price paid for the redemption of His people. The fat speaks of the holy energy and devotion of Christ in offering Himself spotless to God.
One writer sums up where each service points:
The Levites stand before the people and minister to them. The priests minister to Jehovah, stand before Him, and enter the Sanctuary. The holy privilege of going into God's presence and of fellowship with Him at His table is characteristic of the priestly place.
reason: two very hard sentences; church jargon "dispensation"; placeholder author label
- Kept — Zadok's line held God's charge while the nation drifted. That is their one credential.
- Covenant — behind their faithfulness stands God's older oath to Phinehas. He forgets neither His promise nor their loyalty.
- Contrast — the Levites who joined the idolatry keep their service but lose nearness. Loss and reward are real even for the saved.
- Near — the reward is access. They enter the sanctuary, stand before God, and share His table.
- Christ — what they bring is the blood and the fat. These speak of the price of redemption and the devotion of Christ in giving Himself to God.