THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Ezekiel: Effective Ministry To The Spiritually Rebellious

Part LXV: The Millennial Kingdom Offerings: The Offerings For Israel's Future Feasts

(Ezekiel 45:18-25)

I. Introduction

A. Ezekiel chapters 40-48 predict God's restoration of Israel following His many prophecies of judgment on the nation for sin, and Ezekiel 44:1-46:24 predicts the temple ministers and their ministries in the Kingdom.

B. This section reveals God's great holiness in the realm of the temple ministries to the Hebrew people of Ezekiel's day in sharp contrast to the way they had profaned and desecrated the temple ministries in Jerusalem.

C. We thus view Ezekiel 45:18-25 on the offerings for Israel's future Millennial Kingdom feasts (as follows):

II. The Millennial Kingdom Offerings: The Offerings For Israel's Future Feasts, Ezekiel 45:18-25.

A. There will be three feasts when offerings will be made in the Millennial Kingdom -- the New Year feast (Ezekiel 45:18-20), the Passover and Unleavened Bread feast (Ezekiel 45:21-24) and the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles (Ezekiel 45:25), Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, p. 1311-1312.

B. The New Year's day feast is explained in Ezekiel 45:18-20 (as follows):

1. The celebration on Nisan 1 will be made to purify the sanctuary, Ezekiel 45:18.

2. The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar and the posts of the gate of the inner court of the temple, Ezekiel 45:19.

3. If someone sins unintentionally, a second purification will be made on the seventh day of the month, v. 20.

C. The Passover and Unleavened Bread feast is explained in Ezekiel 45:21-24 (as follows):

1. The Passover will be observed on the fourteenth day of the first month, and for seven days the people will eat unleavened bread as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Ezekiel 45:21.

2. The prince will provide for himself and all the people a young bull for a sin offering, Ezekiel 45:22. The fact that he will offer a sin offering for himself proves he is not Christ who is sinless, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

3. During the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the prince will prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily for the seven days along with a kid of the goats for a sin offering, Ezekiel 45:23.

4. With these offerings, the prince will also prepare a meal offering of an ephah of grain for each bull, an ephah of grain for each ram and an hin of oil for each ephah, Ezekiel 45:24 ESV.

D. The Feast of Tabernacles is explained in Ezekiel 45:25 ESV (as follows):

1. The Feast of Tabernacles will begin on the fifteenth of the seventh month and run for seven days.

2. The prince will offer the same prescription of sin offerings, burnt offerings, meal offerings and the oil as were to be made during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

E. Amazingly, this list of feasts OMITS three feasts of Israel that Moses prescribed in Leviticus 23:1-44 -- the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, Ibid., p. 1312. We explain:

1. "(T)wo feasts celebrating national cleansing (Passover and Unleavened Bread combined as one feast) . . . which will point back to Christ's death, and the Feast of Tabernacles that will symbolize Israel's new position in God's millennial kingdom," Ibid.

2. These feasts will be all that will be applicable in the future Kingdom (as follows):

a. Pentecost marked the start of the Church as being postitionally perfect but experientially imperfect seen in its leavened loaves (Leviticus 23:15-17), but this feast will no longer be applicable since the Church will have been made experientially perfect by way of the Pretribulation Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).

b. The Feast of Trumpets, signaling Israel's regathering from the Gentiles after national discipline (Ezekiel 39:25-29) and the Day of Atonement, signaling Israel's repentance for having rejected Christ (Zechariah 12:10-13:1), will both be no longer applicable, for the sins seen in these feasts will have been overcome.

3. Thus, the only feasts that will be necessary are those that recall Christ's atonement and its blessed results.

Lesson: The feasts to be observed in the Millennial Kingdom will reflect the need for members of that Kingdom simply to remember the atonement of Christ and to live righteously in accord with their salvation in Him. For that reason, the feasts of Pentecost, Trumpets and the Day of Atonement will have been rendered no longer applicable as the sinful failures signified in those feasts will have been overcome by God's grace to the glory of God.

Application: May we rejoice in the spiritual victories to come in the Millennial Kingdom and live for Christ today.