Often in the last chapters of Ezekiel there is a man, probably an angel, with a measuring rod who is instructed to measure different parts of the temple. This is definitely a temple for the future and very much unlike and grander than any previous Jewish temple even Solomon's Temple that has been built before. It is also much larger and grander than the temple that current Jewish temple groups like the Temple Institue are planning and preparing to build as their plans for the temple combine elements of Solomon's Temple and perhaps Herod's Temple with Ezekiels's Temple and attempt to work with the Temple Mount in its current state. The plaza or courtyard of this future temple mentioned in Ezekiel is also much larger than the current Temple Mount and will require a major alteration to the city of Jerusalem which will be caused in part by the coming again of Messiah in the glorious appearing of Messiah Jesus of Nazareth as he predicted in places like the Gospel of Matthew 24. The term measure could mean only measure which would be consistant to what Ultra-Orthodox Jews would say when they say this Messianic Kingdom temple will miraculously appear with Messiah when he comes from heaven or it could mean that the man (angel) is being instructed to supervise in the actual building of this temple as the word measure is used in REvelation 11 of the tribulation temple which will next be built and will come to be the one that the temple groups will end up building with the agreement with the Antichrist or False messiah. If we take the destruction of the city of Jerusalem as 588 BC which is a common date then 14 years later would be in 574 BC when Ezekiel had this first vision of the Millennial Kingdom temple. This would also put the beginning of the captivity in 599 BC and its end after 70 years in 529 BC. Ezekiel then informs us that he was brought into the land of Israel to a very high mountain which was on a frame on a city on the south. This city is most likely Jerusalem that other scriptures especially in the Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures specify as the city where the Messianic Kingdom Temple will be located. Isaiah 2 also mentions the temple being located on a great mountain which will be the temple mount or Mount Zion that could be uplifted more in the Messianic Kingdom with the earthquake accompanying Messiah Jesus landing on the Mount of Olives at His second coming and first coming as Israel's glorious Messiah. Daniel 2 also mentions a smiting stone representing Jesus as Israel's Messiah and His second coming from heaven that will become a great mountain that will fill the earth. This could also be a reference to Jesus setting up the Messianic Kingdom Temple on the Temple Mount or Mount Zion and Ultra-Orthodox Jews would say this also passage also represents the Temple coming with the Messiah at the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom. This will fill the earth in the sense that people from all over the earth will come into it to worship Messiah Jesus who will also then be acknowledged as King of the earth or of the nations. Then the man is mentioned with a measuring rod. From this special purpose in a vision and his wondrous appearance he is likely an angel as no man could be described in this way. The scripture says he stood in the gate. This is probably the east gate where the Messiah Jesus will enter in when he comes from the Mount of Olives to start the Messianic Kingdom. This man (angel) then instructs Ezekiel to be attentive to what he will show or tell him to tell these things to the children of Israel (the Jews). This is good advice as what follows is a very detailed and intricate description of this temple that is too detailed and specific to realistically be taken symbolically. In a book Messiah's Coming Temple by John Shmitt the author has actually been able to use the details of Ezekiel's prophecy of the temple in these chapters to construct a scale three dimensional model of this temple. The scripture reference of the initial vision of the man with the measuring rod and the site of the Messianic Kingdom Temple where the man of the measuring rod will instruct Ezekiel to measure the parts of the temple is as follows:
In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south. And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel. Ezekiel 40:1-4
Although I thought so before, the LORD showed me more clearly today (2011) that there are definitely two persons involved with the worship in the Millennial Kingdom Temple. They are the LORD or the God of Israel (God the Father) and the Prince the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ. Ezekiel mentions the LORD brought him to the outer east gate. The LORD said this gate would not be opened but be shut after the LORD God the Father had entered through it at the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom. The LORD will come with the Lord Jesus as when Jesus says in Matthew 26 that ye shall see the Son of Man coming at the right hand of power with power being the glory of God the Father. Then this scripture passage says that this east gate is for the prince and that he will eat bread before the LORD. The prince here is differentiated from the LORD here in two important aspects. One is that the prince came in through the east gate after the LORD or glory of the LORD suggesting they are two different persons and two that the prince would eat bread or worship before the LORD which also suggests that the prince and the LORD are two different persons and that the prince is honouring the LORD. Also the fact that the prince is eating bread in the presence of the LORD could be a fulfillment of what Jesus said in the gospels at the last supper that he wouldn't eat of the bread of the new covenant until he ate it again in the kingdom of his Father. I believe the reference to the kingdom of his father is talking about the Millennial Kingdom and that this reference of Jesus eating bread before the LORD (God the Father) in the Temple then is the primary fulfillment of Jesus' promise at the last supper. I believe Jesus will also allow the disciples to eat bread with him in the Millennial Temple since he provides access for Christians to God the Father. The scripture reference from Ezekiel 44 of the distinction between the LORD and the prince as differentiating between God the Father and Jesus the Son of God or God the Son in the Millennial Kingdom is as follows:
Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. Ezekiel 44:1-3
All these chapters from chapter 40 to 48 are about the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom after the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah are with all the details that clearly haven't been fulfilled before are meant to be taken literally not symbolically or allegorically just as all the details of the tabernacle or Solomon's Temple in the scriptures were meant to be taken and were fulfilled literaly not just symbolically. In verse 9 the stranger is mentioned which in this case means a non Israelite or a Gentile. Although the Gentiles weren't totally forbidden to come into the Messianic Kingdom Temple they will be expected to become proselytes of Israel including for the men to be circumcised and for the Gentiles otherwise to adopt the covenants of Israel such as the combination of the covenants given to Moses, Abraham and David with the New Covenant that will be in force in the Messianic Kingdom not only in Israel but throughout the earth although some of the Gentiles that don't come to the temple might be otherwise accepted by just coming under the covenant of Noah and the New Covenant then. Born again Christians will probably also be able to visit the temple in the Messianic Kingdom although I don't think we will be involved with bringing sacrifices to the altar or temple but we will be priests after the order of Melchizedek with the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah) then functioning in an earthly capacity in the Messianic Kingdom temple as our high priest and the king of Israel and king of kings. The main priesthood that will be involved with the general operations of the Messianic Kingdom temple will be the Levitical priests. However God will not allow all the Levitical priests to offer the sacrifices or come to the table that will be in the temple itself where Jesus the Messiah will sit in the holy of holies as high priest and king in the Messianic Kingdom but only those in the line of Zadok. Zadok was the high priest who was faithful to God and to David when he was king of Israel but his rule was being challenged by some of his rebellious sons and their followers. Zadok or his sons may have also been the primary faithful priests or Levites that refrained from compromising with some of the idolatrous practices that the Israelites and many of their priests followed leading up to the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BC. Many of the Levites and an alternate high priest at that time deserted David and were unfaithful to God which God will remember in the Messianic Kingdom. These priests will still be able to function in the Messianic Temple but not in the most priviledged office or offering sacrifices and tasks like that but only in preparing the sacrifices and guarding the temple. Although it might seem strange to some Christians and others that have been taught that the sacrifice of God's Son Jesus Christ on the cross totally rules out any possibility of a return to animal sacrifices in Jewish temple worship I would request that if you are this way you would remember scriptures like Romans 1, Revelation 20 and Luke 1 and many Old Testament scriptures that promise God's restoration of Israel to the land and to Himself in the last days and that these animal sacrifices in the Millennial Kingdom will not be to replace or be a substitute for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to take away all our sins but they will only be a memorial and reminder of the one perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of all people Gentile and Jewish including Gentile and Jewish Christians. The scripture reference from Ezekiel 44 of the role of the strangers (Gentiles) and Levites and the descendents of Zadok among the Levites in the temple in the Messianic Kingdom or Millennial Kingdom is as follows:
Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein. 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 come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD: They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to me table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. Ezekiel 44:9-16
Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ... And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him. But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. 1 Kings 1:5, 7-8
Although I had heard before from Jewish and some Christian Bible prophecy groups that the Red Heifer will be needed for cleansing the temple and the priesthood for the future temples, I had previously not seen a clear reference to this in the Bible - the word of God. However I assumed before these ideas were just due to references in other Jewish sources such as the Mishnah and Talmud or from extensions from the law of Moses such as the reference to the ceremony of the red heifer in Numbers 19. However in reading Ezekiel 44 more carefully it has become clear to me that the ceremony of the red heifer will be used in the Millennial Kingdom to cleanse the priests from contact with dead people. This probably means it will be also used to initially cleanse the priests when there will be many dead people from the tribulation and battle of Armageddon and also unknown graves in Israel from the almost 2000 years when most Jews were out of the land of Israel. The relevant scripture is in verses 25 to 27 of Ezekiel 44. Although the wording is somewhat confusing, the fact that both Ezekiel 44 and Numbers 19 talk about defilement from the dead and cleansing at least for Ezekiel 44 especially for the priests, both these passages are probably referring to the same thing. The cleansing in Numbers 19 under the law was that the person such as the priest was to have the water of purification including the ashes of the red heifer applied to him on the 3rd day after he had contact with the dead and on the seventh day he would be clean or cleansed. This is described in Numbers 19:1-19 although the rest of the chapter continues with the topic. This is probably what is meant by the priest would be cleansed in Ezekiel 44. For some reason in the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom there will be a further 7 days required before the priests can then resume their priestly duties and resume service to God in the Millennial Temple. Although Jews who take the Bible literally believe that the Messianic Kingdom and the Messiah could come any day and that we are already in Israel's time of trouble and Bible-believing Christians that take the Bible literally believe there will be at least 7 more years involving the great tribulation and the tribulation temple that the Antichrist will allow the Jews to build and that he will then defile must happen before the Messianic Kingdom, we both believe in a coming literal Messianic or Millennial Kingdom with God's rule through His Messiah centred on Jerusalem and the temple there as especially described in Ezekiel 40 to 48 as well as other scriptures. Therefore this scripture in Ezekiel 44 shows an important soon coming application of the ashed of the red heifer and the importance also from the scriptures of looking for the next red heifer that needs to be sacrificed and combined with the water to make the water of purification for cleansing the priests for the future Millennial or Messianic Kingdom Temple. The scriptures describing the application of the red heifer ritual in the Messianic Kingdom Temple and then the original red heifer sacrifice used by Israel under the law are as follows:
And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath no husband, they may defile themselves. And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days. ANd in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin-offering, saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 44:25-27
And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke: And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face. ANd Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times: And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: ANd the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even. ANd he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin. And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and he unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him. THis is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: ANd the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even. Numbers 19:1-19
In the latter part of Ezekiel 36 that is clearly talking about the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom God directed Ezekiel to mention that at the beginning of this period God will save the Jews from their uncleanness. I think there will be two aspects of this. One will be spiritual cleansing through the general trust of Jews that survive the tribulation in Jesus of Nazareth as their Lord and Messiah who died on the cross to take away their sins as the righteous Lamb of God. However I think a second aspecet will be the general application of the solution with the ashes of the red heifer to cleanse from contact of the Jews with dead bodies or unmarked graves that will be quite common at the end of the tribulation and after the battle of Armageddon where many people will die and be left on the ground. The word uncleanness is from the same Hebrew word as is used in Numbers 19 in the ceremony of the red heifer and contact with the dead was viewed by the Jews as a major source of uncleanness. The sense of uncleanness here and in Numbers 19 is a ritual uncleanness under the law. When the Jews are cleansed from their uncleanness by Jesus' blood and also by the water of separation with the ashes of the red heifer they will be well prepared to rejoice in the Lord and His abundance and peace in the Millennial and Messianic Kingdom. This is probably another indication that the ashes of the previous nine red heifers and the birth of a tenth qualifed red heifer and its sacrifice will occur in the near future in the preparation for the time of both the tribulation and true Messiah Jesus' Temple and Kingdom. The scripture reference from Ezekiel 36 of the Jews to be saved (cleansed) from their uncleanness at the end of the tribulation or beginning of the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom of Messiah (Christ) Jesus is as follows:
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. Ezekiel 36:29
One of the functions of the Temple in biblical times was as a centre where God's chosen earthly people praised the one true God the God of Israel that would most closely correspond to God the Father of the New Testament. Sion or Zion usually was synonomous in the Old Testament with Jerusalem but could sometimes be a more specific reference to the Temple or Temple Mount. Performing the vow was a reference to bringing a voluntary animal sacrifice to be offered on the altar as a show of dedication to God. This will likely be a feature of the Millennial Kingdom Temple as well. God is the one who hears prayer and it is to him that all flesh will come or people of all nations to worship him or to make prayers in Jerusalem in the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom. God will also purge people's sins or transgressions away through the animal sacrifices but they will only cover or be a memorial of the one sacrifice of God's only begotton Son Jesus Christ that was offerred on the cross about 2000 years ago that can take all our sins away. During some of the temple times not all men or Israelites went to the temple but each village or neighbourhood chose a man or some men who went up to the temple on behalf of the village or community. That is possibly was is being talked about in verse 4 and the same practice might be followed in the Millennial Kingdom or Messianic Kingdom. The Millennial Kingdom or Messianic Kingdom will also be quite a beautiful or visually appealing building with which the Jewish people or even the Gentiles that visit will be quite favourably impressed with. The scripture reference from Psalm 65 of the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom Temple and the worship there is as follows:
Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Psalm 65:1-4
James the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ who presided over the church council mentioned in that chapter the plans of God's dealing with man from their decision. James said that Simeon (Simon Peter) declared that first God did call out a people from the Gentiles for his name. This is referring to the outcalling of the Church which is mostly Gentile or non-Jewish from the nations that started on the day of Pentecost with James probably referring to Peter's speech then including in Acts 2:28-39. Then James quotes a prophecy in Amos 9 from the Old Testament and saying it is after this or after the outcalling to God for people for his name from the Gentiles or after this present Church Age. The return of the Lord mentioned here is probably especially the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory at the end of the tribulation to judge the world and to set up His Kingdom giving Israel a primary place with Jesus' rule over the world centred in the temple in Jerusalem. In this prophecy God says he will build again the tabernacle of David that is fallen with the tabernacle of David being a reference to the Temple of God in Jerusalem that has been in ruin for most of the church age including the present time but that will be rebuilt in the Millennial or Messianic Kingdom in Jerusalem as a literal physical structure. I think in this context the residue of men is talking about the Gentiles that will be saved are Gentiles that are saved in the tribulation but will be encouraged to seek after God by worshipping him at his temple in the Millennial Kingdom at least at the Feast of Tabernacles. It is clear from Zecheriah 14 and other Old Testament scriptures that the Gentiles or people of the nations will also come to the Millennial Kingdom Temple to worship God and the Lord Jesus Christ and offer sacrifices especially at the Feast of Tabernacles. God mentions then that these things were in his plans from the foundation or beginning of the world or ages. This passage is often spiritualized by many Christians and used to say that the temple won't be built and the tabernacle of David is the figurative picture of the church that is used in other places of the New Testament but I think the context including the phrase after this and direct quotation from the Old Testament passage that is in a Millennial Kingdom context argues that is meant to refer to the Millennial Kingdom and Millennial Kingdom Temple. The scripture reference from Acts 15 of the rebuilding of the literal Temple of God in the Millennial Kingdom on earth after the calling of the Gentiles in the Church age is complete is as follows:
And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Acts 15:13-18
For more information, comments, questions or advice contact Doug Currie at Spirit and Truth Ministries
Dwelling Place of Messiah Jesus in the Millennium Part 2