I had used to think that the temple described in the later chapters of the book of Ezekiel was the 2nd temple, as it described physical structures and animal sacrifices.
However a few things bothered me about it.
You are on the right track. Here is what I have on it:
This is an examination of the “Millennium Chapters” of Ezekiel to compare them to what is known about the post 7th trump 1,000 year period known as the “Millennium” to see if the two are speaking of the same time period.
No where in this vision are we told it is prophecy, nor is there any mention of a thousand years. It is simply named a vision, one that was to be told and shown to the house of Israel so that they could compare it to the way they were living and "measure the pattern" just like a plumb line that you would compare something to.
We will be looking at verses from Ezekiel that
do not match what we know about the Millennium period.
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Animal Sacrifices, blood sin offerings, burnt offerings
None of these things are acceptable by God according to NT scripture:
Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Hebrews 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Hebrews 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Hebrews 10:4
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Hebrews 10:6
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Hebrews 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.
Hebrews 10:8 Above when he said,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Hebrews 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Hebrews 10:10 By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins:
Hebrews 10:12 But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Hebrews 10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Hebrews 10:15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Hebrews 10:18 Now where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Hebrews 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Those things are done away with forever and will not be a part of the Millennium. The following are verses in Ezekiel that show animal sacrifices, blood sin offerings from animals, burnt offerrings marriage and child birth...all things that will not be in the literal Millennium.
Ezekiel 43:18 And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it,
to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.
Ezekiel 43:19 And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD,
a young bullock for a sin offering.
Ezekiel 43:20 And
thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it.
Ezekiel 43:21
Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary.
Ezekiel 43:22 And
on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock.
Ezekiel 43:23 When thou hast made an end of cleansing it,
thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.
Ezekiel 43:24 And thou shalt offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon them,
and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
Ezekiel 43:25
Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.
Ezekiel 43:26 Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves.
Ezekiel 43:27 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, saith the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 44:11 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.
Ezekiel 44:15 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:
Ezekiel 44:29
They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.
Ezekiel 44:30 And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.
Ezekiel 44:31 The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.
Ezekiel 45:14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:
Ezekiel 45:15
And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 45:16 All the people of the land shall give this oblation for
the prince in Israel.
Ezekiel 45:17 And it shall be the prince's part to give
burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel:
he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 45:18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month,
thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:
Ezekiel 45:19
And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
Ezekiel 45:20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.
Ezekiel 45:21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Ezekiel 45:22 And upon that day shall
the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
Ezekiel 45:23 And seven days of the feast
he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.
Ezekiel 45:24
And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah.
Ezekiel 45:25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to
the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.
Ezekiel 46:4 And
the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.
Ezekiel 46:5 And
the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
Ezekiel 46:6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be
a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.
Ezekiel 46:7 And
he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
Ezekiel 46:11 And in the feasts and in the solemnities
the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
Ezekiel 46:12 Now when
the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and
he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.
Ezekiel 46:13
Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning.
Ezekiel 46:14
And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour;
a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.
Ezekiel 46:15
Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.
Ezekiel 46:20 Then said he unto me,
This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.
Ezekiel 46:21 Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.
Ezekiel 46:22 In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four corners were of one measure.
Ezekiel 46:23 And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about.
Ezekiel 46:24 Then said he unto me, These
are the places of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.
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There shall not be Priests that die to leave their wives as widows because all priests in the Millennium are changed into immortal bodies.
Ezekiel 44:22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel,
or a widow that had a priest before.
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Priests in the Millennium will not be married nor marrying anyone to themselves.
Ezekiel 44:22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away:
but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.
Mat_22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
This verse forbids such a concept.
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The prince
Many have suspected that this prince might literally be Jesus Christ.
Ezekiel 45:22 And upon that day shall
the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
I find it impossible for this prince to be Christ since this prince also partakes in the sin offering for himself, his own sins, which we know Jesus does not have.
Also, Prince in the Hebrew does not means the same as it does in English:
H5387
???? ?????
na^s´i^y' na^s´i'
naw-see', naw-see'
From H5375; properly
an exalted one, that is, a king or sheik; also a rising mist: - captain, chief, cloud, governor, prince, ruler, vapour.
Prince should be translated as "King".
Exodus 29:36 And
thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.
Exodus 30:10 And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with
the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.
Leviticus 4:3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for
a sin offering.
A sin offering was indeed for atonement of sin.
Ezekiel 46:16 Thus saith the Lord GOD; If
the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance.
Ezekiel 46:17 But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them.
Ezekiel 46:18 Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his possession.
Furthermore, this prince has sons. One can make a weak argument that these are spiritual sons but I think in context its pretty clear this human prince has human sons. Jesus has no literal sons.
These things and the other scriptures that mention this prince lead me to conclude that he is a human man, a prince/ruler of Israel whether real or simply one in a vision. The vision shows us a human prince, a sinner in need of atonement, a man who has literal male heirs.
Ezekiel 43:10 Thou son of man,
shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and
let them measure the pattern.
This is the reason of the vision. It is for Israel to compare themselves and their practices against this vision of what God desires of them. God has always instructed Israel in the right way to live and serve Him, yet Israel usually failed to adhere to God's wishes.
Ezekiel 43:11 And
if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
The vision was merely setting a standard whereby the Israelites of the time were to know how everything was supposed to work, and they were to "do them" according to how things were laid out in the vision. The vision was not a look into the future, it is not prophecy. It was what God wanted from
that current day Israel or possibly a soon to come Israel that followed God's commandments perfectly according to the old covenant. However, they were not able to meet God's requirements perfectly and never carried forth their lives as God wanted in these chapters, nor did they even build this new temple. It shall not be built as it no longer applies to we that live under the new covenant.
So, despite popular belief, the 40+ chapters of Ezekiel are not the Millennium, and are not of the eternity. It was a vision of how God wanted Israel to live under the old covenant and how to worship Him rather than how they had been doing it. It was a "plumb line" that was meant to be used as a guide. It was not prophecy.
