EZEKIEL 43

Six things are abolished from the future temple which were indispensable to those under the law-these are the Laver, the Branching Light-bearer, the Ark of the Covenant, the Cherubim, the Veil, and Golden Altar of Incense.

These are all unnecessary to a service performed by Jesus and his brethren, the sons of Zadok. Having been washed in baptism before their resurrection, they have no use for the Laver like the sons of Aaron under the law.

The light bearer of seven branches is superseded by their own anointing. They shine like the sun by the Spirit glory with which they are invested. They are the many light-bearing branches of the Holy Places, which need no artificial illumination in their presence.

The Melchisedec high priest is himself the Ark of the New Covenant, and with his brethren, the Cherubim of glory. He is the Mercy Seat, sprinkled with the blood of the New Covenant, which is his own.

The law, the manna, and the almond rod is He, the way, the truth, the bread of heaven, the resurrection, and the life. What need has the Most Holy Place of a temple of the Mosaic ark and its contents, with winged Cherubim, in the presence of a personage so august as He, the very substance of those shadowy things!

The Veil was rent when his body was broken on the tree. The future temple is neither historical nor typical. It foreshadows no details; but by the building, and "the separate place," both west of the Most Holy Place, indicates that there is a state beyond the thousand years into which they shall be received, who may be accounted worthy of eternal life when sin and death, and every curse, shall be abolished from the earth. Being no monument of the past, the rent-Veil repaired is seen only in the scarred substance of the Prince of Israel, which it prefigured.

He being the antitype of the Veil, the type is excluded from the future temple, which will be illustrated by the presence of his glorious body which can be rent no more.

"In every place, from the rising to the setting sun, incense shall be offered to the name of the Lord, even a pure offering" - Malachi 1: 11.

The burning of incense, therefore, will not be restricted to the temple, as in the days of old. Prayer is the voice of supplication seeking assistance in times of need. It ascends as incense before the Lord, burned by the necessitous. Prayer will be made for Israel's king continually, and will ascend as incense in every place. But Christ and his Saints will not be necessitous. They will have no wants unsupplied; for they will possess all things. Praise, not prayer, will ascend from the Holy Place; therefore there will be no golden altar there on which to burn incense before the Lord.

Herald of the Kingdom and Coming Age, Sept 1851

12 This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about [the inner temple is a circular form] shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

The leading indications of a range of buildings forming a circular space in the centre of the Temple commence with the [above] testimony 

The emphatic closing sentence of this verse is of deep importance. " Behold! this is the law of the house " is equivalent to, BEHOLD! this is the central or striking feature oj the house in relation to which all others are subordinate. This aspect of the subject will become more and more apparent as we consider all details of the Temple of universal praise and worship.

Thus we see that the Inner Temple is not a building upon the top of a hill, but that the Most Holy is a Hill in the inner court. Speaking prospectively of " the righteous generation that seek the God of Israel " the Psalmist said :

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? or who shall stand in his holy place ? (Psalm xxiv. 3.)

This parallelism shows that the Holy place of God is also the Hill of the Lord.

The altar is on the top of the hill

Christ is the antitypical altar, and is now in the "Host Holy" (Heb. 13:10; 9:12.) The memorial altar of the Temple of the future age, must be placed so as to be in harmony with that fact. As Christ is in the Most Holy (state) any memorial altar of Him must be placed in the Most Holy also.

The altar is therefore rightly shown on the Altar Hill, which is the "Most Holy" (Ezek. 43:12.) It is therefore in the centre of the house, and would be out of place in any other position.

Under the law, this was different, because Christ had not then entered into the Most Holy. The altar typical of Him was therefore placed outside the tabernacle, whilst the Mosaic order of things obtained.

It has to be further observed, there were two altars under the Mosaic order of things-the altar of incense, and the altar of sacrifice; and the altar of incense was even then put in the holy place, why? Because the prayers which incense represents, did then enter from it into the presence of God.

In the temple of the future age, one altar only is provided, because the altar of incense and the altar of sacrifice are now both combined in Christ, who is the antitypical fulfilment of things foreshadowed under the law.

Here again we see the memorial in harmony with accomplished facts. Christ, being the one sacrifice, who takes away the sins of the world, and the one mediator through whom the incense, i.e., the prayers of the saints, ascend to the Father, there is, of necessity, but one memorial altar of this divine relation of things.

The Christadelphian, Apr 1888

27 And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the 8th day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith Adonai Yahweh.

Thus the Lord's day, the day of His resurrection from His seventh day incarceration in the tomb, becomes the sabbath day of the future age which shall be hallowed, by the priests of Israel, and be observed by all nations as a day of holy convocation in which they shall rejoice, and do no manner of servile work at all.

Elpis Israel 2.2.

Ezekiel is commanded to show them the description of the temple which is destined to be "the house of prayer for all nations," with the ordinances, forms, and laws thereof. The Lord God then declares,

"the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it,"

and when the Levites of the seed of Zadok shall approach unto him. The "cleansing of the altar," and the consecration of the priests, is then effected by the offerings of seven days.

"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, O Israel, saith the Lord."

Thus the Lord's day, the day of his resurrection from his seventh-day incarceration in the tomb, becomes the sabbath day of the future age which shall be hallowed by the priests of Israel, and be observed by all nations as a day of holy convocation in which they shall rejoice, and do no manner of servile work at all.

This change of the sabbath from the seventh to the eighth, or first day of the week, is the full development and establishment of the observance of the Lord's day by the disciples of Jesus since the times of the apostles.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jan 1859