Ezekiel Chapter 46 Vs. 11-15

New Worship

Ezekiel 46:11-15

This "ephah" is 3 pecks of flour for each bullock. He matches the amount of bread to the meat.

If the prince desires to make a freewill offering to the Lord… the gate facing east is to be opened for him. The regulation concerning the closing of the east gate to the inner court (cf. Eze. 46:1) will be suspended for this special offering. But after the prince leaves, the gate is to be closed again.

This offering is not an offering of obligation, but from the free will of the prince. We notice the gate will be open to him for this offering, as well. After he leaves, after making the offering, the gate shall be shut, until another day of offerings come.

This gate will not be open until the evening, but just long enough for him to sacrifice. Immediately after he leaves, it is shut up. This symbolizes the eating of the Word of God every day. For a person to live a godly life, they must continually feast upon His Word. This is, also, speaking of an offering being made every day, because the priests feed upon the offerings. The strange thing about the offerings from God through Ezekiel, here, is that there is no evening sacrifice. This is, possibly, speaking to the whole of the people and not just to the prince.

The testimony of the Old Testament is that to remove the continual burnt offering meant an abolition of public worship, Dan. 8-11-13; 11:31; 12:11.
This offering is bread, to go along with the meat of the other offering. The bread was to never cease from the temple.

As long as there is a temple, these offerings were not to cease. I personally believe God allowed the temple to be destroyed a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus, to cause them to stop sacrificing. Jesus fulfilled all the sacrifices and the law with his body on the cross.

Then Ezekiel mentioned the morning sacrifice, but not the evening sacrifice (cf. Exo. 29:38-41).

This omission could be explained by the fact that he was giving only the highlights of the sacrificial system. So by listing the morning sacrifices he may have assumed that his readers would apply the same regulations to the evening sacrifice.