Ezekiel Chapter 45 Vs. 18-25

The Offerings

Ezekiel 45:18-25

The festivals where the offerings will be given will include the New Year feast (Eze. 45:18-20), the Passover/Unleavened Bread feast (Eze. 45:21-24), and the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles (Eze. 45:25). The New Year’s Day celebration, on Nisan 1 (mid-April), will be to purify the sanctuary (Eze. 45:18). It is the blood from the bullock that would be used to cleanse the sanctuary. The month we call April, would be about their first month. Their first month is Abib. Their months change with the moon. Notice, the bullock must be without blemish, because it is a type of the sacrifice Jesus made for us all. This is cleansing the entire court. The altar, itself, must be cleansed before any offering could be made on it.

The Day of Atonement is never mentioned, but God institutes a never before celebrated festival to start the “new year” with an emphasis on holiness in the temple. The feast appears to last 7 days, v.20. It indicates that there will be sin in the kingdom, committed by those who entered alive (born into the millennium) and their offspring.
If someone sins unintentionally, a second purification will be offered on the seventh day of the month (Eze. 45:20). "Those that err" are speaking of those who have committed sin. The "simple" are speaking of the simple minded who do not even know when they do sin. This offering and ceremonial cleansing possibly will replace the Day of Atonement (in the seventh month, Lev. 23:26-32).

This time of cleansing will be followed by the celebration of the Passover (Eze. 45:21-24)/Unleavened Bread festival. The Passover will last seven days, during which the people will eat bread made without yeast. Passover and Unleavened bread are combined as in the New Testament and focus on remembering God’s deliverance of the nation from Egypt and Christ’s death providing deliverance from sin. They continue on into the Millennium as a weeklong feast of remembrance, which will serve much the same purpose then as the bread and cup do now.

The 3 annual pilgrimage feasts with required attendance under Mosaic legislation were: (1) Unleavened Bread, (2) Pentecost, and (3) Tabernacles. They have been modified with the 3 in 45:18-25. Pentecost is replaced by the new feast of verses 18-20. There are also portion differences from the Mosaic Law, plus the millennial offerings are richer and more abundant, in general. This is not the same as the offerings in the Levitical law. The requirement had been 2 bullocks, and one ram, and seven yearling lambs. This required 7 each day. It, also, required a kid of the goats daily.

The prince will provide the sacrifices for that period (Eze. 45:22-24). The fact that the prince is to make a sin offering for himself shows that he is not Christ.

Why did Ezekiel omit Israel’s other national feasts, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement? Two explanations may be given. First, he may have been signaling a change in God’s program for Israel. The inauguration of the New Covenant and the fulfillment of Israel’s kingdom promises may render those three feasts unnecessary.

Thus only three of the six annual feasts under the Levitical system (cf. Lev. 23:4-44) will be followed: two 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. We must remember that the meat offering is really the makings for bread. This symbolizes Jesus, who is the Bread of life.

A “hin” is about one gallon.

Second, perhaps Ezekiel employed a figure of speech known as merism to include all the feasts. By naming the first two feasts in Israel’s festal calendar (Passover and Unleavened Bread) and the last one (Tabernacles), maybe he implied that all Israel’s feasts would be reinstituted.

The third feast will begin in the seventh month on the 15th day. This is the Festival of Tabernacles, also a seven-day celebration (Lev. 23:33-44), the last feast in Israel’s yearly calendar. This same ceremony is to be repeated in the seventh month on the 15th day. This celebration, also, will last 7 days. We must remember in this that Ezekiel had been instructed of God to bring this message. He would not, of his own will change anything in the Mosaic Law.

The Feast of Tabernacles continues on into the Millennium as confirmed by Zechariah 14:16-21. This would be a remembrance of God’s sustaining provision in the wilderness. The seventh month, Tishri, would be in Sep. / Oct. and this feast will last for one week, as do the previous two. The prince (”he” v.25) once again offers sacrifice.