And he shall offer an oblation of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram; and oil, a hin for an ephah.
This verse belongs to the Passover rules for the temple Ezekiel was shown. With every bull and ram, the prince adds a set measure of flour and oil. Two questions follow. Why are animals sacrificed at all after the cross? And why are these measures so much larger than the ones Moses gave?
One writer traces the long history of the Passover. He then marks what is new here: the prince and the people joined in one offering.
God re-enacts the Passover. It is the great unchanging institution for His people. It began in Egypt. Israel kept it in the wilderness and celebrated it in the land. After long neglect Hezekiah brought it back, and Josiah did so again. Now once more we see that in the kingdom Israel are still to keep the feast of seven days with unleavened bread... Here there are no thousands of oxen and sheep brought freely out of a willing heart. Instead, on the fourteenth day of the first month, the prince and all the people are joined together as they never were before in a single bullock for a sin-offering. And every day of the seven the prince prepares a complete burnt-offering, the sign of perfect consecration to Jehovah, with its daily sin offering, and with the grain-offering that belongs to it.
Ezekiel's list is not a copy of the law given through Moses. The animals change, the amounts rise, and one familiar creature drops out.
The law of Moses required two bullocks, one ram and seven lambs for each of the seven days, with an offering of fine flour mixed with oil, graded for each (Numbers 28:19-21). Ezekiel calls for seven bullocks and seven rams for each of the seven days, and no lambs... The oblation is one ephah for a bullock, and one for each ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah... Here it is enough to notice that the offerings called for are much richer than under the Law. This emphasizes the fulness of obedience in service (bullock) and consecration (ram). Leaving out the lambs would focus attention on the one lamb of this feast — the Passover lamb, and so upon Christ, the Lamb of God.
This offering is flour mixed with oil. One writer explains what it shows about Christ.
The grain-offering also showed all the perfection of the grace of Christ in His life. It shows a humanity pure beyond doubt, yet kneaded with oil. This is a humanity holding in it all the strength, the taste and the savour of the Holy Spirit in its very nature. That is the way it is presented here: not anointed with oil, which would speak of power, but kneaded with oil right through its substance.
If the offering pictures Christ and the oil pictures the Spirit, what does a larger measure of both mean? One writer sees the change in the worshippers.
The enlarged oblations match the grain-offerings of old. They picture Christ's Person in its human perfection. So they may well speak of the greater appreciation of Him in that day, when He will no longer be One having no beauty that He should be desired... The larger proportion of oil points to the greater fulness of the Spirit, and so to a fuller grasp of Him.
The one who provides here is the prince named in the verses just before. Writers are careful about who he is, and clear about what he does.
It is important to see that Israel in the millennial kingdom will have a prince on earth. He will go in and out of the sanctuary. Who is this prince? Certainly not the Lord Jesus, the Messiah Himself. He will be the earthly representative of Jehovah and His Christ. Doubtless he will be a direct descendant of David, God's chosen king of Israel.
The people are not left out. Their gifts reach him first, so "the priesthood would look to him for the provision needed to carry on the national worship" (Numerical Bible Notes).
Many readers object that the cross ended sacrifice for good. One writer answers that these offerings look back rather than forward.
Some have felt a difficulty about the restoring of sacrifices. The difficulty disappears once we remember that these sacrifices will belong to an earthly people and an earthly temple, and will be memorials. Under the old order they had no power at all apart from their reference to Christ, for "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). In the millennium they will look back to that one sacrifice for sin, made upon the cross, just as those under the law of Moses foreshadowed it.
- Backward. The old sacrifices pointed forward to the cross. These look back to it, remembering one finished work.
- Richer. The measures go beyond the law of Moses. Fuller gifts mark fuller obedience and consecration.
- Fewer. Lambs drop out of the list, so every eye rests on the one Passover Lamb.
- Deeper. The offering speaks of Christ's perfect humanity, the oil of the Spirit. More oil means a fuller grasp of Him.
- Provided. The prince supplies the whole feast, and the priests look to him for what the nation's worship needs.
In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, shall he do the like seven days, according to the sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and according to the oblation, and according to the oil.
Ezekiel's long vision of a future temple ends its calendar with one more seven-day feast, kept with the same offerings as the spring feast. Commentators read it as worship in a coming age, and they ask two things: why do sacrifices appear again after the cross, and why does this feast close the year?
The seventh month, the fifteenth day, seven days — this dating points to the Feast of Tabernacles, Israel's harvest feast. One writer says why it appears here again:
But the Feast of Tabernacles will surely be then. This is therefore appointed again here, and at the usual time. The sense of Christ's work is fully kept up, as at the Passover. But the feast most fully expressed then is the great ingathering to rejoice before Jehovah, after the harvest and the vintage, when they look back on pilgrim days gone for ever. It is not a witness now, as in the two loaves, but the blessing of Israel when the glory shines on Zion.
The sin offering and burnt offering in this verse trouble many readers, since Christ has already died. One writer answers the difficulty:
Some have felt a difficulty about sacrifices coming back. But the difficulty disappears when we remember that these sacrifices belong to an earthly people and an earthly temple, and will be commemorative in character. Under the old order they had no power at all apart from their reference to Christ, for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins (Heb. 10:4). In the millennium they will look back to that one sacrifice for sin offered on the cross, just as those under the law of Moses foreshadowed it. They will therefore only recall to the grateful, worshipping hearts of God's people the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, which cleanses from all sin.
What Ezekiel leaves out is as striking as what he commands. Israel's old calendar had other feasts, and here they are gone:
There is no Pentecost any more, for it is already completed in the church. There is no feast of trumpets, for the people have already been summoned and gathered. And there is no day of atonement any longer, for the work was done, and they had truly afflicted their souls when they looked to Him whom they pierced. But the Passover remains the memorial of redemption, and Tabernacles will mark their place and blessing.
This feast stands beside the Passover, kept earlier in the same chapter. One writer draws the two together:
The prophet sees everything from a point of view connected with Israel. So the remembrance of redemption, the Passover, the basis of everything, and the enjoyment of rest celebrated at the Feast of Tabernacles, will mark the position of Israel before God. The two feasts are celebrated in the recognition of the full value of the burnt offering presented to God.
The same writer adds a sober note. Neither the people nor the prince go inside the house. The access into God's presence that believers now have by the Spirit is not theirs.
Of the great feasts, this is the one with the widest reach:
The feast was called Tabernacles, or booths, because through the seven days they were to live in booths made of palm branches, leafy boughs and willows from the brook, in remembrance of their wilderness life. Dwelling in booths seven days, they kept the feast after they had gathered in their grain, wine and oil. They rested and rejoiced when the year's work was over. This was a foreshadowing of the rest that remains, and of the rejoicing that will take place when all their troubles on earth are over and Messiah is reigning over them. Then not Israel only, but those left of all the nations that will have gone up against Jerusalem, will go up there year by year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Passover concerns the redeemed of the Lord, and Pentecost in a special way those who are called out for heaven. But Tabernacles will concern all on earth who have had dealings with Jerusalem in the past (Zech. 14:16).
- Kept, not new. The seventh-month feast of seven days is Tabernacles. God appoints it again at its old date, after the harvest is gathered in.
- Kept in memory. The sin offering and burnt offering named here are commemorative. They look back to the one sacrifice on the cross, as the old ones looked forward.
- Kept in part. Trumpets, the day of atonement and Pentecost are gone, because what each pictured has already happened. Passover and Tabernacles remain — redemption remembered, rest enjoyed.
- Kept by the nations. Passover belongs to the redeemed and Pentecost to those called for heaven. Tabernacles will reach all on earth who have had dealings with Jerusalem.
- Kept at a distance. Even in that day the people and the prince stay outside the house — a blessing broader than ours, but not nearer.